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When the stars you’ve worshipped for years as well as enjoyed listening to for decades, really start showing their age, and I think it’s something a lot of us dread, getting OLD!

It’s been on my mind quite a bit in recent years and thankfully now it is something I have come to accept, because I actually can’t do anything about it. I’ve even accepted the grey hair becoming more prominent each day as well as the receding hairline and let me not go into the wrinkles!

I’m sure my initial fears of getting old came about when my daughter Megan was born, I was 35 at the time and I remember thinking to myself one night, when Megan is my age I will be 70! I’ve come to terms with the thought and to say that my daughter who is nearly 3 keeps me on my toes and no doubt will be doing so when I’m 70 and she is half my age is an understatement!

A little of my own fears and myself was not the purpose of this month’s column though. A few nights ago we went out for supper as a family and of course it involved the proverbial visit to the CD shop. I finally gave in and bought a Blondie DVD. A live set recorded in 1999 that I’d wanted for yonks. I bought the ‘Livid’ CD the last time I was in the UK and I’ve really enjoyed it ever since. It’s amazing how one’s taste in music rarely changes over the years well mine hasn’t anyway.

Growing up in the ‘70’s I was into all things ABBA and really liked what some of their contemporaries were doing. I always had a fascination for Debbie Harry and liked a lot of the stuff that Blondie brought out. Debbie was just so way out at the time, the complete opposite of Agnetha, Frida and quite a few others that were popular at the time. It has taken me years to amass the CD and DVD collection that I have, but when I look at it, 75% of it comes from the 1970’s! That’s generations I suppose. Whether it’s ABBA, Blondie, Fleetwood Mac or any of my other favourite artists from the ‘70’s I’m still into it and must still have what’s ‘new’ where they are concerned all in an effort to keep their career’s going, it’s simply all they know.

I finally found time to watch the Blondie DVD the other night and I literally was transported back to the 1970’s with all those magical Blondie songs which brought out other memories, with ABBA included, remembering who was chasing who up the charts and with which songs! I had a good evening watching it but felt such a sense of emptiness after it had finished. I suddenly realised how old Debbie Harry was looking, and this concert was filmed in 1999! The audience loved her and she did her best, but somehow ‘Atomic’ did not sound like ‘Atomic’ if you know what I mean, her voice just does not cut those notes anymore and as for the tight outfit she was wearing, it just did not suit the fuller figure! The more recent Blondie songs were excellent, but then I suppose they were more reflective of where each member of Blondie was at in 1999.

After digesting this, and mulling my disappointment over, I was at peace knowing that I was so happy that ABBA never re-united for either a concert or a new recording. At least they stayed the way they were when they finished in 1982, as, ABBA, the way the world and all their fans knew them. I can remember being totally and utterly thoroughly mad with ABBA when they never came back as ABBA in 1983 with the annual Christmas album that I usually got as a present under the tree. I went through a stage at the time of not listening to ABBA purely out of rebellion I think, so I must have been really miffed at the four of them back then. Who at the time could imagine no more ABBA? Thankfully I got over it and today I still live in ABBA Wonderland, all because they’ve literally remained timeless, and maybe that’s why their legacy lives on today.

As much as people want ABBA to re-unite for even just a photograph, I’m glad and respect them for not doing it. They just would not be the same today and to think of either Agnetha or Frida having to run out on stage in some tight fighting outfit and try and hit the notes of some of their songs literally makes me want to cringe! They simply would not be who they used to be and in hindsight have probably still kept their name.

I don’t think I could ever imagine Frida or Agnetha trying to do on stage what either Debbie Harry, Stevie Nicks or even Madonna do at their ages today, and let’s face it, Madonna is pushing it too. To think of Madonna having to re-invent herself using an ABBA song to give her a hit as well as copying an ABBA costume from 1979 for her latest tour is pushing it, but I still like her music and she’s been around for a few good years as well! At least she gives ABBA credit in the process and where it’s due.

With what I’ve just written in mind, I then remembered that Debbie Harry is now 61 alongside Frida this year, Stevie Nicks is not far behind and neither is Agnetha, just like so many other well known singers from the 1970’s and early 1980’s! We’ve had plenty of pictures of many of these artists of late, many of them ‘doctored’ by computer technology, but yet on stage these artists are beginning to show their age, and in more ways than one.

Just look at how Agnetha appeared in her recent video’s to promote ‘My Colouring Book’, it was almost like she was still transfixed in 1979, and yet, the interviews and other pictures have shown the opposite, a woman nearing 60 and clearly showing it. I can remember having not seen a picture of Agnetha for many years until I bought ‘As I Am – Before ABBA and beyond’ in 1997. I’m not embarrassed to admit, I was quite shocked with some of the pictures I saw, Agnetha was simply not the Agnetha that I remembered. So, yes, all these favourite singers of mine are all getting on just like each and every one of us. I’ve no doubt a lot of previous generations have felt the same.

ABBA were obviously very wise and through some very strategic planning, and I’m not taking Mamma Mia into consideration here, they are where they are today, enjoying life, growing old gracefully, and putting out the odd album every now and again, if you can call 17 years ‘now and again’ where Agnetha is concerned!

I think that any group that calls it a day and leaves it at that deserves a huge amount of respect and for those that carry on and make a success of it, well good for them, but I know one thing for sure, watching Blondie the other night, may have brought back memories from years ago, but when I add them up, I realise that mine are adding up too, and fast!

My musical tastes are not changing either, so I think I really must be getting on, I’m simply growing old with my favourite pop-stars! I have no idea what I’m going to do when Megan starts getting into some of the mish-mash you get today, but then you never know, ABBA and a lot of the ‘70’s stuff that I still like today, might, and I say just might, still be the thing to listen to every now and again.

At least Megan likes ABBA, which is a sobering thought. Peace in my house might just reign supreme where my Daughter’s and my musical tastes are concerned, no matter how old I am.

Neil