ABBA - why did they split up?

It's the general consensus.

 

First time I ever saw MTV in the fall of 1982 (a friend sent me a videotape), they would every 10 minutes go to an interview
of Anni-Frid with Alan Hunter on her new solo album "Something's Going on". Anni-Frid taught him some Swedish words.

 

Agnetha's English wasn't really bad, in the 70' I saw her interviewed many times and she could make herself understood, it's just that she wasn't confident speaking English.

 

It all makes very good sense. And it seems most of the seventies bands, for whatever reason, saw their sales dry up as the eighties got going. The Bee Gees completely stopped selling in 81, and I think ABBA sales were slowing down as well. They never sold that well here in the first place, and I am speculating The Visitors hit with a thud here...think I remember it being in the cut out bins though I remember loving it and still do. Based on the last few songs they did, which until the 2000's were not released in the US, I think they broke up at the right time. Instead of middling or worse albums, every one of them are really strong and I listen to them all to this day. Many groups hang on too long. Under Attack is the only non album track I personally feel is up to their standards. Elaine, etc all seem like half done songs, and that seems typical for bands that go on an album or two too long. Thanks for your comments...I have read a lot about them but had not seen some of the things you wrote. Makes sense.

 

Saw them in Colorado and I agree. Close to the real deal, and the sound quality was excellent.

 

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I wish I could recall where I read this but I seem to recall Stig was managing all their money and the members were not watching things in that regard very closely. I believe it was Frida that divested her money first, but the boys lost a lot of their wealth with Stig. Eventually the corp was desolved and all went their own way. Stig wasn't a good money manager and that was a big reason why they left him later in their career. It did seem Stig was really hanging on their coat tails, as his other bands did not sell well. They did acknowledge that Stig was important to the start of their career, however, but his involvement in their somg writing seemed very minimal from what I remember, ie, he would make a couple lyrical suggestions amd then get a writers credit..

 

I saw the very first professional Abba tribute group, Bjorn Again, back in 1991. At this point Abba were just about to become fashionable/successful again, after an indifferent 80's. They were fantastic and the huge hall was a complete sell out. Even Bjorn said at the time that if you want to see Abba again, watch Bjorn Again.

 

That is very common, it's known as 'change a word and take a third'. One very famous pop Queen is well know for this practice.

 

In context with most other rock groups discussed on this forum, Abba is unique in one aspect... they succeeded without any aid from the all powerful British-American music industry. They came from seemingly nowhere, on a nowhere album label. They didnt record in Britain or America (a very few exceptions) and more importantly, they were not signed to a British or American record company, except for distribution.

Its an incredible story when you think about it. They did have one thing in common with all the usual successful rock bands. They had a great manager.

Many would say, the reason they ever even made it out of Sweden? Stig. His worldwide publishing contacts were a very important part of getting their music into the right hands and ears that would even consider a band from Sweden, at the time, that in itself was very difficult. And he was a workaholic, driven to succeed at the cost of everything around him.

He was enormously important to their success. Unfortunately, as you said, he was apparently in over his head when the money got huge and he got involved in some gargantuan financial deals and investments... that went south and left the band members holding the bag.

 

I would like to think, as you said, that he was way in over his head with the finances. I hope that is all it was. Hard to keep your eyes on everything and he seemed stretched thin. I do like that the band members mention what a hard worker Stig was, and from what I have read they do give him a lot of credit for their earlier success. I am the type that tries to remember those who help my business along the way, for the long term, but that is an issue that would be different for each person and I guess one has to decide when it is time to move on, no matter how much someone has helped you. Me, I would probably keep them around, but it sounds like Stig was hurting more than helping in later years, so they moved forward without him. Seems like a sad story all around as the seventies began to wind down.

 

Bjorn Again were an awesome tribute band. Caught them once around 91-92, thinking it would be mostly folks my age, but my mate and I were the only two long haired metallers there. Then at the Millennium celebrations in Belfast, I wasn't aware they were playing an outdoor gig until we headed around to that part of the city centre. Only caught their last two songs - a nod at Erasure who raised the ABBA profile in the UK again with a run through of 'Respect' and then a jaw dropping moment for me when they finished with Black Sabbath's 'Paranoid' - so my favourite band as a youth now playing my all time favourite band.

Indeed - I think I found the connection - Black sABBAth.

 

do a youtube search - there are all kinds of metal bands remaking metal versions of old abba songs. Many of them from sweden of course.

Its funny when you think that even in Sweden in the 70s, a whole bunch of people hated Abba, called them greedy money grubbers who were decidedly against the flow of the progressive thinkers; in fact there was a real backlash against Abba from a very strong movement in society that music should be made for free, for the people. Stig especially was constantly blasted and belittled in the Swedish press for >GASP< wanting to make a profit from music.

Sure Abba sold the hell out of albums in Sweden, enough of the population didnt care one bit about any of that; they loved the music. But back then, you certainly did not have other Swedish bands looking up to Abba as inspiration. Different story today.

 

'We are here to party': Abba reunite – in a Stockholm restaurant
The band once offered $1bn to reform were photographed in the same room for the first time since 2008 – to open an Abba-themed restaurant

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jan/20/abba-reunites-stockholm-restaurant-mamma-mia-the-party

 

There is a similar story in Britain's Daily Telegraph this morning too, with a photo of the restaurant re-unification.

 

I don't think they so much formally 'split up' as faded away.

There had definitely been a commercial slowdown in their fortunes since 1980 - in the UK, at least. They were no longer making the headlines and no longer scoring 'default' top 10 hits.

 

(As someone commented in the Guardian story) After such a bleak beginning to the musical year, it's great to Abba together being cool, even if just for a moment.

 

A crash of egos (pun intended)

 

Even just the photo by itself makes me smile! I do hope they weren't all hounded about a reunion just because they were all in the same room. They all, individually and as a group, owe me nothing. Time to get the headphones on and listen to The Visitors.

 

After so many years, a delight to see Abba together again, if only for a brief moment. Yes, they were asked about a reunion. And yes, they said no.

 

It is a lovely, relaxed photo of the four of them. I suppose it was inevitable they were asked. Still glad they're answering consistently!

 

Frida's still got that glint in her eye.

 

A little more realistic color:



Harry

 

Another picture:

 

Embarrassingly I have their Christmas single!

 

Björn had a point about that particular tribute group, and while I can appreciate this might not be everyone's proverbial cup of tea, TJ Davis (AKA Frida Longstockin) recorded a handful of projects in the late '90s with Richard Jacques of Sega Europe, lending her vocals to the soundtracks of Sonic R and Metropolis Street Racer before going on to make a rare live appearance singing this material at the Summer Of Sonic event more recently in 2008. As you can probably tell, I'm quite the retro video game enthusiast, and fans of upbeat techno-pop could do a lot worse than hunt down some of her work in this domain...

More directly onto the subject of ABBA again, I've just revised my compilation of all the band's non-album songs from the later period, including the so-called "Opus 10" material and Chess demos to create one final theoretical LP. After the relatively downbeat one-two of Super Trouper and The Visitors, it's a shame their last few singles didn't perform better, as they were exploring further potentially interesting avenues beyond the theatrical leanings that had started creeping in - I'm guessing B&B got that out of their collective systems on the already-developing Chess project, even if relations with the girls were strained to the point of triggering what became a permanent hiatus.

I'm curious to see where Benny especially could have gone with more of a synthpop sound, as I can still remember how stunning I Am The City sounded when I first heard this on a cassette of More ABBA Gold. For the longest time, I genuinely thought that was a new track recorded more recently than 1982, as it was so fresh and relevant to what I'd been listening to from then-contemporary artists. Saying that, wasn't the ABBA sound quite influential to a lot of musicians in the early 1990s, leading to their long overdue cultural reappraisal?