Here we go again: ABBA exhibition takes visitors back to 70s
LONDON (AP) — ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus says a new London exhibition about the Swedish pop group took him right back to the 1970s — and he realized some things haven’t changed. Abba: Super Troupers includes reconstructions of the hotel room in England band members stayed in after winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, a 70s’ […]...
Abba's Björn Ulvaeus: I had no idea 1970s Britain was so gloomy
Band member speaks at preview of London exhibition that lovingly recreates scenes from era of band’s sensational success
Ulvaeus in the exhibition’s replica of the Brighton hotel suite where Abba celebrated their 1974 Eurovision win.
Ulvaeus in the exhibition’s replica of the Brighton hotel suite where Abba celebrated their 1974 Eurovision win. Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters
Mark Brown Arts correspondent
Wednesday 13 December 2017 16.29 GMT Last modified on Wednesday 13 December 2017 23.16 GMT
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There were endless strikes, power cuts, three-day weeks, TV programmes that finished at 10.30pm and Noel Edmonds. “You get very close to the reality of Britain in the 70s,” said Abba’s Björn Ulvaeus. “I had no idea it was so gloomy.”
Ulvaeus was speaking at the first preview of a new immersive Abba show at the Southbank Centre, which aims to tell the sensational success story of the band, as well as put it in the social and political context of 1970s Britain.
Groups of no more than 16 will be taken through nine rooms recreating important moments from the band’s history. Narrated by Jarvis Cocker, the show contains more than 120 archive objects as well as, of course, loads of music.
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“It is the opposite of all those huge technically advanced virtual reality exhibitions that most of those pop groups have,” said Ulvaeus. “This is much more intimate, it’s warm, it’s full of a sense of humour.”
Abba burst on to the scene when they won the Eurovision song contest in Brighton in 1974 with Waterloo, beating Olivia Newton John’s UK entry. “The Abba”, as the TV commentator called them, were a much needed light in dark, difficult times.
Ulvaeus said the exhibition, a collaboration with the Abba Museum in Stockholm, made him realise how “impossibly gloomy” Britain was. “We were here for one or two days, now and then, so we didn’t quite know about this.”
It was particularly interesting to see news footage of the debate around whether to go into Europe, he said. “It was striking … how the Brits were hesitant about Europe back then, in the very same way as they are now, which is really sad I think.
Abba museum in Stockholm: ‘overwhelmed by satin and sequins’
“It was spooky. It’s the same thing again for some reason, trying to stay away from Europe. It’s like losing, not losing a friend because you’re still there, but somehow you don’t want to be in the team and I think that’s sad.”
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For some visitors the London exhibition will be nostalgic. There is a recreation of a chilly 70s front room with depressing news reports on the telly, candles for when the lights go out, a copy of Look-In, and a Peters and Lee record that someone hasn’t put back in its sleeve.
An unnecessarily rancid nightclub toilet is lovingly reproduced with puerile graffiti on the cubicle walls, cigarette ends, unspooled toilet roll and vomit stains.
The show’s producer, Paul Denton, said the nightclub was there because it was where so many people enjoyed the music. “Abba only toured for three months in 10 years, which is unheard of for a band today.”
Other rooms in the show include the Brighton hotel suite – the Napoleon Suite – where Abba celebrated the Eurovision song contest win, a bottle of Cinzano on the dressing room table.
There is the Polar music recording studio where Abba made records from 1978 and where visitors can now demonstrate how brilliantly they too can sing Dancing Queen.
For diehard Abba fans, room eight may be particularly hard to bear: the split. Denton and his team have created a Swedish apartment full of half-unpacked boxes, just like the opening scene in Abba’s melancholic One of Us.
On the TV is the band’s last performance in the UK with a toe-curlingly awkward interview with Noel Edmonds on the Late Late Breakfast Show.
The Southbank Centre show is the finale of its year-long celebration of Nordic arts and culture. “It has been a fascinating journey,” said the artistic director, Jude Kelly. “It would have been impossible to celebrate Nordic culture without thinking about Abba.”
Ulvaeus said he never imagined Abba – who split up 35 years ago – would last like it has. “It is kind of weird, but you get used to it.”
He said he was exposed to his younger self in some form every day, which meant he seemed to him to be that “other guy, from way back then. But I’m proud of what he did, I wouldn’t be where I am today if it hadn’t been for him.”
• Abba: Super Troupers is at the Southbank Centre, London, 14 December-29 April.
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Waterloo Station: ABBA exhibit explores band's 1970s rise
By Associated Press
PUBLISHED: 15:22 GMT, 13 December 2017 | UPDATED: 15:57 GMT, 13 December 2017
LONDON (AP) - ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus says a new London exhibition about the Swedish pop group took him right back to the 1970s - and he realized some things haven't changed.
Abba: Super Troupers includes reconstructions of the hotel room in England where band members stayed after winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with "Waterloo," a '70s recording studio and a typically drab British living room of the era.
Ulvaeus said Wednesday that a television set in the exhibit "showed footage from 1973-74, how the Brits were hesitant about Europe back then, in the very same way as they are now, which is really sad, I think."
Bjorn Ulvaeus, former band member of the group ABBA, poses for photographers in a recreation of the Brighton hotel suite, where the group celebrated their 1974 Eurovision Song Contest Victory. The photo call is to promote the exhibition 'ABBA: Super Troupers', in London, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP) +6
Bjorn Ulvaeus, former band member of the group ABBA, poses for photographers in a recreation of the Brighton hotel suite, where the group celebrated their 1974 Eurovision Song Contest Victory. The photo call is to promote the exhibition 'ABBA: Super Troupers', in London, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)
He said Britain's departure from the European Union was "like losing - not losing a friend because you're still there - but somehow you don't want to be in the team, and I think that's sad."
The exhibition at London's Southbank Centre features items from the ABBA museum in Stockholm and private archives, including costumes, handwritten notes, photos and musical instruments.
It sets the rise of the spangly Swedish superstars "against the shifting socio-economic and political conditions of the time" - a period when Britain was beset by strikes, power shortages and financial crisis.
At a preview of the show, Ulvaeus said it brought back old memories. But he said the four members of ABBA would never reunite for live concerts, because it "would be such hassle."
"It would be enormous. And it would take such... you cannot imagine the tension and the attention from everyone," he said.
"So it would be like robbing yourself of, perhaps, two or three years out of your life when I could be paddling on my surf ski in the archipelago of Stockholm instead."
The exhibition opens Thursday and runs to April 29. Fittingly, the nearest train and subway station is Waterloo.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-5175623/Here-ABBA-exhibition-takes-visitors-70s.html
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ABBA show recreates ‘dingy’ 70s Britain as Björn Ulvaeus says: ‘I didn’t think we’d last’ Björn Ulvaeus opens ABBA- Super Troupers at Southbank Centre (Vic Frankowski) Adam Sherwin 23 hours Wednesday December 13th 2017
The school report for a seven-year old Björn Ulvaeus shows a B-minus grade for singing. But 380 million record sales later, the future ABBA star’s early vocal limitations did not prevent him from striking a popular chord. The 1953 report card, signed by Björn’s mother, is one of 120 archive objects which go on display today in ABBA: Super Troupers, an “immersive” exhibition charting the Swedish hitmakers rise to fame, at the Southbank Centre. Featuring original costumes, handwritten notes and sketches, the show, narrated by Jarvis Cocker, presents ABBA as a colourful escape from a “dingy and desperate” 1970s Britain, riven by strikes, a furious debate over Europe and governed by a Tory Prime Minister unable to command a Commons majority. Visitors are transported on a journey through nine rooms recreating significant moments from ABBA’s heyday.
Met Police banned ABBA from shooting video The Brighton hotel Napoleon suite where the band celebrated their 1974 Eurovision triumph, includes the hand-written music manuscript of Waterloo, a Contest scoresheet and Agnetha Fältskog’s famous knitted hat. A room recreating a 1970s nightclub disco, including period toilet cubicles, contains a letter from the Met Police responding to ABBA’s request to film a Super Trouper video at Piccadilly Circus. The Police refused permission because the band wished to use circus animals. A room full of half-unpacked boxes illustrates the band’s 1982 dissolution following the breakdown of the marriages between Ulvaeus and Agnetha Fältskog and Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. Just 16 visitors at a time are allowed into the compact exhibition.
The final room, in which visitors are strapped into airplane seats, includes clips of ABBA parodies from French & Saunders and Alan Partridge. Ulvaeus: ‘I thought we’d only last a few years.’ Speaking at its launch, Ulvaeus said: “People ask what it’s like to be a museum piece while you’re still alive. It’s kind of weird but you get used to it. I’m proud of what we did. I thought we’d only last a few years.” Ulvaeus said the “warm, intimate” low-tech show, a contrast to rival VR experiences, perfectly evoked the era. “I had no idea it was so gloomy,” he said.
Jude Kelly, the Southbank Centre’s Artistic Director, criticised snobs who dismissed ABBA as “throwaway pop culture.” She said: “If you think about what charts our lives it is often popular music. Dancing Queen is the song that still makes people go wild and gets self-conscious English people dancing all night.” :: ABBA: Super Troupers 14 December 2017 – 29 April 2018, Spirit Level, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
https://inews.co.uk/culture/music/abba-show-recreates-dingy-70s-britain-bjorn-ulvaeus-says-i-didnt-think-wed-last/
