Here goes, an attempt to convey just how fabulous the last weekend in Sydney was for the 35-odd fans that thought it was important enought to attend The ABBA Generation convention in Sydney.

At the moment I'm still feeling quite drained, and like Fiona suffering a bit from post-event depression. After all these weeks of preparation and anticpation it's all over, never to be repeated (though quite a few people said over the weekend that we should get together for dinner sometime, so that we can all see each other again).

The weekend went over amazingly well even with a few technical glitches, though the schedule was flexible enough that things could be juggled around and everything scheduled managed to be fitted in somewhere.

Starting on Friday, when I picked up Graeme and all the stuff for the convention, we arrived at the hotel to set up and were amazed to find that all the staff in the hotel were super helpful and kept offering their assistance, though we declined because we've done it so often over the years that we've got it down to a fine art, and as Graeme so politely put it (not to them, just as an aside comment to me) they'd slow us down! ;-)

Setting up the room went rather smoothly, though the display was a bit of a nightmare to set up. We layed out everything on the tables into rough groups (Mamma Mia! stuff, ABBA 25th anniversary releases, A*Teens, Frida tribute, the Agnetha Shrine, photos from the Graeme/Grant/Ian/Mark tour of Europe,etc, etc). Graeme and I stodd there staring at it all for quite a while, until I told him to just leave it to me and I'd set it out in a sort of flowing dispaly with everything grouped into themes (I hope the idea worked). Starting with al; the 25th anniversary CDs, it flowed into some of the ABBA anniversary news coverage from Swedish, English, Dutch, Eurobabble, etc newspapers and magazines from March/April, flowed into reports The Winner Takes It All special, onto Görel's birthday party, the ABBA - A Tribute CD, the exhibition, the Från ABBA till Mamma Mia book, the B & B concerts in Olso, then into Mamma Mia reviews and merchandise. Then came a small Kristina tribute, a table overflowing with A*Teens souvenirs, the Frida tribute (including some press coverage on Ruzzo's death) and reports on Stig's death (I know, not part of everything else in 1999, but a small tribute to Stig for his contribution to ABBA).

Then in the middle of the display area was the 1979 tour tribute (as it's 20 years since the tour) with tons of photos from the tour, the program and some other magazines and stuff from the tour). Finally there were 2 tables filled with photos from our trip to Europe in March/April. Unfortunately there wasn't enough room for everything - the original idea was to have a selection covering the entire trip, but because of the lack of space (there was just so much stuff!) only photos from the ABBF Day in Roosendaal, a few photos from Stockholm (including the visit to Polar Studios and Mono Music and the encouter with Benny) and the rest was photos from the Mamma Mia! premiere.

In front of the entire display (it moved around the room a few times before it ended up fitting perfectly just there) was the Agnetha Shrine - some gorgeous photos of "the goddess" complete with candles to light in her honour! This tickled the Agnetha Armada when they arrived (but more on that later).

Most of the set up was finished not too late on Friday night, but the display took so long to get done that it was finally finished about 2 seconds before the first people entered the room at 11 on Saturday morning!

So everyone started to arrive, and old friends got to meet again, while new people got to meet up with everyone. And I don't think I'd be wrong in saying that just about everyone met up with everyone else over the course of the weekend, with lots of opportunities to mingle and chat with others (except I realised after it was all over that there were a few people that I didn't really get to talk to :-( ).

After such a relatively smooth set up to the whole thing, wouldn't you know that technical difficulties would fuck up the first scheduled event - a selection of A*Teens videos clips and TV appearances to introduce everyone to them. The video projector, which had been working fine half an hour earlier, decided that it just didn't want to work! After some fiddling around to see if it could be made to work, then some frantic phone calls to the place that it was hired from (when a replacement was offered, but it couldn't be there for a few hours) the chedule wsa juggled around so the the second item on the schedule moved up to first - the group excercise, where everyone was asked questions to get to know a bit about each person there, such as where yoiu were born, who has tattoos, what song do you hate most, etc.

For some reason, the video projector eventually decided to start working again, so the video could be shown and events could get back on schedule.

The rest of the afternoons events flowed on well, with more videos to watch and a break for lunch (unfortunately, not enough sandwiches were brought up at first, one of the very few glitches with the hotel, but more were soon brought in). Now at the moment, I can't really tell you much else of happened during the afternoon, it's all bit of a blur at the moment. There was the little talk spot about the Mamma Mia! expericance in London in April, with Graeme, Mark and I up front talking about that (it was supposed to lead into a whole discussion thing about the 25th anniversary rahrah, but because things had to be shuffled around after the projector breakdown, time sort of got away). Stupid thing was, even though it was my basic idea, I hadn't prepared anything to say about it! D'oh!

4 o'clock saw the highlight of the day - the guest speaker Shelley Benson (nee Bamford). Shelley worked for Reg Grundy Productions in the 70s, when they held to licence for ABBA merchandise, brought ABBA to Australia in 1976 for the Channel 9 special The Best Of ABBA, and were also co-producers with Polar of ABBA - The Movie. In 1978 Shelley moved from Grundy to RCA, who released ABBA's records in Australia until PolyGram bought Polar in 1990. Shelley was also "production co-ordinator" (as it reads in the credits) on ABBA - The Movie, and appears herself in The Movie when, during Money x 3 a lot pf people wearing ABBA t-shirts, caps, sock, etc are shown (Shelley is the girl with very long straight brown hair wearing an ABBA t-shirt and a blue and white ABBA cap).

Shelley is quite a talker, and told some amazing behind the scenes stories about the filming of The Movie and the tour in general (stuff that you'd never get from anyone else!). We'd known Shelley for many years - when she worked for RCA in the late 70s she was one of Graeme's contacts there, and after leaving RCA in 1982 to move on to Greater Union she met John "Frida" McKechnie. Many times, but years ago, we had met her at the pub for a drink or several, where she told us many of the same stories that she told us on Saturday, so we knew that she would be an excellent person to have at the convention. I was surprised that she remembered me, as I'd only met her a few times, and hadn't seen her for probably 10 years or more!

After the interview with Shelley was finished, she told us that she had some old scrapbooks and things with photos, articles, etc from the tour and around that time, and asked if anyone was interested in seeing them. Of course, she was immediately swamped as she took her things over to the closest table and the entire roomfull of people crowded around to see. Because there was such a crush I didn't get to see a lot, though one thing that I did see (and got a good laugh) was a card sent to Shelley from the Aust ABBA Fan Club in about 1978, signed "best wishes, Graeme". Graeme was flabbergasted that she's even kept that!

After everyone got a good look at everything, Shelley announced that she needed "a drink and a ciggy", and it seemed that half the room followed her to the balcony.

Because the talk with Shelley went on longer than scheduled (and could easily have gone on longer!), the Frida video segment was cancelled, though it was played on Sunday morning.

Dinner was served promptly at 6, and i must say it was a great idea to have the meals catered for, rather than people having to go off and find their own food. (the previous 3 events we had, I ate barely anything at all!). The food was simple but quite satisfying, and unlike the shortage of food at lunch, there was just the right amount so that everyone got fed (and enough for seconds for those that wanted it).

As dinner wound down, it was time to see the A*Teens concert video from Poland, which had been the inspiration for the entire event. This seemed to be well recieved, though those that still weren't converted to the A*Teens charms could of course adjourn to the balcony, which they did.

Next up was club-ABBA, the climax of any ABBA event. 4 hours of non-stop ABBA and related music. I was on the first DJ shift, starting off with Alla mina bästa år, then a few ABBA songs which got a few people dancing, and a group of Agnetha songs to bring out the Agnetha fans, but no-one had bothered to tell me that the Agnetha Armada had gone out in search of medical assistance for Damien.

Graeme and I alternated shifts during the course of the night, roughly one hour on, one hour off. We both played different sorts of things (I stuck with mostly ABBA or the odd Agnetha or Frida track, Graeme played some of the cover versions amongst it all. It was funny to see what people would dance to - there were a couple of times during the night when what you'd would have been popular turned out to be dance floor killers! Oh well, when in doubt, play Dancing Queen! ;-)

4 hours of dancing music (marred only by the playing of the track The Queen And I, which comes across as a rap version of Dancing Queen meets Disco Duck and is truly, truly awful) was capped off with the traditional last song of the night just before midnight, We Move As One (which was also played on the video screen) as everyone joined in a circle on the dance floor.

Afterwards a large contingent of us adjourned to the bar downstairs to have a drink, relax and unwind. We encountered the one unpleasant staff member in the entire hotel here, when the bar manageress or whatever she was was trying to hustle us out fo the bar (when it had already been prearranged that the bar would stay open for us).

After closing time at 1.30 a group of gluttons fro punishment continued the merriment in the Newcastle contingent's (Greg, Luke and Jolanda) room until 3 am, drinking very cheap cask wine and watching bad porn on television.

Thank goodness that many of us were staying in the hotel - it was a short stagger back to our rooms for most of us!

After such an exhausting and long day and night on Saturday, Sunday got off to a slow, relaxed start with Coffee with ABBA people at 10. The good thing about a slow start like this was the people could roll in when they felt up to it, not having to rush to get there right on time. During coffee time, the previous day's Frida video segment was played. Coffee time was supposed to finish with a viewing of the Top Of The Pops 2 ABBA special from earlier this year, but the tape couldn't be found, so instead we saw the later scheduled Agnetha/Gemini video segment.

Next up was the Swap Meet section, something that had never really been done at an Australian ABBA event before. There were a few people who brought things to sell, including some very rare gems! THere was a lot of feverish sellnig and trading going on, with lots of great stuff changing hands. Unfortunately for me, I saw some stuff that I thought of buying, then Graeme swoped in and got everything that I wanted! Then I saw something else, and Trent beat me to that too! Bastards! I hate you all! ;-)

Even if I didn't manage to get much in the way of new ABBA stuff myself, I did contribute some items to other people's collections, which made it worthwhile having all these doubles and triples of some ABBA stuff for all these years.

Next up came more video, including the previously unseen footage of ABBA in 1973 that was recently shown in Danish TV. That quick little bit of Love Isn't Easy is one of the campest things I've eer seen ABBA doing - the boys pouting, the girls punching the boys on the big "boom" in the music- funnee! It's really amazing seeing "animated" versions of ABBA from this time period - previosuly the earliest moving images we've had of ABBA were the Waterloo Eurovision performances (the Swedish heat, then the actual competition). While this was on, Graeme raced home via taxi to find the missing TOTP2 video.

Lunch came next, which due to the shuffling around of the schedule was a bit early, but the food had arrived and unlike Saturday, there were plenty of sandwiches, plus spicy chicken pieces and potato wedges - no one went hungry on Sunday.

Graeme made it back in record time, so after lunch the ABBA TOTP2 special was shown. Good to see some of ABBA's special appearances on that show, with the newly recorded backing "with the BBC Orchestra" due to the English union rules at the time about only English musicians being heard on TV or whatever it was.

Amazingly, by the time the TOTP2 video finished, we were somehow right on schedule. Next up was the Team Trivia, where everyone got to test out their ABBA knowledge. We've done this at a couple of previous events, so for something different during the breaks between rounds, we gave out a sheet of 12 "famous faces" (ABBA related, but not the 4 members of ABBA of course - that would have been too easy). Children and ABBA related people - and amazingly several teams got all 12 right, though some of the incorrect answers were quite amusing in their own right! We were also "treated to a few excerpts from ABBALLET - could this possibly be the worst thing ever shown on television? Thank goodness we didn't have to sit through the whole thing! Competition was quite tight, with 2 teams on equal points right up to the start of round 3 (they both managed to get the same question in round 1 wrong, but aside from that glitch they had perfect scores). Round 3 sorted the men from the boys (so to speak), especially the doozy question on what songs had been released as single B sides but not included on any of the 8 "original" albums. Congrats to The Beryls for getting all 14 and being the only team to score a perfect round in round 3 (though a couple of others came very close). Who'd have thought we'd have a clear winner, but need a tie-breaker question for the runners up?

After the trivia, it was time for more video, with a selection from One More Time and Nanne Grönvall's solo stuff, which was then followed by some American reports from 1979 on ABBA's tour, to commemorate the fact that it was 20 years since the tour (isn't it funny? People on the other side of the world who missed out on the tour commemorate it, while the countries that ABBA visited have all but forgotten it it seems). Who remembers that Burt Ward (played Robin in the 60s TV series Batman) ran ABBA's merchandising company in 1979?

The final event event of the weekend was the cocktail party, so that rather than rushing off at the end of the weekend, everyone could sit around and have a drink, wind down and mingle with everyone for a couple of hours before we all went our separate ways. Unfortunately it was raining, which made it a bit uncomfortable for those that wanted to go out on the balcony for fresh air (or a cigarette). During the cocktail party we watched the ABBA Mania video, just arrived from England. Personally, it didn't do much for me - I didn't like Westlife's version of I Have A Dream at all, nor did either Steps number thrill me. For me there were only 3 highlights - Madness's Money x 3 was fun, Stephen Gayley's Chiquitita was nothing different but enjoyable (except for the embarrassing bit afterwards when that bimbo host was trying to come on to him - you've got the wrong bits love!). ANd Culture Club's stunning version of Voulez-Vous. The whole thing is worth enduring just for that.

So then by 6.30 that was it. The bar was closed and it was time for everyone to go home/to the airport/wherever they were gloing, while we stayed behind and had to pack everything up so that the room could be set up for the next function on Monday. We managed to get it all packed up after a couple of hours, then Graeme, John, the 2 Ians and ?? went down to the bar for quite a few drinks and a big wind down. Due to the amount of booze consumed on Sunday night, the van was left at the hotel and we caught a cab home (no hotel room on Sunday night).

So Monday morning, rather that sleep in and recover, it was up early for me again, back to the hotel to pick up Graeme and all the convention stuff and deliver it all back to my house, Graeme's flat, the storage centre before returning the van. By the time I got home on Monday afternoon, I was positively fucked and slept for a while on the lounge while watching TV, then went to bed for a couple of hours.

After such a draining weekend physically and emotionally, I now understand why a lot of people take a week off after the Sydney G & L Mardi Gras and go to some nice beach resort somewhere to relax, unwind and come down.

So that was the weekend that was.

Thanks to the 30-odd people who decided that ABBA were important enough in their lives to give up one weekend and come along. It's a shame that more people didn't come, but you all made all the work and shit that went on worthwhile. YOu all made sure that you'd enjoy yourselves and have a good time, and I don't think that anyone came away from the weekend with any disappointments. I'd love to name you all individually, but at the moment all the names escape me and I wouldn't want to miss out on anyone. :-)

Thanks to those that help out along the way and on the day. Thanks to Fiona for turning up and holding court at the merchandise stand (so I didn't get stuck with doing that too! ;-) ). Thanks John for assistance on the day. Thanks to the "other Ian", who doesn't even like ABBA and still puts up with all this crap!

And of course, thanks to Graeme for the whole damn thing! It's a hell of a lot of work to put on one of these things, and no-one does it like Graeme does (I know that *I'd* never be able to pull off what he's done over the years).

Ian - Sydney, Australia