Today, September 15th, marks the 20th anniversary of ABBA's concert in Vancouver, Canada.

I remember seeing the show very well. Vancouver was originally scheduled as the first stop on their North American tour, but they ended up kicking off the tour in Edmonton on September 13th. The Vancouver concert was sold-out in advance, which was not the case for approximately half of their North American tour dates. ABBA developed a much bigger following in Canada than in the U.S., typically selling 3 times as many records on a population basis as in the U.S.

The Vancouver show at the Pacific Coliseum was the largest of their North American tour, with approximately 17,000 fans. Walking into the venue, I remember feeling as though I was with people who "understood" their magic. I always knew that one day they would be appreciated as the pop geniuses they are now, but back then they were definitely not "cool" in my high school. In fact, you were well-advised to keep your ABBA-love to yourself. They were thought of as a "girl's group" back then, and hyper-macho insecure male adolescents were not supposed to like them.

Even today, some of this attitude remains. Witness the fact that the Hard Rock Cafe currently has a poll on their web-site for the bands we "love to hate"; ABBA is featured prominently.

Anyway, the ABBA show started 20 minutes late, the lights went down, and the first eerie sounds of Benny's synthesizers boomed out over the audience. The intro music was haunting and I've always wondered what it was. It sounded almost like Benny's interpretation of Bach.

Then the curtains rolled back to reveal Agnetha and Frida standing, arms extended, frozen still like the Scandinavian goddesses they are. My heart was pounding! Suddenly the opening sounds of Voulez-Vous kicked in, and my first impression was how close to the record it sounded. I had always heard that they couldn't reproduce their sound live, but it was actually very close to the record.

The concert was almost 2 hours long, but they didn't perform Waterloo; which to this day I find very strange. I do remember Bjorn introducing his "former-wife" Agnetha, and assuring the audience that she was "As good as new", which then lead into the song. They put on a very polished, Vegas-like show, although Agnetha's voice was not on great form; there were a number of times when she was just off-key. The harsh critic the next day made the claim that none of the ABBA members were very good singers and that they had to rely on their sound man twirling buttons backstage to pump up their voices.

The concert ended with Dancing Queen and then "The Way Old Friends Do"; pure magic. I had 11th row seats on the floor and I took some photos which I still treasure. On the way out after the show, I walked by a part of the backstage area and they were setting up a media interview scrum; there was Agnetha smiling and talking to some of the children who had sung in "I have a Dream". So, I got to see my Scandinavian goddess one more time. It seems so long ago now, but I'm so grateful I had the chance to see them live. It was amazing.

David - Vancouver, Canada