ABBA at Melbourne Town Hall 1977:  I Was There!

28 years ago at this moment, ABBA were in Melbourne, Australia.

Interestingly, March 5th & 6th fell on a Saturday and Sunday 28 years ago as it has this year...a detail that escaped me until I was chatting with fellow ABBAMAILer Greg Roberts in Sydney on Friday night when we were at the get-together for visiting U.S. ABBAMAILer Jason Swan!

On March the 5th, 1977 I saw ABBA at the Melbourne Town Hall...one of only 2 occasions I saw ABBA together as a group.

I'm sure most of you have seen ABBA-The Movie and are familiar with the scene of ABBA arriving at the Melbourne Town Hall and waving to thousands of fans. It was perhaps a defining moment in their careers...and possibly in their lives.

I was there...and this is my memory...

The date is the 5th of March 1977, a Saturday. I stayed over at the home of a friend from school. He and I and another friend were preparing to get onto a tram very early Saturday morning and go into Melbourne where we would wait for over 7 hours for ABBA to arrive at the Melbourne Town Hall.

I had never done anything like this before in my life. I don't even know how I knew ABBA were to make a "public appearance" at the hall, but I did. I was wearing my ABBA t-shirt, my ABBA cap and several of my ABBA badges. In my naivety I clutched my autograph book, I was 12 years old.

When we got into the city I was surprised that at this early time there were already at least 15 to 20 fans who had gathered in the centre area between two of the four giant pillars that supported the enormous Town Hall balcony, I thought for sure we'd be the first ones there.

Not to worry, we set up camp in the area between the two left pillars, there was no one else there, we were right up the front. We sat and waited. The proportions of what was going to happen hadn't set in at all. I distinctly remember saying to my friends..." I know how I'll get their autographs, when they arrive I'll yell out their names so loud they will turn around and see me and come over to us", such naivety. By the time ABBA arrived there were thousands upon thousands of other fans...all of them screaming.

The hours passed by and the crowd began to gather. Police started to arrive in an attempt to keep the crowds off the road because they were beginning to interfere with traffic, but it was no use, so they had to set up a traffic diversion directing traffic off Swanston Street, the main street through Melbourne. I remember at about midday some men arrived and placed barriers up between each of the giant pillars to hold the crowd back from the area in which ABBA would arrive. Now we were being squashed up against these metal barriers and I think I began to realise what was going to happen, ABBA were going to be here. Those barriers gave me a perspective of the scale of what I was now involved in. I was suddenly locked in...and it occurred to me that they wouldn't put such strong barriers up if they didn't need to contain the crowd. I was startled by this, it suddenly changed everything that was happening.

I remember a "Bay City Rollers" fan walked through the area in front of us where ABBA would soon arrive, she was very bold, dressed in her tartan costume she held her head high as we all booed at her.

At some stage a film crew arrived and started filming us. They encouraged us to chant "we want ABBA". I thought they were a news crew. Nine months later I was stunned to see myself in "ABBA-The Movie".

The minutes ticked away.

The crowd swelled.

Guests started to arrive at the function.

I desperately wanted to be amongst the chosen ones who were going inside for the civic reception that was being held to welcome ABBA to Melbourne, where the Lord Mayor would present them with the "keys to the city".

More minutes that seemed to be like hours.

The atmosphere was electric, curiosity becoming expectation and excitement.

And then it happened.

Two black limousines.

Oh my God !

There's Frida, I can see her through the window, I can see her, I can see her!!!!

I started to scream and scream. Everyone was screaming. The people at the back of the crowd on the road couldn't even see them, but everyone started screaming and waving.

Through the car window I could see my Frida, for the first time she was really there, this wasn't a picture or an image on the TV, she was really there, oh my God...smiling, waving, radiant, dressed in white, an angel, smiling, smiling, a beautiful vision. Her hair was so red...I was shocked !

Tears of joy and confusion, I was overwhelmed.

How could it be true, could this really be THEM ?

Unbelievably the screaming got even louder as they stepped out of the limousines.

All four of them waving and smiling. They were so happy. I remember vividly Agnetha putting her hands up to her ears for a moment, shaking her head in disbelief with a look of wonder and amazement on her face as she acknowledged our screams.

I was even more shocked by the fire red of Frida's hair now that she had stepped out of the car, she was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life.

They stood there for a few minutes, people buzzed around them everywhere, media, security. At some silent cue they all waved in unison and began to walk up the stairs, I watched their backs ascending in a perfect line up the stairs...

...suddenly they stopped halfway up where there was a small landing and they turned.

That is the moment I remember most vividly. If I close my eyes and think back...the image is still there in my consciousness, unchanged by time. I don't know who suggested that last wave before they disappeared inside the building, but it was perfect. ALL four of them, ABBA, standing there side by side, just like the posters on my wall, a moment frozen in time, a flash, my four angels in white standing close to each other, smiling, waving. I loved them so much. That moment is engraved in my mind's eye.

Yes, it was really happening.

I had never felt such joy in my life. To this 12 year old boy, ABBA truly were a beautiful light in the dark and confusing place that was my childhood. But at this moment, there was only light.

Everything seemed to slow down. In slow motion I watched them waving to us from halfway up the stairs.

They disappeared inside and the huge crowd suddenly surged backwards onto the road. I didn't understand why. I had forgotten that ABBA would walk out onto the huge balcony. I was trembling and absolutely sobbing. Crying, uncontrollably, and confused as to why.

Within a few minutes there they were again, but this time so far away from me. I wanted to be close to them. I wanted them to see me crying so they would know how much I loved them.

They peered down at us, waving and smiling. The crowd went wild again, even louder than before if that were possible, because now all the people at the back, out on the road who weren't able to see them when they arrived, they could see them for the first time. Somehow some kids had gotten into the building across the street, and had hung a big, homemade "Welcome ABBA" sign.

ABBA moved from the centre of the balcony to the right and then across to the left, waving and smiling. Each time they moved the screams became louder, never stopping.

Frida clutched a bouquet of flowers and as she realised the time on the balcony was coming to an end, she started to pluck out the flowers one by one and throw them to the crowd.

One more wave.

As the tears ran down my face, tears that I didn't understand and didn't expect, I waved back. I knew they were going. "I love you" was all I could make sense of...and I did love them so much.

And then they were gone.

I had become separated from my friends. I was crying, I was scared and confused. Lost in a sea of people. Out of nowhere, one of my friends appeared and yelled something about catching Frida's bouquet. He had it in his hands. The white ribbon with a few carnations still attached to it. He snapped one of the flowers off, gave it to me and suddenly disappeared. This only added to my confusion...everything was happening so fast. I put the carnation up under my jacket because I didn't want anyone to snatch it away from me. I clutched the flower to my stomach under my jacket, bent over and wandering around in this sea of people, sobbing my heart out. A woman, clutching the hand of a child, stopped and asked me "what's the matter darling...did someone hit you in the stomach ?". I looked up at her and simply sobbed "A-AB-BA"...I remember the look of bewilderment on her face. It's a funny thought now, but at the time I was in a real state.

I made my way to the public telephones at Flinders Street train station. I remember phoning my mother and sobbing down the phone, telling her I'd seen ABBA. I distinctly remember her saying to me, in an alarmed voice "I knew this would happen...get on a tram and come home". I don't remember the trip home at all. I don't know where my friends went and we never, ever talked about it. Perhaps they were shocked by the way I had reacted.

I remember watching TV the news reports that evening, expecting to see myself on TV because of the film crew that had been there earlier that day.

And so ends the strongest memory I have of ever seeing ABBA together as a group, which only happened twice for me. The next being the following day when I saw them in concert. However it was this day at the Melbourne Town Hall that remains my strongest memory.

FOOTNOTE: I pressed Frida's carnation between some books. I had no idea at all of the procedure for pressing flowers and probably only left it (between the books) for a week or so. When I decided it was sufficiently flattened, I placed it on a thin, white piece of card, drew little love hearts around it and wrote "Frida's Carnation" across the bottom of the card. I then proceeded to carefully cover the card with strips of clear sticky tape and pasted the whole affair into the ABBA scrapbook I was working on at the time. It is still there now, the moisture from the flower having passed through the back of the card and stained all of the remaining pages and ABBA pictures in the scrapbook !!!

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Luke Rogers, Melbourne, Australia