"There was fever, there was hysteria, there were sweaty obesessed crowds" proclaimed the T-shirts that were worn by myself, Steve Jasper and Joel Bennett to The ABBA Generation on the weekend.

The Agnetha Armada marched in formation as we arrived at The Furama Central Hotel for the 2 day fan event, much to the horror of Graeme Read. He looked at us and said "Oh God!"

We had planned for this day. Months of preparation....well, okay....weeks of preparation had been put into what we had in store for the weekend, most importantly, "Club-ABBA".

But it was not all smooth saling for the armada, both before the convention, and during. Let's start with the lead-up...

PART ONE: PLANNING GLOBAL DOMINATION

Steve, Joel and I had a few meetings to discuss how we could raise Agnetha fan visibility. The ideas we came up with included t-shirts, blonde wigs, tiaras, cowboy hats, killer poodles and blue eyeshadow. The plan was to arrive on Saturday wearing the T-shirts, adding blue eyeshadow and blonde wigs for Club-ABBA, adding the tiara during Dancing Queen, the cowboy hat for P&B, and dancing in formation for both DQ and P&B.

The plans we had gradually came together, and fell apart again. Steve and I coreographed a line dance for P&B. Neither of us had any line dancing experience, so we checked out the internet for line dance steps and put them together to create the official line dance of The Agnetha Armada.

A few weeks before the convention, we organised wig hire and bought some blue eyeshadow. But then, disiater struck.

One week before the convention, I had to go into hospital for minor surgery. The end of my time on the waiting list could not have come at a worse time. It completely destroyed our hope of doing a proper line dance. Since there were now only two able-bodied armada members. This didn't stop us from continuing our global domination plans. While I was recovering in my home town of Orange, Steve and I spoke several times daily, ensuring everything was done. While in Orange, I did the t-shirt design and the cover design of "The Queen And I", a bootleg CDR single of DQ done in a rap style. This was played during club-ABBA.

Meanwhile, in Sydney, Steve was organising wigs (again). We decided against the $50 wig hire, in favour of buying wigs for $20. Due to dwindling finances, we also decided against the poodles, which I had found at Toys'R'Us in Chatswood. They were to be dressed up with vampire fangs and blue eyeshadow, and brought with us on the Sunday, as per the original plan.

Anyway, back to the wigs. Steve went back to the market stall at which he saw the wigs the week before, but they weren't there, and the person minding the stall had an IQ measured in negative values, so Steve walked away empty-handed, and in a panic. He phoned me with the bad news. Okay, no wigs yet, maybe they'll be there next week, but it's unlikely.

Then the Thursday before the convention rolled in. This day was the day our t-shirts were to be printed. After work, Steve headed off to Parramatta to a shop recommended by Joel. He handed them the disk with my design on it, which I had emailled to Steve a day or so earlier. He was then told that the shirt could not be printed from disk, and that a hard copy would have to be given to them. This was contrary to what he had been told days before, so Steve was quite upset.

He phoned me in a state of panic and screamed profanities down the phone to me: "I fucking hate fucking Parramatta!!". This lasted a few minutes. I managed to calm the sweaty obesessed kraut (yes, Steve has German background) at the other end of the phone and give him some instructions. "Go find a place in Westfield that can print the design for you and take it back. Simple". Steve didn't want to go back to the t-shirt shop though. He didn't want to give them the business, and I don't think they deserved it either. However, the shirts were still required and it was our only option, so I talked him into going back.

Two minutes before the shop closed (8:58pm), I got a phone call. "The shirts are done" announced a happier version of the profane human being I had spoken to about an hour beforehand. I congratulated Mr Jasper and offered the prognosis that wigs will be on sale at the Dixon St market stall which had let us down the previous week. Since the shirts came about at the very last minute, I expected the same of the wigs. I just *knew* they would be there.

Friday came, and all day, the wigs were playing on Steve's mind. Wigs, wigs wigs. Sure enough, they were there, and we were all set for the convention. *sigh of relief*

Joel, Steve and I met in the hotel lobby so we could march in formation into the convention room. We ensured that we were all in uniform. Black pants, black shoes, black Agnetha Armada t-shirt.

Into the lift we went and pressed the [11] button. (Insert sound clip from "Eagle" here)

As we made our way into the convention, there were laughs, there were groans, there were stares. The Agnetha Armada had made it's first statement.

Then it was time for some great video footage. I won't repeat all the details of the videos. Trent has already outlined them well in his post. I will only add that they were "faaaaaabulous" as *The* Ian Cole would say. ;-)

The Furama's first attempt at feeding a 35-strong group of hungry ABBAMAILers failed dismally. The food was put out, the vultures flew in, and within 30 seconds, all the plates were empty. It was not long though, before replacement sandwiches were supplied, satisfying the remainder of the group.

After lunch, we had a discussion forum on the events of the 25th anniversary, and what a year it's been. Mark, Ian and Graeme told of their experiences in Europe. Mamma Mia, B&B Concerts, KFD, and more.

Then came the highight of the weekend. After a short video of footage from the 1977 tour, Shelly Benson, production coordinator for ABBA-The Movie told of her experiences with the group and the making of the movie. It was a very insightful talk, and Shelly was nothing short of magnificent. She spoke and answered questions for nearly 2 hours, after which she showed us some photos from her personal collection. Photos taken while on tour with ABBA.

After that, we had dinner. We had rice, we had pork, we had bread rolls, we had salads, we had cake.

Shortly after dinner, I inspected the wound left behind by the surgery I had a week beforehand, and noticed that the surrounding flesh had swollen further, and it had become infected. Steve Jasper and Joel Bennett took me to a doctor to have it checked out, and I was put on antibiotics straight away. Big thanks to Joel and Steve for taking care of me. *hugs*

Anyway, back to the Furama we went and danced the night away. Joel, Steve and I made use of our lateness to this part of the convention to make an entrance as The Agnetha Armada. With t-shirts still on, we added blue eyeshadow and blonde wigs, and headed out onto the dancefloor. We had ransom notes prepared, asking for certain Agnetha songs to be played, and these were issued at regular intervals during the night. FOr danicng queen, we added a Tiara to our image, and cowboy hats were brought in at other times. They were meant for our line dance to P&B, but Joel and I couldn't realy line dance and Graeme didn't even have P&B, so there goes that Idea.

By the end of the night, I was fucked, and by than I mean tired. ;-) Joel and I headed off home.

NOTE: By now, the running order of events has somewhat faded, so what you read here may not be in the same order as other posts.

PART THREE - THE ABBA GENERATION DAY 2

Arriving just on time, Joel and I made ourselves a cup of tea and had some gorgeous pastry things for breakfast. Time to mingle with a more sedate sweaty obessed crowd. Many were still tired from the dancing the night before, myself included.

We even had little mint lollies that had blue centres. Perfect for Frida Fan conversion. When offering these sweets to the various Frida fans in the room, most refused to come to the blue side. Oh well, more for the Armada.

We started the day with some Frida videos which were interesting to say the least. Frida the actor, Frida the ABBA member, Frida the solo artist. Great stuff.

My now it was about 10:40, and the third part of the armada had not arrived. I phoned Steve to find out where he was. He was still at home, under the assumption that the day didn't start until 11am. "I'm on my way", he groaned.

Then the Agnetha and Gemini videos started. They were truly fabulous, and an undisputed highlight of the day. Being a big fan of both, my eyes were glued to the screen as Agnetha, Karin and Anders entertained me, and the other fans in the room. A huge thanks to the wonderful people who provided that footage. I'd never seen any of it before.

THen, the swap meet. This was a great opportunity to see some really unusual items and perhaps even buy them. By now, my spending money was reduced to $15, so I couldn't even get the Agnetha Vol 2 LP that I really wanted. Oh well, I came away with a copy of TCRS and the Australian Under Attack Picture Sleeve single, so I was happy.

And just when I though things couldn't possibly get any better..... ONE MORE TIME

If you have never heard or seen this group, you are truly missing out on something magnificent. The heavily Benny-influenced power-pop group astounded me with their song "Highland", and others. Then it was solo Nanne, and her Eurovision performance of "Avundsjuk" and the video clip of "Vem Som Helst". It was all fabulous. Big thanks to Gustav and Grant for sending those over.

Lunch on Day 2 consisted of chicken pices, potato wedges and more sandwiches.

And what about ABBALLET??? Christ that was funny! It had me crying with laughter partly for the video itself, but also for Steve Jasper's convulsions on the opposite side of the table. :) What a scream!

Then it was time for ABBA Team Trivia. My team consisted of Steve T, Steve J, Patrick, Mark and myself called ourselves "The Andy Balls Of Graeme Read Fandom". All through the entire quiz, we were tied with The Beryls in the lead. That is, until the last devastating round. We completely lost it then due to our lack of knowledge in the non-album b-side stakes. Oh well, we had fun anyway.

ABBA - The Cocktail party started, and we just happily mingled as people gradually left.

While this was going on, we watched ABBAMANIA, A UK TV Special where several of today's current acts performed covers of ABBA songs. The best of these were Steps with IKHSW and Westlife with IHAD. I'll have to get that CD. :)

By the end of the day, I was really tired, so it was a good time to just head home and do nothing.

Many thanks again to Graeme, John, Ian, Ian and Fiona for making the weekend what it was.

Damien - Sydney, Australia