40 years ago ..... ABBA's 1979 concert tour

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by GoodKitty, Sep 11, 2019.

  1. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    I read his excellent biography of the band, Bright Lights, Dark Nights and agree wholeheartedly.

    The sports jersey thing might just have been fashion. Here's Kate Bush, their competitor for the top of the charts, in a Chicago Blackhawks jersey in 1979:

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  2. chacha

    chacha Forum Resident In Memoriam

    Location:
    mill valley CA USA
    Hello!
    I went out to the Pavilion the day tickets went on sale but because of all the subscription nonsense the best seats I could get were about 2/3 back from the stage. I’m sure I would have found the show much more captivating had I been close. Took fellow Forum member and good pal @Mazzy. Volume was low which contributed to the kind of Lounge feeling of the show for me. Audience was really subdued. Frida was the consistently better singer of the two at this gig. Wasn’t crazy about Agnetha’s new short hairdo - love the length in the rehearsal photos above. The show length seemed good as I recall but leaned too heavily on Voulez Vous understandably which was their current album and I wasn’t wild about them jumping on the Disco bandwagon then. Again, great to see them and a great memory but was anticlimactic after the excitement of the footage from Australia a couple of years earlier.

    Thanks for bringing me back 40 years ago!
     
    Last edited: Sep 19, 2019
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  3. Did I ever thank you for the music? :tiphat:
     
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  4. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    Thanks for all the joy they're bringing.
     
  5. chacha

    chacha Forum Resident In Memoriam

    Location:
    mill valley CA USA
    Daily!
    :tiphat:
     
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  6. GoodKitty

    GoodKitty FloydM Thread Starter

    Location:
    Pacific
    That's awesome that you two got to do that together way back then ..... and are still here together, at least here on the forum anyway. :righton:

    Yeah, can only imagine what it was really like .... I know nothing about who they hired to do their sound, and how consistently good they actually were at it ... and just how loud they were willing to go. It's not like ABBA had tons of experience doing real shows, but they did seem to expect high standards and professionalism .... Concord was open air -- a whole different challenge -- while the ones that preceded it were all indoor ..... the Portland show was easily the smallest (so far) .......

    So you got to see The Movie during its original run in the Bay Area ? and did you go see it more than once ?

    Ahhhhh yes, that's a good point... Let's look back on that now .....:D
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    Last edited: Sep 20, 2019
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  7. GoodKitty

    GoodKitty FloydM Thread Starter

    Location:
    Pacific
    I think this is also a rehearsal pic but not 100% sure....
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    would be interesting to know what Björn's "rig" was .... did he use any pedal at all ?



    bonus Agnetha pics, from VancouverBC ....
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    Last edited: Sep 20, 2019
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  8. chacha

    chacha Forum Resident In Memoriam

    Location:
    mill valley CA USA
    Yes @Mazzy and I are still good friends, actually even closer friends than we were 40 years ago which is cool.

    The sound was actually quite good at the show and pretty hi fi as I recall but pretty low in volume which actually I would likely welcome today but I remember at age 24 wanting more.

    I went to see ABBA The Movie 3 times in the two weeks it played in SF! It played at a large theater at the time, the Regency 2 which had fabulous projection and sound and it looked and sounded amazing. The Blu Ray is nowhere close to how it looked in a theater. Absolutely loved it. Wished it wasn’t so heavily overdubbed though- they pretty much re-recorded everything over the basic drum track. My favorite period of the band. Great stuff.
     
  9. GoodKitty

    GoodKitty FloydM Thread Starter

    Location:
    Pacific
    Wow ..... well, see .... you got the optimal theatre experience of its day, the way it was meant to be !
    Me, I knew absolutely nothing about it ...... until much much later . :laugh:

    And that was ABBA's moment ! That movie should've been the primer for the tour in say, April 1978 .... when interest in them here was peaking (right?) .... but we know they really didn't want it that bad ...

    "Take A Chance On Me" was/is such an earworm ....

    Oh yeah -- and their appearance on Olivia Newton-John's special in May '78 .... were you catching that too ?
     
    Last edited: Sep 20, 2019
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  10. I remember seeing it with you at the Regency 2 in SF. For others here, the Regency 2 had been the Avalon Ballroom in the 60s

    It was my second viewing of the ABBA movie. I first saw it in Spring 78 when I was in Europe. Saw it in a theater in Oxford England.
     
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  11. chacha

    chacha Forum Resident In Memoriam

    Location:
    mill valley CA USA
    I saw it there with Vernon as well. A fond memory.
     
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  12. chacha

    chacha Forum Resident In Memoriam

    Location:
    mill valley CA USA
    Yes saw them on Olivia’s show when it aired as well as the UNICEF television show.

    Just in case you haven’t, pick up the biography Bright Lights Dark Shadows. It’s a fantastic, incredibly detailed bio of the band. Really thorough and always interesting. The audiobook of it is especially good - wonderful narrator.
    Can’t recommend highly enough.
     
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  13. GoodKitty

    GoodKitty FloydM Thread Starter

    Location:
    Pacific
    Yes, I've read that book .... Actually, I bought the white cover edition and read it thoroughly (and underlined/highlighted in it heavily) (and probably should've looked at it again before starting this thread) ..... but then later I noticed a black cover edition that is updated, so I got it too but haven't read it yet ..... So, I should do that !

    I also got Carl Magnus Palm's (expensive) book Complete Recording Sessions .....
    ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions (expanded edition)
     
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  14. GoodKitty

    GoodKitty FloydM Thread Starter

    Location:
    Pacific
    9-20-79 press conference in Los Angeles .....
    at the moment, I don't know exactly where this was .... but their show the next day would be down in Anaheim, near Disneyland ....
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  15. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    #10 - - quarterback Jim Zorn.
     
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  16. edenofflowers

    edenofflowers A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular!

    Location:
    UK
    It looks like everyone else in the top picture minus Abba are Japanese or at least far Eastern. Are you sure it's USA?
     
  17. GoodKitty

    GoodKitty FloydM Thread Starter

    Location:
    Pacific
    Gosh ..... now that you mention it ..... No, now I'm not sure ! :confused:
    When I found those pics (quite a while ago) they must've been designated as L.A. cuz that's what I named them .....
    It is possible that journalists from Japan were present .... such was they're popularity there ....
    I'd better find my books and do more research ..... fwiw .
     
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  18. GoodKitty

    GoodKitty FloydM Thread Starter

    Location:
    Pacific
    Okay .... did some checking, and yes indeed - it is L.A. ..... and for a Japanese press crew .

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  19. GoodKitty

    GoodKitty FloydM Thread Starter

    Location:
    Pacific
  20. Ivan

    Ivan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Perth, Australia
    Something she apparently did back on the '77 tour too! She's wearing a jersey for the Carlton Football Club in some parts of ABBA: The Movie :)

    EDIT: Doing a little Google search yields images of both the girls wearing them!
     
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  21. edenofflowers

    edenofflowers A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular!

    Location:
    UK
    Good work! :righton: That explains it.
     
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  22. GoodKitty

    GoodKitty FloydM Thread Starter

    Location:
    Pacific
    Disneyland 9-21-79
    Before the show at the Anaheim Convention Center, ABBA took their kids to Disneyland, including Björn and Agnetha's daughter Linda (born early 1973) ...... They got day-rooms at the Disneyland Hotel .
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  23. GoodKitty

    GoodKitty FloydM Thread Starter

    Location:
    Pacific
    rewinding back a little ..... here is more of Frida's sports garb.
    Edmonton Oilers, Seattle Seahawks and Portland TrailBlazers....
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    Last edited: Sep 21, 2019
  24. GoodKitty

    GoodKitty FloydM Thread Starter

    Location:
    Pacific
    ..... and San Francisco 49ers.
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  25. GoodKitty

    GoodKitty FloydM Thread Starter

    Location:
    Pacific
    ABBA were using a private jet to move from city to city .....
    However, Agnetha had a terrible phobia of flying and insisted on using ground transportation whenever feasible. She was driven from Vancouver down to Seattle, from Seattle to Portland, and from L.A. down to San Diego....
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