I first have to say that the night of the concert was one of the most exciting nights I've ever had. It was an amazing night being there with my fellow ABBAMAILERS and of course, Benny Anderssons Orkester. One thing that I haven't seen mentioned is that this was, for me and many others, the first time seeing an ABBA member perform and also performing ABBA songs! How fantastic is that???? LOL - I just thought that was amazing and kept mentioning this all night to everyone.

I had arrived Friday afternoon with Veronika (my Mom II) from Denver, we checked into our hotel, then went to a restaurant I had wanted to take her too that was a favourite of mine when I 'lived' in Minneapolis on a project several years ago. I was in Minneapolis for about two years, several years back and had an amazing time. It's a great city with very nice people who are very down to earth, very family oriented and with lots of kids!! I'll never forget how many babies there were in this city - I guess that's what happens when you have many long cold winter nights!

Anyway, we finished up or food and drinks on Friday, then took a taxi to the Sheraton to meet the gang. I had told Veronika about several of the people she was about to meet and she was very excited to be, for the first time, in the company of fellow ABBA fans! We arrived at the hotel, found the bar and quickly found the group. It was amazing to see everyone again - it had been way too long. There was a group of about 15 or so and we quickly caught up on things and any 'Benny' sightings, which have been talked about in other reports already. Many have already written about this, so I'll save everyone a re-hash of the night, but suffice it to say it was a great evening and a great way to start the weekend! One of the many highlights for me was that I finally got to meet my fellow Aggie buddy - Mikey! You can see him and I in the pics I've taken (link is below). It was really great to see everyone and it had been way too long since I had seen everyone. Everyone was looking great and ready for the weekend!

On Saturday evening, Veronika and I arrived in the large foyer area where they had setup cash bars and we grabbed a drink and quickly found the others. The night was certainly buzzing and the mood was electric. As I listened around, I heard a lot of people speaking Swedish, which was very refreshing to hear! We soon made our way into the main area where the dinner and concert were going to take place, found our tables and began to visit with everyone and start on the food. Our tables were very close to the front with several of our group tables being the first tables from the dance floor. The room was quite large and a majority of the tables were further back than ours. I don't know how this happened and who was responsible (Laura?), but they certainly gave our group some of the best seats in the place. From this point on, we started the 4 or 5 course meal, then the auction started. It was interesting to see how much the ABBA albums (signed by Benny) went for, especially with this not being an ABBA fan gathering! Maybe there were more ABBA fans than I thought in the ASI! They auctioned off many things - one of the more interesting items was a vacation at the Ice Hotel in Sweden. This went for a lot of money ($3, 000 or so?) - I wish I could've bid for this!

So the night went on and soon the band appeared in the centre of the room and started playing while making their way onto the stage (what was this song?). I have to say that I don't know if I've ever seen such a great performance by a live band. They all seemed to be enjoying themselves so much, having fun, laughing with a lot of back and forth stage 'banter' between the members of the band. They were obviously having a good time and the cool thing is they all got to share the spotlight at some point or another, with several of the band members being featured in solos. Several people have mentioned Benny, Helen and Tommy being 'tanked' or very drunk. I didn't see this at all. Maybe I missed this, but most definitely I don't think Helen was drunk at all and I'm sure the others had some drinks, but I didn't see any evidence of them being drunk. Benny bounced back and forth from his piano to the front of the stage, picking up his accordion like an 18 year old, playing it, then putting it back down and going back to the piano many times - never giving any indication of being drunk. I thought they were all extremely professional and very good at what they did. I did think the Tommy numbers like Moon River etc. were almost of place, but I see this as them making some adjustments for being here in America and doing some standards that the audience would appreciate - I thought is was really great. I did notice that Tommy and Helen (mostly Tommy) were reading from lyric sheets. Helen at least covered it up well with only a few glances down at the sheet, but Tommy was reading EVERY word from the lyric sheet and didn't make much of an effort to hide it. Regardless, it was a great performance.

Highlights for me were of course, Hemma (Home) in English, which was amazing. Also, Var Sista Dans (Our Last Dance) in English - amazingly beautiful lyrics. Also, the ABBA songs were wonderful with the 'tango' version of Money, Money, Money being the highlight for me since Helen really makes this version her own. Also, seeing Benny do his 'thing' at the piano with Why Did It Have To Be Me was really amazing to see. As I had mentioned, here was a member of ABBA in front of me performing ABBA songs - truly amazing and something I'll never forget! I loved how they featured several of the band members. Others have mentioned Kalle (?), who is really amazing - he went from playing electric guitar, to steel guitar (with wonderful facial expression reactions from Tommy and Helen), to his canastas, to singing O Sole Mio (sp?) and really hamming it up!! What a performance!! They also featured the drummer playing the xylophone with Tommy taking over the drums!!! Priceless! I loved this - what a great performance. Then there was Benny. You could often catch him with eyes closed, playing his accordion, smiling from ear to ear. You could see that he was really in a good place there on stage with his band, and really having the time of his life - wow! On one song, there was this jump that was started by the band and carried over to the audience. Benny LOVED this and couldn't keep from cracking up laughing every time we all started to jump at the right point. Priceless!!! And Helen - WOW! What a voice (which we already knew), and what a performer. Always on key and really powerful and really having a good time always smiling. Great stage banter back and forth with Tommy and the rest of the band - it was really clear they were having a good time. Tommy, I thought was great too - though I thought he could've been a little louder with his songs, but he also had a good time laughing and filling in with jokes where he had too.

So the night went on - very long (not a bad thing) with the band just giving more and more and more to the audience. Some have mentioned the crowd up in front of the stage. I was unsure how this was going over, but as I looked at the people that were up there, it was mostly ASI members! Those from our group that chose to stand were confined to a small area to one side of the stage near our tables, and as the night went on some of us made it to front and centre, but I looked around and 99% of the people up there, I didn't know. So, I didn't feel too badly for standing up there - besides this was probably going to be the only chance I would ever have to be this close to the band, Tommy, Helen and Benny, so I went for it. I was also able to get some great pictures (link is below) and some video from my digital camera, which isn't that great from a digital camera, but gives you a sense of what being there was like. I saw many others with video cameras, so I'm sure there will be video out there for us to see at some point.

Anyway, the night ended with just the most amazing electrifying feel and most of the ABBA songs coming at the end with everyone on their feet, clapping and singing for a big ending. We soon dispersed from the area and headed to the bar. As some have mentioned, we noticed a table with many chairs (20 or so) and pizzas, so we figured this was for the band. Sure enough, about 30 minutes or so later they all started to get there including Helen, Benny, Tommy, Görel, Mona and all the others. Helens boyfriend was there too with her eventually sitting on his lap. I had several things I wanted signed, so I waited until Benny rose from the table to leave, grabbed his accordion and I got to him quickly and asked for autographs. As others have mentioned, he was very thankful as he first walked into the room saying that we were 'the best audience' or something like that. As he was signing my things I thanked him again and he was the nicest I've ever seen - very thankful to all of us being there!

So, it was truly an amazing night not only for the concert, but finally getting to see everyone again!! I have uploaded my pictures and hope this link works if you want to see the pictures. Also, I was wondering if anyone knew what the song was that they played when the band first started playing in the audience and went on stage. Is this on any of their CDs?? I don't think I've ever heard it before. Also, they played two new songs with Benny commenting that they hadn't even translated them to English yet. They were great! I've also uploaded a scan of the Dans! invitation with Benny and Tommy's autograph. I missed Helen in the mad rush to get to Benny - UGH!!! I really needed her autograph on the invitation!! Oh well. I've also scanned the card that was at our table, table 15. I thought it would be great to get everyone's signatures on the card, so we all signed it and I kept it and have scanned it for everyone to see.

I also have 10 or 12 small videos from my digital camera that I would like to share with everyone, but I don't know how to share them properly with everyone. If anyone knows how I can do this, email me privately and I'll be glad to upload and share these with everyone. I have almost the complete Hemma in English, which is just amazing - so if anyone knows how I can do this - let me know!!

Here is the link to the pictures: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=gu2g91j.1s2w28tb&x=0&y=x1to4r

Again, thanks to everyone for an amazing weekend - it was so great to see everyone!

Randy Minten Denver, Colorado USA