Original subtitles

LAUGHTER

RADIO HOST: Do you have any stories of what was happening?

Wait a minute, though. Before that, there was something else.

There was an international award. What was that?

Er... The Eurovision Song Contest? Is that what you mean? In '74?

Tell me that story.

It's... Is the tape running now?

Yeah. Yeah?

Welcome to the 19th Eurovision Song Contest,

being transmitted to no less than 32 countries.

Here we have those two guys,

who have this burning ambition to write songs...

I'm Bjorn. I'm Frida.

Benny. I'm Agnetha.

..and then one of them falls in love with a beautiful blonde

who happens to be the most fantastic singer,

and then the other one falls in love with a redhead -

beautiful as well and a fantastic singer!

Eurovision, we were mainly in it to show ourselves, to show people

that there is a band up in Sweden, in Stockholm,

that can write pop music.

Eurovision Song Contest, it has a very, very big audience,

probably between 500 and 600 million viewers.

We had funny costumes...

They were tight. They were really tight.

..and we had a song that wasn't the usual Eurovision stuff.

APPLAUSE HOST: Oh, and it's Napoleon!

No wonder their song is called Waterloo!

I don't think any one of us thought that we would win the competition.

Benny might have had a feeling.

Well, I bet 100 quid on it. HE LAUGHS

Good odds. 40 to 1. THEY LAUGH

Really entered into the spirit of it all, dressed as Napoleon.

For me, that was really, really scary.

Waiting for Waterloo by ABBA, for Sweden.

Watch this one.

# My, my

# At Waterloo Napoleon did surrender

# Oh, yeah

# And I have met my destiny in quite a similar way

# The history book on the shelf... #

Here are the results of the Finnish jury -

Sweden, 5 votes. Cinq votes!

# Couldn't escape if I wanted to

# Waterloo Knowing my fate is to be with you

# Wa-Wa-Wa-Wa-Waterloo... #

Oslo. Sweden, 2 votes.

Sweden, 3 votes.

# My, my

# I tried to hold you back but you were stronger

# Oh, yeah... #

Sweden, 5 votes. Sweden's way in the lead.

Sweden, they've never won it,

but they've surely got to be up amongst the reckoning with that one.

There's no doubt about it,

the winning song of the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest,

Waterloo, chante par ABBA!

That was a great moment, really.

But it was a strange feeling. I didn't expect to win.

"Wow! OK, we've achieved this. Now we need to start working."

MUSIC: Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! by ABBA

SONG CONTINUES IN BACKGROUND

SONG STOPS

Waterloo, the song that won last Saturday's Eurovision Song Contest

by a mile.

Sung by the Swedish group ABBA,

Waterloo looks like being a really big seller

and making a chart entry from nowhere next week.

What plans have you got ahead of you now?

What about conquering foreign markets?

The dream is the United States, of course -

if we conquer the British market,

because that's the first thing, really.

A little-known fact, perhaps, is that the two of you are married.

Yes, we are. AGNETHA: Yeah, we are.

Do the fans get jealous? I don't think so. No.

You don't feel that you're literally

living in each other's pockets? No. Sometimes.

I don't. Disagreement in the ranks! LAUGHTER

The first time I met them,

I was just struck by how genuine and normal they were.

They were a close-knit team, you know?

And Bjorn and Agnetha, they were like one.

Take it away, ABBA! APPLAUSE

# My, my

# At Waterloo, Napoleon did surrender... #

# At Waterloo, Napoleon did surrender... #

..ABBA!

# Bin ich verliebt bis uber beide Ohren und ich will... #

# Is always repeating itself

# Waterloo... #

ABBA were seen as total outsiders.

And, you know, the UK press could be mercenary.

A lot of them seemed to turn on the band.

You know, "It's a damp squib.

"It's going to end. Tacky, plastic."

# I was sitting by the phone

# I was waiting all alone... #

On first seeing ABBA, you know, I must admit,

I wasn't sold on the fashion at the time.

I found it a little bit cringey,

seeing the outfits that they all wore,

and I think the outfits were the contributor

that made them look a little bit cheesy.

# Please forgive and then forget

# Or maybe, darling, better yet

# Oh, ring, ring... #

We weren't taken seriously,

I think because we were wearing such strange clothes.

We thought we had to be more outrageous than anyone else

to be seen. And then we thought it was great fun, too.

It was never any plan that, "This is going to be our image,

"the kitsch."

We've really suffered for that.

The first Swedish reporter who came to us with a mic, he said...

It was kind of a different mass media climate

in Sweden at that time.

We were not popular.

In the beginning of my life in Sweden,

when I was working at the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation,

my co-workers, they felt ABBA was too commercial,

not talking about what was happening in the world.

We were "the upset generation".

We were upset about the apartheid system,

we were upset about the military coups in Latin America.

ARCHIVE: Chile today joined the list of South American countries

to fall under military rule.

20,000 people disappeared in Argentina.

We were upset about the wars in Southeast Asia.

And we were upset that ABBA weren't upset.

There was a kind of progressive movement

that looked upon ABBA as anti-Christ.

I first heard an ABBA record

because my boyfriend at that time

was playing guitar with ABBA.

You know, he was sitting home in our apartment,

trying out some new riffs, so I heard the songs in many ways.

I didn't particularly listen to ABBA

because I was listening to Frank Zappa and Pink Floyd

and the Stones and bands like that.

Everyone thought ABBA was just a manager who decides,

"Let's take two-good looking women, two skilled musicians,

"put them together and make a group that will make hits."

You know, just doing this for the money.

What happens to you when you win that contest is, if you win it,

you're a contest winner and that's what you are.

I mean, everybody who ever wins it,

they're kind of a one-shot.

It took us some time in Europe to get rid of that mark.

MUSIC: SOS by ABBA

After Waterloo, we were trying to find our identity.

INDISTINCT STUDIO CONVERSATION

Were we a rock group or a pop group or something in between?

Hep! APPLAUSE

INTERVIEWER: How did you meet Bjorn? Well, we met on the road, actually.

I was in the Hep Stars and he was playing in a folk group.

The Hootenanny Singers? The Hootenanny Singers, yes.

And we, just by coincidence, met the day before he was going to do

his military services.

Did you do your military services? Certainly, I did!

I shall stand up and salute, sir! LAUGHTER

# People need hope

# People need lovin'

# People need trust from a fellow man

# People need love to make a good livin'

# People need faith in a helping hand... #

Er, Anna and Frida, how did you meet Bjorn and Benny?

By that time, Frida and I were working as

solo artists in Sweden,

and we had a lot of success. SHE LAUGHS

I met Benny first of all in 1969,

and I fell madly in love with him.

I remember hearing Agnetha's first single on the radio.

I was so in love. HE LAUGHS

Fantastic, the way we sort of came together.

Who amongst the four of you has the final say

in which track will make a single?

AGNETHA: Frida and I do. LAUGHTER

MUSIC: Mamma Mia by ABBA

Mostly, we were standing in the studio right across each other

and...just singing.

# I've been cheated by you since I don't know when... #

There was so much singing.

# So I made up my mind It must come to an end... #

But for me, it was not working, it was just fun.

# Look at me now

# Will I ever learn?

# I don't know how

# But I suddenly lose control

# There's a fire within my soul

# Just one look

# And I can hear a bell ring

# One more look

# And I forget everything... #

# Mamma mia, does it show again?

# My, my How can I resist you? #

When they were singing together, doing all the harmonies,

that sound, I can remember 4,000 metres distance.

# Yes, I've been broken-hearted

# Blue since the day we parted

# Why, why

# Did I ever let you go? #

Even if they sing very sad songs,

together, they sound somehow jubilant.

With Mamma Mia, we found, "We're a pop group."

We found our identity.

# Bye-bye

# Leave me now or never

# Mamma mia

# It's a game we play

# Bye-bye doesn't mean forever... #

# Yes, I've been broken-hearted

# Blue since the day we parted... #

MUSIC FADES

In Sweden, there was

almost a huge campaign against ABBA during that time.

You couldn't be open about liking ABBA.

And we even had to hide the records.

Sweden was supposed to host the Eurovision Song Contest in '75.

There was a discussion in Swedish television about not taking part

in this Eurovision Song Contest,

but the rules was that Sweden had won,

Sweden was obliged to host the final in '75.

There were protests.

People were marching in the streets.

"Stop the music festival."

Swedish television even broadcast

an alternative to Eurovision

with a satirical song that ridiculed ABBA.

Many people think that there is a formula

or there is a calculation behind... It's not.

It's just merely that Bjorn and I write the music that we enjoy most.

THEY SING: # There was something in the air that night... #

Hello, I'm Johnny Farnham and this is Countdown...

Countdown was a huge television pop show in Australia.

They brought ABBA out and it just blew this country apart.

# There was something in the air that night

# The stars were bright

# Fernando... #

They played them like mad

and made them gigantic hits.

# For liberty, Fernando

# Though we never thought that we could lose

# There's no regret... #

Just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

There was a song every fucking two weeks!

They were all over TV.

Hello, I'm Bjorn.

Hello, I'm Agnetha.

Hello, I'm Frida.

And I'm Benny.

From '75 to '76, ABBA songs were number one in Australia

for 42 weeks!

Nobody could ignore that.

We had a meeting with Peter Robinson,

the head of UK and international A&R.

He'd just literally got in some demos from Sweden.

MUSIC: Knowing Me, Knowing You by ABBA

And there were a selection of tracks,

but the one that stood out was Knowing Me, Knowing You.

# No more carefree laughter... #

He just sat there and he went,

"Ooh! Yeah, that's got to be the next track."

You know, you get that feel.

With that, they were now on a flow. It was working.

# Walking through an empty house, tears in my eyes... #

Judd Lander, he could not ignore what was happening in Australia,

which was phenomenal.

# Knowing me, knowing you

# Aha... #

When I first heard Knowing Me, Knowing You,

I just thought, "Oh, my God, this is a number one.

"I can't believe it."

And you just wanted to rush out into the street and tell everybody,

"I've just heard a future number one!"

# This time, we're through We're really through

# Breaking up is never easy I know... #

From that moment on, I just thought,

"Well, I'm listening to every track they make."

# Knowing me, knowing you

# It's the best I can do... #

You like travelling?

Car, yes. THEY LAUGH

She's very shaky about flying. Yeah. I don't like it.

You're the happy couple. Now... No, we are.

THEY LAUGH

We are just engaged, you know... You're engaged?

Congratulations. ..so that's why.

# Walking through an empty house

# Tears in my eyes

# Here is where the story ends

# This is goodbye... #

After that success, did you find that the press warmed towards you?

They had been a little cool, putting you down...

No, not really. They still thought that it was,

you know, this commercial hit machine.

They still do, no? They still do. Some of them do, yeah.

The audience that buys the record,

I mean, it's like telling them that they're not mature enough,

that they don't know what they're buying

and they're buying something coming out of a calculated hit machine.

I think that's terrible.

Benny and Bjorn, in England,

your lyrics have sometimes been called simple and naive.

Do you not have some ambition, the two of you,

to perhaps put more profundity, more depth into your lyrics sometimes?

Yes... Well, yes, very much so.

And if you listen to the recent lyrics,

they're, you know, somewhat different from the ones before.

But it seems that everybody's decided anyway

that they are simple and naive and nobody bothers to listen.

MUSIC: Dancing Queen by ABBA

But they didn't veer off.

Regardless of the critics, they managed to come back up,

bringing it all together into a 3.5-minute killer track.

# Baby, baby, you're out of sight

# Hey, you're lookin' all right tonight

# When you come to the party

# Listen to the guys

# They got the look in their eyes... #

We never give up until we're satisfied

and we think, "This is as good as we can do it."

# Leave them burning and then you're gone... #

When we recorded Dancing Queen, both Frida and I,

we had those goose bumps.

I remember recording that,

I really felt something very strongly for it, you know?

# And when you get the chance

# You are the dancing queen

# Young and sweet

# Only 17

# Dancing queen

# Feel the beat from the tambourine

# Oh, yeah... #

SONG FADES

THEY PLAY "JINGLE BELLS"

Why do you think they are that big around the world?

OK, I'll do that now. No, I'm asking...

Why...? LAUGHS: Why do I think?

Yes! I think it's because they're the only group

that's actually giving the world

good commercial pop music

that means 1976,

because all the other commercial pop

goes back to 1975 or '74 or '73.

It's too old.

These guys and the girls are really modern,

and yet they're commercial as well.

Just how big are they in Great Britain, for example?

Very big. About THE biggest commercial band there.

Erm, how much of a strain is that?

Meaning that you're working... Yeah. ..you're living together.

I'd say...my personal feelings is that there's no strain at all.

Mm-hm? It's... It's rather the opposite.

Mm-hm? It's an advantage and a privilege to work together

with somebody... The one you enjoy most in life.

Mm-hm. Mm-hm.

But, of course, sometimes you come into situations where

having to be together all the time can create problems.

You know, as the band's success grew, you know, the focus was always

on the girls, on Agnetha and Frida,

and the guys were there as the musicians,

and they were seen as a backdrop more than front-of-house.

All the producers wanted were the girls.

But trying to get the band over, along with Agnetha,

who didn't really want to leave her daughter in Sweden,

it was a major, major problem.

That was a difficult time for me.

We got our daughter 'in 73,

so she was just one year old when we won in Brighton.

So, everything happened at the same time.

But that often is like that, I think,

that you start your career at the same time

you want to be a mother.

When we did Waterloo in Brighton,

we were away for, I think, a fortnight or three weeks.

And when we came back, our daughter, she didn't recognise us.

That was a tough experience.

That was horrible. She was so small.

Do you find there are conflicts between being a mother

and being a pop star? I think so, really.

It's hard work and you always get to bed conscious,

"She wants me and ABBA wants me

"and it's very hard to do it all."

The Polish TV Studio 2 special flight on Polish Airlines

is ready for boarding.

The special flight expects the special guests,

the pop music group ABBA.

The Polish Television offered Stig Anderson and ABBA

to come to Warszawa for a TV special.

They were huge in Eastern Europe.

ABBA cut through the Iron Curtain.

CORK POPS, THEY CHEER

It's very difficult to get paid from an Eastern Bloc country

because their currency is basically worthless.

Stig Anderson, who was quite clever, he made a deal and he said,

"OK, we'll do this free of charge.

"But what you're going to do in return

"is make a media event out of it, and everyone wins."

What does the word ABBA mean? It's very simple.

ABBA is the initials of our first name, and my name is Anni-Frid.

And I'm B - Benny.

And I'm the other B - Bjorn.

And my wife is Agnetha.

She's actually in Warsaw already.

You see, when we fly,

because we have a daughter of three and a half years old,

we try to fly separately when we can.

# Where are those happy days?

# They seem so hard to find

# I try to reach for you

# But you have closed your mind... #

I've been flying now for...very much around the world,

and I've never liked it.

And now I'm very, very scared of it.

# It used to be so nice

# It used to be so good... #

I'm sure other parents as well would resonate the same way.

Both parents flying together -

"What if, what if?"

# So when you're near me

# Darling, can't you hear me?

# SOS

# The love you gave me

# Nothing else can save me

# SOS

# When you're gone

# How can I even try to go on?

# When you're gone

# Though I try How can I carry on? #

It was my first visit to Eastern Europe,

and you could see everything was a bit more worn, a bit grey.

ABBA, it was a big riot.

It was a big thing.

GONG RINGS

# I work all night, I work all day to pay the bills I have to pay

# Ain't it sad?

# And still there never seems to be

# A single penny left for me

# That's too bad... #

Stig Anderson and his will to become this big music industry mogul

clashed against the "Stay where you are

"and don't get ahead of yourself too much" attitude in Sweden.

So, because they were so closely tied to Stig Anderson,

when people were criticising Stig for just thinking about the money,

that sort of rubbed off on their image as well.

# Ain't it sad? #

So that was a struggle for them.

# So I must leave

# I'll have to go

# To Las Vegas or Monaco

# And win a fortune in a game

# My life will never be the same

# Money, money, money

# Must be funny

# In the rich man's world

# Money, money, money... #

Are ABBA into the millionaire bracket?

Well, you can't be that... When they calculate it...

..when you are paying 85% in taxes.

85, I repeat.

# All the things I could do

# If I had a little money

# It's a rich man's world... #

I guess you're hit with a super tax.

Rod Stewart left England because of the super taxes,

or like the Rolling Stones to France.

How do you feel about paying so much to the government?

It's all right. It's all right?

Money isn't everything.

# All the things I could do

# If I had a little money

# It's a rich man's world... #

Sweden is very important for us, you know?

I think everybody starts...

..is asking us why we are living in Sweden,

because of the taxes and... You know.

And I don't think that we can live somewhere else.

It's very hard to think of that.

# It's a rich man world! #

APPLAUSE

We're crossing live by satellite to Sweden, to Stockholm.

Let's meet them now. Would you give them a hand?

Ladies and gentlemen, ABBA!

APPLAUSE

Did you ever envisage that you would be this immensely successful?

No. No. No way.

I mean, we've been... We've been writing and recording

for a couple of years, all the four of us,

and we never expected this, really.

Bjorn and Agnetha, your daughter Linda, how old is she now?

She will be four years tomorrow.

Does she yet realise who you are?

LAUGHTER

That's a funny question. I hope she does!

Well... She called me Father this morning.

Did she? LAUGHTER

APPLAUSE

Well, let me get over to the other two.

I want to ask them something personal.

I read something in a paper.

You two have been engaged for seven years?

Yeah. Eight by now.

LAUGHTER Eight, yeah.

Are you ever going to make a move? Are you ever going to get married?

Oh, no. LAUGHTER

Look at the look on him. Are you ready for that?

LAUGHTER

No, we are not quite sure of that, you know? We haven't...

We didn't get the time yet, so...

Oh, I see. Maybe in another 10 or 12 years, you'll figure it out.

Yes. Yeah. LAUGHS: OK!

You never know.

Thank you. ABBA, ladies and gentlemen!

APPLAUSE Thank you. OK. Bye now!

Frida called me in late '76.

We were friends.

We did some fun things together, played badminton

and were out dancing and stuff,

and she asked me if I wanted to join ABBA in Australia.

It was a very easy call to make.

CHEERING

CHANTING: We want ABBA! We want ABBA!

We were very nervous.

To be perfectly honest, we didn't know ourselves

whether we could cope with a tour of this form.

They'd been saying that,

"Oh, they can never reproduce that sound onstage."

When you're trying to do something special,

trying to reproduce our records

with a band, live,

that's difficult stuff.

ARCHIVE: The group's arrival in Australia

has been accompanied by a blaze of publicity.

While they're here, they'll perform at 11 concerts in ten days

to an estimated 140,000 people.

According to the promoters, they're bigger than the Beatles.

And with an entourage of 105 people,

they're almost twice as big as the Rolling Stones concert.

ABBA are obviously very big business.

..live to air, and everybody down there with radios can hear us.

Would you like to say anything to the people?

I'd like to say that this is the most fantastic reception

we ever had.

And, you know, we're so overwhelmed and happy

that I just can't say how much.

And this is really honest, you know?

Say hello. This microphone is live to the people down there.

They can all hear you. Who, down on the...? Yeah. Oh.

Hello, everybody. This is Frida.

I really appreciate this. I love you.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

That was so enormous.

The fact that so many people like what you are doing, it's...

You're very proud of it.

But I was crowded, really.

It affects you when it gets too much.

And I could feel that when we were in Australia sometimes.

Good feeling as well - that was so enormous there.

There was really fever.

I think it was a little too much.

Going on tour is really exhausting -

to travel every day, to change hotels,

you know, never unpack your suitcases.

After a while, it's not funny any more.

I read somewhere where you are the proud owner of an award

which declares you as the lady

with the most sexiest bottom in Europe.

LAUGHTER

Is that true?

How can I answer to that?

I don't know. I haven't seen it.

LAUGHTER

Well, it's crass, isn't it? It's rude.

But what can she do about it?

It's completely unsurprising.

They're not going to ask Agnetha about the music.

I think it was unworthy,

any person to be talked about

as a body part.

ARCHIVE: Heavy rain tomorrow night is now the only thing that will stop

the ABBA concert from going ahead.

According to showground officials, the 20,000 or so people out there

should experience no real problems.

How many hours do you reckon you've been queuing for now?

32. 32 hours? Yeah.

You reckon it's going to be worth it? Yeah!

CHANTING

They were extremely nervous, absolutely.

A little group from Sweden, going to conquer the world.

CHANTING

CHANTING

SHE SINGS

MUSIC BLARES

MUSIC: Tiger by ABBA

CHEERING

CHEERING

# The city is a nightmare A horrible dream

# Some of us will dream it forever... #

# People who fear me never come near me

# I am the tiger... #

AGNETHA: I think both Frida and I, when we were onstage,

a bit competing.

It's good, because you really do your best every evening.

# I am behind you I always find you... #

So much has been written that Frida and I were not friends.

It's not very fair to do that.

We had a lot of fun, but we also helped each other.

# Look into the shadows and you'll see the shape of me

# I am behind you

# I always find you

# I am the tiger

# Tiger, tiger! #

WHISTLING AND CHEERING

INTERVIEWER: In Australia, there was that huge conglomeration

of hit after hit after hit, and there was that huge peak.

Does that sort of bother you,

the fact that you were getting so terribly overexposed?

In a way, yeah, because it's...

It's harming us now, I think.

If people expect us to have

five songs in the top ten all the time,

I mean, that's impossible. That's not normal.

When ABBA: The Album was released in Australia,

it doesn't do as well at all.

So not to make too big a thing out of it,

but maybe there was a bit of a worry there.

"Oh, this isn't a number one."

"Maybe this is the start of the end for us."

The new craze, they tell me.

They are heroes, not the nice, clean Rolling Stones.

They're a group called the Sex Pistols.

Punk came along, overturning and turning its back on

and spitting on all that had come before.

Go on, you've got another five seconds.

Say something outrageous!

You dirty bastard!

Go on, again.

You dirty fucker!

What a clever boy. What a fucking rotter!

Well, that's it for tonight.

I'll be seeing you soon.

I hope I'm not seeing you again. From me, though, goodnight.

We felt we were caught up in a revolution.

And here are Bjorn, Anna, Frida and Benny,

who go together to make up ABBA.

And first of all, I'd like to say welcome to Blue Peter.

Thank you. Thanks very much for coming along.

Nice to meet you, Shep. Nice to meet you.

And Shep says hello as well.

That was the contradiction, in a way,

of locating ABBA,

when what was prized was a certain sort of roughness.

ABBA, they seemed to project a relentless good cheer.

That was somewhat at odds with the zeitgeist.

I try so hard to be nice.

They represented a wholeness, something high-functioning,

whereas we were just teetering on the edge and falling apart.

By the summertime of '77,

punk was in the charts.

It was sometimes four or five songs in the top ten.

Bands like ABBA were being squeezed out.

In '77, the Pistols manager decided to do a Scandinavian tour.

I was brought up in England, but I'm Norwegian.

The first thing I remember was Rodent.

He was the roadie

and he was carrying a cassette player.

And on the cassette player,

they had one cassette, and it was...

MUSIC: Dancing Queen by ABBA

I just turned around and went,

"What?!"

They played it 24/7, all the time.

Everybody... It was Rodent's job to turn it around,

you know, when it got to the end.

# You can dance

# You can jive

# Having the time of your life... #

It's a miracle it lasted the whole tour.

The Pistols, they were huge ABBA fans.

# Digging the dancing queen... #

A record label can be very mercenary.

It has to be to keep up with demand

and with an ever-changing musical scene,

there was a little panic in the camp.

"Do we carry on with the band?

"Do we call it a day?"

That inevitably comes along.

Having to come up with new songs all the time,

isn't that very difficult?

Don't you feel enormous pressure?

Yeah, we do.

We feel that we have to come up with something different.

So many people been talking about the equivalent

to the Sgt Pepper album, you know, when The Beatles came up.

And, um...

..it puts a lot of pressure on us, sure.

Benny and Bjorn are with me.

Anna is, what, due in a couple of days?

Yes, yes.

She's fine, but, um...

..a bit tired of waiting.

Yeah. After nine months, no wonder!

What are you hoping for, a boy or a girl?

A dog. THEY LAUGH

Don't tell Anna.

# No smiles, not a single word

# At the breakfast table

# Though I would have liked to begin

# So much that I wanna say

# But I feel unable

# You leave and slam the door

# Like you've done many times before

# And I cry and I feel so helpless... #

People have read a lot into various lyrics.

And of course, there is some of that in the lyrics,

but most is fiction.

But the emotions are there. Yeah.

1978 was a strange period.

Bjorn and Agnetha's marriage

is not going so well.

And in the midst of all this,

Benny and Frida get married.

# Where did all our love go?

# Sometimes when I just can't cope

# I cling to a desperate hope

# And I cry and I feel like dying... #

"I cling to a desperate hope

"and I cry and I feel like dying.

"Two friends and two true lovers.

"Somehow we'll help each other through the hard times."

No, you won't...

..and you don't.

Well, I think what men mistake for happiness was in fact

resignation and impatience.

Depends what you're in the relationship for, I guess.

I mean, it's always got to be worth staying,

but it might be unbearable.

# Daydreams of a better life

# But I have to wake up

# The sound of a key in the door... #

The lyrics, they're talking about very serious,

you know, pains of the heart.

Within them, they did have really mature reflections

on their relationships.

In talking about things like separation,

they were in the flow of what was going on socially.

Women's liberation is people's liberation!

It was a huge thing.

People were not getting divorced.

IN ENGLISH:

IN FRENCH:

IN ENGLISH:

IN FRENCH:

Do you want to answer, Benny?

You are not afraid someone might steal your wife?

We know them as the biggest artists in the world

since The Beatles, except in the United States.

Speaking of Olivia Newton-John, I was told that

before being as noticed in America,

you were quite popular in Australia.

Is that so? Yeah, yeah.

Why do you suppose that is?

Well, I'd say the only territory where we don't sell records is here.

Otherwise, they buy the records all over the world.

It seemed impossible to make ABBA as big in America

as they were everywhere else.

I mean, they were doing fine.

They had a number one hit with Dancing Queen,

but it wasn't as successful.

At this time, when ABBA are coming up,

the measure of credibility in popular music

is pretty much guitar rock.

They didn't look like other rock stars.

And then also, I mean, just even the sound of the women's voices,

I mean, that kind of thin, high pitch

is almost like Alvin And The Chipmunks or something.

It sounds like a record that's being played too quickly.

They knew that there was resistance to them

from a magazine like Rolling Stone.

Some great songs.

I know one you could start off with your voice.

Ba-Ba-Ba...

You want to do that?

You go on. You do it. That's good.

# Ba

# Ba Ba

# Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Barbara Ann

# Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Barbara Ann

# Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Barbara Ann

# Barbara Ann

# Take my hand

# Barbara Ann

# You got me rockin' and a rollin'

# Rockin' and a reelin'

# Barbara Ann

# Ba-Ba-Ba-Barbara Ann

# Went to a dance Looking for romance

# Saw Barbara Ann so I thought I'd take a chance

# Barbara Ann

# Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Barbara Ann

# Barbara Ann

This is the wrong way around!

# Rockin' and a rollin'

# Rockin' and a reelin'

# Barbara Ann

# Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Barbara Ann

# Ba-Ba-Ba... # THEY LAUGH

How come you're doing the high part and I'm doing the low part?

THEY LAUGH

Can you do some opera? Huh?

Can you sing some opera?

Actually, I don't know many songs.

You know, just a few.

Just give us a few bars.

You have got a good opera voice.

Sing some scales.

Couple of notes. The one you were rehearsing.

LAUGHTER

The one you've been rehearsing for a week now.

That's not fair.

SHE SINGS OPERA

LAUGHTER

CONTINUES SINGING

I like that.

CONTINUES SINGING

JAUNTILY: # La la la la! #

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

There was an interesting connection. Chic and ABBA

were signed to the same label at the same time,

and I thought that just like my band, Chic,

their songs and their sound is uniquely theirs.

You have to understand that people have different roots.

They're Swedish!

They're not from California or New Orleans or whatever.

They have a culture that is uniquely theirs.

It's very difficult to say exactly what ABBA is.

Because we've been exposed to the American music scene,

the English, the Swedish folk music scene,

to the Italian, German, French.

There are a lot of styles, a lot of different traditions

that we now and then like to try.

It must be very difficult to say.

On average, how long does it take for you to write a song?

That's impossible to answer.

Sometimes, you know, it takes...

It takes you a week

and there's no song at all for two weeks.

And sometimes it takes four hours

and there is almost a complete song there.

Let's say it has taken us a year for each album.

I get this call from the head of entertainment at the BBC.

"Hi, Judd."

"Listen, we need ABBA."

"We're doing a Christmas special. We'd love ABBA to come."

Well, aren't they lovely? See...

That applause. It just shows you how lovely you are.

I'll just check your details.

He seems like a nice boy, doesn't he?

LAUGHTER

Which one are you?

I'm Bjorn. Bjorn? Yes.

Bjorn. That's a very popular name for babies in Sweden, isn't it?

Yeah, they say there's one Bjorn every minute.

LAUGHTER

He's going to be trouble, isn't he?

This was one of the big, major Christmas shows,

a show called the Mike Yarwood Show.

He was a showbiz impersonator, comedian

and highly respected entertainer

with the biggest viewership at the time in the UK.

They're one of the world's most popular singing groups

and I love them. I know you love them.

Millions do.

ABBA.

APPLAUSE

# I'm nothing special

# In fact, I'm a bit of a bore

# If I tell a joke

# You've probably heard it before

# But I have a talent

# A wonderful thing

# Cos everyone listens when I start to sing

# I'm so grateful and proud... #

We arrived at the hotel,

all marched up to the suites,

and I said goodnight.

And there was Agnetha on her own.

And I saw her going into her own suite.

A slight loneliness was showing on her face.

You know, the sort of...

It was sad, actually.

That television special actually aired on Christmas Day in the UK.

So while the British public were

sitting in front of this big television special

and enjoying ABBA

and seeing them as a happy group of two happy couples,

the reality of it was that on that very same day,

Agnetha took the kids and moved out.

The marriage didn't work,

but we still worked very well together as...

as musicians and artists.

So we decided to split up the marriage, but not split up...

..split up ABBA.

I think that was brave of us.

But we were in the middle of something

and there were no hard feelings.

And we knew, all of us, that this is our way to succeed.

We want to follow, to do this and to continue,

even if there were some hard times.

I don't want to put the blame on ABBA.

I mean, we are growing apart sometimes

and you can't do anything about it.

Coming up next from the General Assembly of the United Nations,

the concert of the year.

A Gift Of Song -

the Music for UNICEF Concert.

APPLAUSE

MUSIC: Chiquitita by ABBA

# Chiquitita, tell me what's wrong

# You're enchained by your own sorrow

# In your eyes

# There is no hope for tomorrow... #

UNICEF needed to raise money

for its children's charities around the world.

# I'm a shoulder you can cry on... #

The artists donated royalties for a song and UNICEF got it all.

# Now I see you've broken a feather... #

Here I am, sitting in the United Nations

and ABBA are rising into view on a turntable.

And it was cool.

# I hope we can patch it up together

# Chiquitita, you and I know

# How the heartaches come and they go

# And the scars they're leaving... #

Chiquitita was an enormous multimillion seller

around the world and raised millions of dollars

for projects in Latin America and Southeast Asia,

among other places.

I wonder if we can move on very quickly, in fact,

to the success, the great success story of Chiquitita,

which, as well as being a number two hit in Britain, Frida,

has now proved to be your biggest success

in Spanish-speaking territories.

There's a wee bit of a story

behind how and why that happened, isn't there?

We felt that it would be nice to do it in Spanish

because it's very much a Spanish song, I mean, in the style.

Sort of reminiscent of Fernando as well, isn't it?

Yeah, it is, in a way.

So we called a Spanish teacher to teach us how to pronounce

the words and the lyrics in Spanish.

I think it turned out very well.

One day...

"God dag."

"My name is Stikkan Anderson

"and I have a small pop group,

"and I want a Spanish coach."

A small group! LAUGHS

Stikkan Anderson was very enthusiastic about taking

ABBA in Spanish to South America

because with so many people,

commercially, it makes sense.

I called my sister in Argentina.

She was, like, crazy...

ABBA SINGING IN SPANISH:

It could be someone with suffering of love,

but I have to be very honest.

For me, it's a song about solidarity.

When you have difficult political times,

like the military dictatorship in Argentina or somewhere,

you anyhow are a human being, a person.

You want some minutes of happiness.

CROWD CHANTS:

ABBA:

And I am convinced...

When Agnetha was singing,

it was such an emotion because of the words in Spanish for me.

For me, it was magic.

It was magic.

In a way, ABBA was political.

When they were collecting money for UNICEF,

that is political.

What they were not doing was, they were subtle.

They have bigger visions of solidarity.

SONG FADES

What about the sort of family life now in ABBA?

You're getting an awful lot of publicity on various lines,

actually, of the family life.

Has it in any way caused any problem professionally?

You know, is it difficult at all?

When you are a person that everybody knows,

you have to take that.

You know that they are going to write about it

and you have to take it. Yeah.

So we don't look at the papers too much ourselves.

Yeah.

They were professionally still working very well together,

but particularly Agnetha clearly didn't want to be there.

She was very professional.

She turned up for the interviews,

she had the pictures taken,

but clearly just didn't enjoy being there any more.

I've got something for you.

This is Richard Skinner with a Radio 1 exclusive,

as Benny... Hello, Richard.

Hi! Bjorn... Hello.

..Agnetha... Hi, everybody.

..and Frida... Hello.

..of ABBA talk to us about their latest album, Voulez-Vous,

and we play tracks from the album.

# People everywhere

# A sense of expectation hangin' in the air... #

Interestingly, it's a sort of disco, funk sound

on that title track, Bjorn, and in a way it sums up the album.

It's a new move for the group, isn't it?

Yeah, that's what we feel ourselves.

# Voulez-vous? Ah-ha

# Take it now or leave it Ah-ha

# Now is 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? #

When I first heard the album,

I thought, "Oh, they've peaked."

It seemed to gesture to disco too much.

Now, who am I to say they shouldn't have made a disco record?

Because disco was so big.

MUSIC: Good Times by Chic

I grew up in the era of discos and dancing.

The Latino, the Asian, the black,

the queer community.

The music brought us all together.

# Good times

# These are the good times... #

No matter how much it morphs,

this is a whole American vibe

that comes from soul music.

# Good times... #

Everybody made a disco record.

And so ABBA delved into disco.

MUSIC: Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) by ABBA

# Half-past twelve

# And I'm watching the late show in my flat all alone

# How I hate to spend the evening on my own

# Autumn winds

# Blowing outside the window... #

It was a successful disco record.

I mean, there's no doubting it.

Gay discos, particularly because, of course, of the title.

Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight).

So, needless to say,

when the clock struck 12:01...

HUMS SYNTH MELODY

But it turns out the timing was terrible.

50,000 people, the largest crowd of the season,

showed up at Chicago's Comiskey Park

for the twi-night double-header

between the White Sox and the Detroit Tigers.

15,000 others had to be turned away.

Many had come for Disco Demolition Night,

a promotional gimmick.

Between games, as planned,

a huge box containing thousands of disco records was blown up.

Yes! That's real good!

The rest was unplanned.

Fans stormed out onto the field in the thousands.

Disco records were hurled like Frisbees.

Bonfires were set, bottles were thrown.

"Disco sucks!", we can now clearly see,

was basically a racist and homophobic reaction

from rock fans.

A lot of radio stations stopped playing disco.

Disco died almost overnight.

ABBA was bringing in a lot of disco elements into their music

at just the moment when disco was publicly demonised.

This album wasn't going to make it easy for them to break America.

ABBA, Sweden's greatest export.

On their very first American tour...

..ABBA: The Concert.

This was going to be their first North American tour.

It opened in Edmonton of all places,

which is quite far north, in Canada.

Rolling Stone flew me up there to interview them.

A rush of photographers met ABBA at the airport.

Journalists from around the world

chasing the elusive public image of ABBA.

We've done a lot of television and radio and interviews and all that

without touring and doing live performances.

Not being available here in North America

is definitely a disadvantage.

We're here to try to change that.

They were very unassuming,

but clearly the tour was important for them.

The truck drivers and the people at the airport,

and the people who worked in the hotels,

they all seemed to love ABBA,

but they were not that big in America then.

We were playing in small places, not huge arenas.

Well, Benny, ABBA seem to be an entire unit to themselves.

You record your own records, you write your own material,

you promote your own stuff.

Is there not a danger that there could be a certain sameness

about the whole thing?

Um, well... CHUCKLES

I'm sure that they felt they weren't being taken seriously

as music people.

In the hotel, when I interviewed them,

Bjorn had said,

"It may be pop music to you, but it's soul to us."

The men did the interviews.

The women were not part of it.

And I remember getting the sense at that time

that the women were less enthused about going on tour.

It was a hard-core tour.

There was a lot of back-to-backs

and a lot of travelling.

FRIDA PRACTISES

A lot of practice.

AGNETHA PRACTISES

They were quite thorough in their work.

You would always hear Frida and Agnetha singing backstage,

and that was always interspersed with laughter.

And I remember saying to Frida, "Oh, it's been so great."

"The tour's been so great and everything,

and it's so great to see you."

"And you guys, you're just all so happy together."

And she said, "It's not quite what it seems, Patrick."

MUSIC: Summer Night City by ABBA

# End of night

# A new day dawning

# And the first birds start to sing

# In the pale light of the morning

# Nothing's worth remembering

# It's a dream

# It's out of reach... #

The response from the audience was not as it was in Australia.

I'm not sure that we did sell out all concerts.

But, you know, American audiences, it's not easy to please.

They were really struggling and fighting to do a good tour

and to break in America.

That was the sole purpose.

For Agnetha, that part of the tour was really difficult.

She was fairly newly divorced.

She felt alone.

She hated flying.

Tornado, October 3rd.

We got many reports of tornadoes on the ground.

Funnels and quite a bit of damage.

Some winds estimated in excess of 100mph.

I can't stress enough, you should take immediate safety precautions.

I don't like to fly.

On our tour, I think we flew from New York to Boston.

We were up in the air for

one and a half...years, I almost said!

SHE LAUGHS

One and a half hours,

with this terrible weather.

They tried to take us down,

but we couldn't land because the airport was blown away.

That was really, really scary moments for us

and we were all four in the plane.

More than 400 people hurt.

One man killed by the storm.

Damage extensive,

expected to run into the millions of dollars.

After that, I got sick.

My whole body was sick.

That was some hard times, really.

We came to a point when I said that, "I can't do this.

"We have to have some kind of limit."

Touring, it takes too much away

from the creativity that is essential to write songs.

Of course it's fun to be onstage,

facing the audience and all that.

That's only two hours a day.

The other 22 hours is just struggling,

getting from place to place.

# Super Trouper beams are gonna blind me

# But I won't feel blue

# Like I always do

# Cos somewhere in the crowd there's you... #

For almost every artist, America is the way to break it worldwide.

We've done it worldwide without America.

We can live without it.

So it doesn't mean life or death. No.

# I was sick and tired of everything

# When I called you last night from Glasgow

# All I do is eat and sleep and sing

# Wishing every show was the last show

# So imagine I was glad to hear you're coming

# Suddenly I feel all right

# And suddenly it's gonna be

# And it's gonna be so different when I'm on the stage tonight

# So I'll be there when you arrive

# The sight of you will prove to me I'm still alive

# And when you take me in your arms

# And hold me tight

# I know it's gonna mean so much tonight

# Tonight the Super Trouper lights are gonna find me... #

We're at the gates of the BBC, where there's a lot of expecting fans

hoping to catch a glimpse of their favourite pop group, ABBA.

You're obviously all ardent fans... Yeah.

..and willing to stand around for quite some time.

BOTH: We'd do anything for them. Right.

Tell me something. We are girl-less this morning.

Where are the ladies?

We've been working so hard lately

that they're simply too tired to come.

All right. How are you...?

We've been having, like, 38 gigs in a row.

How are you standing up to it?

Well, we're not, really. THEY LAUGH

America was weird, but when they came back to the UK,

things couldn't have been more different.

Wembley.

It was like a mega event.

It was like pop royalty had come to town.

Is it far to go? Yeah.

It is? Yeah. Good.

When I heard that they sold out six concerts

and they could have sold out six more or 15 more,

I was a bit shocked

because that's very few bands that can do that.

It also attracted the critics.

The irony was that you'd have high-end music journalists

who'd already criticised them all,

but suddenly they wanted that VIP ticket

and I'd wind them up, saying,

"But I thought you didn't like the band!"

SHE PRACTISES

HITS HIGH NOTE

INDISTINCT CONVERSATION

Soon as they came out...

CHEERING

..there was a roar that you would not believe.

CHEERING

MUSIC: Voulez-Vous by ABBA

# Voulez-vous

# Ah-ha

# Ah-ha

# Ah-ha... #

Everybody wanted to go to the shows.

The who's who of showbiz wanted to go.

I remember the VIP area at Wembley on the left was chocker

and some of the VIPs, like Zeppelin, The Who.

We were really surprised

to see that these guys were coming to see ABBA.

That was the thrill, actually,

that we will have a following with our heroes.

# Voulez-vous... #

One of the most flattering things I've heard in my life was

I ran into Pete Townshend and he says, you know,

"SOS is the best pop song ever written."

I was so proud.

CHEERING

Hello, everybody.

It's now three years ago since we were in London

and played the last time.

It's far too long.

It really feels good to be back, I can tell you that.

CHEERING

It's been tough in many ways, but it's been very rewarding

because we've showed our critics, audiences,

as well as ourselves,

we can make it live.

That confidence was there the whole time.

It was there from the tour, '77.

When you do something that you can stand up for,

then you have the confidence because no-one can touch you.

They can say, "This is crap." Yeah, fine, but I love it.

The difference now was that they could

share the confidence with the audience.

They were quite proud of what they had achieved.

# You and I can share the silence

# Finding comfort together

# The way old friends do

# And after fights

# And words of violence

# We make up with each other

# The way old friends do

# Times of joy

# And times of sorrow

# We will always see it through

# Oh, I don't care

# What comes tomorrow

# We can face it together

# The way old friends do

# We can face it together

# The way old friends do. #

CHEERING

One thing we'd learned was that everything starts with a song.

I think great music is created

from the human experience.

Deep emotions.

Writing a lyric is something in between a poem and a melody.

It would conjure up not only a mood,

but, like, images sometimes in me.

Almost cinematic.

Peter, the head of UK and international A&R,

called me up.

New tracks had come along.

The business is a very cynical business.

You know, you've got executives there who,

all they're interested in is the next dollar.

But when we were listening to that track...

..there was a silence there.

We all knew what it was all about.

MUSIC: The Winner Takes It All by ABBA

I first presented the lyrics one morning in our studio...

..and we had this fantastic backing track.

# I don't wanna talk

# About things we've gone through

# Though it's hurting me

# Now it's history

# I've played all my cards...

I'm a very much feeling person,

and I really try to put my life experience

and my feelings, everything in the song.

# The winner takes it all

# The loser standing small

# Beside the victory... #

Going through a divorce is difficult,

as anyone would know who's done it.

That was, of course, taking up my thoughts.

# I was in your arms

# Thinking I belonged there

# I figured it made sense

# Building me a fence... #

But there was not one winner in the case of us.

# Building me a home

# Thinking I'd be strong there

# But I was a fool... #

It was powerful.

You know, one of our best, I think.

It's really honest.

# The gods may throw a dice... #

I think he was writing about all the four of us.

# Loses someone dear

# The winner takes it all

# The loser has to fall... #

The Super Trouper album, I think, turned everything around,

getting the sales and finally getting some brilliant reviews.

# Somewhere deep inside

# You must know I miss you... #

Everybody is happy with it.

In Holland, it's already a golden album.

You must be rich.

But are you happy too?

Sometimes. Sometimes not.

As other people,

life goes up and down, I think.

# Spectators of the show

# Always staying low

# The game is on again... #

# I don't wanna talk... #

We could feel that it suddenly had got a bit heavy.

It was not so fun any more to record

and it was something in the atmosphere,

a bit tragic.

# But you see

# The winner takes it all

# The winner takes it all... #

We had a very explosive and creative period.

We organically came together gradually

and then it happened

and then it stopped.

# Takes it... #

MUSIC STOPS ABRUPTLY

It's fascinating, that story.

It is dramatic.

OK. Waterloo.

Why did you decide to try out at the Eurovision...?

What's the actual title?

Eurovision Song Contest.

You know, you have to realise that at that time

it was virtually the only thing that could help you

get outside the borders of Sweden.

Nobody would listen to a tape from Sweden at that time.

We had to prove that we were different.

We had to fight our way.

We just started working really, really hard.

MUSIC: Lay All Your Love On Me by ABBA

# Don't go wasting your emotion

# Lay all your love on me. #