Advance Information

Eighteen years after they last performed together, ABBA remain one of the world's biggest selling groups with one of the strongest catalogues in the history of popular music. The true story of their extraordinary career - a union that involved two marriages and two divorces - has never been told until now.

As a group, ABBA were active from 1972 to 1982 and broke sales records around the world during that period. The compilation CD ABBA Gold, released in 1992, has become their biggest selling album ever with world-wide sales around 17 million. In 1999 alone, 6.5 million ABBA albums were sold world-wide.

This book will be the first truly thorough and honest ABBA biography, covering all aspects of the ABBA members' lives and careers: the period before the group came together, the amazing success story of the Seventies, their marriage and divorces, the ups and downs of their business empire and their careers after the group.

The bulk of the book will focus on the ABBA years. As the story of the group and its members develop, the book will take a look at the group's musical development, offering an insightful critique of the group's songs in terms of European tradition. Similarly the ABBA story will be related in the context of Swedish history and culture, as only an experienced author can.

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Stockholm based Carl Magnus Palm is recognised as the world's foremost ABBA historian. His earlier books include ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions and From ABBA to Mamma Mia! He was involved in putting together the ABBA CD box set Thank You For the Music and has written liner notes to several ABBA related CDs most notably ABBA Gold and More ABBA Gold.