Raffem's editorial
February 2008
It's our turn now... So called representatives for some Swedish photographers who took many well-known and published in all media pictures of ABBA state that we reproduce the photos illegally. So ABBA fans all over the world are not allowed to see many of old ABBA pictures on internet - they have to buy all 100 books about ABBA that have been issued during the latest 10 years and all old newspapers from the 1970s and 1980s to see those pictures.
A rude email has been sent probably to many ABBA fans owning homepage or blog page with ABBA pictures on internet by a little Stockholm based company that has issued two books about the group several years ago. ABBA's main photographer during the period 1979-82 is represented by this company. It is not mentioned which photos are meant as illegal. We try to credit big ABBA picture sessions to the right photographers if we know who they are. We buy all the stuff as books and old papers and scan the pictures from them. But Big Brother woke up and now it's the time to kill all small ABBA fans that have spent a lot of money to make the four talented people rich. The four talented people that were active as real artists for only 8-9 years many years ago. They never performed live after 1981 with exception for Benny and his Orkester that gives occasional live performances. We are only fans that want to keep the memory of the group alive - but it seems that all we do is illegal nowadays. The only legal action we fans can take is to buy one more re-issue of ABBA Gold. Is it crazy world or maybe Mr X or Mr Y lose extremely huge money because several pictures taken by them in 1980 can be seen on raffem.com.
Thanks God we have more creative dialog with our other artists on raffem.com so our homepage will maybe not die in the nearest future. Bucks Fizz are as we can understand very happy about their international fans and they support us if we need it. The beautiful photos of the group that can be seen on raffem.com have been also taken from various old papers and other sources.
Helena who is the biggest pop star in Central Europe with fans not only in Czech Republic and Slovakia but even huge groups in Poland, Germany and Russia does help and support us together with her husband and manager Martin. The official home page of Helena vondrackova.net which is run by Universal (warning warning) helps us with various material and even we can help them with a lot. By the way Helena's management says to us: Call us if you need something. Nice - thank you.
The German mega stars Rosenstolz seem not to have any problems with us either. We've got a lot of promotional stuff that we publish on raffem.com and nobody states that we make illegal actions when we publish old Rosenstolz pictures from 1992 or 1998. Oh no on the contrary the words from Anna, Peter and the management that we hear mostly are "Thank you for your work for us!".
Artists exist because they love music or art of any other kind and not only because they want be famous and earn a lot of money. I really do not state that ABBA are different because it would cross my heart as I've been devoted to ABBA as a fan for 35 years. Artists love their fans because they work only for the fans and we fans give our feedback to them. It is so easy. I think that the foursome in ABBA in fact like their fans and they are very nice people. The only problem is the system around the trademark ABBA which has a business idea to give as little as possible and earn as much as possible. The fans are only an uninteresting group of people that nobody cares of as they will buy all released and re-released products anyway.
May 2007
Something's going on. It is difficult to say exactly what but there is no doubt about it. The ABBA revival seems to go to its end after 15 years. Maybe it's time for ABBA-revival to have some break who knows. Some die-hard fans are still trying to keep the flame burning but it can be difficult as nothing happens any more. The record company releasing ABBA Gold compilations every year seems to have given up as well. Nobody knows if there will be any more releases with rare bonus stuff or not. Several years ago there was talk about a possible release of a real ABBA Live album from their tour 1977 or 1979 (why not both of them) but these plans are probably forgotten. The latest ABBA related release is the double CD with the old ABBA manager Stikkan Anderson's songs featuring ABBA and other artists from the old "family". The release contains a lot of old evergreens which are loved in the first hand by Swedes as they are sung mostly in Swedish and bring memories to the old good days 30-40 years ago. The year 2007 means the 30th anniversary of the LP "ABBA The Album" and after the deluxe release of "Arrival" last year it would be natural to be given a deluxe version of "The Album" as well. But we have to wait until December or maybe January 2008 as the original LP wasn't released simultaneously in all countries 30 years ago. The former ABBA members are not very active any more. Björn Ulvaeus was guest in a Swedish talk show on TV on May 12, 2007 and when he received question if he sometimes felt like being an artist on stage, he answered that he did not think about it any more. Benny is composing new music for BAO and mixing the soundtrack for Mamma Mia The Movie. As Helen Sjöholm is pregnant there are no plans for BAO tour in the summer but some concerts in October instead. Many people say that Benny does not create any new or interesting music any more. Maybe it's true as the latest BAO hits sound like ABBA's "I Do I Do I Do I Do I Do". Maybe the meaning with BAO is not to take it very seriously all the time. If Benny wants to play for older people for dance in a park somewhere between Stockholm and Malmö so let him do it. All poor ABBA fans are there anyway as it is ABBA related but I am not sure whether it is so. Frida lives her own life somewhere and Agnetha as well on Ekerö. They both feel good and why they shouldn't. So we on raffem.com still hope that we can bring some happy memories with old rare photos that we find all the time...
What more happens? Our British favorites Bucks Fizz have released their first official DVD in May. To see all their official videos in great quality makes a lot of fun! Cheryl, Shelley and Mike make occasional concerts in Great Britain and Bobby works with his group which actually is on tour together with the original Eurovision winner 1976 Brotherhood of Man this summer.
Rosenstolz are embarking on the second leg of their "Das grosse Leben" tour. They will play several concerts in Germany and Austria in June. Autumn and winter means hard work in the recording studio as a new album is being prepared for release in 2008. We hope to be updated as we will meet the highest boss in the Rosenstolz management in Berlin at the beginning of July.
Helena has her glory days not only on charts and on stage but even on... ebay. Her old singles and albums released in West Germany in the 1970s cost a lot of money nowadays as for instance "Helena singt Billy Joel" 50 EURO. Her German singles reach horribly high prices so even we have sometimes to stop bidding. The same goes for Marta and her German production before she became forbidden by communists in 1970. Marta was on her way to be established pop star in West Germany in 1969 and she released a couple of singles there on Polydor.
By the way Helena and Marta are preparing a lot of fun for all their fans this year. Already on June 24 Helena will celebrate her birthday with a big gala concert in Prague which is almost sold-out and as far as we know there will be fans not only from Czech Republic and Sweden but even from Germany, Poland and other countries. On July 30th the original Golden Kids i.e. Helena, Marta and Vasek will do a comeback on the Summer stage of the Ungelt Theatre behind the beautiful castle in Prague. It will be a wonderful evening.
On November 10th Helena is back on a big stage in the legendary concert hall in Prague - Lucerna and we chose to attend even this event. So it will be a new record for us - Prague 4 times during one year!!! But we are extremely happy that some of our favorite artists are still so in love with music that they want to work and give their fans a lot of joy.
November 2006
Benny Andersson said once when a journalist asked about a possible ABBA comeback: "Well, I cannot imagine two old women and two old men performing on stage pretending to be ABBA." At that point all former ABBA members were about 49-54 (I do not remember exactly). Sweden belongs to those countries in Europe where age does not mean so much as maybe in other European countries so Benny's statement surprised me a little bit. Last Sunday (12 November) we had an extreme pleasure to attend a concert with the well-known pop-jazz group Manhattan Transfer at the Concert House in Stockholm. Many ABBA fans know that The Manhattan Transfer started their career at about the same time as ABBA at the beginning of 1970s. I still remember the fight between Transfer's "Chancon d'amour" and ABBA's "Knowing Me Knowing You" on the top of the British single chart at the beginning of 1977. When we sat in the Concert House on Sunday I suddenly realized that I felt a real spirit of 1970s and ABBA and everything that happened musically within myself during all these years. Suddenly we saw the same stage where ABBA performed at the beginning of their career in front of audience in the NOT sold out Concert House in 1974 with many empty chairs. It felt like waiting for something great from the time when we were younger... And we had a wonderful evening with a group which is vocally one of the best in the world and still going strong. Manhattan Transfer are maybe two "old guys" and two "old girls" but nobody cares about it as soon they start singing. The audience is "grown-up" as well but it is not "old" either as soon as the concert starts. We are true fans and the show makes us happy in the same way as 30 or 20 or 10 years ago. Manhattan Transfer enjoy being on stage and singing live for their fans and the group receives feedback immediately - three standing ovations during the same evening - this is the prize! Janis, Cheryl, Tim and Alan have been in Sweden many times during the latest 31 years. Tim says that it is quite possible that Manhattan Transfer had most concerts in Stockholm during their gigs in Europe... What happens with those "old" members of the group? Nobody sees them as OLD! They are young and happy and they do their thing as perfect as always. I did not see Benny in audience, it's a pity - maybe seeing this show would make him to change his mind. By the way I always loved groups with two girls and two guys - for me it is the best mix of voices, stage appearance and vocal creativity. Maybe that's why ABBA, Manhattan Transfer, Fleetwood Mac, Bucks Fizz were always my favorite acts even if they are so totally different as artists. I don't want to compare ABBA to Bucks Fizz or Manhattan Transfer to ABBA as they ARE different but it's is completely stupid to say that you are "too old" for something. You are never too old so long you like things you are doing. I saw it last Sunday, I promise!
The Manhattan Transfer 2006
October 2006
What's going on?
As an old ABBA fan I am not angry any more I am only more and more surprised. The most fascinating is the "official" image of the group which is created by people who were born after ABBA split up.
An official homepage has been created some years ago - probably one of the most boring artist home pages in the internet but anyway. ABBA - The Site is a kind of mausoleum - a non-living source of internet information about the group that itself was much more modern 30 years ago than this tiny tribute thing created by someone in the 2000s. The only living part of the site was the forum where it was thought that ABBA fans would discuss everything they wanted to discuss concerning ABBA. But the forum became a kind of horror which was described by the ABBA-member Björn Ulvaeus already in 1981 in the song called "The Visitors". The fans' contributions to the forum were... CENSORED and some of them removed. It was really difficult to understand sometimes what the problem was. Personal?
Now is the forum closed and a strange explanation can be found. The explanation is undersigned by a person with the name "ABBA - The Site". Who is this? I do not think that ABBA The Site will have any visitors in the future. It's a pity that one of the biggest pop acts in the world which is managed by one of the biggest and richest record company cannot afford one employer who can work with ABBA The Site professionally and get salary for it. Eight hours per day from Monday until Friday would be absolutely enough time for checking the forum and updating the site with new photos and anniversary info. And it would be much more from the heart if the owner of the official ABBA homepage had employed an real old and devoted ABBA fan who has a real feeling for the group and the stuff which is related to ABBA.
The ABBA world 2006 seems to be one big vendetta against ABBA fans from the group's official record company's side. As ABBA fan you are being forbidden to buy and sell, think, like and dislike, discuss, feel good and enjoy ABBA music... You have to buy ABBA Gold in its 50th re-edition and be happy that you are allowed to do it. The same items are being re-released with a tiny change or addition every 6th month and you have to buy it to get one more previously unreleased video.
The Danish version of the box "The complete recording sessions" will be released here in Sweden in November - right before Christmas... but it must be a coincidence... What is the difference between this one and the first one? Nobody knows but I would not be surprised if the original tapes of the whole "Dick Cavett" show would be suddenly found and added on the DVD in this edition... And what would we do then, we ABBA fans? Buy or not buy? It costs "only" half price comparing to the first one - ca 55 USD this time according to the internet shop CDon...
By the way - I hate the extremely stupid idea to add the Spanish versions of the songs to the original English albums and not to include the 1980 album "Gracias por la musica" in the box. Agnetha and Frida sat in the recording studio at the beginning of 1980 and did a great work which was cut in small pieces by so-called professionals at Universal and spread on all CDs in the box without any connection to other stuff on respective albums. How can the Spanish version of "Mamma Mia" recorded in 1980 belong the album "Mamma Mia" recorded in 1974/75???
Do the ABBA members have ANY idea about what is going on in the ABBA world and how the products of their creativity are being maltreated?
The newest release of "Arrival - the 30th anniversary edition" is probably the first nice surprise for the fans with lots of TV stuff never before released on an official DVD but the circus with the release date makes me sick. At the beginning it was said that the box would be released in Sweden on October 17th in Germany on October 3rd which was later changed to October 13. The Swedish release was re-scheduled to October 9th but nobody knows if the box is available or not - not in the Stockholm record shops (on October 11). The biggest record shops in Stockholm (Åhléns City, Mega, Skivfönstret and others) find the release in the computer but the set has not arrived and there is no explanation to that. Is it so difficult to decide when a record will be released and announce the date?
The last thing - maybe we should thank ABBAmail for this release of some TV stuff by Universal on DVD...?
Arrival? revival? or departure? I wonder only...
January 2006
The year 2005 on raffem.com
One more great year on raffem.com is over. The year 2005 brought us some new and very important friends, it brought us lots of new music from our favourite artists and it brought us a lot of joy of having our homepage.
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Some great ABBA related releases came in 2005. The most important one was “ABBA The Movie” which came out on DVD in the autumn. As usual even this ABBA product was negligently produced but we were happy to have the film finally on DVD. |
The big celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen was not attended by the former ABBA members but “Waterloo” became the winner anyway as the best up-to-date Eurovision hit ever. The biggest surprise was the live performance of the former Bucks Fizz members: Cheryl, Mike and Shelley.
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Another ABBA related release was The Complete Recordings box which came out in November. Nice in many ways but pity that there were not ALL recordings included there as for instance different re-mixes of “Chiquitita” and “Eagle”. The 2 DVDs contained a 18-minute-excerpt from Dick Cavett meets ABBA show from April 1981 which was previously unavailable officially on DVD. The other material on the DVDs was “the usual stuff” which is re-released every year. |
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The most interesting ABBA-related re-releases in 2005 was Frida’s solo material. Firstly her three solo albums: “Ensam”, “Something’s Going On” and “Shine” in remastered versions which were available on Swedish market in May. A very nice surprise for Frida fans could be found on the CD “Something’s Going On” – an unknown re-mix of “Here We’ll Stay”. This issue of the CD was cancelled (it will be probably very expensive on e-bay very soon) and the edition with the right mix was delivered by Universal to the record shops immediately. But the biggest thing and probably the best ABBA related DVD ever released came at the beginning of December 2005. More than 3 hours with Frida and her rare TV performances and videos was the best Christmas gift for all ABBA fans this year. The singer commented all the included videos as well as she gave an open-hearted interview where she was talking (in Swedish) about her musical life and her life now. The only sad thing about the interview was that she did not feel for any new recordings... but you never know. On November 15th Frida turned 60 as the second former ABBA member – after Björn who celebrated his 60th birthday in April 2005. |
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After the smashing year 2004 with the comeback album and several TV appearances Agnetha kept a low profile in 2005. In the summer three remasters of her three Polar albums: “Nu tändas tusen juleljus”, “Wrap Your Arms Around Me” and “Eyes of a Woman” with bonus tracks were released. Her fourth album from the 1980s “I Stand Alone” recorded on WEA remained unreleased in the remastered version. Agnetha appeared "suddenly" on the first sides of all Swedish tabloids on December 8th - the same day that Frida’s DVD and box were released (!!!). She had fun in a night club in Stockholm and some photos of the star were taken during the night. |
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Benny Andersson worked with his music and with his Orkester in the summer. The group went on tour in Sweden with a great show which lasted more than 3 hours. The Stockholm performance of BAO was attended by more than 5000 people who were dancing and singing together with Helen Sjöholm and Tommy Körberg. Raffem.com had a great pleasure to take some very good pictures from that evening. In November 2005 Benny composed and released for charity a ring tone for mobile telephones. The ring tone can by purchased at Swedish Red Cross and it costs 50 SEK (ca 5 EURO). |
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It was a great and fruitful musical year for our one and only Marta Kubisova in Czech Republic. It began with the release of a live album containing her show “I am who I am” recorded live at the Vinohrady Theatre in Prague in April 2004. The first studio album for more than 5 years “Welcome love” was released in April and it was a real joy to hear Marta’s great voice performing a brand new material. A big gala show celebrating Marta as one of the biggest pop artists in Czech Republic was held at the beautiful Vinohrady Theatre on April 24th, 2005. The singer and her management invited us to this show and it was our first trip to Prague in 2005. The show was filmed by Czech TV and aired a couple months later. A new book about Marta Kubisova written by a young journalist was issued at about the same time. In November 2005 Marta Kubisova released her third new CD this year. The album called “In My World” is an American production and a tribute to Marta. Most of the music is written by American composer Alma Mares and Marta’s musical partner on the album is an American singer Dave “Whitewolf” Trezak. On December 1st it was the premiere of Marta’s new show “Welcome love” at her theatre “Ungelt” in Prague which is connected to her latest album with the same title. It was our third trip to Prague and we had with us former Swedish consul in Prague as a special guest. |
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During these days in Prague in the beginning of December we had finalized our discussions about a completely new section on raffem.com devoted to one more great female artist Ilona Csáková. We had a professional photo session with Ilona and it was great fun to take more than 300 pictures of an artist who is so nice, funny and proffessional. |
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The year 2005 was extremely busy for Helena Vondrackova. At the beginning of the year she played the main roll of Grizabella in the Czech version of the musical “Cats”. We saw “Cats” in April and the show was really great. In spring Helena toured in Central Europa and appeared on Polish, German and Czech TV in many shows. In June she performed together with Karel Gott at Carnegie Hall in New York. In October Helena celebrated 40 years on stage with a big show recorded for TV and for a DVD release. We were there and it was our second trip to Prague. Our meeting with Helena was just like Ashley’s meeting with ABBA in “ABBA The Movie”. We decided to eat dinner in one of the restaurants situated not far away from the concert hall where Helena would perform later this evening. We were eating our “schnitzel” and drinking Czech wine when we suddenly noticed that Helena and her husband had just entered the same restaurant and they sat down at the table 2 meters from ours. Being a big star Helena has a friendly attitude towards her fans and this meeting confirmed this fact once again. The Helena show was of course great and more than 40 guest artists celebrated Helena on stage by and performing her songs singing duets with her. The CD box containing 4 CDs with her greatest hits was released in December 2005. |
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Helen Sjöholm worked with Benny Anderssons Orkester during the summer. In the autumn Helen starred in Brecht and Weill "Threepence Opera" at the City theatre in Stockholm. Helen acted in the Swedish film “Så som I himmelen” (Just like in heaven) which was released on DVD in the spring. |
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The former Bucks Fizz members: Cheryl Baker, Shelley Preston and Mike Nolan gave several live performances in Great Britain. They appeared even on the big Eurovision Song Contest gala in Copenhagen. The Bucks Fizz Anthology on 2 CDs was released in July. The first CD contained all the singles – many of them in alternate versions and the second CD featured rare tracks and rare remixes of the group’s hits. |
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It was a great year and we hope that the new one will be even better.
Happy New Year from us to you.
Raffe/31.12.2005
December 2005 - Before Christmas
The Christmas time is here. This very special time means lots of Christmas music with our favorite artists as Agnetha, Helena, Marta, Frida, Manhattan Transfer, Gloria Estefan and many many others. All those CD albums waiting for December year after year... The Agnetha re-master "Nu tändas tusen juleljus" arrived earlier this year but we listened to it for the first time at the beginning of December. It feels strange to listen to Christmas carols in the middle of September or at the beginning of July...
Christmas time means great ABBA memories. I still remember when I for the first time heard the album "The Visitors" in December 1981 in this cold war winter time. I remember the songs from "ABBA The Album" which were played on the radio during Christmas time in 1977. One morning before Christmas 1977 the radio played "One Man One Woman" as "the most Christmas song" from "ABBA The Album". I love Frida's warm voice singing lead vocal in "One Man One Woman".
Christmas 1978 means of course... ABBA The Movie. I saw it in the cinema shortly after the premiere and after the first seeing I was very disappointed. I thought that I would see a whole film about a private life of my idols. I do not mean at home but behind the stage. I was disappointed because the film was a kind of concert with only short behind-the-stage looks. It was after the first time but it came more times. On December 26th 1978 ABBA The Movie was played at the cinema "non-stop" that means that you could buy one ticket and see the movie many times. Myself and my best school female friend entered the cinema at 8 a.m. and left at 4 p.m. We must have seen ABBA The Movie about 5 times... My mother did not like it as I can remember. She said that I was getting crazy.
One more strong memory was hearing for the first time "The Day Before You Came" in the late autumn 82. The radio DJ said: "It is the most mature song ABBA ever did." I could listen to this song over and over again - and still can. It is one of the best pieces of music that the group did. In many ways it is Agnetha song and it's pity that Frida's role is so limited on this track but on the other hand the last two albums were based only on lead vocals.
"Under Attack" is a kind of Christmas memory as well but it is a strange memory. Someone said to me: This is the end of ABBA. This single is horrible - two bad songs as they did not care anymore... I did not like this opinion as I was an ABBA fan but that person was maybe not quite wrong. It is still difficult for me to say that "Under Attack" and "You Owe Me One" are BAD songs but OK - after "The Day Before You Came" or "The Visitors" they sound poorer in a way.
Before Christmas 1997 I saw the Czech pop star Helena Vondrackova for the very first time on stage. It was fun for me and my friends to go and see a pop concert being in Prague on holiday. I knew of course that the pop star Vondrackova existed and that she was beautiful and talented and that she had recorded lots of good pop songs since her debut in 1964 but I did not know so much about her as a stage performer. After the concert I knew that I wanted to have all her music at home! Doesn't matter that I cannot understand all her lyrics but it was the right voice, charisma and the right songs. Are you ABBA fan you will love Helena. She is a mix of Agnetha and Frida in the same body - can you imagine that?
When we started to think about our own homepage during Christmas 2001 we did not have any idea for it. It would be "something with pictures" - I love pictures. But what kind of pictures? Well, maybe ABBA pictures I said when we sat and discussed. So we started this go.to/abba site which became raffem.com some months later (even if the old address go.to/ABBA still exists of course). My technical boss Stefan asked: Do you want to have more artists than ABBA? Well, maybe Helena, I answered and maybe Marta because I like them very very much. And maybe one more pop band that I like - Bucks Fizz. So we published some pictures and so we got feedback from some nice German or American people - please continue. So we continued and we came to the point where we are now. Sorry, I forgot we added even our great Swedish singer Helen Sjöholm.
I do not really know if someone from ABBA has ever been here - hopefully not yet as I have still a lot of stuff to correct (for instance horrible English in many places as many texts were written very quickly). I know that both Helena Vondrackova and Marta Kubisova appreciate our work with their respective sections on raffem.com and we are very happy about it. Marta and her management have been very generous against us in 2005 inviting us several times to Marta's big concerts. When we met Mrs Vondrackova before her October concert "40 years on stage" and told her that we came from Stockholm to Prague because of her concert she could not believe...
It is going to happen new things on raffem.com. Lately we have been approached by the lobby of one more big pop star who maybe will be represented on raffem.com soon. We hope that you will like her as well...
So Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Raffe/17.12.2005
