Sydney was chosen as the only city in Australia to host an official Dancing Queen 50th celebration! So lucky!! Only seven countries around the world had this special honour: Sweden, Germany, Mexico, United Kingdom, Poland, The Netherlands and Australia.
Interstate guests flew in: Brenda and Brenton from Adelaide and Allison and Angel from Canberra!
Our free gift was an ABBA disco at Harbord Bombies hotel (350 fans) with dancers, a DJ and a lovely pink Dancing Queen sash (reusable, with a velcro attachment so you could rip it off, Waterloo skirt-style!)
We got drinks and a pizza to share at Bombies and Dancing Queen was played at least three times through the evening. We got there when doors opened at 6pm and the crowd filled out when the DJ started at 7.30pm. It seemed to finish early around 10pm with Thank You For The Music and Angeleyes.
For a while, we wondered if the DJ only had a copy of ABBA Gold to play, so it felt like being stuck on a cruise ship with only one album onboard. However, we were thrilled to hear When I Kissed the Teacher and Summer Night City, indicating they also had More ABBA Gold!
It also meant “Rock Me” was nowhere to be found for mega-Bjorn fan Brenda, who requested it. No rockin and reeling for you!
There were a couple of amazing dancers wearing mirror ball helmets and sparkly costumes and I was wondering why they were so petite — then realised I’d got so used to seeing tall drag queens dancing in costumes!
Damo hadn’t turned up and texted from an ultra-hip-cool birthday/pyjama party. When I replied the music was only from ABBA Oro and ABBA Mas Oro, he wrote: “What?!! No chance of ever hearing You Owe Me One?!!” Nope, we’re missing all the fun! Meanwhile, the PJ party was so uber-cool, it was being live-streamed via Twitch.tv from the living room!
Chit chat around the ABBA fan tables buzzed about Remko van Drongelen’s new project, a Beyond Agnetha book, with a deep dive into her earlier career! More details to come! We all have his incredible Beyond Frida book, a must-have for every fan. Also, I recently bought a (faded box) ABBA Monopoly set from ABBA fan Stuart and am very happy. (I already have a customised ABBA monopoly version with my homemade ideas, but not an Official version.)
There was a discussion re: Yol said Dancing Queen was a CPR (Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation) song (has the correct beat for doing chest compressions). I’d recently completed a CPR course and had been told it was Take A Chance on Me! “The person would DIE if you were doing the slower compressions to Dancing Queen,” I said. Wrong! Google showed it came it at the slower end of 100 beats per minute, but patient would still SURVIVE!! So Dancing Queens live on!
With our first aid knowledge refreshed, we confidently hit the dancefloor with all our authentic chorry moves, which totally went heels over heads of the many youngsters. They didn’t know the words, but I suspect it’s because there are too many to learn for someone who didn’t grow up with incremental single and album releases over time. Maybe big-time young fans don’t know the words?
I felt like a freak for knowing the words!! I danced with some of the youngsters and was asked where I’d got my ABBA Tshirt from. $70 from ABBA Voyage London! They were aghast at the price!
Shook my hair and took a casual stroll up to the bar where a guy said he’d watched my Hallet’s Beach video and liked it. Thank you!
Most of the Sydney fans were there: Louise, David, Judy, Donna (transport expert), Christian, Manly Mark, James, David, Maureen and ABBA expert Ian Cole!
The previous night we’d (me, Louise, David and TC) been to an ABBA night at the new GLBTIQA+ club, Tribe, which started with a screening of Mamma Mia the movie, and had three levels of different ABBA song styles and remixes and drag acts and the DJ sang along and knew all the words! The only drawback was the disco started at 10pm, which was a little on the late side! (the 1980s/90s ABBA discos started at 8pm!) We’d watched the movie then left, as we’d wanted to save our big energy for the official Universal launch the next night. Louise and TC had stayed on to boogie and reported back that it was a very successful evening and they’d love to go again. Which we will!
It seems the GLBTIQA+ clubs still, 50 years later, know best how to please the “hard core” fans!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
(An earlier drama on the evening was when a bus driver dropped me off at the wrong venue, Harbord Diggers, so I was waiting all alone from 4.45pm until 6pm, texting everyone and being unable to find them in the huge multi-level eateries! This stuffed up my idea of a group shot at the nearby beach, and at 6pm when I insisted at the front desk on knowing where the ABBA disco was, the Concierge said there wasn’t one being held there! She said there were no taxis or buses to get to Bombies, so I asked for a way to get home. She looked me up and down in my ABBA t-shirt and cap and like a fairy godmother said: “You WILL go to the ABBA night!” She walked off to ring their shuttle bus driver and 10 minutes later he took me directly to Bombies — even though he’d been instructed to park around the corner, as they’re not permitted to drive people to a rival hotel! So I arrived out the front in a mini-bus with “Harbord Diggers” in big letters on the side! Luckily it was still early enough to enjoy all the fun! A huge THANK YOU to Diggers’ Concierge and Shuttle Bus Driver!!)
5 March 2026: Nine older hard-core fans were the world’s first to recreate the Tropical Loveland film clip in Sydney, Australia, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of ABBA’s visit in 1976.
During this trip, ABBA filmed at a secluded beach and made the ABBA Down Under/ABBA Bandstand TV special.
Why hadn’t we ever done this before? Because none of us had been able to find the beach until recently, thanks to drone technology and YouTube!
We’d done numerous ferry trips over the years to find the location, but none had matched up. Fans had travelled along the 1,100km-long river which has so many beaches that the total number has never been counted! Many are unnamed and can only be reached by boat.
The main obstacle was that we’d been searching the Hawkesbury River, which was mentioned in Press Releases as being where they went. But the ABBA beach turned out to not be on the Hawkesbury River at all!
ABBA BOAT STILL AFLOAT!
I tracked down the boat ABBA travelled on, the MV Kangaroo, which is easy to find as it’s been beautifully restored and is used for special events and filming Home and Away episodes. I rang the owner, Michele, who said she’d been informed ABBA had visited Hallets Beach, which is on the 12-km-long Cowan Creek, which runs off the Hawkesbury River. Cowan Creek also has numerous unnamed beaches, which appear and disappear at different times on different days, according to the tides.
I needed to confirm this information as it was expensive to hire the boat.
In the Tropical Loveland video there’s a line of steep hills with an unusual ridge in the background behind Benny’s head when he steps out of the dinghy. I freeze-framed the brief glimpses (as shown below).
FINALLY FOUND THE BEACH!!
In December 2023, I was searching YouTube for new drone videos of Hallets Beach, which were rare, but finally there saw an old upload (by Truth To All in 2022) that showed the unusual ridge and they matched! Further video research showed it is such a strange beach that sometimes it mostly appears only in the middle of the night! I shared this news on social media (and ABBA news sites updated their facts to include “Hallets Beach”), as I was hoping it would generate cheaper ideas of getting there. But alas, nothing eventuated.
TOOK CONTROL OF THE FERRY!
The next weekend I took fan Harold on the Postman ferry and begged them to change their normal route from the Hawkesbury to Cowan Creek so we could check out Hallets Beach. They did, and the whole boat of 100 passengers were oblivious as they tucked into their ploughman’s lunch as we hung out on the bow, frantically taking video as the ferry quickly passed by. There was no mobile phone coverage. This first sighting was very fleeting.
ABBA on back of MV Kangaroo in 1976, the actual boat we hired
ABANDON SHIP!
Now the location was confirmed, we were energised into action, and four of us hired a boat from Cottage Point on a busy holiday weekend in January 2024, but on the day we were advised that Hallets Beach was too far away (45 minutes in a slow 10kph boat). We tried anyway and nearly crashed into several very expensive yachts on our way out from the jetty.
That experience convinced us we needed to hire the original ABBA boat. It was a steep price for us and initially it was difficult to find enough fans who could afford it/were available on a weekday/not sea-sick/unafraid of killer wildlife. Luckily, ABBA boat owner Michele gave us a great deal, as she wanted the trip to go ahead to honour the boat’s legacy.
As the 50th anniversary date drew closer, nine fans signed up (the boat can legally hold 12, including crew), and all of us had known each other for many years.
ABBA FLAGS
Angus and I had a lot of fun designing the bright yellow and purple flag, “ABBA Hawkesbury 1976”, to replace the boat’s usual “Just Married” flag. We met in a trendy Sydney cafe and I unfurled the Rainbow Pride ABBA flag across the table and we took out our measuring tapes. We wrote notes and double-checked the spelling, doing a mock-up on Angus’ laptop. We wanted it to look perfect. We added “Hawkesbury” instead of Cowan Creek, as it is better recognised by fans, and the creek is within the Hawkesbury Council area. Our collaboration on crazy ABBA antics began back in the 1990s, causing disruption and giggles in our workplace, and has continued ever since!
1970s VIDEO PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES
I wanted the video to look like a 1970s production and dug out my university notes from film studies in 1980 when I’d made a 3-minute Super-8 film. I copied the old techniques and did a 14-page “storyboard” with 50 of my shot ideas.
I’d brushed up my editing skills in 2013 when submitting an entry in Agnetha’s Dance Your Pain Away video competition (didn’t get included), and practised a lot after that, editing a version of Someone Else’s Story and lots of fan videos.
I filmed on my iPhone12 and a friend did backup with his iPhone and briefly used a drone. I edited it with free iMovie software.
PREPARATION
We took 1976 memorabilia and dug out T-shirts from that era (finding any that still fitted was the priority!) I owned a rainbow ABBA Pride flag.
Everyone brought their favourite Australian snack foods, which mostly stayed in the packaging, due to the large lizards and wildlife which were keen to eat everything, including us!
NO MOBILE PHONE COVERAGE
Hallets Beach is only accessible by boat — there are no bush tracks and the area is riddled with paralysis ticks. The official advice is to take a satellite phone, as coverage drops out due to the steep terrain. For example, while standing on the beach we were unable to contact the nearby ABBA boat to bring out extra equipment by dinghy.
“EVERYTHING IS OUT TO KILL YOU”
A couple of months earlier, I’d been on a Hawkesbury ferry and the captain talked about the wildlife and warned: “Everything here is out to kill you.”
BABY SHARK NURSERY
Opposite Hallets Beach is Little Shark Point, which is a nursery for baby bull sharks!
The week before we went, three people were attacked by aggressive bull sharks at Sydney beaches within 24 hours, (one fatally) and we felt nervous.
The bull sharks use Cowan Creek as a breeding ground, as there are fewer large predators to attack the babies. When the babies grow bigger, they swim upstream to salty water.
Bull sharks are most active when water temperatures rise from January to April, the exact time when we were there!
PARALYSIS TICKS
The week before we went, a local had died from a tick-bite and Pharmacies had run out of tick repellent. Cowan Creek is a known hotspot for paralysis ticks all-year round, especially from September to March.
The Australian Government’s Scientific Research Department, the CSIRO, developed a powerful insecticide specifically to protect against venomous Australian insects, called Tropical Strength Aerogard. We wore this on the beach.
Paralysis ticks, including the tiny babies, wait on the edges of leaves and grass with outstretched claws to latch onto passing humans. After two bites, there’s a 50% chance you’ll become allergic to meat and dairy, which can be fatal. There was a 60 Minutes Australia TV report on the dangers of these ticks a couple of months after our trip, calling them “Tiny monsters lurking in the bush… they’re as dangerous as a brown snake!” (the deadliest snake in Australia). See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cIB2qU6T3k
You need to spray with Australian-made Aerogard (including behind the ears) and tuck your trousers into your socks when walking in bushland, as ticks love to jump onto your legs. Check armpits, the groin, behind the ears and in your hair. If a tick is on you, “freeze, don’t squeeze”, using a freezing spray.
THE DAY BEGINS…
On the day, we had 1970s-style prawn cocktails at the Hawkesbury Marina for lunch, then headed off to the ABBA boat moored at the jetty.
The weather was on the hot side (30 degrees Celsius/86 Fahrenheit), with an “extreme risk” UV of 10.5.)
We all felt hyper-excited as the boat approached and we first saw the beach. When we landed via dinghy, there was something very magical about being on the same beach ABBA had walked on 50 years ago!
The sand was mostly wet and firm as the beach is underwater twice a day at different times, depending on the tides.
It’s a biodiversity hotspot, known for its breathtaking scenery. The amount of wildlife there was crazy — three large lizards walked out as soon as we landed. It’s classified as “rugged bushland” with ants, jelly fish, spiders, ticks, snakes — everything was out to kill us. It’s all National Park, covering 37,000 acres (15,000 hectares) and for most of it, nobody has lived there since the area’s Traditional Owners, the Darug and Guringai people. There are more than 800 Aboriginal sites with rock engravings and burial sites and, after colonisation, Cowan Creek was popular for smugglers.
SINGING SECTION
The singing section included a couple of fans who are serious musicians/singers (Harold and David), so that went smoothly, and I practised guitar skills I’d learnt in 1976/7. My nun teacher used an ABBA songbook (ABBA for Guitar Greatest Hits), which appears in the video.
SWIM!
A couple of brave souls went for a dip, only to be scared out of the water by a stingray! Cowan Creek is also a nursery for baby stingrays! The local breeding season is October to late March (when we were there!)
The pregnant stingrays and babies love sitting on the bottom of the creek in the mud and the biggest danger is stepping on one, as you’ll get a painful venomous serrated barb in your leg.
If you get stung, flush the wound with salt water and remove any sand and bits of the barb. Then run hot water over your leg for at least 30 minutes. The heat breaks down the venom and reduces pain.
If hit in the chest, ring for emergency medical help and do not remove the barb. (We were mindful that Aussie wildlife legend Steve Irwin had been killed by a stingray.)
OUR BIGGEST HIGHLIGHTS
Fan highlights included taking turns on the same steering wheel Agnetha and Frida had used and recreating the famous TV Week poster pose at the back of the boat.
We all had a great time and were very keen to go back again.
SPIDER SPINS WEB OF GOLD!
At 6:50mins on the video, you can see a Golden Orb spider’s web in the centre, a shiny whisp between branches of a fallen tree. These spiders are famous for spinning golden webs! They mostly live at people’s “head height”, so it’s very easy to accidentally walk into their webs and get hit with a huge spider on your face!
ABBA DOLLS INJURED!
Three of my ABBA dolls’ hips cracked and their legs fell off, as they are 48 years old and the plastic disintegrated when I moved them into a sitting position in their little boat. (Agnetha survived!) I sent them 4000km by plane to a retired mining engineer, Ali, to have a look at and try to repair.
LIVE CRAB STOWS AWAY IN MY BAG!
I got home and found a tiny sand dollar crab had crawled into my bag! I caught a train the next day back to the Hawkesbury marina, a two-hour trip which I used to sort over 150 short videos of the event. There were other sand dollar crabs on the mud flats and the crab was reunited with his “family”.
SEE A “BIT OF THE COUNTRY”
Lifelong ABBA fan, George Kokkinos, told me he’d rented a flat owned by Producer and Director of the 1976 Bandstand Special Tony Culliton (died in 2020), who actually took ABBA to Halletts Beach. Culliton told George that ABBA had asked to “see a bit of the country”. Cowan Creek was also near ABBA’s Australian promoter Reg Grundy’s home in Narrabeen.
ABBA ADVENTURERS
The fans who attended were: Cotton Ward, Angus Kidman, Harold Hanlon, Louise Newman, David Joseph, Allison Pyke, Judy Sawyer, Donna Glass, Sandra Bassam.
A big thank you to Michele, boat owner, who went out of her way to help us achieve this goal.
Lance, left, with Pencil Vania. Photo: unknown. From Stewart Graham Collection.
Lance Leopard (11 March 1967 – 16 June 2025) was a writer, club event promoter, performer and make-up artist. He wrote weekly columns in the 1990s about gay and lesbian culture and nightlife on Oxford Street’s “Golden Mile”1, Sydney, adding glitter and sparkle to our lives during the sadness of the peak AIDS era.
He mostly worked for free LGBTIQA+ street newspapers Capital Q and the Sydney Star Observer, glossy “paid for” gay magazines Outrage and Campaign, and music newspaper On The Street. All up, it was around 700 articles and 430,000 words over those seven years.
Lance was also a make-up artist for prominent Sydney and interstate drag queens, event promoter and emceed many community fundraisers, including Mardi Gras events and for HIV/AIDS awareness.
He performed in New Romantic band The MegaMen and had small roles in television and short films.
Early career
1981: Developing his fashion style and looks at nightclubs
In 1981 when Lance was 14 he went to The Terminus and Marilyn’s nightclubs in Brisbane, which attracted gay crowds, outsiders and young fashionistas who took pride in wearing the latest hairstyles and creating their own look.2
He loved the traditional gay passions, “high and low”, of popular culture icons, acerbic writers, Hollywood movie stars in old black and white movies, and taught his friends to learn the names of all “Zsa Zsa’s nine husbands”.5
Lance was mentioned in the Queensland Museum’s “Make a Scene: Fashioning Queer Identity and Club Culture in the ’90s” exhibition as a “bon vivant” and make-up artist for both the Glamourpussy fashion label and Kylie Minogue impersonator Adrian Barker. They wore the label’s outfits, which added a sense of “camp energy and theatricality” to their nightclub appearances.6
At 15, Lance left school, as he felt he didn’t need further education to “be a star”.7
1982: Joined the MegaMen
In 1982 Lance played electronic drums when he joined New Romantic band The
MegaMen in Brisbane, with Mark Love on synthesiser and Zhian (Clyde Behm) as lead singer. They were the resident band at Marilyn’s nightclub.8 Their 1983 single, Designed for Living, was a “cult-classic hit”,9 which they performed on television for the Brisbane Telethon fundraiser10 and they supported national acts The Reels and Deckchairs Overboard.11
“That band, The MegaMen, made me an overnight star,” Lance wrote. “Limousines were as natural to me as the air that I breathed by the time I was 17. But I was a has-been by the age of 18.”12
Lance performed at two MegaMen reunions: in October 2012 at St Paul’s Tavern, Brisbane, and in 2014 at the Brisbane Powerhouse13 for record label Transmission Communications’ book launch of BNE – The Definitive Archive: Brisbane Independent Electronic Music Production 1979–2014.14 The Designed for Living single was selected for an American compilation of gay electronica in 2024.15
1984–early 1990s: Adopted new name, moved to Sydney, eventually into Nevada Studios (famous for its parties)
In 1984, he adopted the Lance Leopard name from a character in one of his favourite books, Patrick Dennis’ parody novel Little Me, a camp send-up of celebrity culture.16
Lance moved to Sydney in 198517 and dabbled in “art, singing, drugs, booze. Mostly socialising”.18 He worked as a make-up artist and stylist19 and ended up in an artists’ collective, Nevada Studios, in 1992, with talented costume creator Brenton Heath-Kerr (who died of AIDS-related complications at the age of 33 on 1 July 1995).20
Nevada Studios was renowned for its parties, such as New Year’s Eve 1993 Poseidon Adventure, where drag queen Bernina Bod (Brett Chamberlain) sang Diana Ross’ Upside Down with tables, chairs and a Christmas tree attached to the ceiling.21
Lance performed as crooning singer “Lance Vegas” at Nevada’s Studio 50Whore party.22 Artist-activist David McDiarmid (1952–1995), who enjoyed fabulous parties in New York from 1979 to 1987, described: “Nevada New Year’s Eve was wild … ”23
In 1993, Lance exhibited ten portraits of drag queens Cindy Pastel, Lady Bump, Maude Boate,24 pop singer Marcia Hines and other inner city performers, in a joint art exhibition All Style No Substance with artist Darian Zam at Nevada Studios, from 15 to 27 December.25
Writing: 1993 to 2000
Lance began as a television and video reviewer for the Capital Q weekly free newspaper in April 1993, and added a social column in 19 August 1994.26 He was poached by the Sydney Star Observer, where he wrote from 30 May 1996 to 18 September 1997, finishing his last column with half a sentence. The next day, his column in Capital Q started with the rest of the same sentence. His last column appeared on 17 November 200027 when Capital Q closed.28
He wrote weekly Showgirls columns in Capital Q from 19 September 199729 to 3 November 2000, which promoted coming shows and behind-the-scenes gossip. Drag queens and performers regularly mentioned included Claire de Lune, Verushka Darling, Miss 3D, Christie McNicholl, Polly Petrie, Carlotta, Chelsea Bun, Maude Boate, Portia Turbo, Mogadonna, Penny Clifford, Vanessa Wagner, Ricca Paris, Mitzi Macintosh, Lana Turnip, Adele Rio, Pencil Vania, Chris De Bonnafin, Ashley Swift, Tess Tickle, Wyness Mongrel-Bitch, Tony 2000, Victoria Barracks, Victoria Bitter, Cindy Pastel, Stryker Meyer, Connie Cartier, Lady Bump, Verry Tall, Robyn Lee, Penny Tration, Maxi Shield, Doreen Manganini, Vanity Faire, Hillary, Patsy de Klyne, Candy Box, Atlanta Georgia, the Black Eena, Rusty Boxxx, Maxine Du Barry, Betty Windsor, Carmen, Simone Troy and Monique Kelly.
Technologically-challenged, Lance never learnt how to type, and on Mondays used to dictate his Thursday deadline columns in a “fragile and dramatic” state with an “incredibly sore head” after a hectic weekly socialising period which ran from Thursdays to Sundays.30
His stream-of-consciousness writing style was described as “a barely-controlled gush in which sentimentality battles it out with sensationalism, both defying any inclination to scepticism”.31
Rival newspaper Sydney Star Observer gave Lance its 1996 Media Matters Award for “The Queerest Columnist on Earth” for his take on “fashion, haircuts, cocktails, nightclubs, celebrities, dead icons and personal economics”.32
Outrage, Sept 1996. Photo: Darren Tieste
Lance’s writing covered the schedule of LGBTIQA+ annual events, such as Pride New Year’s Eve parties, Mardi Gras Fair Day, the Mardi Gras parade and party, Shop Yourself Stupid, Hand in Hand Pride party, Bobby Goldsmith Foundation‘s (BGF) Bake-Off, Anti-Violence Project and Ward 17 South fundraisers, DIVA Awards, Sleaze Ball, the Green Park Hotel’s Affair (raising money for Darlinghurst Community Health Centre and St Vincent’s HIV unit) and World AIDS Day.
Some of his talked-about columns included his annual 25 Most Beautiful People roundup,33 Fair Day dunking,34 Mirror Ball collapse on Pride New Year’s Eve partygoers35 and many after-party summaries over several pages.36 His self-confessed vices included stealing friends’ items,37 alcohol,38 turning up late39 and being lazy.40
On his death he was described by a former Sydney Star Observer editor as “the columnist every editor dreams of”, the “love child of Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward”.41 Lance was remembered in a queer anthology as “smart, kind, loving and loyal”42 with a “refreshing disregard for social norms and expectations”.43
Club night promotions
11 August 1995 Capital Q. Photo: unknown
He was a club promoter for Sydney’s Viper Room, a lounge bar at the Beresford hotel (1995-1996),44 The Blue Dragon at MTT (Rogues nightclub),45 and Love Machine at the Bright’N Up Bar, Brighton Hotel.46
He held occasional movie nights with Capital Q‘s astrologer, Stephen Devine,47 at the Hollywood Hotel, the Burdekin and Enmore Cinema, featuring his favourite icons Lana Turner, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlene Dietrich and Joan Crawford, with DJs, quizzes, prizes and tarot readings.48 He could recite the movie lines of leading female actors from the 1930s onwards, and “trashy” 1990s TV series such as Melrose Place and Models Inc.
Lance MCed many community events and fundraisers, including the Mardi Gras costume pageant,49 Fair Day,50 DIVA Awards (also a judge in 1995),51 and for the Bobby Goldsmith Foundation (BGF),52 People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA),53 the Green Hotel’s Affair,54 Shop Yourself Stupid,55 Luncheon Club,56 the AIDS Council of NSW’s (ACON) Hand In Hand party,57 2010,58 AIDS Trust’s Red Ribbon Working Bee59 and ACON’s Anti-Violence Project.60
Bashing in 2001
Lance had multiple surgeries after a vicious gay hate attack on Saturday 3 August 2001 when he was “ambushed and beaten senseless”. He had a metal plate inserted in his jaw, which was “broken on both sides” and “wired shut for six weeks”.61
He needed ongoing surgeries for several months and apologised for being unable to attend and write up the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras events the following year in February 2002.62
Acting roles: 1988 to 2014
Supplied by Violet Black (via LL Facebook). Photo: unknown
Lance featured as an androgynous muse in the Lime Spiders’ Weirdo Libido music video (1988), the first music video shown by the Australian national broadcaster, the ABC, on its music clip program, rage, on April 17, 1987.63
He made an appearance in the SBSPizza 8-part comedy series in April 2000 as a “sleazy S&M master”.64
Lance also starred in seven Eterna Films short movie productions, which sponsors the annual ShortFest film festival, that began in 2024.65 Named in his honour, the Lance Leopard award was presented in 2024 and 2025 to short films that recognised the spirit of coming up with an idea that “dares to be different with boldness and audacity”.66
Final years
Lance returned to Brisbane in the 2020s to care for his elderly mother, Carmel. They both had mobility problems and died in a house fire on 16 June 2024, Woodridge, Brisbane.67
Written and researched by Cotton Ward. Please acknowledge name and website link, if using. thanks
Please let me know re: Photo captionsso I can add Credit.
Leopard, Lance (15 September 2000). “$1.5 million of Olympic rings to admire”. Capital Q. Sydney. ISSN1444-0822. ↩︎
“BNE – The Event – Review”. Transmission Communications. Brisbane. 9 September 2014. Archived from the original on 12 January 2026. Retrieved 12 January 2026. ↩︎
Remmer, Dennis (2014). BNE – The Definitive Archive: Brisbane Independent Electronic Music Production 1979–2014. Transmission Communications. ISBN9780646921501. ↩︎
Leopard, Lance (6 August 1999). “Sleazeball of the Year”. Capital Q. Sydney. ISSN1444-0822. ↩︎
Leopard, Lance (27 October 2000). “Mancini and me”. Capital Q. Sydney. ISSN1444-0822. ↩︎
Leopard, Lance (27 October 2000). “Mancini and me”. Capital Q. Sydney. ISSN1444-0822. ↩︎
O’Grady, Dom (24 June 2024). “Vale Lance Leopard”. Star Observer. Archived from the original on 4 January 2026. Retrieved 4 January 2026.Cahill, Phillippe (2 May 1996). “I told you so”. Sydney Star Observer. ↩︎
Dennis, Patrick (2025). “A Star is Born”. In Goodbun, Rod; Shaw, Edwina (eds.). Queersland. Brisbane: AndAlso Books. p. 75. ISBN978-1-7641424-0-3. ↩︎
Dennis, Patrick (2025). “A Star is Born”. In Goodbun, Rod; Shaw, Edwina (eds.). Queersland. Brisbane: AndAlso Books. p. 75. ISBN978-1-7641424-0-3. ↩︎
Cahill, Phillippe (2 May 1996). “I told you so”. Sydney Star Observer. ↩︎
Cahill, Phillippe (2 May 1996). “I told you so”. Sydney Star Observer. ↩︎
Went to Georges River Council’s booked-out Eurovision party at 4am in Hurstville. Incredible spread — free meatballs, cinnamon scrolls and coffee/hot chocolates!
FABBA performed 4.15am and they hadn’t seen my giant ABBA flag before, which we all waved around.
Yol and Ricki had attended last year and they invited me and Louise.
When the famous Eurovision fanfare blared at 5am, the auditorium was packed.
Council gave out free Eurovision Bingo cards and voting score sheets ranking “Bop-ability”, “Gives all the feels”, “Outfits be snatched” and “Flawless performance”.
My fave song was Croatia’s Ri Tim Tagi Dim, described by a critic as “for cat lovers and anxiety sufferers” and written and performed by Baby Lasagna (who hates lasagna!). It was inspired by many young people leaving farms and heading to foreign cities for better jobs. Though excited, the protagonist has anxiety attacks over leaving home and will mostly miss his cat. “Rim tim tagi dim” is the name of a fictional home village folk dance — “heavy metal with doilies” SBS called it.
I also loved Finland’s hilarious “No Rules” where a guy runs around pretending to be nude and there were last-minute strategically-placed props protecting his modesty. At Council’s party, several guys had dressed in the No Rules t-shirts, wigs and hats, so fun.
I loved UK entry’s Olly Alexander starring role in the AIDs TV series It’s A Sin and his song Dizzy unfortunately got zero in the public vote (which seemed unbelievable, considering the Eurovision audience).
ABBA’s appearance was mostly lifted from their Voyage show. Then my fave song didn’t win (came second) and it was all feeling like when your fave team comes last.
Just then I got a phone call from an ABBA fan we’d met early this morning and he offered a lift back so I gladly accepted and was out of there for a big long recovery sleeeeeeep…
We met at Pastizzi’s for Maltese pastries and tiramisu, then went back to mine to listen to Agnetha’s latest A+ reimagined album, in the exact tracklisted order.
Had a discussion about whether Agnetha’s A+ album cover was shot in 2023 or 2013. David sought a ruling via ABBAtalk and turns out it’s 2023 so the next dins at Pastizzi’s is on him!
The poor love was already exhausted after him and Angus had spent all day, when not doing their Nina Pretty Ballerina office jobs, running around since the crack of dawn trying to track down Agnetha’s A+ CD at any record shop in town. NONE had it! They’d wanted to recreate the record-buying excitement of a new album release from back in the good old days. At least we’d all combined our postage costs to do one bulk order from Europe so that’ll arrive one day…
There’s a fave line we all love from Agnetha’s new single, Where Do We Go From Here: “I thought I carried a heart made of steel, But you cracked it open ’cause you broke the seal.” Tech expert Angus used all his AI know-how, involving 10,000 super computers, to ask it to create a picture of Agnetha “breaking the seal” so we could all enjoy this artistic concept in visual format. “The main problem is the hands don’t look very real,” he said, oblivious to the fact that the concept of an imaginary Agnet breaking a seal was so far out there. (NB: His custom t-shirt-making machine had run out of transfer paper but as soon as he gets more, we’ll all be able to place orders…)
Angus’s AI interpretation of “Agnetha breaking the seal”.
We ate Swedish pickled mushroom-flavoured potato crisps, Kafferep biscuits, Dumle candy and Daim chocolate, from IKEA, after Angus visited to get a free KÖR car organiser, designed for mid-sized SUVs, and a $10 voucher. While renowned for his attention to detail, Louise helpfully pointed out: “You just have to buy a car now so you can use it.”
I haven’t mentioned anything about George so far, suffice to say he spent the evening straightening all my pictures on the walls, as they were “slightly crooked”.
Then we watched Bobby’s Brother’s enlightening interview with Agnetha’s friend and producer Jörgen Elofsson. Why did he strip the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra off the entire album and replace it with a modern-day equivalent of Moog Plays ABBA?
Our faves were Back on Your Radio and I Was A Flower, with the great accusatory line: “Now look what you have done,” which prompted discussion about ABBA songs that blame someone else for their misery. George recalled Happy Hawaii has the line: “Someone is waiting and I forget you,” so we replayed that amazing ABBA song.
Had a moment’s silence for UK Alex’s canine critic Zippy, who loves the whistling bit in Perfume In the Breeze. Sorry Zips, it’s gone!
Am not going to name who looked totally confused during the whole listening, and the other whose fave song had been transformed into “something you’d play while doing the ironing”.
Meanwhile, at the same time out in Trundle they were holding the annual ABBA Festival in the middle of nowhere, and for the first time were live-streaming! ABBA fan H was planning on doing some busking there, but the council application required $10million in liability insurance! I dared him to play anyway: “I want live footage of you being arrested for playing Mamma Mia illegally on the main drag during an ABBA Festival!” But he knew there was no way we’d be visiting him at Bathurst Correctional Centre, since we hadn’t even made it to Trundle (5.5 hours’ drive from Sydney).
Sydney was chosen as the only city in Australia to host an official Dancing Queen 50th celebration! So lucky!! Only seven countries around the world had this special honour: Sweden, Germany, Mexico, United Kingdom, Poland, The Netherlands and Australia.
FINALLY FOUND THE BEACH!!
PARALYSIS TICKS
Watching Bobby’s Brother on TV
Cotton Ward 