As lockdowns continue to keep theatres dark on the West End and Broadway, some of us Aussie fans recently recorded our zoom reading of ABBA The Movie Script while we were in isolation. It is muchly abridged to squeeze in to youtube’s 15-min limit for unverified accounts. The 1977 movie was shot in Australia, with a script written by Aussie Robert Caswell (who later received an Oscar nomination for Evil Angels) but was mostly improvised and based on a plotline conceived by Oscar-nominated director Lasse Hallstrom on the flight over from Sweden. I hope you enjoy it!
Category: ABBA
Eurovision – Australia votes 2020
Went round to David’s where he served exotic chocolate, 3 types of cheese and crackers, and a dip he’d found a recipe for in the back of a Fitness First magazine — beetroot, beans and garlic so we can all die healthy.
Luke’s little dog Crackpot stole the show, wanting cuddles. (Luke was away, returning to Mallacoota to retrieve his van after their earlier bushfire evacuation aboard HMAS Choules.)
I liked Diana, Casey and Vanessa. Word from our man on the ground at the Gold Coast, Angus, was that the crowd faves were Vanessa and Casey.
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Eurovision slumber party!
Went to a Eurovision slumber party with scavenger hunt and bingo at Louise’s place. Started on Saturday night, watching the second semi-final, while Louise cooked delicious Ukrainian dishes – borscht soup and Chicken Kiev – to honour this year’s host nation.
It was lucky for us ABBA fans that Ukraine’s flag has the same colours as Sweden, so there were plenty of blue and yellow streamers strung around!
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ABBA picnic in Camperdown Park
Held an ABBA picnic to play a new ABBA trivia board game I’d put together and have a sing-a-along.
I staked a perfect spot under a tree and sent out an SOS as there were picnickers everywhere in Camperdown Park, and I urgently needed more blankets to claim our turf.
A word re: Aussie ABBA fans: we’re hugely tolerant and will put up with retro discos where only hip hop is played, endure ABBA tribute bands that don’t know the words, and pay ridiculous amounts for smoked salmon on Ryvita at Scandi restaurants. But nobody messes with an ABBA picnic, and fans scurried back to their cars to bring extra blankets.
First on the scene was G, who’d just walked the length of uber-hipster King Street while wearing his Voulez-Vous badge – woe betide anyone who would dare make fun of it, and a few paid tribute by singing “A-ha!”. “It’s not just a badge, it’s a way of life,” G said, with his proudest expression.
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Second Countdown-a-thon
We all did ourselves a favour and went to the second Countdown-a-thon, at L’s. S very dutifully spent MONTHS editing down the best bits of 70s and 80s stuff he had on VHS tapes. I went to see Mark Holden sans shirt, and this *did not happen*! Mostly because nobody could figure out how to use the remote control until we’d finished that DVD.
D is the worst music critic ever, due to saying at the beginning of every song: “This is my most favourite one ever!” S and I couldn’t contain ourselves and jumped up to dance to Leif Garrett’s “I Was Made For Dancing“. T was there, she had won Perfect Match in the 1980s and went on a lovely holiday. There were pics of her in a Perfect Match magazine having sunscreen rubbed into her back by her date. She makes great Hummingbird cake.
L had lots of 70s food, Countdown books, and Dolly mags and Cosmo and Cleo, they were all great. Stuff on how to insert a tampon and how to avoid AIDS.
There was even an article about how Madonna was “suffering over-exposure”! In the 1980s!
Where is North Rocks? More than 40km there and back, says my Satnav!
Cotton Ward 