|
TV Promotion for The Visitors
This is a topic that I’ve been
thinking about for some time and after a recent post by a fellow ABBAMAILER on
ABBAMAIL, and after some more thought, I decided to add my bit on this topic
this month.
The start of the 1980’s most
certainly saw ABBA slowing down their pace dramatically where promotional
activities were concerned. 1980 in itself was still quite busy, they had the
tour of Japan in March which wrapped up their second and last world tour and
were busy working on what would turn out to be the ‘Super Trouper’ album at the
end of the year, as well as a couple of television promotional programs thrown
in for good measure, even if one was recorded in Stockholm due to the kidnap
threats.
Even so, the promotional
activity for ‘Super Trouper’ was not on a scale anywhere near what had been done
for their previous albums. The ‘Super Trouper’ album sold itself on the strength
of ABBA’s credibility and the usual promotional clips that the world had become
accustomed to from ABBA.
This lack of activity certainly
hit home the other night when I watched the DVD of the ‘Arrival’ 30th
anniversary release. The interviews, traveling and marketing for the album in
1976 was quite intense. It was quite clear that the hard work and perseverance
of the past few years were beginning to pay off.
By the time the new decade
started ABBA had certainly established themselves as a solid recording group
with a regular output of music that had a wide appeal. I suppose they felt that
there was no need for constant promotion and yes it could be argued that ABBA
had started what appeared to be have begun to rest on their laurels. Who can
blame them actually? A lot of work had gone into ABBA as such since their first
recordings in 1972 and not only had they progressed as a music force to be
contended with, their personal lives had also changed.
Agnetha has made no bones about
the fact that during the latter part of ABBA’s career she wanted to spend more
time with her children and it must have been difficult to juggle ABBA’s success
and activity as well that of a home life as a single parent with two small
children. This decision I can personally relate to. Since my daughter was born
just over 3 years ago, I’ve spent more time at home and made quite a few other
sacrifices for her benefit. Many people have said to me I don’t work as hard as
I used, but I believe that since 1994, I’ve set up a successful business and the
hours of working until midnight every day of the week are now working to the
advantage of my family. People still know me, I get referrals for new business
and my existing database of clients is still maintained to a high standard. I
can totally empathise with Agnetha’s feelings at the time. 1981 was also the
time when Björn and Agnetha’s eldest child, Linda, started school and a lot of
time and energy gets taken up by that, especially where children are concerned.
Time has to be made for fetching and carrying as well as the extra-curricular
activities that kids participate in, and as a parent, one does want to be
involved. Trust me, I know I’m there.
This type of decision by one
quarter of one the world’s most popular pop group must have had a profound
effect on the other 3. If the one is available for only what is absolutely
necessary, it must have had an effect on the others and besides which Benny
dropped the bombshell on Frida early on in 1981 that he had met somebody else
and was leaving her.
ABBA and the music world had
survived Agnetha and Björn’s divorce, but were ABBA themselves going to survive
Benny and Frida’s break-up? Well, ABBA dealt with it in their own way, and what
came out of it was the rather gloomy album, ‘The Visitors’ at the end of the
year. The result was a hit album in some territories with a couple of singles,
the best faring being ‘One Of Us’.
I recently read somewhere that
after the kidnap threats Björn felt that there was no reason for ABBA to
continue. Frida had also set plans in motion for her first solo album since
1975. Not to forget that Björn and Benny had also begun to lose interest in ABBA
with their direction moving towards the musical that they longed to write, which
was evident on ‘The Visitors’, and was further, highlighted a year later with
ABBA’s 1982 meagre output.
I’ve got to believe that with
all their general respective thoughts, the four of them were most certainly
going in a different direction and had absolutely no motivation to promote
anything from ‘The Visitors’ on television other than through their promotional
video’s and a couple of rare interviews, where I don’t recall the four of them
appearing together as a group, it was either Agnetha and Frida together or Benny
and Björn.
This period was most certainly
not a happy time for ABBA, in fact so much so, a direct contrast to what we saw
with the ‘Super Trouper’ promotional activities just a year before. Even the
promotional videos from ‘The Visitors’ did not really reflect ABBA in the way
the world knew them. They all too well said what ABBA themselves really felt. It
was raw, exposed, in your face and exactly what the real world is all about.
ABBA had done what they could, gave the best that they could offer and towards
the end showed the world that they were also human beings and that they also had
feelings. Who needed television promotion for that? It’s quite ironic that some
of ABBA’s previous hits dealt with major personal issues and yet Björn has been
quoted in interviews as saying, ‘some of our best stuff was written after the
divorces.’
The personal issue I also
believe got in the way and I honestly think Frida and Benny’s divorce was the
final nail in ABBA’s coffin despite this not being said at the time. ABBA was no
longer what they initially set out to be all those years ago, two happy couples
making happy pop music. There was no happiness left and there was no reason to
promote it other than with minimum effort. Which is what they did.
I for one know, if I was working
my wife and we split, there would be no motivation or reason to try and promote
a happy front to please those around us. So, I’m not surprised ABBA’s television
promotion for ‘The Visitors’ in 1981 was non-existent, the recording studio and
the resulting songs recorded that year must have been hard enough to finish
anything else would more than likely have been torture!
Neil
|
