Thank You For The Music - re-release of the 1994 box

The 2008 re-release of the 1994 ABBA box "Thank You For The Music" (out in Sweden August 13) features new format, new booklet and new lay-out. The songs though remain the same as on the original 1994 release. The picture choice for the booklet is disappointing - only very well-known shots taken during famous photo sessions. Nice done but for the new generation of ABBA fans...

ABBA The Album - the deluxe edition

Our favorite album - "ABBA The Album" is finally out (in Sweden anyway) it its deluxe edition. The edition itself looks like the deluxe versions of "Arrival" and "Waterloo" and it will be a pleasure to have it on the shelf beside the others.

The CD contains 15 tracks - 9 songs which were released on the original album in 1977 and 6 bonus tracks. The bonus tracks are the single edit of Eagle, alternate mix of the live version of Take A Chance On Me, the well-known Doris Day version of Thank You For The Music, the live version of "I Wonder" and the 1980 Spanish versions of Move On and Thank You For The Music.

The DVD contains ABBA's performance on German TV ZDF in May 1978 (Eagle/Thank You For the Music and Take A Chance On Me) as well as the performance of Take A Chance On Me in the show Auf laufenden Band (the interview was though omitted). Quite interesting video clip with The Name of the Game was taken from the Japanese show that ABBA recorded in 1978 and which is still a great mystery as nothing worked there as it should. Agnetha is very good at finding right cameras to look in during this recording while Frida gives up and turns her back towards the camera.

Rare documentaries from Swedish TV have been added: the first from ABBA's tour 1977 behind the stage in Birmingham in UK where ABBA gave a short interview for the Swedish News programme "Rapport". Another documentary features Björn and Benny in the recording studio where they present the demo of "The Name of the Game" for the TV journalist. One more feature from Swedish TV covers The ABBA Week in USA which has been available as a video on Swedish TV's homepage for quite a while. And finally ABBA's appearance in the BBC show "Blue Peter" on February 15th, 1978 when the group promoted ABBA The Movie in London. Additional two videos on the DVD contain two TV commercials for ABBA The Album and ABBA The Movie.

ABBA The Museum - a business idea or a tribute to the band

Swedish newspaper "Svenska Dagbladet" in its issue on June 1st published an article about the ABBA museum in Stockholm. The idea of the museum has been created by Ewa Wigenheim Westman and Ulf Westman who are talking about it for the newspaper. The museum will open someday in 2009 but the tickets will be for sale already in 2008 (why? who wants to buy expensive tickets to see something that does not exist?). It is quite unclear what the museum will present for the visitors. It says about fan donations and interactive collections. If the fans do not want to donate anything - what happens then? The tickets will be expensive and they will cost about 150-200 Swedish Crowns (appr.EUR 15-20). The couple Wigenheim Westman seem to enjoy their 5 minutes in the spotlight right now but they do not give any concrete answers concerning the project.

ABBA The Museum in Stockholm - Benny will see it every day from his office...

A hundred-year-old custom warehouse, on the south quay of central Stockholm, will become an ABBA museum. At the turn of the year the renovation of the building will start and in the spring of 2009 Stockholm’s new attraction will open its doors, easily accessible by foot, bus or ferry from central Stockholm.ABBA the Museum will also house an event hall, a café and the world’s biggest ABBA shop.

The Golden Years - DVD

One more budget DVD from Great Britain released in April 2007. The DVD contains a real interview with real ABBA originally recorded by Dutch TV Veronica in Autumn 1982. This English language version was adapted for the US market several years later (appr 1985). The quality varies and as it is a budget release the original film has not been remastered. But it is better than nothing. This TV special contains some rare video clips which has not been released on any DVD yet and which are very hard to find in good quality on fan videos. The rarest ones is ABBA's performance of "Honey Honey" on Austrian TV in 1975, the Unicef performance of "Chiquitita" and the interviews on the street in Moscow in connection to the premiere of ABBA The Movie in Sovjet Union. The famous studio interview with all four ABBA members and Stig Anderson features Agnetha mixing Swedish words in her answers in English, Frida remembering the first days of ABBA and suddenly being very sad and much more. For the old ABBA fans it is definitely an item to have in the collection. The cover is horrible and the titles on the back cover contain some wrong spellings as: Super Trooper or simply the statements "Unknown title". But it is sure that hearing Agnetha talking about her dog "Lejonberger" makes all of us old fans happy again...