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Australian News Update: Bright Lights, Dark Shadows February 2002 Over 10,000 copies of Bright Lights, Dark Shadows have been sold in Australia to date. --------------------------
From the Melbourne magazine Beat "I heard the riff on 'SOS' - one simple repeated octave pattern. All I did was take that pattern and alter it slightly." Thus Glen Matlock - the Sex Pistol with the Pop sensibility that informs all their greatest moments - composed 'Pretty Vacant', and Punk Rock was forever in ABBA's debt. Agnetha was confused - and no doubt a little frightened - when Sid Vicious acknowledged as much when he saw ABBA at an airport, staggering up ("...drunkenly", as she diplomatically put it) to get their autographs. This is a telling story not only because of the way it illustrates that ABBA were cool way before their hi-jacking by the camp and the gay, but because it highlights a theme that runs throughout Carl Magnus Palm's brilliant biography "Bright Lights, Dark Shadows". It seems that ABBA never really understood their appeal, from the initial miscalculation that led to their worse-than-murder birth as a cabaret act to their underwhelmed surprise at their all-conquering revival. When asked at the height of their re-discovery if he had any questions for his fans Benny said; "I'd like to ask them why we are so popular with Gay people". The overwhelming air of total bemusement that fuddles their friendly faces on arriving in Australia, and the way it gives way to frustrated incomprehension as the tour goes on, is one of the enduring features of the singularly unendearing "ABBA The Movie". And who wouldn't be a little nonplussed? "By the time they arrived in Australia they were all grown up. The guys had been major teen stars already in Sweden. ABBA were all settled down with children, and then they arrive in Australia to thousands of screaming teenagers! They though it was very odd. It was very odd. I still don't really understand it." Carl agrees that they seem a strangely a-sexual focus for such adoration. "Absolutely! I think that you can tell just by looking at Agnetha and Frida on stage that they had no idea about the sex-symbol thing - completely unaware that there were people in the audience who would like to..well..you know! Agnetha was turning her back to the audience because she was nervous, not to show her bottom." In one legendary UK TV interview, when asked about her prize-winning derriere, Agnetha famously responded with an exasperated sigh. "The thing with my bottom?" she said "It just keeps getting bigger." He professes to have never seen the interview, and if I hadn't seen it myself I would take Carl Magnus Palm's word for it and assume it was apocryphal. "Bright Lights, Dark Shadows" is an astonishingly thorough and detailed book. Carl guides us through its near-550 pages with a permanently raised eye-brow, treating surreal moments - like Benny's meeting with Kim Fowley in 1966 to discuss the lanky latter's stealing of a chorus from the chubby former's band The Hep Stars - with a relish for their glorious absurdity, guiding us through the labyrinthine minutiae of Svengali Stig Anderson's financial ventures with a sure hand, and documenting the personal jubilations and tribulations of the personal histories of the band without resorting to prurient voyeurism. It is a book that combines the scholarly rigour of the historian with the implicit understanding of the fan. And most important of all, it doesn't stop treating ABBA as a subject worthy of such serious consideration for a second. " I don't think anyone would have been interested in talking to me unless they were absolutely sure I was going to write honestly and truthfully about what went on. I was coming from a different perspective - what interested me first was the music, not the personal traumas or the business deals." It was his love of ABBA's songs that led to Carl Palm writing 'The ABBA Bible' - The Complete Recording Sessions. A work of staggering detail inspired by a similar book about the Beatles, it was the interviews with the band conducted for this book in 1993 that convinced him there was a need for a full biography. "I just realised that what was going on underneath was extremely interesting. These weren't the caricature Swedes that the tribute bands portray - all this "we heff to heff our peeckled hair-rings" business. They were very sharp guys indeed. And they were the absolute antithesis of what rock and roll supposedly stands for - Bruce Springsteen in his flanny riding down Thunder Road. A totally different concept." Of course, 'concept' may not be quite the right word. We're hardly dealing with the stylistic rigours of a Kraftwerk here. But then again, nor are we dealing with the crass commercialism of an Aqua. "Many of ABBA's trademarks began by accident - but then they were very quickly capitalised on, and now have become icons almost. Those video clips that were so distinctive and similar stylistically (and so crucial in ABBA's worldwide success, coinciding perfectly with the rise of Pop TV and its insatiable desire for video-clips) were simply the result of director Lasse Hallstrom having to make something distinctive very quickly and very cheaply. And ABBA were originally interested in him more for his work with TV comedy than music. The only direction he ever got from the band was Benny telling him that people must be able to see the group clearly! And the costumes! Björn has said that ABBA were never very style-conscious. Benny said that nobody had ever been so ugly on stage. Yet now things like the Cat-dress costumes and the star-shaped guitar are recognised everywhere as part of the ABBA 'style'. And like many aspects of their success, it was somehow all the more charming for its naivety, for its lack of calculation. And the same goes for the songs - they are simply brilliant songs." 'Bright Lights Dark Shadows' greatest achievement is to never forget that throughout ABBA's entire history, what has set them apart from the rest is the sheer size and quality of the body of work. Carl Palm accurately attributes the failure of would-be multi-media millionaire Stig Anderson to become a Swedish Richard Branson to the man's inability to recognise this. "He simply believed that if people had been telling him that making a Swedish group into an international phenomenon couldn't be done, then why should he listen to them when they said he couldn't expand into non-musical areas?" His over-ambition would cost him dear, dragging him into alcoholism and ostracising him completely from former friends Björn and Benny, who tired of having ABBA's name associated with his interminably complicated and basically questionable schemes. The songs also remain as powerful now as ever, transcending the circumstances of their writing and scuppering any critics who felt that the interest in them was some kind of subliminal voyeurism. "There is certainly an element of that involved, and it is something that makes their story particularly poignant. But it wasn't something that only began as they became famous. Their relationships had always been marked by tension and incompatibilities." The book is unstinting in its documenting of these tensions - Agnetha in particular seems to have been astonishingly frank about her personal life at all stages of her relationship with Björn. "She was unbelievably forthright in interviews! I was astonished at how openhearted they all were! I was surprised to discover that it wasn't all the work of a couple of journalists out to stir gossip, but rather that ABBA simply talked about their relationships perfectly openly from day one with everyone. In fact Björn and Agnetha said - and Benny later agreed - that if it hadn't been for ABBA, they would have split up years before. Some people stay married for the sake of the ! children, they stayed together for the sake of ABBA!" But as many reluctant divorces testify, determination to make things work rarely makes things work. The relationships collapsed - or rather the partners faced up to their collapse - and ABBA as a creative force soon followed. And that seemed to be it. So sure was Björn that ABBA were history that he sold his rights to the songs. And then the revival. Muriel's Wedding, Erasure, Mama Mia. And the tribute bands. After swapping favourite ABBA songs and laughing about my fondness for 'Why Did It Have To Be Me?' Carl Palm has to be off. He's going to Chadstone. "I have to go to sign the books. Molly Meldrum will be there, and this tribute band - BABBA. I'm sure it will be just wild," he says glumly. I admit that I won't be there. He nods. "I understand." As I get out of the lift I realise that I've got 'Thankyou For The Music' in my head. I'm not embarrassed a bit. DUSTY STUDD ********************** This comes from The West Australian and was published September 11, 2001: Swedish national treasure or international embarrassment? Kings of dag or superheroes of pop? TAMARA HUNTER talks to author Carl Magnus Palm about his new biography of ABBA. GIVEN the incredible level of fame enjoyed by ABBA on a global scale - both in the mid-70s and during the subsequent revival sparked by 90s movies like Muriel's Wedding - it is astonishing that no serious biography of the group has found its way to bookshops before now. Swedish author Carl Magnus Palm couldn't believe it either. As far as he was concerned, it was a serious oversight which needed rectifying. With 10 years of research and several smaller projects on the group behind him, he was in the perfect position to do just that. The result, a 554-page epic which took more than a year to write, chronicles in meticulous detail the alternately joyous and painful story of a group of ordinary people who found themselves caught in the grip of a phenomenon they could never have expected. Bright Lights, Dark Shadows: The Real Story of ABBA, delves deep into the ABBA archives, exploding popular myths and revealing intimate insights into the backgrounds and personal struggles of not only Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Faltskog, but their mercurial manager, Stig Anderson. Attacked and ridiculed for much of their career by critics, the press, and left-wing musicians - especially in their home country of Sweden - the members of ABBA are now lionised there as national treasures and acknowledged internationally as one of the most accomplished pop acts of all time. But this latterday acceptance means little to the four 50-somethings, who went their separate ways in 1982 and now have little or nothing to do with the entity which was ABBA. Agnetha, always the most famous member of the group yet paradoxically the one least equipped to deal with the attention, lives a secluded life. Frida, the product of a liaison between her Norwegian mother and a German soldier during World War II, married a prince (who died of cancer in 1999) and makes only occasional public appearances. Björn and Benny, whose friendship and songwriting partnership was the rock on which ABBA was built, are the only two still in touch and who are still seen regularly. They have gained international acclaim for their work on musicals, including the hit Mamma Mia, but like the others, have no desire to revisit their heady ABBA days. Although Björn is the most media-friendly of the four, not one of the members co-operated with Palm in his biographical endeavours. Extensive interview material in the book comes from his efforts on an earlier, smaller book - ABBA: The Complete Recording Sessions. That's not to say they tried to stop Palm writing his book. They simply didn't care to help and have yet to read the finished product. 'I think the copies are on the way to them right now,' Palm says. 'They will probably sort of shrug their shoulders because they're not really interested in people writing books about them, no matter what the angle, but they know people are going to do that.' Palm, never a particular ABBA fan as a youngster, says he was amazed at the power of the story which emerged. 'I always knew there was a great story there to be told but I didn't know how great until I wrote the book,' he says. 'My contract said I had to write at least 200,000 words, and quite honestly I was a bit worried. I thought "Are there 200,000 interesting words to write about this group?" But it far exceeded that. I was close to 240,000 when I completed it.' Apart from chronicling the torrid relationships within the group and the growing chasm between them and Stig Anderson, who died in 1997, the book clearly shows how quickly they tired of the fame they had worked so hard to achieve. The joy they experienced after winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with their smash hit Waterloo soon ebbed as the demands of the media, fans and various international record companies became more and more intense. 'It was, "Oh wow, we have a hit in Germany, and this is wonderful. Now we have a hit in England, where's this going to take us?",' Palm says. 'But I don't think they ever really expected or even wanted it to become this massive.' With hit after hit shooting to No. 1 all over the world, ABBA began to be targeted on everything from their financial affairs to the precisely produced and apparently lightweight nature of their music. The book goes into such attacks in fine detail, explaining the root of much of the animosity directed at them during their time together. It also devotes a good chunk to the group's extraordinary success in Australia, their fall from grace, and the revival which continues today. So popular have they remained here, nearly 20 years after their split, that Australia was chosen as the launchpad for Bright Lights, Dark Shadows ahead of the UK, the US, and Sweden. Despite their love affair with the country, the year ABBA toured Australia was traumatic for the group. The manic reception they received everywhere they went during that 1977 visit both deeply touched and terrified them, leading to a growing resolve to shun life on the road altogether. Not at all interested in following accepted rock star practice, ABBA preferred to stay at home to perfect the melodies for which they are now so widely admired. 'They were so un-rockstar-like it's scary,' Palm says. 'I think the whole group would have preferred just being in the studio and recording their albums and doing as little promotion as possible. 'Doing that enabled them to make better music and come out of the experience alive. They were so devoted to their craft and could spend hours and hours and days on just the one song, polishing and fine-tuning, scrapping one completed version of a whole song and recording it from the top again.' It was that search for perfection which, Palm believes, stands as ABBA's musical legacy. 'The well-crafted records - I think that's what it will all come back to in the end,' he says. 'Because although people are obsessed by the silly costumes and the platform boots, they wouldn't keep on selling all these zillions of compilation albums if it wasn't the music that really attracted people. 'Good, solid songs with good solid melodies, well recorded and well sung - that's the ABBA trademark.' Bright Lights, Dark Shadows (Omnibus Press, $55) COPYRIGHT The West Australian 2001 ------------------- The following article was written by Gavin McGuren and was printed in the Melbourne-based Gay magazine SHOUT. *************************** Why do gay people love ABBA so much? That's one of the questions Carl Magnus Palm poses in his latest exploration of the ABBA phenomenon, Bright Lights, Dark Shadows, which almost certainly the definitive tome on the rather kitsch Seventies icons who just won't go away. Although none of the group were interested in yet another book about them, and declined to be interviewed, Palm is already the authority on the group and has pulled together interviews from his own publications (The Complete Recording Sessions and From ABBA to Mamma Mia) as well as collating an enormous amount of material from other publications for Bright Lights. While some of the detail is likely to be of interest only to passionate fans, Palm has managed to create a three dimensional portrait of the terribly private and elusive Swedes. "I believe copies of the book are on their way to the members of the group now," Palm said last week from Sydney. " I'm not sure how interested they will be. I think they're all a bit tired of the interest in them but they know people are still very interested in them and are going to keep writing about them." At 554 pages and covering the lives of the four members from birth, the epic work is a remarkable piece of research. "I first started researching ABBA around ten years ago. I really grew to like their music and I wanted to write about music," Palm says. "I was very intrigued about them and wanted to know everything about how they worked and to be able to reveal their creative process. They were very happy to talk to me when they realised I wanted to talk to them about their music and not their divorces." While The Complete Recording Sessions may have been a detailed chronical of the groups musical history, Bright Lights, Dark Shadows does indeed delve into the personal lives of Agnetha Faltskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad - or at least as far as it's possible to dig with the intensely private Swedes. Although Björn was always the most willing to talk to the media, and Benny the most suspicious, it was Frida and particularly Agnetha who captured the interest of the press and the fans. As people, however, B&B remain aloof in Bright Lights, despite Palm's best efforts. The voices of ABBA, on the other hand, become much more three dimensional in Palm's hands. Palm puts to rest the age-old rumours of screaming "cat fights" and animosity. Neither of the women pull any punches when it comes to talking about their temperamental and very different personalities, but as Palm points out, they could never have worked so closely for so many years if they hated each other as the press loved to speculate. The ABBA story is remarkably free of megastar scandal but the tragic and triumphant story of Frida and the sad and apparently regretful life of Agnetha make for compelling reading. In their time, ABBA were endlessly written off as a mechanical, cold and highly artificial group. Palm chronicals the very organic development of the group and the eventual meshing of a musical tour de force with considerable skill. ABBA was four remarkable talents that fate brought together, who hated the fame and attention but loved the making of the music. It's the music, according to Palm, which sustains their popularity, and not the camp and kitsch of their image in the early days. >From their childhoods (and before) to the naive enthusiasm of their entry into the execrable Eurovision Song Contest and the final sad notes of The Day Before You Came, Palm offers up detail after detail, some of which will be of interest only to dedicated fans but most of which is well written and compelling. As the authority on ABBA, Palm is used to being asked whether he believes the four will ever work together again. "No, I don't think that day will ever come," he says, "They are all in the 50s now and I think they feel that people should remember them for what they were rather than spoil things by getting back together." As for just why gay people love ABBA - not all of them of course - Palm doesn't really have any answers. "As ABBA's original fanbase grew into adulthood a disproportionate number of them turned out to be gay men" he says, probably correctly. He speculates on the camp glitter era image, kitschy fashion, mid-period disco sensibility, and of course the huge gay dancefloor hits like 'Dancing Queen', 'Summer Night City' and 'Lay All Your Love On Me' but doesn't touch on Frida's substantial lesbian following or the fact that Agnetha also had such a fanbase who were convinced she was a Sapphic Scandinavian if one is to believe the scandalous Nineties tome The Name of the Game. In the end he concedes that gay fans were probably largely attracted, like others, by the music - the distinctive (and rather uncool at the time) ABBA sound born out of the combination of killer 16-line choruses, innovative production, exotic accents and of course two of the most remarkable voices in the history of pop. Not to mention blue eye shadow. Bright Lights, Dark Shadows is in stores now, published by Omnibus Press. Gavin McGuren, SHOUT Magazine ------------------------ I've been checking out the bookshops this week, seeing how Bright Lights, Dark Shadows is going. Most bookshops still have copies, though the mountains of copies and big displays that were around have gone. Both Angus & Robertson (Pitt Street Mall) and Dymocks (main George Street shop) still have autographed copies for those that may have missed out on any of the book signings (or the ABBAMAIL 2001 day). A&R have them in a separate pile to the right not far into the shop (with a sign "signed by Carl Magnus Palm"), but in Dymocks they appear to be mixed in with the unsigned copies, and the signed ones don't have stickers on the front as Dymocks usually does with signed copies. Annoying... Dymocks are also selling the book packaged with The Complete GOLD Collection. I wonder what A&R did with their big poster of the book cover? Ian Cole in Sydney Australia Aussie Media Update....by Ian Cole This week's issue of TV Week magazine (Sept 29 - Oct 5) has a two page article on Bright Lights, Dark Shadows. Not the world's greatest article perhaps, but it's still great exposure for the book. For the photo junkies, there's a few pics in the article that I've not seen before. There is also an article in this week's Who Weekly mag (Issue 500). Another great plug for the book. What other magazines should we keep an eye out for? Juice - November (book review only) Rolling Stone - December For Me - November (review), January (interview) There was an article in the Herald Sun in Melbourne on 15 September. Apparently, The West Australian newspaper was also running a feature - any of our WA friends seen that? Also Women Out West and Shout Magazine (Gay papers in WA) were to be running something. The Adelaide Advertiser was also supposed to be doing something. Anyone in SA spotted that? Jeff also mentioned that it would appear that the Denise show that CMP was interviewed for probably got bumped. Wednesday 12 Sept's show was obviously not on, and I only found out later that on Thursday that Channel 7 had resumed "normal" programming - the Denise show has now been axed. Australian Tour Summary: Carl Magnus Palm, Author by Graeme Read, September12, 2001 Carl Magnus Palm's promotional tour of Australia has finished. He flew out of Sydney this afternoon for Stockholm. He was very subdued at the airport as he has massive jetlag and has picked up a cold whilst in Australia! Not to mention the late nights, early starts and stress involved in the tour. It has all been worthwhile, however, the media coverage has been beyong expectations and the book is selling well. As already noted, the Australian publishers were forced to print a second run of the book even before Day 1 of release. Prior to flying out of Australia, CMP had lunch in Sydney's 'Rocks' area with ABBAMAIL crew Graeme Read and Ian Cole along with Ian's partner, Ian Marks and Grant Whittingham. Yesterday, the gang went to Sydney's Taronga Zoo so Magnus could see koalas and kangaroos and other unique Australian wildlife close up. Afterwards it was a visit to Sydney's worst coffee shop in the historic Queen Victoria Building. Later CMP, after a few hours back at his hotel, was taken to the Imperial Hotel, home of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, to see their long-running 'Priscilla' drag show. On Friday, Angus & Robertson launched Bright Lights, Dark Shadows in Sydney with an in-store signing and a concert performance by cover band FABBA. The launch was well attended with a large crowd gathering in Pitt Street Mall to watch the celebrations. CMP had to judge an impromptu dance contest while FABBA performed 'Dancing Queen'. Angus and Robertson report that the book has been selling very well. CMP signed around 30 extra copies for the shop, which are now on sale in their BLDS display area. Later on Friday, Magnus had a meeting with Universal Australia and dinner with publishing industry people. Thursday night, Borders in Melbourne held the Australian official launch of the book in their Chadstone store. The event was hosted by Ian 'Molly' Meldrum and featured Melbourne ABBA cover band, BABBA. Again, a big crowd was present and about 50 copies of the book were sold and signed by the author. Carl Magnus Palm was interviewed on stage by 'Molly'. Two little girls were asked to come on stage and sing 'Thank You For The Music' for the crowd. The girls were awarded ABBA CDs as prizes. ABBAMAILer Kathy Robinson was also awarded a prize for dressing up as an ABBA member. Borders had specially decorated their shop with ABBA posters and had window and in-store displays of Bright Lights, Dark Shadows. Again, sales have exceeded expectations. After the launch it was another radio interview and then off to drinks with ABBAMAIL's Graeme Read, Ian Cole and ABBAMAILers Matti Crocker, Lilly Madden-Scott and her partner Ness. Melissa from the book publishing company was also there along with Cameron from Borders. During his stay, CMP appeared on Channel 10's Good Morning Australia, Channel 9's Today Show and pre-recorded segments for the Seven Network's 'Denise' show with Denise Drysdale. A list of radio and press interviews is below. Bright Lights, Dark Shadows: The Real Story of ABBA was released in Australia on September 3, 2001 and has been very successful already. On-line bookshop Dymocks report that Bright Lights Dark Shadows has seen their biggest ever pre-order sales. The majority of sales came from referrals from ABBAMAIL's website which is great news for us. On Saturday September 1, CMP appeared at ABBAMAIL 2001 and did a comprehensive interview with ABBAMAIL's Graeme Read. After this, he signed copies Bright Lights, Dark Shadows and then stayed on for the dinner and club-ABBA. Sunday, September 2 was his first tourist day as ABBAMAIL's Graeme and Ian, along with Grant Whittingham, took Magnus to Bondi Beach, the Sydney Opera House, over the Sydney Harbour Bridge to Cremorne Point and then to Palm Beach where beach scenes from the TV Show 'Home and Away' are filmed. The Guru has worked on subtitling episodes of the show in Sweden. That night saw him at a 70s/80s/90s night at a Sydney club before returning back to his hotel to get an early night before the media onslaught began. Official Launch for Bright Lights, Dark Shadows: Melbourne - Borders, Chadstone Shopping Centre Sydney - Angus & Robertson, Imperial Arcade, Pitt Street Sydney EXTRACT AUTHOR INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS NATIONAL Ch 10 Good Morning Australia – Tuesday September 4th NSW The Sydney Morning Herald – arts feature to run on Tuesday Sep 4th Radio ABC 2BL – Sally Loane Friday Sep 9th Radio Austereo – News bulletin interview Radio 2GB – News bulletin interview ACT Radio ABC 2CN – Rod Quinn VIC Herald Sun - feature story weekend liftout –date tba The Age – Feature Monday 3rd September Radio 3AK – Greg Evans Radio Joy (community) QUEENSLAND Radio ABC 4QR – Peter Gooch SOUTH AUSTRALIA Adelaide Advertiser – feature WESTERN AUSTRALIA The Western Australian Newspaper – feature Women Out West (gay press) Shout Magazine (gay press) Radio 6PR – Steve Gordon NORTHERN TERRITORY Radio ABC Darwin – Sally Mason TASMANIA The Advocate The Examiner Radio ABC 7ZR – Tim Cox |