ABBA In Australia 10 March 1977 - Live In Perth - 40 Years Ago Today !

 

 

Perth, Western Australia

Perth Entertainment Centre

Wellington Street, Perth

Tickets: $9.00

Sound & String Rehearsal:  3.00pm

Show One:  6.00pm

Show Two:  9.00pm

Both shows sold out – 8000 tickets sold for each show.

Tonight ABBA would perform the first two shows of the five they were doing in Perth.

 

For all details, images and clippings, check out my blog post from 2016 here:

 

http://abbafanatic.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/abba-live-in-perth-australia-10th-march.html

 

Live audio from Perth - I Do I Do I Do I Do I Do:

 

 

 Some great footage in this clip:

 

 

ABBA In Australia 2 March 1977 - Rehearsals In Sydney !

In 1977, Australia’s population was 14.1 million people  – 160,000 of those people saw ABBA perform Live – and around 60,000 of those people would see ABBA in Sydney. Tickets for the concerts had gone on sale the previous October on a first in first served basis – tickets sold out very quickly.

There had never been a concert tour undertaking such as this in Australia before ABBA.

A tour party of 117 people including a 17 piece Australian orchestra and a movie crew – 28 tonnes of sound equipment, 30 tonnes of lighting and a custom built hydraulic stage used to raise and lower the orchestra – a unique feature. Jands in Australia provided much of this equipment and built the custom stage.

http://www.jps.com.au/1977/03/12/abba-tour-1977/

All being carted around the country in IPEC semi-trailers. It took 40 crew to set up and dismantle this equipment.

The setup for Sydney began on 28 February with the first sound rehearsal at 2pm on 1 March.

On this day, 2nd March, there would be a full sound and string rehearsal.

Just a little note of interest - the musical director for the orchestra during this tour was none other than our very own Graeme Lyall from the Don Lane Show !

ABBA Arrive In Australia 27 February 1977 !

They're Here !!

On 27th February 1977, ABBA arrived in Sydney for their Australian Tour.
They checked into the Sebel Town House Hotel in Elizabeth Bay.

With great anticipation from media and fans, Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny, Frida and an entourage of 117 people arrived in Sydney. In the Boeing 727 hired to transport them, were manager Stig Andersson and their frequent video director Lasse Hallström, who was travelling with them in order to do a whole film about the tour with a little storyline.

There had been much outrage in the Australian press that tickets for the concerts would cost $9 or more! When tickets went on sale in October 1976, fans all over the country queued for hours to secure tickets and every single concert was sold out. 

Sunday 27th February Arrive Sydney, Australia

Flight QF 8

Time 9.15 p.m.

Limousines To The Sebel Town House

Crew Itinerary

After a long flight from Stockholm to Sydney, a tired gang checked in at the hotel to start the tour, and were greeted by this wonderful letter from Clabbe af Geijerstam, who was already on site. It contained everything they needed to know for the first few days.
 

Fans at Sydney Airport

Drawing by Doug Warren

Australia Celebrates The Great ABBA Anniversary

From Swedish publication 'DN.kultur' 

Australia Celebrates The Great ABBA Anniversary
 
It has now been 40 years of "Abba Mania" in Australia.
- We are extremely grateful for our fans in Australia and their wonderful support, says Anni-Frid Lyngstad in an interview.

Late one evening February 27, 1977 landed a Qantas plane with Abba members aboard the Sydney Airport. Thousands of fans waited outside.
 - I remember I was pretty tired after a more than 20-hour flight, says Anni-Frid Lyngstad in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald.

Neither she, Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson or could guess what was waiting outside. 
- It was overwhelming, says Anni-Frid Lyngstad in the interview.

Many of the fans had been waiting for hours. Among them was 9-year-old Nicole Kidman, writes SMH.Media attention in Australia right now it's 40 years ago, Abba began its acclaimed tour of the country, and why pop group still popular down under.

At times it was hysterical during the tour, as depicted in Lasse Hallstrom's "Abba: The Movie".Anni-Frid Lyngstad explains that one of the highlights came in Melbourne where it was full of people on the streets and the group's limousine had been difficult to get around. The group then waved down to the masses from a balcony of the town hall.
 - I was moved to tears by the amazing welcome from the people on the street who looked up at us as we stood. We felt like royalty at that moment, and waved to everyone down there.

Abba-mania hit most of the country, and the newspaper has talked to several famous Australians about the love of the group. The singer and actress Dannii Minogue says:
 - It feels like their music has played a seat role in shaping what we love to pop and what inspires us musically.

On Sunday aired a segment about the anniversary of the television channel ABC 24thEven the Swedish Embassy in Australia recognizes Abba, in collaboration with the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra and ABBA Museum in Stockholm. Among other things, shown in March, "Abba: The Movie".Fact: ABBA in Australia

1973-1983 Abba gave out eight studio albums and toured much of the world. The group has sold more than 400 million records, making the Abba Sweden's most successful musical export of all time.

During the tour of Australia in 1977 the group did 11 concerts in four cities in 13 days, never to return.Abbas songs were given new life back into the country in the mid-1990s with the films "Priscilla - Queen of the desert" and "Muriel's Wedding".

Since the group disbanded, it has constantly rumors of a reunion. Last year, gathered all four ABBA for the first time in eight years, at the premiere of the musical "Mamma mia! The party "at the Tyrol at Grona Lund in Stockholm. The event received great attention including in Australia.

http://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/australien-firar-stort-abba-jubileum/
 

ABBA Mania Down Under - 40th Anniversary 3rd Installment

Molly Meldrum With ABBA In Sweden

 
ABBA Mania Down Under: bomb scares, a coup for the blues and the $800 school lunchbox

by Neil McMahon

There are countless memorable, magic and mad ABBA moments from a wild run of Australian success that peaked with nationwide mania during their 1977 concert tour.
From the up-close encounters of Molly Meldrum to the lucrative passion for ABBA memorabilia, here is a collection of ABBA memories shared with Fairfax Media to mark the 40th anniversary of the tour that stopped the nation.

Keys to the city

Melbourne Town Hall - where ABBA appeared on the balcony as The Beatles had done in 1964 - is still home to a piano played by members of both bands.
"People all around the world know what Melbourne Town Hall looks like thanks to widespread vision of The Beatles waving from the balcony in 1964 and ABBA on the same balcony in 1977," says Lord Mayor Robert Doyle. "Iconic moments for both super groups and our town hall."

Show stopper

During one of their Perth shows, ABBA were forced to flee the stage after a bomb threat. Tour manager Michael Chugg approached pianist Benny Andersson mid-song.
"I said, 'Excuse me, but there's a bomb scare, you need to leave the stage'. He looked at me, they finished the song and they left the stage. I got on the microphone, we emptied the hall out, nice and orderly. And then of course the copper comes up and says, 'There's no bomb, you can bring them all back and finish the show'."

Money, money, money

Australian producer Reg Grundy owned exclusive rights to ABBA merchandise, creating a worldwide collectors market that can be lucrative for anyone who held on to that ABBA schoolbag or lunchbox.
Says Australian fan and keen collector Roxanne Dickson: "It depends on condition and what colour it is because certain colours are more rare … but they can range from $250 to $800 per lunch box."

Blue coup

During their Melbourne visit, Carlton Football Club pulled off one of the great PR coups thanks to club GM Keith McKenzie.
"When we knew they were about to land at Tullamarine I told our marketing bloke Michael Whitewood, 'Grab a couple of guernseys, get up to the airport and take them out to ABBA'", McKenzie says.
ABBA singers Agnetha and Frida even wore the jumpers years later in a film clip.

The bodyguard

Martial arts expert Richard Norton was hired as a tour bodyguard - but ended up the band's personal trainer as well.
"I suggested to Anna and Frida that maybe they would want to do a little workout .. and it snowballed from there. They ended up working out just about every day at their hotel. We'd either be down by the swimming pool or on a beach. They thoroughly enjoyed the whole idea of that."

A long way to the top

Where Ian "Molly" Meldrum flew to Sweden tor ABBA's Australian tour announcement in 1976, he found an Australian band on the rise were busy conquering Sweden.
"ABBA were just wonderful to me," says Meldrum. "Really, really lovely. During the day they'd be showing me around shops and that sort of thing and I was amazed because in a lot of the record shops were posters of AC/DC."

Faking it

Lasse Hallstrom, creator of the band's famous film clips and later an Oscar nominated director, shot ABBA: The Movie during the 1977 Australian tour - but many scenes passed off as Australia in the film were shot in Sweden because during the tour there was no proper script.
"We made it up as we went along," says future Neighbours star Tom Oliver, who played their bodyguard. "It wasn't till we went to Stockholm that he put some semblance of a script together."

Stop the presses

When the album Arrival was released four months before the 1977 tour, record company RCA went to extraordinary lengths to meet massive demand for a band that had sold nearly 3 million records in Australia in a year.
"Every record plant in Australia was pressing Arrival - never happened in history - so it could be dropped simultaneously in all the stores," says then RCA publicist Annie Wright.

High notes

Australia is home to one of the world's only ABBA choirs, the Canberra-based Andante Andante choir who once sang for the King and Queen of Sweden.
ABBA keeps other performers busy too: the stage show Mamma Mia is being revived for a national tour starting in November, and a star of the original Australian production, stage legend Rhonda Burchmore, has her own ABBA-themed show in the works.
And the NSW town of Trundle is holding its annual ABBA festival in May.

Thank you for the music

After Priscilla, Queen of the Desert helped spark an ABBA revival in the 1990s, director Stephan Elliott received belated thanks.
"One day this box arrived in the post and it was the full collection of everything they ever recorded. It was signed by all four of them and somebody had written, 'Dear Stephan - Thank you for the money'."



http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/abba-mania-down-under-bomb-scares-a-coup-for-the-blues-and-the-800-school-lunchbox-20170218-gug3je.html

ABBA Tight-Lipped Over Name Of Their Comeback Game - 40th Anniversary 2nd Installment

Fabulous Frida In Melbourne

ABBA Tight-Lipped Over Name Of Their Comeback Game

by Neil McMahon

Forty years on from the legendary visit that stands as ABBA's biggest and Australia's craziest concert tour, band legend Frida Lyngstad says the Swedish icons will be back. But is it a reunion? She calls it "a new ABBA creation" – but if history is any guide, we'll lap it up whatever it is.

In a rare interview with Good Weekend to mark the anniversary of the 1977 tour, Lyngstad confirms she and bandmates Agnetha Faltskog, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson are busy with … something.

"We have just started to explore a new technological world, with virtual reality and artificial intelligence at the forefront," Lyngstad says. "Our fans are always asking us to reform and so I hope this new ABBA creation will excite them as much as it excites us."

Lyngstad reveals nothing else about the new project, but it's safe to say nothing in the virtual realm will ever match the flesh-and-blood fervour of that 1977 tour, in which the band played 11 concerts in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth across two weeks remembered for fan and media hysteria wherever they went.

Lyngstad remembers the fortnight in fond detail, including the first concert in Sydney that was nearly abandoned due to torrential rain. Lyngstad famously panicked fans and promoters when she fell over on the wet stage, which was also invaded by bugs.

An "unforgettable" concert, says Lyngstad, while also recalling quiet moments away from the tour spotlight.

"We had a few days off, and were taken to a beautiful national park outside Sydney, and enjoyed a boat trip on the waters outside Melbourne, even swimming together with seals in a bay I do not remember the name of. A very special experience, to say the least."

The Melbourne leg of the tour is remembered for fan crushes on the streets at their hotel, the Old Melbourne Motor Inn in Flemington Road, and in Swanston Street where they greeted fans from the Town Hall balcony.

Tony Johnson, manager of the hotel at the time, remembers the constant crush of fans. "There was literally thousands of people at the Old Melbourne to welcome them when they arrived. We had the mounted police out the front to stop the crowd. We had additional security because there were so many people trying to get access to their suites. They were captive … because there was so many people outside."

Promoter Michael Chugg, then a tour manager for Paul Dainty, remembers the chaos of the Sydney show. "The Sebel Townhouse got the shits with us because we took every white towel they had to keep drying the stage. But they played in the rain, the audience turned up in the rain, they just absolutely loved it. It affected everybody from toddlers to grandma and grandpa. It was incredible to look into the audience and see the spread of the demographic."

That generation-crossing devotion is confirmed by musician Kate Miller-Heidke, who wasn't even born during ABBA's heyday but who is working on a keenly awaited ABBA-related project – writing a stage musical production of the ABBA-laden movie Muriel's Wedding, which premieres for the Sydney Theatre Company in November.

"They have basically formed part of the soundtrack to my life, their music is everywhere," Miller-Heidke says. "The songs are undeniable. As a songwriter I would never say that they were of no lasting value … just the way they put lyrics and melody together in a way that burns into people's minds."

http://www.smh.com.au/good-weekend/abba-tightlipped-over-name-of-their-comeback-game-20170216-gueszi.html

ABBA Live In Melbourne Australia 5th March 1977 - Melbourne Town Hall

On This day - 5th March 1977 Melbourne

On Saturday, March 5, Abba boarded their chartered Boeing 707 and flew to Melbourne to continue the tour. The airport reception was somewhat quieter than in Sydney – only about 100 fans greeted Abba this time, but it turned out to be the calm before the storm, for once they had reached the city a truly amazing welcome awaited them.

At 12.30pm Abba were scheduled to attend a Lord Mayor’s reception in the Melbourne Town Hall. The event had been announced in the media well in advance, which explained the absence of fans at the airport – they knew where the real fun was going to happen. 

When Abba arrived at the town hall in their Rolls Royces, an estimated 6,000 people stood cheering and screaming at them, many having waited for the group for several hours. “First, when you drive out from the airport and you see the street actually lined up all the way from the airport to the city, you don’t even believe your eyes,” recalled Frida. “And then you understand, ‘This is actually a reception for us, nobody else. It’s not the president coming’.”

The Abba entourage stepped out of their cars, entered the building and climbed the stairs to the balcony to greet the crowd. Excited radio reporters were covering the event live on the air, blow by blow: “Here they come now. I can see them! They’re inside. They’re just about to come on their way out. They’re coming out onto the balcony now … It should be in two to three seconds … And here they are!”

When Abba finally stepped out on the balcony, the crowd erupted. All the group had to do was to stand there and wave. During the five minutes they appeared on the balcony, the screaming never died down. The scenes outside Melbourne Town Hall constituted irrefutable proof that Abba’s popularity had exploded far beyond ordinary fame. In Australia, if not quite elsewhere in the world, it was clearly on a par with The Beatles during 1964, when they too had appeared, Popelike, on that same Melbourne Town Hall balcony to greet streets full of frenzied fans.

Afterwards, although the group was meant to stay and mingle with guests at the reception, they were too exhausted and were escorted back to their Rolls Royces. But when they got to the cars there were no drivers – the group wasn’t expected back for another 20 minutes. Hemmed in by watching crowds gripped by fever-pitch excitement that could bubble over into a riot at any moment, Abba had to wait in the cars for five very long minutes before the drivers returned. In the meantime, they were more or less forced to chat to the media and sign a few autographs.

They eventually were able to get back to their hotel and prepare for that night's concert at Sidney Myer Music Bowl.

Text excerpt taken from ‘Bright Lights Dark Shadows’ by Carl Magnus Palm.