Category: ABBA

Hardcore Australian ABBA fans visit ABBAWorld

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.

Link to the Sydney Morning Herald story.

Continue reading Hardcore Australian ABBA fans visit ABBAWorld

Volunteer at ABBAWhirl!

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* 10th 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.

Reward for missing ABBA wig

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.

ABBAWorld, Sydney

Had a great time at ABBAWorld tonite. It was PACKED!

The singers were all great, katie Noonan, Andy Bull and iOTA (who did amazing rock versions of Ring Ring, So Long and SOS).
The manager of ABBAWorld spilt red wine over my cat costume! He quickly towelled it off and there was much rushing to the bar to get soda water. It eventually all came out.
I LOVE Rox’s ABBA scrapbooks, brings back memories. Under glass cases. What a dream come true, wish it were mine there.
The karaoke booths were full. The costumes are not behind glass.
I like the compact version, though dunno if the noise factor will be too much when all sections are going.
(I think the dance stomping is left out and the mixing challenge? I quite liked those. Not sure.)
Great video of Bjorn (the Richard Wilkins one) and everyone cheered when a pic of Bjorn and Agnetha was shown, together at Copenhagen.
Ian won  the trivia quiz, it was between him, Trudi and Rox. (No one else was invited to take part; the organisers made the selection.)
A great time.
They played Dancing Queen lots of times in between acts and I got a dance session going in the middle of the floor, doing the authentic moves. My costume really seemed to inspire people to join in whenever I did a few basic dance moves. I was surrounded by dance partners, and who can resist boogieing to Dancing Queen? Got lots of compliments. It’s amazing how strangers respond to a costume, it’s just a bit of fabric (with hours of painstaking painting!) I’m so glad I painted it. It was agony!
I’m not sure now of the wisdom of doing that article online about How to make an ABBA cat costume, as it has had zillions of hits in the past couple of weeks leading up to ABBAWorld. And there were so many with the cat costume! Not as good as mine, though. Still, it was great to see a good showing of cat costumes.
I would have like to have worn my Fernando dress, but it got zero recognition when I wore it out twice last week — except among hard core fans only.

Sonics ABBA article 1991

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.

Continue reading Sonics ABBA article 1991