Benny Andersson Orkester in the USA | ABBAMAILers Snapshots of an amazing weekend with BAO in the U.S.A. | 
Thanks to ABBAMAILer Randy Minten
for BAO photos |
I just got back from the Sheraton where about 30 ABBAMAILers met at the bar and had an evening of
unmitigated fun. I can't name every person there (I'll try to do that after tomorrow's BAO show if no one
else gets the chance), but it was great seeing some people I knew and some new faces. Laura Hitchens
arrived late from New York, and a little after 11, Gabriel Zubowksi called. I passed the phone around to about
seven people, and he spoke with them all. It was 6 a.m. in Poland.
Some of the people saw Benny and Helen in the hotel, and George Lewycky said he saw (heard, actually) the
BAO and Helen practicing for tomorrow night.
More to follow, of course. A lot of us are very tired. I'll try to post again after the show tomorrow. There were
about a million pictures being taken, so I am sure they will soon be posted.
Ron Miskoff, Minneapolis USA
| | | | I will be writing more later, but I just talked to Valerie Arrowsmith whom several of you met. She among other things is a local reporter who is writing articles about the BAO concert for three newspapers two Swedish American and one local. The articles in the Swedish papers will be published in a couple weeks. The local paper the Cambridge Star(Cambridge Minnesota is the most Swedish city percentage wise in the US) will publish the article at the earliest this weekend and for sure next week. Valerie is the main spark plug of Swedish Culture her. She is a close personal acquaintance of Benny as well as Björn. Benny stayed with her back while doing research for Kristina and she escorted them around the area a few years back. George L, she was quite impressed with you for your interest in Kristina. Wayne Buisman Still coming down from the fantastic weekend in Minnesota | | After first reading posts from ABBAMAILERS that received their invitation CD and I hadn't, I finally emailed Marc Johnson at ASI about it and mine arrived 3 days later in the mail. During our stay in Minneapolis Gustavo from Mexico said that he spoke with Marc on the phone about holding his CD so it wouldn't get lost in the mail. When we were in line to get our tickets, Gus spoke with Chris who was very rude and adamant that there were NO MORE CD's and he was out of luck. Later that night, Gus found Marc and sure enough he was holding his CD for him. So I don't if this might have been the case for other fans or not. I have uploaded most of my photos. Some are really bad but there are some good ones that came out too. If anyone wants any larger copies or if Grant wants to put some on the site, email me and I will send them out. http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/abbafanusa/album?.dir=77b9&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos PEPE Melton Long Beach, California USA | | Just a quick note from me, because I don't believe it's been posted yet, but Helen did sing Home (Hemma), so that was probably the first time it was performed in the USA (and we were there!). I did a quick in and out of the Twin cities, and I'm back in home buying mode, but it was great to see Randy, Jason, Ron, Scarlett, Gil, Kevin, Dora, Anita, Sandra, Mikey, Paul and all the others, again for most of them. We're ABBAMAIL and proud of it :) Jason did a good job of keeping to eager fans away from Benny and the band last night (they were in the same (and only) hotel bar as we were after the concert). Sourpuss aka. Mona was there well and she seemed to be enjoying herself eating pizza beside Görel. This morning I had to take the shuttle to the airport and Kalle Moreaus (sp?) was calling his wife on his cell phone. I only know because Wayne started talking to him and so Kalle said he as calling his wife. Anyhoo, I had a great time, I like most of the concert - yes it did get old every now and again, especially when Tommy was singing. Tommy looked like he was severely hammered, and his jokes didn't translate. Take care, Liesbeth Lobato San Diego California, USA | The morning-after breakfast just ended, and a lot of people were heading back to points everywhere. Last
night's Benny Andersson Orchestra (that's how he spells it) was a big success, for both Benny and his band,
and for the fans. These guys really love to play together, and it shows.
We were seated very close to the stage, though as it turns out it didn't matter how close because everyone
could just walk up and stand by the stage, and the true fans did little or no dancing but a lot of picture-taking
and just hard watching. We were able to get within about 10 to 12 feet of Benny and the front-line band
members. There are about 14 of them, plus Helen and Tommy, who both sang many songs in different
styles. BAO did do, with Helen and Tommy, the title-repeat songs, I Do, I Do, I Do; Money, Money; Honey,
Honey; plus Why Did it Have to be Me. There might have been another one too. They did pop, traditional
Swedish songs, tangos, schotches, Chuck Berry, and even "Moon River" by Henry Mancini. Rather unlikely.
Tommy is sort of a lounge lizard in the Tom Jones style, even looks a little like him.
The room was set up like this: Starting first at the stage, then rows of fans lining along the stage snapping
pictures, then rest of the dance floor being used for dancing, then about 60 tables of 10 people each. Modern
building that looks a little like a Las Vegas casino from the highway. Most of the people present were ASI
members, many of them quite hoary. They were mostly ethnic second-generation Swedes. Whenever the
ASI has an event, they usually attend, so this event was like their others, meaning they might not have
been real Benny fans.
Lars told me, and Jason said the same thing later, that the guards (which I didn't see) were told to watch the
ABBA fans closely so as not to bother Benny, especially the ones who signed up late. What could that have
meant? Is there an ABBAMAILer watch list? A credible threat to Benny, I suppose ;-) Of course there was no
problem. I consider that story to be an urban legend.
Later, Jason reportedly lit a cloth napkin on fire, but I'll let George tell that one.
We all sat and watched, stood and watched or danced. We were about 40 strong and strewn over about six
tables. I will let the others mention who was there because I didn't take a list down or anything, but we met
people from all over, including Germany, England, Japan, and Mexico. It was a joyous celebration of ABBA,
our friendship with each other, and, of course, the importance of ABBAMAIL. At one point I heard Graeme
was called, and the night before, Gabriel called from Poland. The meal was delicious and very eye appealing.
I got a picture of the desert, which was very entertaining. The ballroom of the Sheraton was festooned with
large Dans! posters. Before the show, the American Swedish Institute auctioned off some ABBA albums.
Pepe, one of the Mexican ABBAMAILers, bought one of the framed LPs with Benny's signature for something
between $270 and $325, I forget where it finally stopped. The auctioneer was a total putz. A good and loud
auction caller, but when he got to Voulez-Vous, he said, "And now we are auctioning off the album Voolezz-
Voos. If that's not the right pronunciation, it's because I didn't brush up on my Swedish." It was past idiocy.
I have pictures to post, so I will probably do that when I get back. There were a few surprise appearances of
ABBAMAILers, but I do not want to spoil their own postings. So look for some fun to come. BTW, Benny was
spotted by some people around the hotel, as well as Helen.
Ron Miskoff, Minneapolis USA | >> Who was from Japan? Maybe, someone from the Japanese list. A very nice young man named Isao. At first he said he was on ABBAMAIL, but later, when I questioned him a bit more, it turned out he simply reads Latest News on ABBAMAIL.com and found out about BAO. We welcomed him into our group nonetheless, and he came with us to the Sunday night Benny gig at the Dakota... ...which was a lot of fun, but it was very obvious that Benny and the boys were tired out. The verve of Saturday night was gone. Those of you who had to go home today -- don't worry about missing too much. It was a much shorter show, most of the songs were repeated, and no one sang, though Tommy was there posing for some pictures. Benny invited amateur violinists from the audience (and there were about 5 of them) up to play with the band. It must have been set up in advance because they had their violins with them. But because they were so elementary as players, the tunes they played were quite repetitious. I did get Benny's autograph on the official CD cover, however. Minneapolis, the actual city, not where the concert was last night, is a beautiful city. Very modern and clean. A lot of indoor bridges and tunnels between buildings because of the extreme weather. Also, the bus stops are heated. Super modern skyscrapers, even more than Richmond. The highlight came after the show when Wayne and about 10 of us walked a few blocks to see the statue of Mary Tyler Moore from her show (which took place in Minneapolis). It depicts her throwing her hat into the air and is located at the exact spot where she did it for the TV show. Those of you who remember the show will appreciate that. I got pictures and will post them later. There is one picture of ABBAMAILer Fred from Oregon doing a very rude thing with her statue! Returning tomorrow. I'll post again when I get back. All in all, a wonderful weekend. Ron Miskoff, Minneapolis USA | | | Ron R. asked what was for dinner. This was the menu: Spring mix of Salad Greens with Roasted Beets, Herbed Goat Cheese Timbale, Spice Roasted Walnuts, Sherry Vinaigrette Dressing Roasted Loin of Pork Stuffed with Dired Plums and Apricots and Apple Demi Potato and Cauliflower Ragout Hot and sour cabbage Carmelized apple start with Wild Berry Compote and Vanilla Sabayon The pork was actually very good; we were just all afraid it would be some kind of fish and wanted to be prepared. The dessert was good too and that's about as far as I got. They had wine on the table and an interesting concoction of sparkling Lingonberry and Apple juice. I can't answer about Görel; I wouldn't know her if I saw her. I know she was there and others spoke to her so they'll have to weigh in. Thanks to Randy and Jeff for getting the pics up so quick. Laura Hitchens Astoria, New York, USA | | | Laura gave you the menu for "The Dans" so I'll give you the menu for the Dakota Jazz Club. There were very few choices for the night but they went something like this: Salad: Season Greens with Warm Goat Cheese & Balsamic Vinaigrette ($7.50) Caesar Style Baby Romaine with Spiced Croutons ($8.50) Entree: Grilled Prime Sirloin with Roasted Root Vegetables & Red Wine Jus ($23.00) Herb Roasted Breast of Chicken on Wild Rice Compote with Chorizo & Pumpkin Seed Pesto ($19.00) Yellow Turnip Gnocchi with Black Trumpet Mushrooms & Sweet Onion (large $18.00-small $10.00) Cornmeal Walleye with Celery Root Remoulade & Tomato Tabasco Sauce ($22.00) Dessert: Chocolate Ganache Cake with Pecan Praline & Creamy Caramel ($7.50) Or, if you wanted, you could order "Prix Fixe" for $30.00 & choose one item in each category (which was what most of us did). The menus were printed on hard mustard yellow card paper especially for the event. The heading read "American Swedish Institute Presents An Evening of Conversation And Music." I got Benny to sign mine as well as Kalle (can't remember his last name...it's around here somewhere.) Tommy was there also but did not sing. Just sat & watched like the rest of us. At one point I think his major contribution to the evening was to keep Kalle "wined up". He also played the fiddle on a number or two (while sitting at his table), or maybe he was just going through the motions...I was too far away to hear if he was actually making any noise. I've seen a couple pics posted so far that make Benny look drunk. Believe me he was not (for the performances I mean). He was a bundle of energy & took special pleasure when he played the ukulele for a few numbers. And don't ask me why I looked but I saw the tag on his black jeans (the size tag) & it read 34/34. So not the fat old grump anymore is he! Fred King, many years past a 34 waist in Washougal, Washington USA PS. A cute comment overheard. Judy was talking to Scott from Kentucky and asked the name of his daughter. Scott said that's not my daughter...that's my girlfriend. (She's a lot younger than Scott) Well...it was funny at the time. I'll post my pics as soon as I find out how to use those tiny url's. Someone come to my rescue...I have no idea how to do that. | | | After endless delays and cancelled flights due to the weather we're having in Dallas, I'm finally home now. And a little pooped after just a few hours of sleep. I will write more later about seeing BAO and meeting all those wonderful wonderful ABBAMAILers later, but I had a Fan-friggin'-fabulous time! It really was the greatest. And talking to Graeme on the phone was nice too, even though I could barely hear him. BAO played Ring Ring (Swedish version), Money, Money, Money, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, and Why Did It Have To Be Me. Talk about making the room go mad!! It was kewl, man. And they always played that Hamlet thingy (sorry, I'm tired) but it was kind of slower than the version on Undeleted. I wonder if anybody wrote down the set list....hhmmm. I hope everybody is having fun at the Sunday night shindig with Benny! Scarlett Ray Dallas, Texas, USA | | Yeah, I was glad Jason kept the over eager fans away from hogging Benny - because one lady was a little obnoxious hovering over Benny like some beehive and not allowing the poor guy to eat. But ya know, I completely missed Mona and Görel in the hotel bar last morning. How did I not notice them? I guess I was too preoccupied staring at the back Benny's balding head. I just couldn't believe I was sitting a mere ten feet from him. I need help. Some people did say they thought Helen and Benny were totally hammered, while others seemed to think they were just jammin'. But I really enjoyed Benny rockin' out during Why Did It Have to Me (is that the right one?). He looked just like he did in The Movie, playing the piano...well, by "just like" I mean 30 years older but exactly the same. And Tommy ain't no stand-up comedian. G'night.
Scarlett Ray, Dallas, Texas, USA | |
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