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ABBA are Immortal

This word sprang to mind the other day and since then I’ve been mulling it over quite a lot to the point where it was beginning to irritate me.

One of our television channels has been assigned the privilege of being a 24-hour tribute channel to Princess Diana for a few days, and I ended up watching some of it in bed the other morning. I’ve always been a follower of the British Royal Family and, once again, ended up being carried away with this wonderful woman we once knew as Princess Diana. After a while, it struck me, she’d become immortal and the very media that helped destroy her have put her there!

When you think about it, it does not stop there. It’s not just Princess Diana that this has happened to, there are so many others, to name a few, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, both John Kennedy Senior and Junior, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Princess Grace, Jimi Hendrix, Karen Carpenter, Janis Joplin and so the list can go on and on and on………..

These people have become immortal, eternal; ever lasting and our memories of them will be never-ending for generations to come.

For each of us, we all have our own way in how we remember somebody or someone, be it through a photograph, a note, a gift, a song or a personal item that belonged to that person, which at the end of the day, makes each and everyone of us immortal at some time or another in somebody’s life.

However, take the personal side away, and I very soon realised, in front of that very television, there is a business opportunity in practically everything, including preserving the memory of some famous person, whether they be living or dead!

It’s there in our faces and how many of us actually realise it? It’s on the television, the newspapers, the magazines we buy, the radio we listen to, it’s there! We have it on our doorstep and we live it all the time. I’m sure there must at least be one occasion where each an every one of us has been caught up in this.

I know of one and it’s a very good business venture that I as a businessman, wish I could have been involved in.

Yes, I’m referring to ABBA. Their manager, Stig Anderson, would have been proud of it today, if he was still around, and at the end of the day, ABBA are simply immortal.

ABBA have made sure of this in so many ways since the end of their recording career in 1982. They might have gone away after 10 hectic years of glory and left an indelible mark in the minds of the music world and the public in the process, but ABBA have been careful to preserve their legacy.

Since the ‘apparent’ end in 1982, ABBA have never appeared in public together as ABBA, maybe in the same place yes, but never together, all the while dispelling that possible ‘ABBA reunion’ rumour before it even started. They’ve kept their options open, though, just in case, but then they’ve done it their way, the ABBA way.

These days, when I think of ABBA, I think of four letters A B B and A – simply, ABBA! But yet, how many times does one think of ABBA and relate them to the way they look today? I most certainly don’t. When I think of Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny and Anni-Frid, today, I think of four individuals in their own right, I just don’t relate to these four people as a group any longer. They’ve had their time as ABBA. For me, I remember the number 1 singles, the number 1 albums, the hysteria, and when I think of the four people who once upon a time made up that name, I of them as they were back then.

How many advertisements for ABBA material, or articles in the newspapers show the four ABBA members as they are today? Not many. Look at how the products are marketed and sold, ‘ABBA – Gold’ or even ‘Number 1’s’, no picture on the front cover, just a logo, so it is not dated which ensures that the music does not become dated either.

It’s the preservation of ABBA as such that everyone in this business is after. Let’s face it; what was the most scandalous thing about ABBA? Two divorces, that’s what. Divorce is second nature these days as much as it was in the 1970’s, so it hardly even gets mentioned where ABBA are concerned.

The majority of people don’t care, but play an ABBA tune at a party, faces light up, the feet get tapping, advertise a compilation release and people actually still buy it, not the fans, they have it too many times over, but it still gets sold, the public still want ABBA. Why? ABBA personified happy times, the ABBA times, and in even in unhappy times, it was still the ABBA times, which is what people still want.

If any person, besides a hard-core ABBA fan had to walk past Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny or Frida today, they would not recognize them! There might be an inkling of recognition for maybe Bjorn or Benny, but not even with the success of Mamma Mia! would they be guaranteed this, the reference to ABBA with the musical is minimal and not really advertised on the grand scale that the musical is, it’s simply been made to become a separate entity these days.

I for one am grateful for their doing this. Yes, there are times that I also hate ABBA for not giving what the majority of fans want, a reunion, but then there are times when I love them for not doing it! ABBA the group, have become immortal, they’ve simply stayed the way we remembered them.

If you think about it, ABBA enjoyed a re-birth in the early 1990’s, which carried on for many years into the new millennium without them even having to re-group for a comeback, which just goes to show, they did it so well the first time round, the second time they did not need to be present!

Besides, I watched a performance of someone, let’s just say, close to the age of where the ABBA members would be today, the other night and I was horrified. I have not seen this person on stage for over 20 years and I could not believe it, the looks were awful and the singing was absolutely atrocious.

I know we all get old, develop some wobbly bits, become all wrinkly, but this show was horrible for the person that I once referred to as a superstar 20 years ago! The pressure on the older pop and rock stars to retain their audience from 20 and 30 years ago is immense today. Trying to keep those looks, sound reasonable and entertain your audience is by no means a mean feat. Not many music stars from the ABBA era can do that today.

ABBA’s career and legacy has been immortalized to such a degree that the public will never forget them. You ask any member of the public about ABBA, and they can describe them in detail when ABBA literally ‘were’ ABBA.

When my nearly 4 year old daughter sees or hears ABBA, be it on the radio, television, or even a picture, she points and say’s, ‘that’s ABBA!’ it makes you realise ABBA are in fact immortal along with so many others who have become immortal. If I show her, Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny and Anni-Frid in their individual capacity today, she struggles, but show her ABBA and you realise ABBA will always be ABBA, the way we know ABBA.

Long may it stay and remain that way!


Neil