ABBA The Official Photo Book Update

ABBA In Pictures - full steam ahead!
15:56 07 November, 2013

The work with the new documentary: ABBA IN PICTURES – The Photographers’ Stories, specially produced for the limited editions is moving ahead at full steam. In this film the surviving photographers of ABBA’s most famous pictures are telling the stories behind the pictures. The production team have recently met with Wolfgang ”Bubi” Heilemann who took the famous image of ABBA wrapped in tin foil, the designer Rune Söderqvist and Görel Hanser (Görel is talking about Bengt H. Malmqvist who is no longer alive).
ABBA IN PICTURES – The Photographers’ Stories is included in the limited editions only.
Stay tuned!

http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/abba/updates

ABBA’s designer Rune Söderqvist outside the Julius Kronberg studio at Skansen in Stockholm where the cover image for The Vistitors was taken.

Görel Hanser on the bench (yes, we know it’s been changed!) talking about Bengt H. Malmqvist and the famous bench shot, taken on that very spot in Djurgården in Stockholm.

Wolfgang “Bubi” Heilemann outside Benny and Frida’s old house in Vallentuna north of Stockholm.

 

Agnetha Faltskog - Behind The Scenes Photos

Great new behind the scenes photos from Agnetha being interviewed and photographed by the German Press in Stockholm Sweden this month !

Say Happy Birthday To Frida !

It's Frida's Birthday on 15th November !

You can write a personal Birthday greeting to the Princess herself via ABBA The Official Site here:

http://www.abbasite.com/happy-birthday-frida/

 

Stunning - 1977

ABBA History - 1 November

On this day in 1976, 'Money Money Money' was released.

This fabulous song went to number 1 in 7 countries - including Australia (this was ABBA's 5th consecutive hit here).

Australia
Belgium
Denmark
France
Germany
Mexico
New Zealand
Eurochart Hot 100 Singles

It was a top 10 hit in countless others. It reached number 3 in UK, Ireland, Switzerland, Austria and Norway.

A few of the different covers for the single from various countries:



Australia & New Zealand

France

 

Germany

 

Mexico

EP from Brazil

 

 

 

ABBA The Museum Ring Ring POP TALKS #1

On the 13th of October ABBA The Museum held our first POP TALKS. Here is a clip from POP TALKS #1. With Mattias Hansson, Mia Segolsson, Carl-Magnus Palm, Janne Schaffer, Claes af Geijerstam and Owe Sandström.

Watch the video on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/v/5maNXUYWsIw?version=3&autohide=1&autohide=1&autoplay=1&feature=share&showinfo=1&attribution_tag=GAUEHOLDfgv2k0jcrVvzKA

New ABBA Collection Item - 1977 Crew T-Shirt

I received this t-shirt today from the ABBA The Museum Web Shop.

It is a replica of the t-shirts worn by the crew during ABBA's 1977 Tour.

Unfortunately, they only come in men's sizes so this 'small' t-shirt would fit my husband ! lol

Still a nice keepsake from the 77 Tour :)

This particular t-shirt was on display at ABBAWORLD in the 'dressing room' scene.




Back of shirt

Front of shirt

 

ABBAWORLD Melbourne

ABBAWORLD Sydney - you can see it hanging on the back wall

'Let's Talk About ABBA' - Book Excerpt

For a little look inside the upcoming book 'Let's Talk About ABBA' by Stany Van Wymeersch click on this link:

http://www.abbafanclub.nl/news/details/talk_about_abba.pdf

Available on 6th November it can be pre-ordered now from the ABBA Fan Club Shop:

http://www.abbafanclubshop.com/cgi-bin/user/show_article.pl?item=586

ABBA History - 31 October

'Thank You For The Music' 4 cd boxset was released on this day - 31 October - in 1994.

To read all about it, click this link to go to Waterloo Radio Forum:

http://www.waterlooradio.net/forum/gallery/image_page.php?album_id=5&image_id=133

And click this link to read Carl Magnus Palm's essay about his involvement with this release:

http://www.carlmagnuspalm.com/abba/compilations-and-box-sets/thank-you-for-the-music/thank-you-for-the-music-the-making-of-a-box-set-part-1-of-8

 

Agnetha Faltskog - I Should Have Followed You Home - Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra

New ABBA Collection Item - Australian Reg Grundy School Bag 1976

A fabulous addition to my collection - another school bag !
These great school bags were by Reg Grundy Productions and sold only in Australia in 1976,
There are so many different colours - but I think I've got a good selection so far :)

The new bag: Red/Blue

 



New ABBA Collection Item - European Tour Poster 1975

Great Swedish poster with images of ABBA during their 74/75 Tour

'ABBA On European Tour"

"Four Swedish - an international success"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Agnetha Fältskog A Deluxe Edition

From Agnetha.com:

On 22 November the Deluxe Edition of Agnetha’s album “A” is released exclusively in Germany. The Bonus-DVD contains the one hour documentation “Agnetha: ABBA and after”.

Buy: http://amzn.to/1blK5zW...

We are working on plans to release the deluxe in other territories, as soon as we have any news on this you will be the first to know.

http://www.agnetha.com/news/news-for-all-fans-in-germany/

 

 

 

ABBA The Museum Holiday Workshops

School autumn holiday at ABBA The Museum next week! No admission fee.

ABBA The Museum invites youth to write and perform their own songs! We will hold free student workshops during the autumn school holiday to inspire children to experiment with and create music in the spirit of the iconic Swedish pop group, ABBA.

The workshops will be led by Swedish TV personalities Rijal and Saleh Mbamba, two brothers who are also the driving forces behind a Helsingborg-based creative collective called S.T.I.C.S. Rijal is a well-known face to Swedish children due to his role as a TV presenter on Swedish Television’s Summer Break show.

“The passion of S.T.I.C.S. to encourage children to combine poetry and music in new creative ways fits perfectly with the spirit of our museum,” says Mattias Hansson, Director of ABBA the Museum. “We are very excited to be hosting these creative workshops and believe that great and surprising things can happen.”

Autumn school holiday 
 

The workshops will be led by Swedish TV personalities Rijal and Saleh Mbamba, two brothers who are also the driving forces behind a Helsingborg-based creative collective called S.T.I.C.S.

Rhythm is everywhere
The first workshop, which is designed for children between the ages of 7-10 years, will explore how to create your own songs and express them in a personal way. The focus of this workshop is on teaching children how to combine words and rhythms.

Workshop 1: Find your own rhythm!
Age group: Children ages 7 to 10 years
Time: 11:00 a.m. to 12 noon
Dates: Wednesday, Oct. 30th – Friday, November 1^st
Admission: Free with ticket
Rhythm is everywhere: in nature, in music and in yourself. As part of Workshop 1, students will listen to rhythmic parts of ABBA's musical repertoire in order to develop their own musical ear and to feel music in a completely new way.

Learning the art of songwriting
The second workshop is designed to provide children aged 11 to 15 with a basic understanding of how to write and perform songs. Not always as easy as it looks, songwriting can be done in many different ways. Where do you start? How should the song end? How do you create the right music for the refrain? How do you perform a song while standing in front of an audience?


Workshop 2: The art of writing and performing
Age group: Children ages 11 to 15 years
Time: 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Dates: Wednesday, Oct. 30th – Friday, November 1^st
Admission: Free with ticket

http://www.abbathemuseum.com/en/calendar

 

ABBA The Official Photo Book - Update

Scanning the photos!

The work on ABBA The Official Photo Book is moving forward at full steam.
Our team of repro experts is now scanning the original photographs to ensure the highest possible print quality for the book – it takes time and precision as every image is scanned carefully and needs to be just perfect.
After an image has been scanned the team works with the digital file to ensure colour and sharpness. At the moment they have scanned more than 500 images.

http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/abba/updates/28035?utm_campaign=project7099&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pledgemusic

Agnetha Fältskog 'The One Who Loves You Now' - Pre-order CD Now !

Pre-order Agnetha's 'The One Who Loves You Now' CD from Universal UK now !

http://store.universal-music.co.uk/restofworld/artists/agnetha-faltskog/icat/agnetha

 

Agnetha Fältskog I Should Have Followed You Home - Pre-order Now !

Pre-order the fabulous new CD single 'I Should Have Followed You Home' now at Universal UK !
Released on 18th November.

Tracklisting:

1. I Should´ve Followed You Home - 7th Heaven Radio Edit
2. I Should´ve Followed You Home
3. I Should´ve Followed You Home - 7th Heaven Club Mix
4. I Should´ve Followed You Home - 7th Heaven Dub

http://store.universal-music.co.uk/restofworld/singles/agnetha-faltskog-i-shouldve-followed-you-home-feat-gary-barlow-cd-single/invt/0602537618743

 

Agnetha To Release Two New Singles !

Agnetha is set to release not one but TWO new singles in November.
‘I Should’ve followed You Home’, a duet with Gary Barlow, will be released on 18th November around the world except in the UK, Germany and Austria. For UK fans Agnetha will release ‘The One Who Loves You Now’ on November 25th. For for details on both releases please go to http://www.Agnetha.com/

Agnetha Fältskog will release the latest single from her international hit album ‘A’ on November
18^th. A duet with Gary Barlow, ‘I Should’ve Followed You Home’ brings together two of the best known and most loved vocalists in the world today in a new song that is set to become a pop classic.

‘I Should’ve Followed You Home’ was co-written by Gary Barlow and Jorgen Elofsson, the Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer who worked on Agnetha’s album ‘A’ with producer/arranger Peter Nordahl. Jorgen was looking for the ideal duet partner to match Agnetha for the album and was delighted to get his first choice: “To me Gary Barlow was the perfect partner,” he explains. “His warm and thick voice matched perfectly with Agnetha’s pop soprano voice. I must say I was nervous when I presented my favourite choice but luckily for me one of Agnetha’s favourite songs turned out to be ‘Back For Good’ by Take That!”
Gary and Jorgen have worked together in the past and recorded the song first with Gary’s vocals. Agnetha loved the track and was delighted to turn it into a duet, feeling that the two voices together were a fantastic combination. Both recording sessions happened separately so Agnetha and Gary did not finally meet in person until Agnetha visited London in May and the two met for the BBC documentary ‘Agnetha: ABBA and After…’ which was broadcast in June.

‘A’ was released in May by Universal Music and has been embraced by Agnetha’s fans around the world as welcome return from one of pop’s true icons. Debuting at number two in Sweden and Switzerland, three in Australia, Germany and Norway and at number six in the UK. Sales of ‘A’ are now at 350,000 copies worldwide and the album has been certified gold in the UK, Sweden and Australia.

Agnetha Fältskog has announced she will release her new single ‘The One Who Loves You Now’ in the UK on November 25th through Universal Records. It is the third single to be taken from her acclaimed new album ‘A’, which marked Agnetha’s triumphant return to music after almost a decade and her first original material for 25 years.
Upon its release in May, ‘A’ was welcomed with enthusiastic praise from critics who unanimously heralded it a return to form for one of the greatest voices in pop. It entered the Official UK Charts at no.6 and has since gone on to achieve Gold status in the UK selling over 100,000 copies.
‘A’ was recorded and produced by Grammy-nominated songwriter/producer Jorgen Elofsson and acclaimed producer/arranger Peter Nordahl. The album features 10 tracks, including first single ‘When You Really Loved Someone’, ‘I Should’ve Followed You Home’ – a duet with Gary Barlow – and ‘I Keep Them On The Floor Beside My Bed’, one of Agnetha first co-writes in many years: “I hadn’t written any music for a long, long time,” she says. “But I sat at the piano, and suddenly it was there.”

Along with the beautiful new single ‘The One Who Loves You Now’, each track provides compelling evidence that the voice that soundtracked millions of lives is still capable of stopping you in your tracks, of causing your heart to miss a beat. Agnetha’s return was documented for a one hour TV special ‘Agnetha: ABBA & After’ which premiered on the BBC in June.
For the woman who started writing songs at the age of five, who first had a No 1 single when she was 18, and then went on to conquer the world with Abba, the journey continues – at her own pace, and on her own terms.

 

ABBA The Museum Pop Talks #1 Ring Ring - Photos

ABBA The Museum - Pop Talks #1 - Ring Ring
13th October 2013

Special guests include Mia Segolsson, Janne Schaffer (guitarist), Owe Sandström (costume designer), Claes af Geijerstam (Tour sound engineer).
Interview conducted by Mattias Hansson.

ABBA Ring Ring Turns 40 ! The Museum Celebrates

 

Press release 4th October

 

Ring Ring turns 40 –
ABBA The Museum celebrates with Pop Talks!

 

Monday 14th October is the release date for Ring Ring Deluxe Edition, and ABBA The Museum will celebrate with its first Pop Talks on Sunday 13th October.

The museum will feature specially invited guests such as Janne Schaffer, Owe Sandström, Claes af Geijerstam and Carl Magnus Palm, with ABBA The Museum CEO Mattias Hansson as moderator.

To really get to know how Ring Ring was created in 1973, on the Sunday, the museum has invited guests with a strong connection to the Ring Ring album. Visitors at the museum are welcome to attend. Mattias Hansson will talk to Owe Sandström, Janne Schaffer and Claes af Geijerstam (Clabbe) about the popular culture of 1973 and what the Swedish music business was like; the guests will share their memories from that time.

Owe Sandström designed many of ABBA’s stage costumes, among them the costumes worn in the ‘Ring Ring’ video. Janne Schaffer played the guitar on the Ring Ring album, and Clabbe won Melodifestivalen (the Swedish selection for the Eurovision Song Contest) in 1973 with the song ‘You Are Summer – You Never Tell Me No’, together with Göran Fristorp. That year, ABBA’s entry, ‘Ring Ring’, ended up in third place. Later, Clabbe was the sound engineer on ABBA’s world tours.
During Sunday 13th October, Carl Magnus Palm will also be interviewed by Mattias Hansson. Carl Magnus Palm is an author and journalist, and has conducted research on ABBA for 20 years. He has contributed his knowledge about ABBA to Polar Music as well as ABBA The Museum. In the interview he will talk about Swedish popular music in the early Seventies, ABBA’s emerging breakthrough, and their legendary, multi-layered. Pop Talks are held in Swedish.
ABBA The Museum also welcomes, as a special guest, Mia Segolsson, General Manager of Polar Music International, who will tell us how the new album Ring Ring Deluxe Edition was put together. During the weekend there will also be an opportunity to hear the album and to buy it in advance of its release date of 14th October.

Pop Talks starts at 15.00 and ends at 17.00. Together with a museum ticket, valid on

Sunday 13th October, admission to Pop Talks is free. The museum ticket may be

bought at abbathemuseum.com or at the museum ticket counter. The Pop Talks ticket

will be available at the museum on Djurgårdsvägen 68 from Wednesday 9th October

at 12.00. Please note that the number of seats is extremely limited.

http://www.abbathemuseum.com/

 

ABBA Classics Covered By Andre Rieu

Violinist Andre Rieu has Abba Classics Covered






CONDUCTOR and violin superstar Andre Rieu rates The Blue Danube as his favourite piece of music, but Johann Strauss isn't his only inspiration.

The 64-year-old Dutchman has turned his back on classical music for his latest venture, paying tribute instead to the classic songs of 1970s pop phenomenon ABBA.

"Who is not an ABBA fan?" Rieu asked in Sydney on the eve of his And the Waltz Goes On Australian tour, which begins in Brisbane today.

The prolific musician is releasing two albums next month, one of which, Andre Rieu Celebrates ABBA, features his orchestral interpretations of ABBA hits including Dancing Queen, Mamma Mia and Thank You for the Music.

"It's such fantastic music," he said. "It's so unique. You cannot copy ABBA. All I could do was make my version of it. I can say I'm satisfied with the result."

Rieu is celebrating 25 years with his Johann Strauss Orchestra, which has helped popularise the work of Strauss and other classical composers all across the world. He also has turned himself into a global industry, releasing several DVDs and albums each year.

He admits to being a workaholic and says he has no plans to stop recording and performing. He'd like to be on stage when he's 120.

"Being busy is not bad," he said. "I like being busy. I like to be in control of everything and for that you have to work hard. That's my life."

Rieu has a huge following, not least in Australia, but he divides opinion over his treatment of the classics. His response to that is to paraphrase Finnish composer Jean Sibelius's put-down of detractors: "When did you ever see a statue of a critic?"

Rieu says he does his job "with honesty, with education and everything that I am. I know that I'm not lying. I try to have fun on stage and involve the audience. I like to play for the audience, to be with them. That's what I do. What's bad about that?"

The conductor's compulsive work rate has a downside. Twice in the past few years he has had to cancel performances because of illness.

Last year, he took on a personal trainer and now works out on a regular basis to keep fit.

After his Brisbane performance tonight, the And the Waltz Goes On tour travels to Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

IAIN SHEDDEN

ABBA The Official Photo Book - Video

Video: researching the book pictures

Senior picture editor Bengt Wanselius tells us about the picture research for ABBA THE OFFICIAL PHOTO BOOK.
The picture research has been a challenge. The team has scrutinised almost 250,000 images, discovering many unseen and previously unpublished images.

Click this link to watch the video:

http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/abba/updates/27197?utm_campaign=project7099&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pledgemusic

New ABBA Collection Item - Reg Grundy Lunch Bag

The lastest addition to my collection:
The yellow Reg Grundy Australian lunch bag !
These were sold only in Australia in 1976 - 1977.
Made under licence to Reg Grundy Productions by the Kehole Bag Co.
Fabulous little bags - a real treasure.
Thanks to a friend for putting me on to this one :)