Cotton Ward

AN ABBAMAZING INTERACTIVE AND OVERACTIVE EXHIBITION

You think you're gonna make me softer with your fancy car ... have your photo taken with ABBA in the Money Money Money car.

AFTER more than 30 years since ABBA’s first live performance in Australia at the Sydney Showgrounds in Moore Park on that wet evening of 3 March 1977, ABBA fans can relive the hormonal, adolescent dramas of a desperate teenage ABBA fan who just wanted to go to a pop concert, any pop concert, but got sucked into a black hole-ish vortex from which she would emerge singing “Mamma Mia, here I go again.” And again. And again, and again.

According to Cotton Ward, curator of ABBAWhirl: “This is a unique opportunity to see original ABBA fan material. For more than 35 years, ABBA has been one of the top three selling artists in the world, having sold 375 million records worldwide, mostly to people I know.”

“ABBAWhirl is in my flat — genuine ABBA scrapbooks from the era, and the ABBA dolls are sitting on top of the telly.”

Out to the airport to get on the plane ... Benny, Frida and Bjorn enjoy taking off from an authentic IKEA birchwood-veneer runway. But where's Agnetha?

ABBAWhirl examines the early days of sending letters and waiting breathlessly for the latest edition of the Swedish Pop Import, the official ABBA Fan Club’s buy and swap columns, and Record Collector ads. There is a blaring, wind-up alarm clock to remind you of the many early mornings of getting up for record fairs at town halls to be among the first to get to Parramatta or Kur-ring-gai, and endless scouring through secondhand shops for memorabilia. The lunchbox, dolls, socks and full set of bubblegum cards were the holy grails. The usual finds were a couple of singles, which you already had, and maybe an old edition of an ABBA Annual or a copy of TV Week or Spunky!

A rotary dial phone reminds you of all the times fans would ring each other up with news of the latest overseas bootlegs available at Red Eye Records, or the next performance of Bjorn Again at small venues, for $10 a ticket.

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An insider’s account of travelling to the premiere of ABBAWorld in Melbourne with a group of Australia’s most hardcore ABBA fans, who have shared their obsession for more than 30 years.

My story is here.

Want to share your love of ABBA? We are looking for volunteers to help enrich visitors’ experience by dramatically recreating highlights of ABBA fandom. Using acting techniques gleaned from your innumerable viewings of ABBA The Movie and The Girl with the Golden Hair mini-musical, ABBAWhirl volunteers will be asked to melodramatically convey:

• the crushing emotions experienced by fans when the November tour of Australia was cancelled in 1976;
• the exhilarating thrill when it was announced the concert would be held in March, 1977;
• the agony of the 15-year cliffhanger where a fan wrote a nine-part series for an online ABBA-list describing the events leading up to his meeting with Agnetha, but never wrote the *critical* 10^th installment when actually he met her. (Visitors will be invited to interactively use their imagination to fill in the blanks.)

A fan gave us permission to use this example of how your expert ABBA knowledge can be applied when directing visitors through ABBAWhirl: “The loos? Yes, they’re right down the hallway, Sir, next to the Agnetha section, you know the one who recorded a brand new album in 2004, was recently seen with her ex in Copenhagen for Mamma Mia! and is featured in a new article just come out saying she wants ABBA to get back together briefly, and has overcome her fear of flying, and …”

Contact ABBAWhirl with your details of when you’re free during summer.

Brett Whiteley.

Reward for missing ABBA “Girl with the Golden Hair” wig

Prue Acton.

To celebrate the opening of ABBAWhirl in the Inner West, Sydney, in January 2010, the promoter of this retro interactive ABBA exhibition has posted a reward* to find a missing Girl With The Golden Hair wig.

The wig, worn by Annifrid Lyngstad during the band’s tour 1977 tour of Australia, was nabbed by Frida’s son Hans and Benny’s son Peter when it flew off during one of the Australian concerts. They then used it as a disguise when they fled the concert and took a hire car and credit card to Double Bay and went on a shopping spree.

Panda.

It has been missing ever since, though there are rumours it was shared among high-flying fashionistas and artists, sighted variously on Prue Acton, (the late) Brett Whiteley, and Crumpet the dog, who frolics in Camperdown Park during the leash-free period after 5pm weekdays.

Sunni the Sandgroper.

If found, this wig will become part of ABBAWhirl’s memorabilia collection. Contact ABBAWhirl if you have any information regarding this precious artefact.

*The reward will consist of unlimited free entry to ABBAWhirl and the opportunity to spend a week during summer as an ABBAWhirl volunteer!

You can join ABBAWhirl on Facebook for updates here.

By Cotton Ward

ABBA was the biggest name in music in Australia from 1975 to 1978.

By March 1977 the Australian market was saturated with one in three Australian households owning an ABBA record.

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