It was 20 years ago...

Tomorrow, the 15th of October, is the 20th anniversary of the first ABBA fan event that I ever attended.

And as such, it's also the 20th anniversary of my introduction to the world of ABBA fandom as we know it. Which also makes it the anniversary of my first meeting with so many fabulous ABBA fans - including such ABBAMAIL luminaries as our glorious leader Graeme, John "Frida" McKechnie, Grant, the Roberts Brothers, Judy Sawyer (I think she was there), and so many more from Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and other points in Australia. Some of them are still around, others have moved on. I really can't remember exactly who else was there - it was so long ago, and meeting so many people for the first time, and there's been so many other events since then that it's quite a blur.

The event was the "Sydney ABBA Disco", the first large-scale ABBA fan event held in Sydney. It was at Heffron Hall in Darlinghurst - a bit of a dump really, but the atmostphere made up for it. There had been other events over the past few years in Adelaide and Melbourne that I'd read about in the Australian ABBA Fan Club newsletters, but I never had the money (and was too chicken to go alone) to attend. But when this Sydney gig came up, I'd actually met another fan to go with (just another fan, not someone of the intimate kind, though there would be some very convoluted history there), so I wouldn't have to go alone.

Who would ever have thought that that one Saturday afternoon and evening travelling up from Canberra to Sydney would have changed my life so dramatically? I met people who would become some of the best friends I've had in my life (and I feel so lucky that they're *still* in my life), within 7 months I'd packed up and moved to Sydney, something I'd been contemplating but again was too chicken to do anything about, and through a long, winding road of circumstances ended up having a little bit of influence in helping to make official ABBA releases just a bit better for us all! Really, it's all so fucking amazing, and something that I could never have imagined could have happened when I first got up the guts to send in the form to register to attend (which, if I remember rightly, I did right on the deadline, the great procrastinator that I am).

I still remember arriving in Sydney mid-afternoon and going to the house where everything was being prepared for the evening. Going up the stairs and into a room filled with ABBA fans, grouped around the TV watching ABBA videos! I seem to remember Graeme saying something scathing when we were first introduced - probably "so this is the great Ian Cole from Canberra who sends in his registration form late" ;-/ . And hearing so many ABBA stories - it was the first time I heard about the Opus 10 myth (when it was allegedly the working title for The Visitors), about Agnetha's recent bus crash, Frida's 1982 look described as the "truck driving lesbian", it was all there and all flying fast and free. Actually, that's probably the strongest memory of the weekend that I have - well, that, and during the evening going outside for a cigarette, and Graeme saying "but ABBA fans don't smoke!"

And of course, who could forget that for a small group of us the night ended up in a gay sauna? I'd never heard of such a thing! My goodness, Sydney was much more exciting than Canberra (which at the time had 1 full time gay bar, 1 full time gay/mixed bar, and 1 gay pub night on Friday). This was long before Canberra became the porn capital of Australia (to explain to our overseas audience: in Australia porn videos are only legally available in Canberra [and I think the Northern Territory, is that right?]so there's a roaring trade in mail order porn from Canberra).

There's been some bad shit along the way, but I like to think that without the bad shit, I wouldn't have ended up where I am today. Gotta keep positive about things, otherwise we just end up being down. Though I really could have done without the bad shit anyway ;-)

And really, it's all thanks to Graeme. Through the fan club he ran from 1976 to 1983 so many of us made friendships then, and since 1997 so many more of us have met new friends from all over the world. There are those negative forces out there who would say otherwise, but really he's done something for all of them too.

Without Graeme I'm sure that I definitely wouldn't be the person that I am, both in the ABBA world, and probably in my real life as well. It's not often that he gets thanked, when really we all owe him so much (and if you really think about it, even those 4 cantakerous cusses from Sweden owe him something for what he's done for the fan world), so I just want to say here "thanks Graeme, just for being you".

And thanks everyone who was at Heffron Hall that night who's still around for 20 years of fun!

Ian Cole, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia