0:00:07 > 0:00:11Between 1974 and 1982,
0:00:11 > 0:00:16four Viking invaders plundered the Anglo-Saxon pop charts.
0:00:16 > 0:00:20'No-one cared if you were big in Austria,'
0:00:20 > 0:00:22or Germany, or Sweden.
0:00:22 > 0:00:27But if you were accepted in Britain, OK, that's fine.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29Now you're a real pop group.
0:00:31 > 0:00:34Combining European musical influences,
0:00:34 > 0:00:38perfect production, and lyrics of love and loss,
0:00:38 > 0:00:40ABBA were unique.
0:00:40 > 0:00:41# Half past 12
0:00:41 > 0:00:43# And I'm watching the late show... #
0:00:43 > 0:00:48A lot of their songs have dealt with the mundaneness of, you know,
0:00:48 > 0:00:52watching TV, going to work, falling in love a bit,
0:00:52 > 0:00:55having your heart broken. That was their talent,
0:00:55 > 0:00:59of making something very normal seem otherworldly.
0:01:05 > 0:01:10ABBA made us fall in love with the sound of Swedish melancholy.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13'You have this incredible cheerfulness.'
0:01:13 > 0:01:15At the same time, you have this real darkness,
0:01:15 > 0:01:18and this real sadness within the songs.
0:01:18 > 0:01:22# Ooh, you can dance... #
0:01:22 > 0:01:25'ABBA sort of really gouged out this sense of...
0:01:25 > 0:01:29'of the kind of sadness, the difficulty, of the human condition.'
0:01:29 > 0:01:33You can't know true joy without knowing true pain.
0:01:33 > 0:01:38# Digging the dancing queen... #
0:01:38 > 0:01:41But they would create a critical storm.
0:01:41 > 0:01:45'ABBA were the black riders,'
0:01:45 > 0:01:48the musicians of evil!
0:01:48 > 0:01:51I'm going to quote TS Eliot,
0:01:51 > 0:01:54'"Human beings can't bear too much reality."
0:01:54 > 0:01:57'Obviously, you knew that ABBA were going to sell
0:01:57 > 0:02:00'a shed-load of singles as a result.'
0:02:00 > 0:02:03It's hard to sort of trust, or to really even know,
0:02:03 > 0:02:06what someone means when they say, "ABBA don't really do it for me."
0:02:06 > 0:02:08If you don't like ABBA, you don't like pop.
0:02:08 > 0:02:12ABBA's eight-year career was a battle for the legitimacy
0:02:12 > 0:02:14of pop music.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17ABBA works for one reason and one reason only - it's complicated.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32TRADITIONAL FOLK MUSIC PLAYS
0:02:41 > 0:02:45We all know the four things that Sweden is famous for abroad...
0:02:53 > 0:02:58..glass, free sex, drunkenness and suicide.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05Now, how does all this fit together?
0:03:07 > 0:03:10THEY PLAY 'SUPER TROUPER' IN FOLK STYLE
0:03:17 > 0:03:22# Tonight the super trouper beams are going to blind me... #
0:03:22 > 0:03:25As Swedish as meatballs, smorgasbord,
0:03:25 > 0:03:29and flat-pack furniture, ABBA were outsiders looking in,
0:03:29 > 0:03:32four pop dreamers whose formative years
0:03:32 > 0:03:36offered a distinctly European take on American and British rock'n'roll.
0:03:36 > 0:03:40# Shining like the sun
0:03:40 > 0:03:43# Smiling, having fun... #
0:03:43 > 0:03:45RADIO STATIC
0:03:45 > 0:03:47# ..so dimmed I couldn't see
0:03:47 > 0:03:52# Walking to the glory land... #
0:03:52 > 0:03:55'I grew up in a small town south of Stockholm,'
0:03:55 > 0:03:59and I had a cousin who was one year older than me,
0:03:59 > 0:04:01and he was sent to England for a holiday,
0:04:01 > 0:04:05'summer of '59, '60, or thereabouts.'
0:04:05 > 0:04:11And then...he came across the latest fad,
0:04:11 > 0:04:12which was skiffle.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16# Over in the glory land... #
0:04:17 > 0:04:20'There were skiffle groups everywhere in clubs.'
0:04:20 > 0:04:23The idea was that anyone should be able to do it,
0:04:23 > 0:04:26'and he was all-consumed by this
0:04:26 > 0:04:29'when he came back from his summer holiday.'
0:04:29 > 0:04:32And he said, "We must start one of those groups."
0:04:32 > 0:04:36And this is when my parents bought me my first guitar.
0:04:36 > 0:04:39Hootenanny Singers!
0:04:39 > 0:04:44APPLAUSE
0:04:48 > 0:04:51THEY SING A FOLK SONG
0:04:58 > 0:05:00'They did sound, actually, quite...'
0:05:00 > 0:05:04not that dissimilar to Mumford & Sons now,
0:05:04 > 0:05:08sort of slick, a little bit posh folk music.
0:05:08 > 0:05:10'And they had big hits.'
0:05:10 > 0:05:12SONG CONTINUES
0:05:15 > 0:05:19'Benny was completely in another group at that time,
0:05:19 > 0:05:22'but we both listened to The Beatles.'
0:05:22 > 0:05:25The first time I heard She Loves You...
0:05:25 > 0:05:26Ohh!
0:05:26 > 0:05:30I thought, "They are gods! How can they create something like this?"
0:05:30 > 0:05:34'Until then, if you were in a folk group, like I was,
0:05:34 > 0:05:36'you would play other people's songs.
0:05:36 > 0:05:41'You realise, "What is this? They're writing their own stuff.
0:05:41 > 0:05:43'"They have their own songs.'
0:05:43 > 0:05:45"Maybe we can do that too."
0:05:48 > 0:05:52As Bjorn tasted his first success with folk-pop,
0:05:52 > 0:05:54future writing partner Benny Andersson
0:05:54 > 0:05:57was playing keyboards in the Hep Stars.
0:05:59 > 0:06:04Lead singer Svenne Hedlund was Sweden's first true pop star.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07# My baby drove off
0:06:07 > 0:06:10# In a brand-new Cadillac
0:06:12 > 0:06:14# My baby drove off
0:06:14 > 0:06:18# In a brand-new Cadillac... #
0:06:18 > 0:06:21Well, this is from the charts
0:06:21 > 0:06:24in 1965, in May.
0:06:24 > 0:06:29Top ten, when we were number one,
0:06:29 > 0:06:32number two, and number four.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36And, as you can see here, there's The Beatles.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39Yeah, I'm very proud of this list!
0:06:40 > 0:06:45# Your heart's so cold that it's going to freeze... #
0:06:50 > 0:06:54MUSIC: "Cadillac" by Hep Stars
0:06:58 > 0:07:00The Hep Stars were originally a covers band
0:07:00 > 0:07:04whose biggest hit was a version of The Renegades' Cadillac.
0:07:07 > 0:07:12'What happened was that we had letters from the fans who said,
0:07:12 > 0:07:15'"When are you going to start to write your own songs?"'
0:07:15 > 0:07:18It was like a demand from the public!
0:07:18 > 0:07:22So...Benny, he wrote his first song,
0:07:22 > 0:07:26'called No Response, and it became a top-ten hit.'
0:07:26 > 0:07:30The second one he did was a beautiful song called Sunny Girl,
0:07:30 > 0:07:36and that was a number one for weeks, for months.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40# She's a sunny girl A real girl
0:07:40 > 0:07:42# And no-one can declare... #
0:07:42 > 0:07:45I started writing, my group, and Benny and his,
0:07:45 > 0:07:51and...then we met in '65 or '66
0:07:51 > 0:07:56and started to write songs together, and the rest...
0:07:56 > 0:07:59Most of you probably know what happened.
0:07:59 > 0:08:03# She's domestic She is property
0:08:03 > 0:08:06# She's slim like a reed... #
0:08:06 > 0:08:0950 years of the Hep Stars,
0:08:09 > 0:08:13and we're still...working,
0:08:13 > 0:08:15still going strong.
0:08:15 > 0:08:18And, of course, we're still the greatest!
0:08:18 > 0:08:20HE LAUGHS
0:08:20 > 0:08:21APPLAUSE
0:08:21 > 0:08:23Stars within their respective bands,
0:08:23 > 0:08:26Bjorn and Benny would pen their first number together,
0:08:26 > 0:08:29Isn't It Easy To Say, in 1966.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32But what about Agnetha and Anni-Frid?
0:08:32 > 0:08:35THEY SING "UP, UP AND AWAY" IN SWEDISH
0:08:38 > 0:08:43There's a very Swedish culture called dance bands.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47'They're not playing dance music in the James Brown sort of way,
0:08:47 > 0:08:52'more like polka and oompa-poompa style of music.'
0:08:52 > 0:08:58And both Frida and Agnetha started out as singers in dance bands.
0:08:58 > 0:09:00SONG: "Up, Up And Away"
0:09:05 > 0:09:09To British audiences, it seemed like ABBA came from nowhere,
0:09:09 > 0:09:11but, in their homeland, they were a super-group,
0:09:11 > 0:09:15each member having served a pop apprenticeship.
0:09:15 > 0:09:21'Agnetha Faltskog was maybe one of the most popular singers in Sweden
0:09:21 > 0:09:24'and had several number-one hits.'
0:09:24 > 0:09:27Frida also was a big singer,
0:09:27 > 0:09:31entering the Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden, for example.
0:09:31 > 0:09:34SHE SINGS IN SWEDISH
0:09:38 > 0:09:44We met these girls and fell in love, as you do,
0:09:44 > 0:09:46and, eventually...
0:09:48 > 0:09:51..you know... It was...
0:09:51 > 0:09:53We, we got married, anyway,
0:09:53 > 0:09:55and that's the way it started,
0:09:55 > 0:10:00'and not by forming a group and thinking it was a great gimmick
0:10:00 > 0:10:04'to be two married couples, which many people thought.'
0:10:04 > 0:10:07MUSIC: "Hej Gamle Man" by Benny & Bjorn
0:10:19 > 0:10:22So this is Lycka, I think that's how you say it,
0:10:22 > 0:10:27and this was the album released by Bjorn and Benny,
0:10:27 > 0:10:30erm, in 1970, I think,
0:10:30 > 0:10:34and it features the big Swedish hit Hej Gamle Man!,
0:10:34 > 0:10:37which I think translates as Hey, Old Man!
0:10:37 > 0:10:40And the significance of Hej Gamle Man! as well
0:10:40 > 0:10:42is it's the first recorded song
0:10:42 > 0:10:46that features the voices of Anni-Frid and Agnetha.
0:10:54 > 0:10:56'Bjorn and Benny appeared as a duo,'
0:10:56 > 0:10:59they were called "Bjorn & Benny" on an album,
0:10:59 > 0:11:03and they started using their girlfriends as backup singers,
0:11:03 > 0:11:07'realising they sang much better than they did!'
0:11:07 > 0:11:10There are lots of different reasons why ABBA melted the hearts
0:11:10 > 0:11:12of millions and millions of people
0:11:12 > 0:11:14all over the world.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17'The beautiful alchemy that happened between Frida and Agnetha's voices
0:11:17 > 0:11:19'is just one of them.'
0:11:19 > 0:11:24Agnetha was a true soprano, or is, and Frida a mezzo.
0:11:24 > 0:11:27'We were actually working with...
0:11:27 > 0:11:31'If you say one singer with an incredible range,'
0:11:31 > 0:11:36I mean, it just happened, everything came together like that.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39People Need Love.
0:11:42 > 0:11:46# People need hope People need loving
0:11:46 > 0:11:49# People need trust from a fellow man
0:11:49 > 0:11:52# People need love to make a good living... #
0:11:52 > 0:11:56Billed as Bjorn and Benny, Agnetha and Anni-Frid,
0:11:56 > 0:12:00ABBA released their first single in 1972.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03People Need Love had a distinctly European flavour.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06# Women always knew that it takes a man
0:12:06 > 0:12:10# To get matrimonial harmony... #
0:12:10 > 0:12:13'Schlager was a style of music that was very popular'
0:12:13 > 0:12:17in central, eastern and northern Europe.
0:12:17 > 0:12:19Very, very sentimental songs,
0:12:19 > 0:12:23almost reminiscent of very simple folk song melodies.
0:12:23 > 0:12:27It's kind of strongly associated with Germany, west Germany.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30'There was kind of schlager music, there were also, as it were,
0:12:30 > 0:12:34'schlager films, or heimatfilme and they're set in these kind of...
0:12:34 > 0:12:36'Nordic, rural, idyllic retreats
0:12:36 > 0:12:39'where things like World War II never happened,
0:12:39 > 0:12:41'in which there's no sense of a sort of recent past,
0:12:41 > 0:12:44'there's no particular sense of a future,
0:12:44 > 0:12:47'they're just set in this kind of...fictional sort of present day.'
0:12:47 > 0:12:50Almost about a kind of amnesia, in a sense,
0:12:50 > 0:12:52erm, and certainly a flight from reality.
0:12:52 > 0:12:55YODELLING
0:12:55 > 0:13:00There was the German schlager, schmaltz,
0:13:00 > 0:13:05was on the radio in Sweden, and the French and Italian palates,
0:13:05 > 0:13:10all of it, mixed with, er...Swedish folk music and stuff,
0:13:10 > 0:13:15'so we were exposed to all of that growing up,'
0:13:15 > 0:13:21which I think you can feel, you can hear in our writing...
0:13:21 > 0:13:24# People need hope People need loving
0:13:24 > 0:13:27# People need trust from a fellow man... #
0:13:27 > 0:13:33..which made us kind of strange in the '70s
0:13:33 > 0:13:37in comparison with, you know, most other stuff.
0:13:37 > 0:13:43There's a conspicuous yodelling at the end of People Need Love,
0:13:43 > 0:13:45which you didn't hear too much of,
0:13:45 > 0:13:48at least not until Morrissey had a hit with Suedehead.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52- # La-la-la la - People need love
0:13:52 > 0:13:55# La-la-la la La-la-la... #
0:13:55 > 0:13:57YODELLING
0:13:57 > 0:14:02People Need Love broke ABBA as a top-20 band in their home country.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06But, in 1972, was this schlager-influenced pop group
0:14:06 > 0:14:08in tune with the times?
0:14:09 > 0:14:12- REPORTER:- 'All the fun of the fair on May Day in Stockholm,
0:14:12 > 0:14:16'and, of course, the traditional labour processions and demonstrations.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19'And the only serious incidents occurred as extreme leftists
0:14:19 > 0:14:22'tried to interrupt the main procession.'
0:14:22 > 0:14:30Sweden was ruled very much by a sort of left-wing movement.
0:14:30 > 0:14:35'There was an opinion that pop music should be very political,'
0:14:35 > 0:14:39and you should have a left-wing stance in everything you did.
0:14:39 > 0:14:41There was no glamour, nothing else.
0:14:44 > 0:14:50'The Swedish youth, in the '70s, should be listening to prog music.'
0:14:54 > 0:14:58Unlike its British namesake, Swedish prog was a music movement
0:14:58 > 0:15:03based around an anyone-can-play ethos, married to socialist lyrics.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06The Hoola Bandoola Band were prog's pin-ups,
0:15:06 > 0:15:10and, in the early '70s, they were more important than ABBA.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20'We were the white knights,'
0:15:20 > 0:15:23we fought for the right ideals,
0:15:23 > 0:15:27we said the right things, we played the right music,
0:15:27 > 0:15:30and we looked the way you should look,
0:15:30 > 0:15:34'like the bad looked, with big beards and long hair,
0:15:34 > 0:15:36'and, erm, military outfits.'
0:15:36 > 0:15:42And then, we had this ABBA group, who were the black riders.
0:15:46 > 0:15:48The musicians of evil!
0:15:48 > 0:15:49HE LAUGHS
0:15:49 > 0:15:52With commercial music.
0:15:52 > 0:15:54# Let's go, girl
0:15:54 > 0:15:57# It's a beautiful place this world... #
0:15:57 > 0:16:01'To them, ABBA was a symbol of everything evil in this world,'
0:16:01 > 0:16:05'and Bjorn has himself said they were considered the anti-Christ.'
0:16:05 > 0:16:08ABBA's music was not considered challenging enough,
0:16:08 > 0:16:11musically, er, which was quite unfair
0:16:11 > 0:16:14because the music movement's music was based on the concept
0:16:14 > 0:16:18that anyone can play, and many times they couldn't play!
0:16:18 > 0:16:22We were the upset generation.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25We were upset about the apartheid system,
0:16:25 > 0:16:28we were upset about the dictatorships in Europe,
0:16:28 > 0:16:32we were upset about the military coups in Latin America,
0:16:32 > 0:16:38we were upset about the wars in south-east Asia.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42And we were upset that ABBA weren't upset.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46# I am just a girl
0:16:46 > 0:16:48# One among the others
0:16:48 > 0:16:52# Nothing much to say... #
0:16:53 > 0:16:57What they didn't do, they didn't make political statements.
0:16:57 > 0:17:02They made statements about normal things, about being hurt,
0:17:02 > 0:17:05about falling in love, about falling out of love,
0:17:05 > 0:17:10about the agony of being a teenager. That's as important.
0:17:10 > 0:17:12ABBA didn't fit in
0:17:12 > 0:17:16in all this Swedish cultural climate,
0:17:16 > 0:17:20but I think Sweden's audience loved ABBA
0:17:20 > 0:17:23but they were very controversial during that time
0:17:23 > 0:17:25among other musicians in Sweden.
0:17:49 > 0:17:53By 1973, ABBA had reached a plateau in Sweden.
0:17:53 > 0:17:58Popular with the record-buying public, yet dismissed by the media,
0:17:58 > 0:18:00it was time for a new direction.
0:18:00 > 0:18:04'No-one cared if you were big in Austria,'
0:18:04 > 0:18:07or Germany, or Sweden.
0:18:07 > 0:18:11But if you were accepted in Britain, OK, that's fine.
0:18:11 > 0:18:13Now you're a real pop group.
0:18:13 > 0:18:15HE CHUCKLES
0:18:17 > 0:18:21'The Anglo-Saxon countries were self-sufficient
0:18:21 > 0:18:26'when it came to their groups and their music.'
0:18:27 > 0:18:31Every time we, you know, would send the publisher a song,
0:18:31 > 0:18:33they would just throw it away.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37"What is this? Sweden? I don't think so."
0:18:37 > 0:18:41So Eurovision was really the only vehicle.
0:18:46 > 0:18:50One evening, Anni-Frid came to me and she said,
0:18:50 > 0:18:54"Owe, I've seen you make so many funny costumes,"
0:18:54 > 0:19:00especially 1973, when they were competing in Eurovision Song Contest
0:19:00 > 0:19:05'with Ring Ring, so I said, "I will make something extraordinary.
0:19:05 > 0:19:07"Something you really want special,
0:19:07 > 0:19:10"or something you don't want to have?"
0:19:10 > 0:19:14And then, Bjorn said these, for me, famous words,
0:19:14 > 0:19:17and he did regret it later on, but, anyhow,
0:19:17 > 0:19:20"Owe, listen to me, nothing is too wild, really.
0:19:20 > 0:19:21"Nothing is too wild."
0:19:21 > 0:19:25# And I sit all alone impatiently
0:19:25 > 0:19:28# Won't you please understand the need in me?
0:19:28 > 0:19:31# So ring, ring
0:19:31 > 0:19:34# Why don't you give me a call? #
0:19:34 > 0:19:36Replete with new glam look,
0:19:36 > 0:19:39Ring Ring was ABBA's Phil Spector-influenced attempt
0:19:39 > 0:19:43to win the Swedish Eurovision heats in '73.
0:19:43 > 0:19:47# You were here and now you're gone
0:19:47 > 0:19:49# Hey, did I do something wrong? #
0:19:49 > 0:19:53If the Swedish people had been allowed to vote,
0:19:53 > 0:19:56that song would have won by far,
0:19:56 > 0:19:59but there was a sort of a jury of experts voting
0:19:59 > 0:20:02and they didn't like that song
0:20:02 > 0:20:07so ABBA didn't make it onto the Eurovision Song Contest that year.
0:20:07 > 0:20:12It was the next year, 1974, they did it with Waterloo.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23'A very good evening to you and from me, David Vine,
0:20:23 > 0:20:27'welcome to the Eurovision Song Contest of 1974
0:20:27 > 0:20:30'and welcome to a Saturday night out in Brighton.'
0:20:34 > 0:20:36The competition was formidable.
0:20:36 > 0:20:40Widely tipped to win were Dutch favourites Mouth & MacNeal.
0:20:42 > 0:20:44# I see a face
0:20:44 > 0:20:47# A happy face
0:20:47 > 0:20:52# It's like a mirror of my mind. #
0:20:52 > 0:20:55And it looked like we'd recruited a ringer with
0:20:55 > 0:21:00British-born Australian Olivia Newton-John representing the UK.
0:21:00 > 0:21:02We had this song, Waterloo, it was totally,
0:21:02 > 0:21:06completely not Eurovision Song Contest stuff.
0:21:09 > 0:21:14But nevertheless, we thought, this is how we want to present ourselves.
0:21:14 > 0:21:16'And we move now across into Sweden,
0:21:16 > 0:21:18'the largest of the Scandinavian countries.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21'Although we're looking at streets, it is a country full of mountains,
0:21:21 > 0:21:24'lakes and forests. And, of course, it's full of blonde Vikings
0:21:24 > 0:21:27'and this is one of the reasons why it's good for pictures.
0:21:27 > 0:21:29'These are the ABBA group.'
0:21:29 > 0:21:33We might not win, we might end up nine or 14 or whatever,
0:21:33 > 0:21:35but people would probably remember us
0:21:35 > 0:21:38because we are different from the rest.
0:21:38 > 0:21:40- APPLAUSE - 'Oh, and it is Napoleon!
0:21:40 > 0:21:43'Napoleon, no wonder their song is called Waterloo.
0:21:43 > 0:21:45'This is Sven-Olof Walldoff
0:21:45 > 0:21:48'who's really entered into the spirit of it all,
0:21:48 > 0:21:49'dressed as Napoleon.
0:21:49 > 0:21:53'Waiting for Waterloo, by ABBA for Sweden.
0:21:53 > 0:21:55'Watch this one.'
0:21:59 > 0:22:01# My, my
0:22:01 > 0:22:06# At Waterloo Napoleon did surrender
0:22:06 > 0:22:07# Oh, yeah
0:22:07 > 0:22:13# And I have met my destiny in quite a similar way... #
0:22:13 > 0:22:18I remember vividly seeing Agnetha in her blue satin culottes
0:22:18 > 0:22:23and her platform boots and her little skullcap and...
0:22:23 > 0:22:26Her image was very, very striking.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29But it was the song that really...
0:22:29 > 0:22:32Everyone loved the song and it had a great tune to it
0:22:32 > 0:22:35and it had a lot of energy but there was something about Agnetha I really
0:22:35 > 0:22:39thought, "Wow, that's great, I'd like to look...I'd like to look...
0:22:39 > 0:22:41"I want to BE her."
0:22:41 > 0:22:42# Waterloo
0:22:42 > 0:22:46# Promise you'll love me for evermore. #
0:22:47 > 0:22:51They were very canny that they had to make themselves stand out
0:22:51 > 0:22:53visually in an extraordinary way.
0:22:53 > 0:22:59Agnetha with her ridiculous blue moulded glam rock pantaloons,
0:22:59 > 0:23:05Frida wearing, you know, some kind of weird post folk-rock get-up
0:23:05 > 0:23:08and the boys just channelling the spirit of Marc Bolan
0:23:08 > 0:23:11and taking it to somewhere that was a little bit wrong,
0:23:11 > 0:23:13a little bit absurd but it really worked.
0:23:13 > 0:23:14# Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa
0:23:14 > 0:23:16# Waterloo
0:23:16 > 0:23:20# Finally facing my Waterloo. #
0:23:26 > 0:23:28APPLAUSE
0:23:28 > 0:23:30Now is the moment when we find out
0:23:30 > 0:23:34who voted for which song.
0:23:34 > 0:23:36Hello, Brighton, Helsinki calling.
0:23:36 > 0:23:37Here are the results
0:23:37 > 0:23:39of the Finnish jury.
0:23:39 > 0:23:41Sweden five votes.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44APPLAUSE
0:23:44 > 0:23:47Sweden, one vote.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50United Kingdom, one vote.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53Italy, quatre vote.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56Well, it looks quite exciting between Sweden, Belgium
0:23:56 > 0:23:59and Italy, with the Netherlands coming up.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02Of course, beyond my wildest dreams, we won.
0:24:02 > 0:24:04No doubt about it,
0:24:04 > 0:24:07it is Sweden - Waterloo, ABBA!
0:24:18 > 0:24:21Overnight that changed everything.
0:24:21 > 0:24:23HE SPEAKS IN SWEDISH
0:24:27 > 0:24:29To the left-wing music movement,
0:24:29 > 0:24:33ABBA's success in bringing Eurovision to Sweden was a stain
0:24:33 > 0:24:34on the country's reputation.
0:24:34 > 0:24:38And in 1975, they would do something about it.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41This competing in music,
0:24:41 > 0:24:44one melody better than the other,
0:24:44 > 0:24:47one artist better than the other was also the exact opposite
0:24:47 > 0:24:51of what this music movement stood for.
0:24:51 > 0:24:55So we made an alternative song festival.
0:24:55 > 0:24:57HE SINGS IN SWEDISH
0:25:20 > 0:25:23And, in Sweden at that time,
0:25:23 > 0:25:26we had two channels on the TV.
0:25:26 > 0:25:32So Channel One broadcasted the song contest
0:25:32 > 0:25:36and Channel Two broadcasted, at the same time,
0:25:36 > 0:25:40the alternative song contest.
0:25:40 > 0:25:43HE SINGS IN SWEDISH
0:25:43 > 0:25:45# Jenny, Jenny... #
0:25:45 > 0:25:47HE SINGS IN SWEDISH
0:25:47 > 0:25:49# Jenny, Jenny... #
0:25:49 > 0:25:51HE SINGS IN SWEDISH
0:25:54 > 0:25:57ABBA was actually rebels.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01They did what you weren't supposed to do and the rebel thing
0:26:01 > 0:26:04was to present yourself in a sort of a glamorous way,
0:26:04 > 0:26:08as they did in Waterloo with all this glitter on the costumes.
0:26:08 > 0:26:12That was exactly what you couldn't do in Sweden at that time.
0:26:12 > 0:26:16ABBA were Swedish punks in the '70s Sweden.
0:26:16 > 0:26:18Hello, everybody.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22I am Bjorn of the Swedish group ABBA and I'm reminding you
0:26:22 > 0:26:27that this is Countdown throughout Australia on ABC TV.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30And isn't Countdown a great, great show?
0:26:30 > 0:26:33And what about Stockholm, isn't that a great city?
0:26:35 > 0:26:37MUSIC: "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" by ABBA
0:26:41 > 0:26:44Waterloo hit number one in the UK
0:26:44 > 0:26:47but it was Australia who would be the first to contract ABBA mania.
0:26:47 > 0:26:51And ensuing album barely made the British top 30
0:26:51 > 0:26:54as ABBA went in search of a signature sound.
0:26:54 > 0:26:59# I do, I do, I do, I do, I do... #
0:26:59 > 0:27:01ABBA grew dynamically
0:27:01 > 0:27:06and even after winning with Waterloo,
0:27:06 > 0:27:08we were trying to find our identity.
0:27:09 > 0:27:14Were we a rock group or a pop group or something in between?
0:27:14 > 0:27:18MUSIC: "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" by ABBA
0:27:23 > 0:27:27It took like a year after Waterloo before critics...
0:27:27 > 0:27:32Oh, the critics never took us seriously, but anyway!
0:27:32 > 0:27:35..before people took us seriously and understood that, yes,
0:27:35 > 0:27:40after SOS I think it was, this is something different.
0:27:40 > 0:27:41Well, for a start,
0:27:41 > 0:27:44SOS is in D minor, which is,
0:27:44 > 0:27:48if you believe Spinal Tap, the saddest of all keys.
0:27:48 > 0:27:50So, here you've got...
0:27:50 > 0:27:52PLAYS OPENING CHORDS OF "SOS"
0:27:52 > 0:27:55And then, oh...
0:27:57 > 0:28:00MUSIC: "SOS" by ABBA
0:28:02 > 0:28:06This is one of the greatest pieces of music ever made.
0:28:06 > 0:28:08# Where are those happy days?
0:28:08 > 0:28:11# They seem so hard to find
0:28:12 > 0:28:14# I tried to reach for you
0:28:14 > 0:28:17# But you have closed your mind... #
0:28:17 > 0:28:18Agnetha
0:28:18 > 0:28:21has that perfect, you know,
0:28:21 > 0:28:24understanding of the content of the song.
0:28:24 > 0:28:26You know, so she's expressing it in her voice.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29You know, the sadness in her voice.
0:28:29 > 0:28:32It's just really, a beautiful thing.
0:28:34 > 0:28:36# So when you need me
0:28:36 > 0:28:38# Darling, can't you hear me?
0:28:38 > 0:28:39# SOS
0:28:42 > 0:28:44# The love you gave me
0:28:44 > 0:28:45# Nothing else can save me
0:28:45 > 0:28:47# SOS... #
0:28:47 > 0:28:51If you just drop the needle on any point in the song
0:28:51 > 0:28:53and you just, hook - you know.
0:28:53 > 0:28:54Drop it there. Hook.
0:28:54 > 0:28:56And that's...
0:28:56 > 0:29:00SOS, in many ways, I think is probably the first ABBA single
0:29:00 > 0:29:01that you can truly say that about.
0:29:01 > 0:29:03# When you're gone
0:29:03 > 0:29:06# How can I even try to go on? #
0:29:06 > 0:29:08That shift...
0:29:08 > 0:29:11To there, to there, to there...
0:29:11 > 0:29:12Is absolutely genius.
0:29:12 > 0:29:15Do you remember that there is a, a distorted guitar going...
0:29:17 > 0:29:19MUSIC: "SOS" by ABBA
0:29:20 > 0:29:25# You seem so far away Though you are standing near... #
0:29:25 > 0:29:28There's like a jet plane, supersonic kind of spaceship taking off.
0:29:28 > 0:29:32MUSIC: "SOS" by ABBA
0:29:32 > 0:29:34# So when you're near me
0:29:34 > 0:29:36# Darling, can't you hear me?
0:29:36 > 0:29:38# SOS... #
0:29:38 > 0:29:43With the album where SOS was on and Mamma Mia,
0:29:43 > 0:29:46we found - we're a pop group.
0:29:46 > 0:29:48We found our identity.
0:29:48 > 0:29:50MUSIC: "Mamma Mia" by ABBA
0:29:52 > 0:29:58Mamma Mia became ABBA's second UK number one in December 1975.
0:29:58 > 0:30:00The Swedish invasion had begun
0:30:00 > 0:30:02and an image was being perfected.
0:30:02 > 0:30:07Another very important era in my costume design,
0:30:07 > 0:30:12concerning ABBA, of course were the Mamma Mia outfits for the girls.
0:30:12 > 0:30:16# I've been cheated by you Since I don't know when
0:30:19 > 0:30:23# So I made up my mind It must come to an end... #
0:30:23 > 0:30:26This is truly mother of pearl,
0:30:26 > 0:30:29sliced into thin, thin, thin slices.
0:30:29 > 0:30:33And it was just like the rooftop of a carousel
0:30:33 > 0:30:36and I asked her, "Frida, don't move too much,"
0:30:36 > 0:30:39because they would be just stretching out and,
0:30:39 > 0:30:42well, expose perhaps a little bit too much.
0:30:42 > 0:30:45I can tell you, she was spinning like a spinning wheel,
0:30:45 > 0:30:48definitely, all the time!
0:30:48 > 0:30:51# Yes, I've been broken-hearted
0:30:51 > 0:30:55# Blue since the day we parted... #
0:30:55 > 0:30:58We had the polyester up the kazoo at that point.
0:30:58 > 0:31:00I mean, polyester's gone barmy.
0:31:00 > 0:31:05Polyesters must have been driving the synthesisers at one point.
0:31:05 > 0:31:07# Look at me now
0:31:07 > 0:31:08# Will I ever learn?
0:31:08 > 0:31:10# I don't know how... #
0:31:10 > 0:31:12This was probably the first or second video we made,
0:31:12 > 0:31:15or clip we made. Very simple.
0:31:15 > 0:31:16Not my choreography.
0:31:16 > 0:31:19This is the way they did it.
0:31:20 > 0:31:25It was all about trying to support the rhythm of the song.
0:31:25 > 0:31:31This has a simplicity that you can still live with.
0:31:31 > 0:31:35And I like this because it had this percussive feel to it,
0:31:35 > 0:31:38the lips. Mamma Mia, ba, ba, ba, ba.
0:31:38 > 0:31:41And the focus shifts back and forth,
0:31:41 > 0:31:44connecting those lips in a kind of sensual way almost.
0:31:44 > 0:31:46# Mamma Mia
0:31:46 > 0:31:48# Here I go again
0:31:48 > 0:31:49# My, my
0:31:49 > 0:31:51# How can I resist you? #
0:31:51 > 0:31:54When I go home, look at the costumes and think how people
0:31:54 > 0:31:58were laughing at me, I go home singing The Winner Takes It All.
0:32:02 > 0:32:05# Money, money, money
0:32:05 > 0:32:07# Must be funny
0:32:07 > 0:32:10# In a rich man's world
0:32:10 > 0:32:13# Money, money, money
0:32:13 > 0:32:14# Always sunny
0:32:14 > 0:32:17# In a rich man's world... #
0:32:17 > 0:32:21With the release of their first number-one album in '76,
0:32:21 > 0:32:23ABBA had arrived in Britain.
0:32:23 > 0:32:26They were the only continental band to enjoy sustained
0:32:26 > 0:32:29chart success throughout the late '70s.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32But could popularity in the UK deliver credibility?
0:32:34 > 0:32:38At the time, it seemed like the bands or the artists
0:32:38 > 0:32:42that you followed was a kind of sign of the person that you were
0:32:42 > 0:32:45and where you stood in terms of, politically and culturally,
0:32:45 > 0:32:47in terms of your attitude.
0:32:47 > 0:32:50# Get up, stand up
0:32:50 > 0:32:53# Stand up for your rights
0:32:53 > 0:32:55# Get up, stand up... #
0:32:55 > 0:33:00If you bought in just to the mainstream pop music of the time,
0:33:00 > 0:33:06what it was saying was that you were unwilling to be challenged.
0:33:06 > 0:33:10So mainstream pop was seen as being kind of the complacent consensus.
0:33:10 > 0:33:12MAN SPEAKS IN SWEDISH
0:33:23 > 0:33:26- Tell me what's it's like. - That was fantastic.
0:33:26 > 0:33:28Fantastic, marvellous, brilliant!
0:33:28 > 0:33:31In addition you had the violence and you had the conflict and
0:33:31 > 0:33:35you had the Cold War and you had the constant threat of a nuclear bomb
0:33:35 > 0:33:38going off, you had the National Front, you had racism.
0:33:38 > 0:33:40# I can dance with you, honey
0:33:40 > 0:33:42# If you think it's funny.
0:33:42 > 0:33:44# Does your mother know that you're out... #
0:33:44 > 0:33:49So what do you choose to soundtrack that? You know?
0:33:49 > 0:33:53"I'll dance with you, honey, if you think it's funny." ABBA?
0:33:53 > 0:33:54I don't think so.
0:33:54 > 0:33:56- # Take it easy - Take it easy
0:33:56 > 0:33:58# Try to cool it down
0:33:58 > 0:34:00# Take it nice and slow
0:34:00 > 0:34:02# Does your mother know... #
0:34:03 > 0:34:05There was this perception of them at the time,
0:34:05 > 0:34:07especially in serious music circles,
0:34:07 > 0:34:10who, in many ways, should have known better,
0:34:10 > 0:34:12because, you know, we see pop as being frivolous
0:34:12 > 0:34:16and somehow easier to do than serious chin-stroking rock music.
0:34:16 > 0:34:20And this headline here, you know, sums it up well.
0:34:20 > 0:34:23"How to make a million without really trying."
0:34:23 > 0:34:24HE LAUGHS
0:34:24 > 0:34:28They're the band you could least level that accusation about to
0:34:28 > 0:34:30because they were so perfectionist.
0:34:31 > 0:34:38You know, the review inside, it's a review of ABBA, the album.
0:34:38 > 0:34:43It's not a bad review, actually, but again, these attitudes...
0:34:43 > 0:34:47"Never mind the buttocks," which was sort of Agnetha's bete noire.
0:34:47 > 0:34:49Butt noire! Sorry.
0:34:49 > 0:34:52# Does your mother know that you're out... #
0:34:52 > 0:34:55There wasn't a great deal of respect initially, I don't think, for ABBA,
0:34:55 > 0:34:59certainly the respect they have now. There was...
0:34:59 > 0:35:02You know, everyone thought they were fun, it was bubblegum pop,
0:35:02 > 0:35:04something that lost its taste kind of quickly maybe,
0:35:04 > 0:35:06and then you'd spit it out.
0:35:06 > 0:35:09That's, I think, how they were perceived initially,
0:35:09 > 0:35:11for all their success.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14And time's had a different story to tell.
0:35:14 > 0:35:19THEY HUM TO "DANCING QUEEN"
0:35:19 > 0:35:22ABBA were most at home in their studio,
0:35:22 > 0:35:25where they could keep the critical world at bay.
0:35:25 > 0:35:28The only time that cameras were allowed in
0:35:28 > 0:35:32happened to coincide with the recording of a dance floor masterpiece.
0:35:34 > 0:35:37THEY SPEAK IN SWEDISH
0:35:37 > 0:35:40THEY HUM ALONG
0:35:43 > 0:35:48We were kind of inspired by a huge hit in America
0:35:48 > 0:35:51called Rock You Baby.
0:35:54 > 0:35:56# Woman
0:35:56 > 0:35:58# Take me in your arms
0:35:58 > 0:36:00# Rock you, baby... #
0:36:00 > 0:36:03The cool, soft rhythm of that song,
0:36:03 > 0:36:07we sort of felt, oh, we would like to do one of those.
0:36:07 > 0:36:11# You're a teaser, you turn them on
0:36:11 > 0:36:16# Leave them burning and then you're gone
0:36:16 > 0:36:19# Looking out for another
0:36:19 > 0:36:21# Anyone will do
0:36:21 > 0:36:24# You're in the mood for a dance
0:36:25 > 0:36:29# And when you get the chance
0:36:30 > 0:36:33# You are the dancing queen
0:36:33 > 0:36:35# Young and sweet
0:36:35 > 0:36:38# Only 17
0:36:40 > 0:36:43# Dancing queen
0:36:43 > 0:36:47# Feel the beat from the tambourine
0:36:47 > 0:36:49# Oh, yeah... #
0:36:49 > 0:36:55Dancing Queen is kind of one of the most radical pop songs ever
0:36:55 > 0:36:59that carries the inbuilt kind of tragedy and poignancy of disco
0:36:59 > 0:37:03which is the kind of realisation that the peak of your high
0:37:03 > 0:37:06is a peak and it is transitory and it's going.
0:37:06 > 0:37:10The moment described in Dancing Queen is possibly, might be,
0:37:10 > 0:37:13the best moment you're ever going to have in your life.
0:37:13 > 0:37:15Dancing Queen is such a wonderful, uplifting song.
0:37:15 > 0:37:19'When you see people dancing to that song, they're looking at each other
0:37:19 > 0:37:22'and almost recognising that there are lots of different emotions going on.'
0:37:22 > 0:37:25# Oh, see that girl
0:37:25 > 0:37:28# Watch that scene
0:37:28 > 0:37:31# Digging the dancing queen... #
0:37:33 > 0:37:35"Feel the beat of the tambourine."
0:37:35 > 0:37:37The tambourine? They've obviously kind of
0:37:37 > 0:37:39come up with that because it rhymes with "queen".
0:37:39 > 0:37:41Who'd dance to a tambourine?
0:37:43 > 0:37:49Dancing Queen to me is one of our best songs, but it's ONE of...
0:37:49 > 0:37:51you know, all the songs.
0:37:51 > 0:37:54People are very, very disappointed when I say this,
0:37:54 > 0:37:58cos they have all kinds of memories with - "The first time I heard
0:37:58 > 0:38:02Dancing Queen, I kissed my...", you know, whatever.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05But, really... It's a strange thing.
0:38:05 > 0:38:07I mean, those, the '70s was us
0:38:07 > 0:38:11writing, writing, writing, recording, recording, recording,
0:38:11 > 0:38:17out doing promotion, the occasional tour and then back to writing.
0:38:17 > 0:38:19It was like that.
0:38:19 > 0:38:21THEY SPEAK IN SWEDISH
0:38:39 > 0:38:43The pop market of the mid-'70s may have been skewed towards the young,
0:38:43 > 0:38:45but what made ABBA stand out
0:38:45 > 0:38:49was the increasingly mature nature of their material.
0:38:49 > 0:38:53ABBA, they already had their teen years behind them.
0:38:53 > 0:38:56They had already had that in the '60s when they were sort of
0:38:56 > 0:39:02teen stars in Sweden so when they became well-known with ABBA,
0:39:02 > 0:39:07they were really two couples, two married couples.
0:39:07 > 0:39:11The men had beards and were ten years older than all the English bands
0:39:11 > 0:39:14and that, I think, reflected in the music.
0:39:18 > 0:39:21# I've seen you twice
0:39:21 > 0:39:24# In a short time
0:39:24 > 0:39:29# Only a week since we started... #
0:39:29 > 0:39:33It's a really, really, really adult band
0:39:33 > 0:39:37and that's adult in terms of before that became a kind of
0:39:37 > 0:39:41quite self-conscious kind of idea of what adult music could be.
0:39:41 > 0:39:45The love that kind of ABBA talk about is love that's been accrued
0:39:45 > 0:39:50over years, so when love songs come apart in ABBA,
0:39:50 > 0:39:53it's a really huge, huge deal.
0:39:53 > 0:39:57# There's a lot you can teach me
0:39:57 > 0:39:59# So I want to know
0:39:59 > 0:40:02# What's the name of the game?
0:40:03 > 0:40:07# Does it mean anything to you? #
0:40:07 > 0:40:11They weren't talking about things that it was very popular
0:40:11 > 0:40:15to talk about and they kept talking about it throughout their career.
0:40:15 > 0:40:19Heartbreak, you know, the loss of your great love.
0:40:20 > 0:40:22I call it pop music
0:40:22 > 0:40:25or maybe Goth pop!
0:40:25 > 0:40:29MUSIC: "Knowing Me, Knowing You" by ABBA
0:40:31 > 0:40:35Bjorn had this almost sadistic genius for giving Agnetha
0:40:35 > 0:40:39lyrics that somehow seemed to chime with
0:40:39 > 0:40:44the sort of anxieties of their home life.
0:40:44 > 0:40:48On Knowing Me, Knowing You, it's a portent of what's to come.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52# In these old familiar rooms
0:40:52 > 0:40:55# Children would play... #
0:40:55 > 0:40:59The children that used to play in these old familiar rooms
0:40:59 > 0:41:02in Knowing Me, Knowing You - oh, my God, you sort of like...
0:41:02 > 0:41:04That's the worst thing.
0:41:04 > 0:41:07When you're that age, especially, you see it through a child's eyes,
0:41:07 > 0:41:11the worst thing that could happen to you is if your mum and dad split up.
0:41:11 > 0:41:13# Breaking up is never easy, I know
0:41:13 > 0:41:18- # But I have to go - This time I have to go... #
0:41:18 > 0:41:23Released in February '77, the video to Knowing Me, Knowing You,
0:41:23 > 0:41:25would become ABBA's most iconic.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28It featured the two couples intimately framed
0:41:28 > 0:41:30to enhance the lyrical melodrama.
0:41:30 > 0:41:35In those days, I guess there was a lot of observations
0:41:35 > 0:41:40on Ingmar Bergman's interest for faces and close-up of faces.
0:41:40 > 0:41:41Maybe I was influenced by that.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44I doubt it though.
0:41:44 > 0:41:46# Knowing me, knowing you
0:41:46 > 0:41:48# Aha
0:41:48 > 0:41:50# There is nothing we can do
0:41:50 > 0:41:52# Knowing me, knowing you... #
0:41:52 > 0:41:55This is my cloth. Look at that, there.
0:41:55 > 0:41:56I should have ironed it.
0:41:56 > 0:41:58Look at this! Fascinating.
0:41:58 > 0:42:00I got away with it.
0:42:00 > 0:42:03Maybe that has more of a sort of a mountainous quality, I don't know.
0:42:03 > 0:42:08This choreography is a Hallstrom original.
0:42:08 > 0:42:12It embarrasses me a little today, because no...
0:42:14 > 0:42:17MUSIC: "Knowing Me, Knowing You" by ABBA
0:42:25 > 0:42:27Today, I blush little bit.
0:42:27 > 0:42:33This is the two of them standing in my flowerpot with four wheels.
0:42:33 > 0:42:37And then, an electrician turning the flowerpot.
0:42:37 > 0:42:39This is so wonderfully silly, isn't it?
0:42:39 > 0:42:40# Knowing me, knowing you... #
0:42:40 > 0:42:42Look at him!
0:42:43 > 0:42:45Jesus!
0:42:45 > 0:42:47MUSIC: "Summer Night City" by ABBA
0:42:49 > 0:42:52# Summer night city... #
0:42:52 > 0:42:56There was a sense in the '70s that Sweden and these people
0:42:56 > 0:42:59and the settings of the videos,
0:42:59 > 0:43:02they were better than us somehow, you know,
0:43:02 > 0:43:04and they represented something quite gorgeous,
0:43:04 > 0:43:07that we could only aspire to.
0:43:07 > 0:43:11We allowed ourselves to kind of buy into this idea
0:43:11 > 0:43:14and that's why something like punk was so important.
0:43:14 > 0:43:16It kind of turned it all around and said,
0:43:16 > 0:43:20culture isn't about something gorgeous
0:43:20 > 0:43:23that comes from overseas and makes us feel good.
0:43:23 > 0:43:26It's about something much closer to home,
0:43:26 > 0:43:30our own streets and our own hearts and our own desires.
0:43:30 > 0:43:32MUSIC: "Oliver's Army" by Elvis Costello
0:43:32 > 0:43:36In the late '70s, it was Britain's turn to develop
0:43:36 > 0:43:38an anyone-can-play music movement.
0:43:38 > 0:43:41But would ABBA suffer the same fate at the hands of punk
0:43:41 > 0:43:44as they had with Swedish prog?
0:43:44 > 0:43:47You would have thought that, with things like punk happening,
0:43:47 > 0:43:51that there would be this kind of tremendous anti-ABBA mood,
0:43:51 > 0:43:53but they are a curious case.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56Everybody seemed to sort of very quickly get their
0:43:56 > 0:43:59post-modern wits about them and you had people like Ian McCulloch
0:43:59 > 0:44:03and Elvis Costello declaring a fondness for ABBA.
0:44:03 > 0:44:07# Oliver's army is here to stay
0:44:07 > 0:44:10# Oliver's army on their way
0:44:10 > 0:44:12# And I would rather be... #
0:44:12 > 0:44:14If you listen to Oliver's Army
0:44:14 > 0:44:17and the keyboard fills on that song, then that's Dancing Queen.
0:44:21 > 0:44:23If you listen to Spanish Bombs,
0:44:23 > 0:44:27which is sort of basically an ABBA track, but by the Clash,
0:44:27 > 0:44:30and later they admitted to that - they were quite big ABBA fans.
0:44:30 > 0:44:32# Spanish bombs
0:44:32 > 0:44:34# Yo te quiero infinito
0:44:34 > 0:44:36# Yo te quiero, oh, mi corazon... #
0:44:36 > 0:44:41Glen Matlock admits that he stole the riff from SOS in Pretty Vacant.
0:44:41 > 0:44:45MUSIC: "Pretty Vacant" by Sex Pistols
0:44:45 > 0:44:47MUSIC: "SOS" by ABBA
0:44:47 > 0:44:49MUSIC: "Pretty Vacant" by Sex Pistols
0:44:49 > 0:44:50MUSIC: "SOS" by ABBA
0:44:50 > 0:44:55MUSIC: "Pretty Vacant" by Sex Pistols
0:44:55 > 0:44:58It was almost like a kind of, you know, like a kind of
0:44:58 > 0:45:01deliciously contrarian thing to be pro-ABBA.
0:45:01 > 0:45:03So much so that it almost became a consensus.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06Even Sid Vicious was a fan of ABBA
0:45:06 > 0:45:08and apparently, he saw them in an airport
0:45:08 > 0:45:10and came kind of bowling after them
0:45:10 > 0:45:13and the two girls in ABBA naturally fled in terror.
0:45:15 > 0:45:22They had more top-three singles than Iggy Pop,
0:45:22 > 0:45:27Patti Smith, Joy Division put together.
0:45:27 > 0:45:32But I would argue that their cultural significance is nothing
0:45:32 > 0:45:34compared to any of those groups
0:45:34 > 0:45:36because all those groups went deep
0:45:36 > 0:45:40and all those groups knocked the world off its axis
0:45:40 > 0:45:43and all those groups discovered new things,
0:45:43 > 0:45:47new ways of articulating how we feel.
0:45:48 > 0:45:50They didn't say anything about bloody life?
0:45:50 > 0:45:52The Winner Takes It All?!
0:45:52 > 0:45:54How many people have been divorced?
0:45:54 > 0:45:58By God, they said more about everything than any other band!
0:45:58 > 0:46:02PLAYS THE INTRO TO "THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL" BY ABBA
0:46:13 > 0:46:16# I don't want to talk
0:46:17 > 0:46:20# About things we've gone through
0:46:20 > 0:46:23# Though it's hurting me
0:46:25 > 0:46:27# Now it's history... #
0:46:27 > 0:46:30I don't want to talk about things we've gone through.
0:46:30 > 0:46:32There it is.
0:46:32 > 0:46:34In a sentence. That's it.
0:46:34 > 0:46:36That's it.
0:46:36 > 0:46:38That one line says it all.
0:46:40 > 0:46:41That's what pop music's about.
0:46:41 > 0:46:43That it hits you, whack.
0:46:43 > 0:46:46# The winner takes it all
0:46:47 > 0:46:50# The loser's standing small
0:46:51 > 0:46:54# Beside the victory
0:46:55 > 0:46:59# That's our destiny... #
0:46:59 > 0:47:02Them are lines that come from somewhere
0:47:02 > 0:47:05where nobody knows they come from.
0:47:05 > 0:47:06They ain't easy.
0:47:06 > 0:47:09They are lines that go straight to everybody's psyche.
0:47:09 > 0:47:12Their soul gets moved by pop lyrics.
0:47:12 > 0:47:15# The winner takes it all
0:47:16 > 0:47:19# The loser has to fall... #
0:47:19 > 0:47:22It seemed to me that it was the beginning of the end.
0:47:22 > 0:47:25I'm slightly welling up even remembering that, actually.
0:47:25 > 0:47:28I can't listen to that without crying. It's just so upsetting.
0:47:28 > 0:47:32It's one of the most painful songs to listen to.
0:47:32 > 0:47:36If you're in the wrong kind of mood or something's just happened and
0:47:36 > 0:47:40I'm sure many people relate to it for very real and very sad reasons.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43Bjorn wrote the lyrics, basically.
0:47:43 > 0:47:47He wrote the lyrics to The Winner Takes It All
0:47:47 > 0:47:49about his divorce with Agnetha.
0:47:49 > 0:47:54But then, Agnetha sings the song so you turn the perspective.
0:47:54 > 0:47:58# Tell me, does she kiss
0:47:58 > 0:48:01# Like I used to kiss you?
0:48:01 > 0:48:05# Does it feel the same
0:48:05 > 0:48:08# When she calls your name? #
0:48:08 > 0:48:12What does your mum look like when she's had a row with your dad?
0:48:12 > 0:48:14She looks like Agnetha in the video to The Winner Takes It All.
0:48:16 > 0:48:19# The judges will decide
0:48:19 > 0:48:23# The likes of me abide... #
0:48:23 > 0:48:27Is there something spiritual about a great pop song?
0:48:27 > 0:48:28Oh, yes.
0:48:29 > 0:48:34It is when you hear it and, "Oh, my God, this is so good."
0:48:34 > 0:48:35This is...
0:48:35 > 0:48:39Benny and I had that feeling many times,
0:48:39 > 0:48:42coming up with The Winner Takes It All or something like that.
0:48:42 > 0:48:46We felt, both of us, my God, this is good.
0:49:03 > 0:49:06ABBA are but a small part of a darkness peculiar
0:49:06 > 0:49:07to the Swedish soul.
0:49:09 > 0:49:12Swedes have not been mucking about,
0:49:12 > 0:49:16not in cinema and not in music, not in the arts.
0:49:16 > 0:49:22ABBA is very much part of this whole melancholic tradition in Sweden.
0:49:22 > 0:49:27You can take Ingmar Bergman or go back to August Strindberg.
0:49:27 > 0:49:29You think of Bergman,
0:49:29 > 0:49:32you think of so many of the great Swedish writers,
0:49:32 > 0:49:36even Nordic noir stuff that is all around us today,
0:49:36 > 0:49:39there is a darkness, there is melancholy.
0:49:39 > 0:49:43You reflect a lot when you're not comfy
0:49:43 > 0:49:45and when you don't have the warmth of the sun
0:49:45 > 0:49:49and that gives you time to think and ponder a bit too much.
0:49:58 > 0:50:03It's very interesting that ABBA sort of really gouged out
0:50:03 > 0:50:06this senses of, of the kind of sadness,
0:50:06 > 0:50:08the difficulty of the human condition.
0:50:08 > 0:50:11You can't know true joy without knowing true pain.
0:50:19 > 0:50:21And I really like Volvos too.
0:50:29 > 0:50:34By 1981, both couples were divorced, but ABBA continued,
0:50:34 > 0:50:38releasing what will be their final and darkest hour.
0:50:38 > 0:50:46This is ABBA who had these wonderful kind of perky, glossy album covers
0:50:46 > 0:50:51and suddenly, they're in a dark room with a really doomy painting,
0:50:51 > 0:50:53surrounded by dim lights.
0:50:55 > 0:50:58Something's up, clearly. You only need to look at the sleeve.
0:50:58 > 0:51:00They're in this big, sort of imposing,
0:51:00 > 0:51:05dwarfed by all of these paintings and stuff in this big drawing-room
0:51:05 > 0:51:07and they're all sat there, looking very small
0:51:07 > 0:51:09and looking in different directions.
0:51:09 > 0:51:13Frida's had her post divorce kind of "screw you" haircut.
0:51:14 > 0:51:16It's funny because I remember thinking,
0:51:16 > 0:51:18"Hmm, what has she done to her hair?
0:51:18 > 0:51:22"What is Agnetha doing with her hair?
0:51:22 > 0:51:25"And what's more, what has Frida done to her hair?" You know!
0:51:26 > 0:51:28You put the record on and then, of course,
0:51:28 > 0:51:31the first song is The Visitors
0:51:31 > 0:51:33and it's a song about a Russian dissident
0:51:33 > 0:51:37who is just waiting for the knock on the door
0:51:37 > 0:51:40to come and take him away and then God knows what.
0:51:40 > 0:51:43# I hear the doorbell ring
0:51:43 > 0:51:47# And suddenly the panic takes me
0:51:50 > 0:51:53# The sound so ominously
0:51:53 > 0:51:58# Tearing through the silence... #
0:51:59 > 0:52:02As a Swede, you can really understand
0:52:02 > 0:52:05that John le Carre era of the Cold War
0:52:05 > 0:52:08because Sweden was in the middle of it.
0:52:08 > 0:52:10We were as close to Moscow as London,
0:52:10 > 0:52:14so the Cold War was very apparent in Sweden.
0:52:17 > 0:52:20During the time ABBA did The Visitors, we had problems in
0:52:20 > 0:52:26the Swedish archipelago with Russian submarines suddenly turning up.
0:52:27 > 0:52:31People were quite scared, actually. The Cold War was going on.
0:52:31 > 0:52:33# Now I hear them moving
0:52:33 > 0:52:36# Muffled voices coming through the door
0:52:36 > 0:52:38# I feel I'm cracking up... #
0:52:38 > 0:52:42The opening track, which has been compared to Joy Division
0:52:42 > 0:52:46and I think is a completely fitting comparison. You know, it is...
0:52:46 > 0:52:50It's obviously Joy Division from a completely different sensibility,
0:52:50 > 0:52:53but you have got these huge European glacial synths.
0:52:53 > 0:52:56MUSIC: "The Visitors" by ABBA
0:53:00 > 0:53:04The whole album is a very bleak affair.
0:53:04 > 0:53:07This is middle-aged angst at its most acute.
0:53:07 > 0:53:11# Slipping through my fingers all the time
0:53:11 > 0:53:15# I try to capture every minute
0:53:15 > 0:53:18# The feeling in it... #
0:53:18 > 0:53:23Slipping Through My Fingers, which is a no-holds-barred
0:53:23 > 0:53:28meditation about just seeing your child getting ready to go to school,
0:53:28 > 0:53:31and, Christ, she's going to school already!
0:53:31 > 0:53:34This is, where is the time going? Can it not go slower?
0:53:34 > 0:53:35We're dying.
0:53:36 > 0:53:38It's a troubling record.
0:53:38 > 0:53:42You would listen to it and you'd think, "I wonder if they're OK."
0:53:47 > 0:53:52# I must've left my house at eight because I always do... #
0:53:54 > 0:53:57With the very last song they recorded,
0:53:57 > 0:54:00ABBA succumbed to the darkness at the edge of town.
0:54:00 > 0:54:03The Day Before You Came - Oh, my God!
0:54:03 > 0:54:06# I must have read the morning paper... #
0:54:06 > 0:54:10The complication of that song, it just is staggering.
0:54:12 > 0:54:14# I must have gone to lunch
0:54:14 > 0:54:16# At half past 12 or so
0:54:16 > 0:54:19# The usual place, the usual bunch
0:54:21 > 0:54:23# And still, on top of this
0:54:23 > 0:54:25# I'm pretty sure it must have rained
0:54:27 > 0:54:30# The day before you came... #
0:54:30 > 0:54:34It's like a puzzle and all the pieces come together
0:54:34 > 0:54:39and then, you have a song which you ideally should say to yourself,
0:54:39 > 0:54:42"Can I improve on this? No."
0:54:42 > 0:54:45If I do, I would probably ruin it.
0:54:45 > 0:54:46Christ!
0:54:46 > 0:54:49You sell millions and millions and millions of records
0:54:49 > 0:54:52and then you play The Day Before You Came.
0:54:52 > 0:54:55You think, I might as well go back to being a bloody janitor!
0:54:55 > 0:54:58# The day before you came... #
0:55:04 > 0:55:07They're kind of falling apart by this point.
0:55:07 > 0:55:10Who do they go to in Britain when they talk about their new record?
0:55:10 > 0:55:11Noel Edmonds.
0:55:11 > 0:55:14APPLAUSE
0:55:22 > 0:55:24'If you look and see the footage now, they look...'
0:55:24 > 0:55:28The body language is excruciating.
0:55:28 > 0:55:31They are there to promote The Day Before You Came and, you know,
0:55:31 > 0:55:33there's a lot of, they are kind of bored of this
0:55:33 > 0:55:36and they are bored of Noel's line of questioning.
0:55:36 > 0:55:38The papers recently have been full of stories that
0:55:38 > 0:55:42- you're going to split eventually. You're not?- No.
0:55:42 > 0:55:43LAUGHTER
0:55:43 > 0:55:45You can cut the atmosphere with a knife.
0:55:45 > 0:55:48- Benny and Bjorn have written so many good songs.- Thank you.- Thank you.
0:55:48 > 0:55:53- Yes, but you should know about that by now!- Well, you never said that!
0:55:53 > 0:55:55OK, so it's the first time.
0:55:55 > 0:55:58It's a fairly joyless sort of interview.
0:55:58 > 0:56:01Could we possibly have a little bit of music from you?
0:56:01 > 0:56:04Don't look like that as if it is a surprise! Please don't walk out!
0:56:04 > 0:56:07We'd like you to play us out of the programme.
0:56:07 > 0:56:09Kevin, do come in. Come over here.
0:56:09 > 0:56:10CHEERING
0:56:10 > 0:56:13The Day Before You Came failed to break the top 30,
0:56:13 > 0:56:17but Noel and lucky superfan Kevin would witness the group's
0:56:17 > 0:56:20last ever live studio performance in the UK.
0:56:20 > 0:56:23# I'm nothing special
0:56:23 > 0:56:27# In fact I'm a bit of a bore... #
0:56:28 > 0:56:31ABBA never called it a day.
0:56:31 > 0:56:34They've simply been on hold ever since.
0:56:36 > 0:56:38# But I have a talent
0:56:38 > 0:56:40# A wonderful thing
0:56:40 > 0:56:44# Cos everyone listens When I start to sing
0:56:44 > 0:56:48# I'm so grateful and proud
0:56:50 > 0:56:53# All I want is to sing it out loud
0:56:53 > 0:56:56# So I say...
0:56:56 > 0:56:58# Thank you for the music
0:56:58 > 0:57:01# The songs I'm singing
0:57:01 > 0:57:04# Thanks for all the joy... #
0:57:04 > 0:57:06We were writing the best songs we could,
0:57:06 > 0:57:09the songs that we loved ourselves.
0:57:09 > 0:57:11Just a fluke that also
0:57:11 > 0:57:15so many people around the globe liked it as well.
0:57:16 > 0:57:19Luck! Pure luck.
0:57:19 > 0:57:23# So I say thank you for the music
0:57:23 > 0:57:29# For giving it to me. #
0:57:29 > 0:57:32ABBA may have hit the pause button,
0:57:32 > 0:57:35but the music recorded between '72 and '82
0:57:35 > 0:57:38has enjoyed an extraordinary afterlife.
0:57:38 > 0:57:40# If you change your mind... #
0:57:40 > 0:57:42Today, ABBA have the critical respect
0:57:42 > 0:57:45that, for so long, eluded them.
0:57:45 > 0:57:49Nowadays, finally, you can say that you actually like ABBA
0:57:49 > 0:57:52without having an excuse for liking ABBA.
0:57:52 > 0:57:55CROWD SINGS "TAKE A CHANCE ON ME" BY ABBA
0:57:55 > 0:57:57It was not my music.
0:57:57 > 0:57:59It was not my lyrics.
0:57:59 > 0:58:03And it was certainly not my way of dressing...
0:58:04 > 0:58:07..but I admired their melodies.
0:58:07 > 0:58:13They are great, European pop music.
0:58:13 > 0:58:16We want ABBA! We want ABBA!
0:58:16 > 0:58:18They didn't really care what everyone else thought.
0:58:18 > 0:58:21They wanted to make great records and they did.
0:58:21 > 0:58:23That was their mission and they succeeded.
0:58:28 > 0:58:32I always found it sort of confusing that it wasn't cool to like ABBA.
0:58:32 > 0:58:35It was like, "What's not cool about a perfect arrangement
0:58:35 > 0:58:39"or perfect harmonies or a pristine vocal?"
0:58:39 > 0:58:44If you don't like ABBA, you've got a blank-blank,
0:58:44 > 0:58:49two syllable intensifier...problem.
0:58:49 > 0:58:53# The city is a nightmare A horrible dream
0:58:53 > 0:58:57# Some of us will dream it for ever
0:58:57 > 0:59:00# Look around the corner And try not to scream
0:59:00 > 0:59:02# It's me
0:59:02 > 0:59:04# I am behind you
0:59:04 > 0:59:05# I always find you
0:59:05 > 0:59:08# I am the tiger
0:59:08 > 0:59:11# People who fear me
0:59:11 > 0:59:12# Never go near me
0:59:12 > 0:59:15# I am the tiger
0:59:15 > 0:59:19# Tiger, tiger. #
0:59:23 > 0:59:24Thank you!