I'll start with a couple of A-Teens news items.

Firstly, there is a show called Vox Pop where viewers phone in or email their votes on ten new songs. There is then a countdown to the most popular song. The last episode (I think it was the last one) of the last series featured an unknown group called AbbA-Teens which stormed to the top spot with a song called "Mamma Mia". The group managed to outclass other popular established acts. The newspapers spoke about it the following day. This was news.

Then Vox Pop went on summer hiatus.

Two days ago, Vox Pop returned for a new season with a brand new host. Ten new clips were played. And the result? A group now called A-Teens stormed to the top spot with a song called "Super Trouper". The group managed to outclass other popular established acts.

Vox Pop also features news and interviews. The lead singer of Offspring and another member were interviewed. All of a sudden, the lead singer says he saw the A-Teens on TV the other night and he loved them. Both of them agreed that ABBA had put out some great songs. They went on to talk about other stuff. They were asked about their next project and the lead singer said Offspring Teens!

Near the beginning of the show was a 4 second clip of the A-Teens saying "ring och rösta" (ring and vote). You can view this clip at http://www.a-teens.net (look under video).

The second bit of news is mainly of interest to Stockholmers and visitors to Stockholm. The A-Teens appear in concert on 4 September. The concert is free and will be held at Vasaparken which is on Odengatan, not far from S:t Eriksplan. It will start at 16:00 with warm up act David Tainton. Get there early because if other concerts are anything to go by, it will be packed solid.

And now the news is over. Guess who I met today? Yes, the A-Teens themselves! Maybe 'met' is a strong word although I did have a conversation with Amit.

As Linda has already posted, we were at Åhléns for the autographing session. It was good to see a familiar face and helped the 45 minutes go a lot quicker. When I got there, the area had been cleared and a small stage set up with four chairs was roped off. There were quite a few people there already but Linda and I managed to get a spot in the queue reasonably close to the front. The TV screens were alternating with a slide of the A-Teens and a slide of Markoolio who is autographing tomorrow. There were security guards scattered about (I counted at least 6) with walkie talkies buzzing. It added a surreal feeling to the atmosphere.

With half an hour to go, they started playing the album. And staff started wheeling in trolleys full of A-Teens CDs. The numbers of people had started to increase steadily. Everytime I looked around, there seemed to be more and more people. Mainly young although it was good to see a few oldies there. And with several of the teenagers being quite tall, we didn't stand out too much. The queue was getting longer and longer. Linda and I could swear that the person with sunglasses and bushy moustache was actually Agnetha in disguise waiting to get her autograph! :)

By the time it reached 5 o'clock, the place was packed and there was a real buzz in the air. A couple of minutes later the door opened and there they were - the A-Teens. They filed silently on to the stage and took their seats, exchanging nervous glances. It seemed a little strange. There was no announcement and the music wasn't even turned down. The security guards just started letting people in a few at a time. They would timidly go up to Amit (he was the first one you got to) and not say a word. He'd sign it in a flash and before you could blink, it had reached the end of the table with all four signatures on it. You'd have to run to keep up with it! It seemed like a well choreographed exercise. The group were even sitting in the order on the cover so as to make signing easier. I was thinking to myself how I could disrupt this little routine - make them remember me somehow. This was not the time to act like a well-mannered Swede. No, this was the time to be an Australian!!!

As Linda said, they all looked great but they were a little tired. Amit and Marie seemed the most relaxed out of the 4. Sara looked a little nervous but flashed the smile when needed. Poor Dhani looked terrified. His scrunched up body language spoke volumes. They seem to have the photo posing down pat. Amit and Sara were signing away when all of a sudden a camera appeared. Without missing a beat, Amit and Sara were cheek to cheek smiling away. The camera went off and it was back to the signing. What pros. :)

Anyway, soon it was my turn and up to Amit I went. He didn't look up as he started to sign the first CD. "Hi," I went in a bright voice. He looked up startled, probably because of the English and because someone had broken the routine. "Hi," he said. "Could you sign this CD to Graeme" and I showed him a previously prepared piece of paper with Graeme's name on it (it pays to be organised) "and this one to me," flipping over the paper to show my name. "Sure," he said and very carefully wrote our names on the CDs. He seemed to have a little trouble with Graeme's name since it is not common in Sweden. I then asked if they were coming to Australia. Amit was very careful with his reply, saying they hoped to but nothing is definite yet. He went on to explain that a lot of things were up in the air and to wait and see. I thanked him and moved on to Sara. I gave her a smile and she gave me a really bright and cheery smile back. Some photographer was getting in the way so I couldn't stop with her before I was almost pushed along. Dhani was next but he was not giving any eye contact. I stood for a few seconds before I realised that both CDs were waiting at the end of the table. Dhani obviously didn't want to communicate so I found myself face to face with Marie. As I gazed into her eyes all I could think was "oh no, not the blue eyeshadow!" She presented me with one of the CDs with a big smile and I had to point to the other one. I gave her a big hi too which surprised her. I then said "congratulations on Vox Pop". She thanked me. I said "bye" and found myself off the production line and looking for Linda.

So that was my A-Teens experience. One thing I kept thinking was "my god, they're just kids". I am still worrying about them coping with the fame and the pressures. Dhani looked the most uncomfortable and I wanted to give him a friendly hug and say that everything will be OK. Of course, that would have been misunderstood and I would have found myself under a pile of security guards!

A-Teens are huge here in Sweden - bigger than most of you could imagine. Apparently, the album went gold on pre-orders only which is the first time in 3 or 4 years that a Swedish artist has managed this. The Mamma Mia single is platinum and the biggest selling single of the year. When the Super Trouper single entered the charts, the group had 2 singles in the top 5. It is easy for the cynics to say that it just because of the songs but there is more. It's a combination of the songs, the production and Amit, Marie, Sara and Dhani themselves. These four kids do have talent and will be around for a while even if it is not singing ABBA songs.

Grant Whittingham, ABBAMAILer, Stockholm, Sweden