☆ 40 years ago ...... in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada .... ABBA played the first date of its one and only North American concert tour .... They'd been to America several times for television promotional appearances and such .... but this time it was to perform 18 full-length concerts with a large band ...... September 13, 1979 Edmonton AB - Northlands Coliseum September 15, 1979 Vancouver BC - Pacific Coliseum September 17, 1979 Seattle - Seattle Center Coliseum September 18, 1979 Portland OR - Paramount Theatre September 19, 1979 Concord CA - Pavilion September 21, 1979 Anaheim CA - ACC Arena September 22, 1979 San Diego - Sports Arena September 23, 1979 Tempe AZ - ASU Activity Center September 24, 1979 Las Vegas - Aladdin Theatre September 26, 1979 Omaha NE - Civic Auditorium September 27, 1979 Saint Paul MN - Civic Center September 29, 1979 Milwaukee Auditorium September 30, 1979 Chicago - Auditorium Theatre October 2, 1979 New York City - Radio City Music Hall October 3, 1979 Boston - Music Hall October 4, 1979 Washington D.C. - DAR Constitution Hall October 6, 1979 Montreal - Forum October 7, 1979 Toronto - Maple Leaf Gardens ☆ Their current single at the time was "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)", featured on the forthcoming Greatest Hits Vol.2 ........ Their most recent original LP was Voulez-Vous , released the previous April .... Six songs from Voulez-Vouz were performed in the shows . So then ...... here is a thread to discuss this era of ABBA's history ..... 1979 ! I plan on posting pics, links, video, and various things as the shows anniversary-dates tick by .... and will continue through with the European tour including Wembley Arena, London, which produced the live album and video .... and then, finally, the Japan dates of March 1980, which ended up being their final concerts. → It'd be awesome to hear some first-hand accounts from anyone here who actually saw them ! Also, I'd also like to try and get more clear on what recordings really exist from this tour.... I've got a few . I understand how things can go around here... but it's my hope to keep things fairly on-topic and not have it turn into an "All Things ABBA" type thread..... This is not the place to talk about their supposed forthcoming new music or "ABBA-tar" show -- that belongs here: New music by ABBA! ABBA to tour as holograms in 2019 Okay then ..... thoughts, anyone ?
I don't know anything about this tour, and look forward to reading fans' memories and thoughts. I love the rehearsal pictures!
Amazing! Please feel free to share any details about the show! Must have been cool seeing them at the Concord Pavilion. Any specific memories? highlights? Ticket stub? Photos??
I can’t believe I didn’t see them when they were in CA, only a few miles from where I lived! Of course, when you’re a teen you think everything is going to last forever and you can just catch it another time. A shame. I also missed Supertramp’s last tour just a few years later. Look forward to reading more posts here!
Should anybody want an 8 minute ABBA history lesson ......... this'll do ! of course there are many others ......
It was a good show but not great for me. I was so excited to see them but the show felt a little subdued. In looking at the schedule above it was their third night in a row so maybe they were a little tired perhaps. I would have ideally preferred to have seen the Arrival tour show they did in Australia. I liked the material much better on that gig rather than Voulez Vous. Still obviously great to see them though.
Steven Wilson said the Beatles were the best pop band ever and Abba were the second best.. I have never owned a abba record but always know every word to all there songs like most people. Ingrained in the membrane. Good tunes and catchy lyrics once heard will stay in ones head for ever.
the September 8, 1979 issue of Billboard Magazine had a special 42 page supplement devoted to ABBA. ABBA Fans Blog: Billboard
I understand that feeling ..... That actually speaks to a good question ..... Did ABBA wait too long in coming to America ? Did they miss their optimal moment by not coming here to tour in early 1978 when "Take A Chance On Me" and "Name Of The Game" were still fresh ? I think the answer might be yes ...... I'd like to hear more of your thoughts about Concord .... perhaps you can share more .... maybe on the 19th .
ABBA recently overtook the Bee Gees as my favorite all time band. Seems a lot of people are like me where if they liked one, they liked both. However, I think there is a pretty good distinction I see with the benefit of time, and may explain why ABBA was simply not that popular in the US until Mama Mia the musical came out. ABBA’a DNA was all over their very first album, and while they were firming things up and experimenting a little (with guys still taking a lead here and there, but diminishing as time went by) and figuring out their “go to” style until it seemed locked in by Arrival, the Bee Gees changed their music to go more with the times. You would be forgiven not even knowing who sang Jive Talkin’ (as many didn’t) even if you were a hard core fan in 1967. So, they have a lot of period fans, where with ABBA, if you didn’t like their second album you probably didn’t like The Visitors (final album) either. So, you were likely on for the entire ride or you never were a fan back in the 70’s/early 80’s. Their chord structures were very sophisticated but they were dismissed as a fluff pop group. In the US, I think they were simply ahead of their time. Timing is everything with both films and music. I think had ABBA came out in the 90’s they would have had a much better chance of hitting it big from the get to. Touring could have changed that the lackluster reception in the 70’s, but they just weren’t getting a whole lot of radio support either, and I don’t think Atlantic really knew how to promote them. Don’t even know why they were on that label...they didn’t seem well served. They had some singles hits, but their albums here didn’t sell that well. And as big of a fan as I am, I do think they come across as unexciting and boring on video. They readily admit they were a studio band, and they most certainly were. ABBA and Michael Tretow, the engineer, were masters of their domain and perfectionists. The US finally accepted them when Mama Mia came out, and their schtick was much more in tune with the times by then. And that’s when the US was really introduced to their music. It was the right time in the 90’s. I have the three album live set and a few other live items, and I just don’t ever play or look at any of them. For me, they will always be one of the finest studio bands. Some bands are just better being behind the scenes. Fleetwood Mac is the rare band that excel at both.
I have wondered if ABBA would have been received differently in the US (and everywhere) if Björn had been a more capable and conventional guitarist ..... He didn't really have a "voice" on the guitar .... If he'd been an actual counter-balance to Benny as an instrumentalist ..... then .... ?
Sept. 13, 1979 ..... press conference in Edmonton before the first show.... Burns me up that the questioner cut off Frida while she was talking !
The answer is yes .... the one from Vienna 10-29-79 is the best I know of. There are others that are pretty poor quality, and of questionable ID .... plus it's hard or impossible to find these things in a pure/lossless form .... they've been mp3'd repeatedly, cut up and messed with, youtube'd, downloaded again, repeat ..... and what became of the original tapes ...... ??? really frustrating !
Thanks. The only thing i have seen besides the official live album is a radio broadcast from one of the London shows. Not sure which one it is though.
There is also a complete recording from Tokyo March 1980 that is listenable, to me at least... but I only found it in mp3 and have no idea how far from the master it is. I have a theory that "bootleg" cds from the mid-90s -- before the era of widespread cd-burning, file-sharing, social media, etc. -- are where some of the best surviving recordings are ..... but sadly.... I don't have a single one.... wish I had the bucks to entice someone to part with their's .... I once connected with a European "superfan" (or so I thought because of his extensive website) who claimed to have a nice collection of old bootleg cds -- he had posted a ton of stuff in mp3 form, and I grabbed a lot of it .... I tried to get him to share lossless files with me ..... but the process was slow and error-ridden .... and it turns out he didn't have a very good grasp on the substance of what he had .... plus the language barrier ..... darn.
Edmonton 9-13-79 this pic might look familiar... Now, three things happened at this first show that were extraordinary .... The first was that it was revealed that their male backup singer, Tomas Ledin, got a featured spot in the show singing his song "Not Bad At All".... Very generous on the part of ABBA to give that too him .... and it wasn't a bad song, really, but ................... of course everyone would've preferred another ABBA tune instead. (my vote would go to "Mamma Mia", imo the set's most glaring omission) Tomas Ledin - Wikipedia The second was that they (supposedly) performed "One Man, One Woman", sung by Frida, for the first and only time ..... It never happened again .... so something unfortunate must've happened that night that killed it .... really too bad !!! .... They must've rehearsed it a bunch so .....??? And the third thing was that they (supposedly) did not perform "Waterloo" ! .... What ?? Why not ??? very strange .... It should've been the final song ..... so my guess is that they ran out of time and hit the curfew .....? That must've been very disappointing to the fans that night .... Now, you might think "One Man, One Woman" was then cut to make room for "Waterloo" .... but neither were (supposedly) performed at the next show in Vancouver BC either so ...... ?
Here is Tomas Ledin's "Not Bad At All" and a recording from the Milwaukee ABBA show ABBA in Concert in Milwaukee 1979 07 Tom Ledin Not Bad At All and in 1982 he had a successful duet single with Agnetha, "Never Again". Never Again