Harrison Marking 20th Anniversary Of The Closing Of Stockholm’s Polar Studio

article: https://www.prosoundweb.com/harrison-marking-20th.../
Harrison Marking 20th Anniversary Of The Closing Of Stockholm’s Polar Studio
photosofthedays - notes

Harrison Marking 20th Anniversary Of The Closing Of Stockholm's Polar Studio - ProSoundWeb

PSW Staff 

Inside the control room at Polar Studios in Stockholm that was centered on a Harrison 32 Series console.

May 3, 2024

PSW Staff

Studio used by ABBA, Led Zeppelin, Phil Collins, The Ramones and more featured a Harrison 32 Series 40-channel analog mixing console, the world's first 32-bus, inline desk.

Harrison announced that the first of May (2024) marked the 20th anniversary of the closing of the legendary Polar Studios in Stockholm, Sweden after 26 years of operation, and from the beginning, it was equipped with a Harrison 32 Series analog mixing console.

The company states that the 4032 — with 40 channels — was the world’s first 32-bus, inline desk. It was given serial number 045 and was delivered to Polar Studios in January 1978. The input channel modules were modified by Harrison to allow headphones to be fed from buses 25 through 32, and the studio later added a 16-channel input extender as a sidecar.

Gary Thielman, president of Harrison Audio, says “The 32 Series at Polar really contributed to the soundtrack of an era. I recall a conversation with Dave (Harrison), with me going crazy about all this amazing music being made on our consoles…he was so focused on perfecting designs that he simply viewed it as ‘doing his job’.”

ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, together with the band’s manager, Stig “Stikkan” Anderson, owner of the Polar Music recording label, opened the studio in a disused former movie theater in the center of Stockholm. Having recorded previous ABBA albums and singles at a variety of studios in Sweden, the intention was to create a modern production studio where the band could work at their own pace and to provide facilities for other Polar label artists. Anderson founded the label in 1963.

ABBA recorded their final three albums — Voulez-Vous, Super Trouper and The Visitors — and two non-LP singles, “The Day Before You Came” and “Under Attack,” at Polar. The very first song recorded at the studio was the global hit “Chiquitita,” the lead single from Voulez-Vous, which was released in January 1979. The Visitors became one of mainstream pop’s first digital releases in 1981 when it was recorded to Polar’s new 3M digital tape machine. All four ABBA members recorded solo projects at the studio after the band split up in 1982.

Most major Swedish artists recorded at Polar, as did a very long list of international artists, including the Rolling Stones, Backstreet Boys, Chic, the Ramones, Roxy Music and Celine Dion. Led Zeppelin recorded the 1979 album In Through the Out Door at Polar and Genesis recorded Duke in 1980, with the band’s lead vocalist and drummer Phil Collins going on to produce, with Hugh Padgham, ABBA singer Anni-Frid Lyngstad’s solo album, Something’s Going On, at the studio.

Anderson bought out partners Ulvaeus and Andersson in 1984 before selling the facility to a business partnership comprising his daughter, son-in-law and Lennart Östlund, Polar’s chief engineer since 1978. The building was later sold to a Swedish insurance company and it became a private housing cooperative, which raised the rent. With the business no longer economically viable, Polar Studios closed.

The console is now housed in the ABBA museum in Stockholm.

https://www.prosoundweb.com/harrison-marking-20th-anniversary-of-the-closing-of-stockholms-polar-studio

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 May Marks Polar Studios Anniversaries

May 1 marked the 20th anniversary of Stockholm’s Polar Studios closing; the facility was used to record legendary albums by Abba, Led Zeppelin, Genesis and many others.

BY MIX STAFF

PUBLISHED: 05/09/2024



The Harrison 32 Series analog mixing console used at Polar Studios.

Stockholm, Sweden (May 9, 2024)—May 1 marked the twentieth anniversary of the closing of Stockholm’s legendary Polar Studios, which famously featured a Harrison 32 Series analog mixing console, the world’s first 32-bus, inline desk, after 26 years of operation.

ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, together with the band’s manager, Stig “Stikkan” Anderson, owner of the Polar Music recording label, opened Polar Studios on May 18, 1978 in a disused former movie theater in the center of Stockholm. Having recorded previous ABBA albums and singles at a variety of studios in Sweden, the intention was to create a modern production studio where the band could work at its own pace and to provide facilities for other Polar label artists. Anderson founded the label in 1963.

The Harrison 4032 console (a 40-channel, 32 Series desk) was given serial number 045 and was delivered to Polar Studios in January 1978. The input channel modules were modified by Harrison to allow headphones to be fed from buses 25 through 32. The studio later added a 16-channel input extender as a sidecar. The console is now housed in the ABBA museum in Stockholm.

Harrison Audio 32Classic Mixing Console to Launch at AES

Gary Thielman, president of Harrison Audio, comments “The 32 Series at Polar really contributed to the soundtrack of an era. I recall a conversation with Dave (Harrison), with me going crazy about all this amazing music being made on our consoles…he was so focused on perfecting designs that he simply viewed it as ‘doing his job’.”

ABBA recorded their final three albums—Voulez-Vous, Super Trouper and The Visitors—and two non-LP singles, “The Day Before You Came” and “Under Attack,” at Polar. The very first song recorded at the studio was the global hit “Chiquitita,” the lead single from Voulez-Vous, which was released in January 1979. The Visitors became one of mainstream pop’s first digital releases in 1981 when it was recorded to Polar’s new 3M digital tape machine. All four ABBA members recorded solo projects at the studio after the band split up in 1982.

Most major Swedish artists recorded at Polar, as did a very long list of international artists, including the Rolling Stones, Backstreet Boys, Chic, the Ramones, Roxy Music and Celine Dion. Led Zeppelin recorded its 1979 album In Through the Out Door at Polar and Genesis recorded Duke there in 1980, with the band’s lead vocalist and drummer Phil Collins going on to produce, with Hugh Padgham, ABBA singer Anni-Frid Lyngstad’s solo album, Something’s Going On, at the studio.

Anderson bought out partners Ulvaeus and Andersson in 1984 before selling the facility to a business partnership comprising his daughter, son-in-law and Lennart Östlund, Polar’s chief engineer since 1978. The building was later sold to a Swedish insurance company and the building became a private housing cooperative, which raised the rent. With the business no longer economically viable, Polar Studios closed.

https://www.mixonline.com/recording/facilities/may-marks-polar-studios-anniversaries

https://news.hummingbirdmedia.com/marking-the-20th-anniversary-of-the-closing-of-stockholms-legendary-polar-studios

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Abba BBC Radio 1 - 1976

First broadcast: Tue 28th Dec 1976, 12:45 on BBC Radio 1 England Tom Browne interviews Sweden's top pop group, Abba. in a specially recorded programme featuring all their hit records. Producer PAUL WILLIAMS 

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source full program: https://www.mixcloud.com/noeltyrrel/tom-browne-abba-special-december-1976/

 https://www.mixcloud.com/noeltyrrel/tom-browne-abba-special-december-1976

Abba sang Waterloo to driver in back of his taxi

 

Abba sang Waterloo to driver in back of his taxi

Stuart Maisner,

BBC News, South East

Simon Dack

Billy Stainthorpe remembers driving Abba in his taxi after Eurovision success in 1974

A taxi driver has been recollecting the private rendition Abba gave him of Waterloo after winning the Eurovision Song Contest 50 years ago.

The Swedish supergroup stormed to victory at Brighton Dome on 6 April 1974.

Cab driver Billy Stainthorpe drove them back from Brighton to London and they all sang along when the song came on the radio.

Mr Stainthorpe said: "They all seemed happy, all singing, and the lady with the blonde hair (Agnetha) sat next to me."

Abba won Eurovision at Brighton Dome on 6 April 1974

Mr Stainthorpe said: "When we stopped for refreshments there were a few people who recognised them. And then there were a few more people looking in the cab.

"Björn asked me to go in and have a coffee and a sandwich before I came back to Brighton.

"He gave me £30 - so it was well worth it."

Mr Stainthorpe's daughter Nicky, then aged seven, waved the band off on their journey.

She said: "We were obsessed with the women really because they were so glamorous, so pretty.

"I just remember us being completely in awe."

 

A blue plaque to Abba was reinstated outside Brighton Dome on Thursday

These recollections form part of an exhibition at Brighton Museum - Abba: One Week In Brighton - which runs until August.

There is a series of events taking place in the city to mark 50 years since Abba's Eurovision victory.

A blue plaque, originally presented by the BBC in 2017, was reinstated outside Brighton Dome on Thursday.

Events will culminate on Saturday with a concert at The Dome featuring five previous Eurovision winners singing Abba's greatest hits.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c90ezgj84jzo

LOT's Abba E-jet

38 years later, Abba is back in Poland, again flying LOT

LOT's Abba E-jet

A lot has changed since the great Swedish band Abba made its first and only visit to Poland in October 1976, at a time when the country was firmly behind the Iron curtain.

One thing that hasn't changed though is that Abba traveled on-board a LOT aircraft...now, Abba obviously does not exist anymore as a band, but its songs and memories will be again be flying LOT.

The Polish flag carrier is helping promote the "Mamma Mia" musical, now on show at Warsaw's ROMA theater and it has decorated one of its Embraer E-175 (SP-LIA) for the occasion...so aircraft livery spotters out there: one more for the collection!

And of course, fliers on this E-175 will be entertained with a selection of Abba's most popular hits: Mamma Mia, Chiquitita and the like...

Mamma Mia! look who's got company...!

By the way, for Abba nostalgics: I found on youtube this (long) video showing Abba's visit to Poland in 1976!

https://allplane.tv/.../9/19/lot-e175-mamm-mia-livery-abba

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notes - LOT's Abba E-jet - Poland

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOdNCAY9F3s

Voulez-Vous

 

Nothing Promised, No Regrets: The Real Meaning of “Voulez-Vous” by ABBA

BY

THOM DONOVAN

If you listen to ABBA as a guilty pleasure, you have nothing to feel guilty about. The tidiness of the group is impressive, made up of a pair of couples with a palindrome band name, itself made from the first letter of the bandmates’ first names. 

VIDEOS BY AMERICAN SONGWRITER

Before both marriages and their initial run ended, the Swedish Beatles conquered pop charts in multiple countries worldwide. While “Dancing Queen” hinted at disco, “Voulez-Vous” went all the way. The Swedish pop group made an American disco track with a French title, and it’s as délicieuse as it sounds on paper.  

Do You Want?

“Voulez-Vous” translates to “Do You Want?” Looking to be sure, ABBA then poses a variation, “La question c’est voulez-vous?” meaning, “The question is, do you want?”

It’s a simple question gaining urgency on the dance floor. A dancing man finds the guts to buy a girl a drink, but she means business, and the only way he’ll survive is if he’s the master of the scene. This is a serious affair.

People everywhere

A sense of expectation hanging in the air

Giving out a spark

Across the room, your eyes are glowing in the dark

And here we go again; we know the start, we know the end

Masters of the scene

We’ve done it all before, and now we’re back to get some more

You know what I mean

The discotheque is no place for indecision. The pulsing bass and the cocktail give the dancing man some kind of confidence. Nothing promised, no regrets. Get moving, boy. 

Voulez-vous (ah-ha)

Take it now or leave it (ah-ha)

Now it’s all we get (ah-ha)

Nothing promised, no regrets

Voulez-vous (ah-ha)

Ain’t no big decision (ah-ha)

You know what to do (ah-ha)

La question c’est voulez-vous

Voulez-vous

Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus wrote “Voulez-Vous” for ABBA’s sixth studio album of the same name. Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad share vocal duties on ABBA’s brand of disco, capitalizing on the peak music craze of 1979. 

A global single, except in the UK and Ireland, released as a double A-side with “Angeleyes.” Compared with ABBA’s colossal hits, “Voulez-Vous” charted modestly, but over time, it became the beloved little disco sister to 1976s “Dancing Queen.” 

Foxy Bahama Disco

Written in the Bahamas, Andersson and Ulvaeus recorded “Voulez-Vous” in the U.S. at Criteria Studios in Miami. Members of the ’70s disco group Foxy recorded the backing track, and though an American band performed the instrumentation, it sounds like an uptempo and slightly Russian version of Chic. But ABBA’s distinct Euro-pop lingers, and like most ABBA hits, it’s infectiously catchy (ah-ha). It’s the only ABBA studio track recorded outside of Sweden. 

Though the session happened in 1979, it sounds like ABBA traveled via a time machine to borrow a St. Vincent riff from the future.   

Dancing Blues

ABBA reached superstardom with their 1976 Greatest Hits album, followed by the perfectly titled and massive album Arrival in 1976.

ABBA looks like humans from another planet inside the helicopter on Arrival’s album cover. And their exoticness or otherness is the attraction. The symmetry of “other” fits with some of their songs’ best-known characters trying to fit in. ABBA’s melodies are obviously infectious, but the real meat is in their despairing lyrics. “Dancing Queen,” as an example, is layered with sadness, though it doesn’t feel that way. 

The dancing queen is sad, like a Morrissey character, and even when you “feel the beat from the tambourine,” the specter of youth loneliness remains. Think of how many people still feel alone inside the club or the party. “Voulez-Vous” is a sister song to “Dancing Queen.” In each version, the goal is a hopeful cure for solitude. 

Lost in Translation

The mistranslation of the Swede’s attempting American music is endearing. Their goal probably isn’t sadness, but ABBA just can’t shake their hardened pagan instincts. 

It’s why Andersson and Ulvaeus rhyme master of the scene with you know what I mean. But, putting this grammar against Chic’s “Le Freak,” you spot how things become lost in translation. 

Chic’s disco party sounds like this: Big fun to be had by everyone. But ABBA accidentally builds a party foul: The girl means business, so I’ll offer her a drink.

Hearing musicians from other parts of the world translate each other’s culture is endlessly intriguing. It’s the sound of white Brits playing Black American blues music. Mick Jagger tried singing like Muddy Waters but ended up with his own iconic voice. Or a Southern California band with a singer named Gwen Stefani who played Jamaican rocksteady but sounded only like No Doubt. New sounds emerge when the inability to reproduce with exactness endures.  

ABBA is an enigma, and the innocent pleasure of their music brings about an answer to their pressing question: Voulez-Vous? Yes, we want. 

https://americansongwriter.com/nothing-promised-no-regrets-the-real-meaning-of-voulez-vous-by-abba

Frida - 1980

 

19 December 1980 .. CHRISTMAS COMES EARLY .. ONE MAGAZINE ..  interviews  translated from Swedish

FRIDA: A professional mask is necessary, says Frida.

Östermalm in Stockholm is embedded in snow. It's like a world of its own, a small town in the big city. The Polar Empire is also a world of its own, a world that is quite difficult to penetrate in order to reach the people who are there.

Therefore, I am quite surprised that no one asks who it is when I press the intercom, but Sesam opens immediately. I mean, I could have a bomb in my bag or an assault rifle under my arm. That is not the case now. I'm going to meet Frida and I'm only equipped with a tape player.

Frida is on the phone with Japan when I arrive, a phone interview.

"Understanding Japanese people who speak English is not the easiest thing," says Frida when she arrives.

English with a Japanese accent, I giggle a little.

We enter Stikkan's room. It's quiet there. Just like Frida. She exudes some kind of calmness and doesn't seem at all like she's going to run off to an intensive French course in an hour.

Frida attends an adult high school and enrolls in a three-year course in French in three months.

— I have always dreamed of having time to go and learn languages, I enjoy languages ​​very much, and now that Linda was about to start school and Agneta wanted to be at home a little more, I thought it could be a good fit. It has been extremely hard but fun.

Frida is the one who does the most stuff besides ABBA. Before, she danced several times a week. Now she runs, bodybuilds, reads French and takes singing lessons.

— It's important to do something else, and maybe it has to do with getting a certain distance from the ABBA person. In some way you don't want to consider yourself a star, it's not about that. I've never seen myself as one, neither have any of the others in the group, by the way.

— It is so easily magnified in newspapers. It's really about people who aren't me. You stand outside and watch.

Through the logic of French verbs, we come to the conclusion that Frida is a logical person. But still an emotional person. That's probably a bit of what she appears to be as well. Stands with both feet on the ground. Is adult and sane. Living family life. Going for ABBA as a profession, not nine to five, but a little in that direction. Sees himself as a professional in his field. An efficient professional woman in her career.

FABULOUS

Suddenly it occurs to me that ABBA should actually be called FABB. It's been a while since Frida was called Annifrid. She did it when the two girls drove on "Hey old man" with which the two guys ended up on the Svensktoppen. The first real thing the four did together was "People need love".

— We were surprised and insanely happy when it made it to the top ten. Back then it was a bit more baller than the Swedish top, says Frida with an ironic emphasis on "baller".

— In a way, I yearn back to that time. Then you had that hunger that you don't have now.

On their first tour, the four of them called themselves Festfolket. They ran a kind of pub show where Peter Himmelstrand was responsible for most of the material. The idea that ten years later they would be found as toy dolls in the shops and not be able to walk the streets of the world's big cities in peace would probably have seemed utopian.

What they dreamed of then is today a glittering reality. Although among the sparkling there are also dull parts.

— Sometimes it's hard to always feel watched. If you put the mask on because you know you're going out one evening, then it's fine because then you know it before you leave home. But if you're just going out privately to shop or sit down at a restaurant, it can be difficult if you're not in that mood.

— I have a professional mask when it comes to ABBA. I must have that. If I've had the world's biggest fight with Benny before I leave home or something else has gone terribly wrong, I have to put that mask on. But maybe it applies to everyone, if it applied to you, maybe you would screw up going to that party because you feel lousy.

— I have to do it because it is part of my job.

Frida observes herself. Throughout our conversation, she looks me straight in the eye. Maybe she's trying to check out what I'm like, what I might write. And surely there is a certain measure of caution when she answers the questions. Frida is by now used to seeing her name and the other ABs' names in the columns. sometimes it can be too much.

— Just because you happen to be a member of a group that is world famous, it should be written about us. No matter if it's just a small piece of shit, it makes headlines. It takes on such strange dimensions, which do not appeal to me in any way.

You actually stop and think it's time to take it easy and lie low. Because that is the only way to influence. We do it now, lie low and don't give interviews and stuff like that.

The light from the window falls on Frida's red hair. She leans her face in her hands. I have no bubbly spontaneous person in front of me. But it seems to be a straight and fair girl.

And somehow cute. Almost so you feel like telling about yourself. But it is Frida who will tell the story. We start talking about the fact that ABBA are frugal with the tour.

— We are not a concert act but more of a studio act. Actually, I think it's fun to be on stage. But I don't like long trips, I'm a real homebody. Don't want to be away from the kids, friends and everything else here at home. Would never want to live in any other country than Sweden. People here know what we are. They have seen us from the beginning.

Never looked

Money, money, money, is always mentioned in connection with ABBA. Monarch, real estate, art. Frida is interested in business operations. But only to a certain extent. She attends a board meeting once a month. Otherwise, she tries to avoid as much as possible. There are others who take care of that part.

The money first and the music second or vice versa.

— The musical is and has always been the most important thing for us. It has been that way from the beginning. That's where you get the kicks. When you lift off the floor because it feels so good. Nothing can change that. It's a rather funny thing about us that we have always worked based on our own conditions, what we think is good, without looking anywhere. We have done what felt right.

Now Frida's tone is more determined. This is how it is. There really isn't much to talk about. With some things, it is what it is. It doesn't help with eyebrow angles and, as I notice she thinks sometimes, negative questions. Frida is Frida in ABBA.

She doesn't long for the good old days, she doesn't think it's miserable to be a celebrity, she likes their music, she's not desperate to do something of her own, she doesn't think the ABBA empire will grow to too big, she has no great desire to write ABBA's songs or lyrics ("Björn and Benny are such skilled songwriters"), she is not nervous when she is on stage.

Although ABBA has a big impact on a lot of things, they can't do much about the way the world looks.

— You feel this anxiety in your stomach. It feels heavy just like there is no future. It doesn't concern me so much but my children, you wonder what it will look like when they grow up. It is a hopelessness that infects the whole society. You feel powerless as a human being all this big.

— When the politicians can't handle it, how the hell am I supposed to be able to handle it, what can I say then that people listen to more.

— Somewhere I think it's fun to be in a group like ABBA that can bring people a little joy and positivity. I notice that in letters I get home. People think it's amazing that our music exists. When they are sad or depressed, they turn on our music and become happy and fulfilled.

Sex symbol

It is the emotional Frida who cries over the hopelessness instead of putting things in writing or shouting out what she thinks.

— It is redemptive to cry. It's my best way, to get rid of it all. Then I'm clean inside and can stock up again, so to speak. A few years ago I was more violent, but I don't have much aggression left in me. It has been muted. You have learned to be nuanced.

The girls in ABBA are perceived differently than the boys, at least abroad. Their body parts are commented on in the press. The audience looks at the girls in a different way.

— Sometimes you feel that you are regarded as a sex symbol. That the male, and also the female, part of the audience sees you as such. It feels like you don't have a part in it, just like a lot of other things. Because I have never perceived myself as a sex symbol, it is so far from my way of thinking about life, girls and in general.

The magazines that talk about girls as sex symbols should not be allowed to exist, they are horrible.

Frida starts to hurry so as not to be late for the French lesson. We make company out. Stikkan and Görel Hanser are there. Frida stops and talks to them. About dinner for the kids. About a party she has to go to in the evening.

I wonder in my quiet mind how she is coping. But she is used to and enjoys that life. So Frida puts on her red fur that matches the tone of her hair. And I, who hate furs in general and dyed ones in particular, can't help but think she looks elegant.

We hurry and part ways outside in the street. When I get a little way, the red figure that is Frida calls out to me.

- Do you want a ride?

But I'm going in another direction and I'm in no hurry. From the slightly secluded corner of town, I trudge off towards more noisy parts.

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abba newsflash on facebook

https://www.facebook.com/groups/3129333847173247/permalink/6500657946707470

Abba: Thank You For The Music

 Abba: Thank You For The Music

BY

NEIL MASON

ABBA may well be best known as Sweden’s worst-dressed but best-selling exporters of the 1970s, but Benny Andersson was also a bona fide synth pioneer. Don’t believe us? Read on…

Mention ABBA and what springs to mind? Dancing at weddings? The ‘Mamma Mia!’ musical? The 70s? The Eurovision Song Contest? Synth pioneers? Hold it right there… Synth pioneers?

In the revised and expanded new edition of ‘ABBA The Complete Recording Sessions’, Carl Magnus Palm, the world’s leading ABBA historian, reveals that while keyboard player Benny Andersson didn’t seem especially fussed about electric or grand pianos, playing whatever was available for recording session work, he was really interested in latest tech, and from very early on in the band’s career he began to assemble a personal synth stockpile that would go on to shape the distinctive ABBA sound.

The first instruments he bought were bagged on the same shopping trip to London in 1973. While it’s unclear when the spending spree actually was, Benny snapped up a Mellotron M400 and a Minimoog. Which is quite the haul, right? The M400 appears on the band’s debut album, ‘Ring Ring’, featuring on the the title track and ‘Another Town, Another Train’, which was no mean feat considering the record was released in March 1973. It was plain he was itching to use his new acquisition, although it is strange that he was also packing a Minimoog and yet there’s no sign of that on recordings until the following year.

While the M400 went on to appear on ‘Hasta Mañana’, ‘Dance (While The Music Still Goes On)’, and ‘Gonna Sing You My Lovesong’ from the band’s second album, ‘Waterloo’, released in March 1974, would be the final outing for the machine, with Andersson going on to describe its sound as “shrill” and “ugly”. Still, if it was good enough for The Beatles, who used the Mellotron for the intro to ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, it certainly did a job, albeit a short-lived one, for ABBA.

The Minimoog faired much better. Inspired like many others to buy one after hearing Hot Butter’s ‘Popcorn’, it is the most frequently used synth on ABBA recordings from its debut on the ‘Waterloo’ album right up to the end of their wildly successful career in 1982.

According to Benny it was “the best synthesiser, because it’s got its very own sound, soft and musical”. It’s much in evidence on that first outing. From the thumping intro to the title track, the solo on ‘Honey Honey’, following the bassline on ‘What About Livingstone’ and helping beef up the soon to be redundant Mellotron on ‘Gonna Sing You My Lovesong’, the Minimoog was all over ‘Waterloo’ and it was apparent Benny had found a new weapon of choice.

“I actually don’t know so much about the technical side of it,” he explained in 1979. “In the beginning I would simply sit and turn the knobs until I got a sound I liked. Now I’m starting to learn roughly how to get different sounds, and as long as I know what I want I can produce them pretty quickly. But during the first years I think Michael [Tretow, their long-time sound engineer/producer] and Björn suffered quite a lot while I was fooling around with the knobs.”

It’s quite remarkable that it was only in 1979, some six years after he bought the Minimoog, that he felt he was beginning to learn how it worked! It was around this time that he acquired the “dream machine”, the prog rock big gun, the Yamaha GX-1. Weight 600lbs, the triple keyboarded beastie came ready mounted on its own platform complete with stool. Keith Emerson owned two, of course, until one was run over by a runaway tractor… but we digress. Benny first clocked the GX-1 in the hands of Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones in September 1978 while recording ‘In Through The Out Door’ in Stockholm. ”I thought, ‘What the hell is that?” he recalls. The GX-1 was made in very limited numbers between 1973 and 1977, but Benny would lay his hands on one with the help of Yamaha’s European office, using it for the first time in March 1979. “I created my first sound as soon as I got it,” he says, “the bass synthesiser you hear at the start of ‘Does Your Mother Know’.

Then I thought, ‘Worth every penny!’”

We caught up with author Carl Magnus Palm to see if he could shed any further light on Benny’s synth obsession.

The new edition of ‘ABBA The Complete Recording Sessions’ has been completely rewritten and contains a mountain of new information, what are the main new discoveries?

CMP: There are plenty of new discoveries, as I’ve been able to listen to much more unreleased material than I was able to back in the 1990s for the first edition. It’s been especially interesting hearing every surviving alternate mix in the archives, because it allows you to study how a song would evolve and how they would add overdub after overdub – usually in the shape of Benny’s synths! In the book he explains how they would overdub a lot using the Minimoog – tiny snippets, phrases and riffs that they would interweave into songs. He’d also use it to “amplify” other instruments by playing the same part again on the Minimoog. He said by doing that it gives you a much fatter sound!

Benny didn’t seem overly fussed about his pianos, but he clearly loved the Mellotron and Minimoog didn’t he?

CMP: He did. He said in an interview as early as 1974 that “electronic sounds are the future, even in pop music made for a wide audience”. He would have said that around the time of ‘Waterloo’.

What do you think he liked about synths in particular? 

CMP: I think he was attracted by the possibility of the almost endless variations, enabling him to create sounds that didn’t exist. With the Mellotron, I think he liked that it would enable him to be an “orchestra” himself. It is sometimes referred to as an early version of the sampler, it stored authentic recordings of flutes, strings and other instruments and since it was possible to play chords on the Mellotron it enabled a keyboard player to emulate, for example, a string section. Although because of its somewhat wobbly tone it rather tended to create a sound unique to the Mellotron itself!

 Would you say that it was these kinds of instruments that shaped the ABBA sound more than anything else?

CMP: If we’re talking about the instrumental side only, forgetting Agnetha and Frida’s vocals for a minute, Benny’s keyboards were definitely the basis of the ABBA sound: piano as well as synthesisers and other electronic keyboards.



 Besides the Mellotron and Minimoog, what else did he have up his sleeve? 

CMP: He was always keen to keep up with the latest synths, and it seems he was a very early adopter of the Polymoog, for instance. Even he doesn’t quite recall which synths he used, but there is evidence he used the Prophet-10 and the Yamaha GS-1 on some of the final ABBA recordings in 1982. His greatest love affair, however, was with the Yamaha GX-1, which he acquired in March 1979 and first used for the bass synth intro on ‘Does Your Mother Know’. He had acquired cartridges with Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones’ string programme for the GX-1, and he preferred that sound to live strings, so from 1980 onwards, and with ‘The Winner Takes It All’ as the only exception, ABBA never used live strings on their recordings again. The last gadget he bought was the Synclavier back in the 1980s – after that, he says, he just couldn’t be bothered reading any more manuals.

He was a pretty early adopter wasn’t he? Do you think he gets the credit he deserves as a synth pioneer?

CMP: I don’t think he does. I know there are connoisseurs out there who appreciate what he’s done, but because of the poppy nature of ABBA’s records I don’t think people notice the synths so much. Also, Benny’s use of the synths was often more AOR than the futuristic style we associate with the likes of Giorgio Moroder or Kraftwerk, so perhaps that’s another reason he isn’t held up as a pioneer.

What do you consider the best examples of the Minimoog on ABBA records? 

CMP: The intro to ‘Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)’, famously sampled by Madonna in ‘Hung Up’, for example. I also like the staccato riffing on ‘Lay All Your Love On Me’, which was played completely manually. Also some more obscure early tracks, particularly on the ‘Waterloo’ album, where there’s a lot of that early super-electronic synth sound, less polished than what would follow. So there’s the very brief synth solo on ‘Honey, Honey’; the squealy sounds on ‘Watch Out’, which is a song Benny and Björn both loathe, and the whiny tones on ‘Gonna Sing You My Lovesong’. I love hearing Benny in this experimental mode.

 I notice in the very back page of the book there’s a quote from Michael Tretow – “I’ve had enough of the Moog now”. Would you care to elaborate?

CMP: The original quote, “Nu har jag fått noog av Moog” is a play on words, as the Swedish word for “enough” rhymes with “Moog”. But there was some truth behind the joke, as Michael would be pulling his hair out in frustration at Benny’s interminable synth overdubs. They only had 24 tracks back then and those tracks would be filled up quickly, meaning that Michael had to mix several tracks down to one track to free up more tracks for Benny’s synths. Benny would never give up, there was always a new idea he wanted to try out.

‘ABBA: The Complete Recording Sessions’ by Carl Magnus Palm is published by CMP Text

https://www.electronicsound.co.uk/long-reads/abba-thank-you-for-the-music/

Frida in Brighton, 1974

Lars Stenmark

 Today, the subject of ABBA's 50th Anniversary of the ESC-Victory with "Waterloo" in Brighton came up at work. When a colleague realized what a massive ABBA-fan I am, she said she wanted to share a little story with me. Of course I was all ears, as always, when ABBA is on the agenda.

She told me she vaguely, but fondly remembered that night in Brighton in April of 1974, when ABBA gave Sweden its very first victory. "Well, so did I and millions of others in front of the telly, I thought. What about..."

While continuing, she must have seen my jaws drop immediately as she said "I was there as a little girl" "In the audience with my mother" I thought "Get outta here!" and must have stopped breathing with my mouth half open.

Before I could utter anything, she continued "I was watching my dad, dressed as Napoleon" Now I just couldn't shut up so I burst out "No way! "Were you? Really?" "So, your dad was the great Sven-Olof Walldoff!!!" I said, feeling a bit starstruck myself.

The late Sven-Olof is one of Sweden's most accredited and renowned producers, musical arrangers, orchestra conductors, as well as composers and musicians of all times.

According to his daughter, he's the man behind one of the most famous, instantly recognizable signature sounds of any song in the history of pop music - the string arrangements in "Dancing Queen"! (news to me and unheard of before (!?) I've tried to find his name somewhere in the credentials for DQ to confirm that, but no luck to find a source so far. If anyone can confirm/deny that it would be appreciated)

Despite musical credits like that and having worked with almost everyone in the Swedish artist elite from the 1950's until the 1990's, Sven-Olof has remained somewhat of an unknown figure to the general public.

Few people know him by name or his credentials as a professional. However, almost everyone knows him by his appearance as Napoleon, both on stage in Brighton and on the "Waterloo'' album cover.

He collaborated with the biggest male and female singers and songwriters of the 60's &70's, including Agnetha & Frida in their pre-ABBA careers. He had his own Big Band Orchestra, which often toured the folkparks and local stages around Sweden - together with the biggest stars at the time. He was also part of the production of the "Ring, "Ring" album (string arranger) as well as two more ABBA-albums.

While my colleague continued to tell her story about that wonderful week she had with her family in Brighton almost 50 years ago, I felt bewitched and sat in complete silence (which is a very rare treat, as those who know me are well aware of...🤣🤣) as fascinated as a little boy listening to the storytelling of an extravagant Drag Queen.

It turned out she had been with her father during the rehearsals of "Waterloo" the whole week before the big final. Either in the spectator seat or backstage. She often sat backstage with A & F and others in the band. Sometimes just playing around with them, being silly. Other times she watched all the work and preparations they had to do before going onstage,

Her parents were personal friends with all four members of ABBA in the 1970's. She met them several times at many locations. Especially with Frida & Benny, who they saw regularly at each other's houses.

Amanda became particularly close to Frida, who used to baby-sit her from time to time. It almost felt like Frida took her in as 'one of her own'. There was always music, laughter and never a dull moment in their house, she remembers.

She was even allowed to enter Frida's huge closet and pretend she was a pop star as well. She used to 'perform' with Frida - standing shoulder by shoulder, back to back, facing the mirror, while lip-synching to "Mamma Mia" - pretending she was Agnetha.

Now, how many thousands of us fans all over the world did not spend parts of our childhoods doing the same thing over and over with our best friends?? In school, at home, at parties, probably at all places we could. Can you imagine doing the same thing with one of the real ABBA's!! 

This picture of Frida, (courtesy of Amanda Walldoff) which I asked for permission to use for this story, was taken by her outside of the Pavilion in Brighton the day after the victory. Little did Frida or Amanda know - what a superstar of gigantic proportions this young lady was about to become - loved, admired, respected and cherished by an entire music world - only a few years later.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1320176455108559/posts/1815769902215876/