And the winner is....

exclusive signed copy of ABBA BY MICKE 
We asked Micke to choose a question:
Which un-released ABBA song was re-recorded by brother- and sister duo "Gemini" which was produced by Benny and Björn in the mid-Eighties?
the answer:
JUST LIKE THAT

The lucky winner is:  Jamie Canada.  Congratulations to the lucky winner!



      Intermezzo 64 Out now!



The lucky winner is:  Jamie Canada.  Congratulations to the lucky winner!
36-page, full colour A4 size magazine Inside issue 64, you will find:


- All of the latest news and ABBA/ABBA-related releases

- An interview with original ABBA Musicians Mike Watson and Roger Palm

- Competition with exclusive prizes to be won;  "ABBA You Can Dance" Wii game and "ABBA-Die Audiostory"

- The next instalment: special in-depth feature on Super Trouper

- A fun travel guide to Skopelos, the "Mamma Mia! island"
- More readers' stories

- A special follow-up report on the making of the "ABBA By Micke" book

- Songbook: Never Again/Ya Nunca Más

- Continuation of the classic Posters series with more poster-magazines

- An A3 size poster featuring an alternate shot of ABBA during their "Chiquitita" single photo session

Join Intermezzo now!


     Abba great unwilling to be Stockholm 'billboard'
 Benny Andersson wants Arlanda airport to take down a giant picture of him welcoming visitors to Stockholm after a decision to go ahead with a controversial revamp of a local landmark leaves him unwilling to be associated with the city.
“I have no desire to be a billboard for a city that makes unreasonable decisions like this. I am not available for use anymore. I have not met a single person who is in favour of a highway straight through town”, said Andersson to daily Dagens Nyheter (DN).

Slussen, a central area of Stockholm named after the locks between Lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea, was last made over in 1935.

In 2009, the city of Stockholm announced a new design featuring two linked pedestrian bridges and one for automobile traffic.

However, from the very introduction of the new plans there has been massive resistance to the proposal, the winner of a 2009 competition to design a plan for the area.

When the building proposal was up for a vote in City Hall on Monday, Andersson went as far as saying he would reunite the former super group for a gig in aid of stopping the plans.

After several hours of debate, the council had on Monday eventually voted in favour of the controversial plan to renovate Slussen.

The opposition attempted to stop the measure by submitting a motion requesting it be sent back for further debate, but this motion was voted down 51-48.

Andersson told DN that he is unwilling to be associated with Stockholm the same way he has previously been, following the decision,

“This is important and the redevelopment of Slussen is a major planning decision. Why should I support a governing body that clubs through an important issue like this based on only three votes outweighing the opposition”, Andersson told Dagens Nyheter.

Andersson also said he thinks that the “face of Stockholm” should be deputy mayor for culture, Madeleine Sjöstedt, rather than himself

Sjöstedt, who refused to listen to Andersson's and other Swedish celebrities' pleas to save Slussen, would be a more appropriate front to the billboard at Arlanda instead, according to Andersson.

“Although, ironically, most people will not know who she is”, he said to the paper.

The question of Slussen's revamp remains a hot topic. Construction is expected to begin in 2013 and to be completed by 2020.


The Local


      Stockholm council ignores Benny’s pleas on Slussen renewal

Despite protests by citizens and celebrities including former Abba star Benny Andersson, Stockholm’s city council voted on Monday night to move forward with a massive renovation of the city’s Slussen area following a lengthy and at times heated debate.

“This is a historic decision that has been taken. I want Slussen to be a place where people want to spend more than ten minutes,” said Moderate council member Regina Kevius, deputy mayor for city planning and sports, to the TT news agency.
However, opposition members of the Stockholm council remained convinced the plan would be appealed.
Outside the city council’s meeting, more than one hundred people had gathered on Monday evening in a last ditch effort to halt plans to renovate Slussen, a central area of Stockholm named after the locks between Lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea that was last made over in 1935.
Former Abba frontman Benny Andersson was among those working to put a stop to the planned renewal of Slussen, a project which has been debated in the Swedish capital for years, and which took on new life in 2009 when the city announced a new design for the busy transit and pedestrian link between Stockholm’s Old Town and the island of Södermalm.
The new design would remove many of the existing roads and create several new blocks of buildings close to the waterfront.
Not even Andersson’s pledge to reunite his former Swedish super group was enough to sway enough politicians to defeat the measure authorizing the Slussen project to go forward.
“It didn’t go well at all,” Andersson told the Expressen newspaper of his attempts to bring Kevius around to his point of view on the issue.
“She didn’t want to listen to anything I had to say, but instead answered with a stock phrase, ‘I hear what you’re saying, but I’m going to vote for the existing proposal.’”
After several hours of debate, the council eventually voted in favour of the controversial plan to renovate Slussen.
The opposition attempted to stop the measure by submitting a motion requesting it be sent back for further debate, but the motion was voted down 51-48.
Construction on the “new Slussen” is expected to start in 2013 and by completed by 2020.
But Social Democrat vice mayor Tomas Rudin is convinced the plan will be appealed.
“I already know of several groups that are going to appeal,” he told TT.
He criticized the fact that such a major decision passed with such a slim majority.
The Local

      Benny hints at reunification gig (only joking though!)

This weekend, former band member Benny Andersson revealed that he’d be willing to reunite the group to save a beloved – albeit urine soaked – Stockholm landmark.
”If I knew with 100 percent certainty that it would help, I would call the others and ask if we could do a gig. I’d try at least,” said a half-serious Benny to daily Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) on Saturday.

The comments come in reference to Andersson’s concern about the future of Slussen, (literally translated as the Locks), a central area of Stockholm named after the locks between Lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea that dates from 1935.
The area has had a lot of attention in recent years. Plans for a major redevelopment of the area made city leaders deem many of the original design features redundant or unserviceable due to physical deterioration.
In 2009, the city of Stockholm announced a new design featuring two linked pedestrian bridges and one for automobile traffic.
The new design would remove many of the existing roads and create several new blocks of buildings close to the waterfront.
However, from the very introduction of the new plans there has been massive resistance to the proposal, the winner of a 2009 competition to design a plan for the area.
The former Abba star got involved when the head of the Bevara Slussen organization (Save Slussen), Karin Schmidt, contacted him asking for help.
And after hearing experts at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts explain exactly what the proposal entails, he was upset and decided to do something.
Andersson even penned an open letter to Stockholm mayor Sten Nordin, calling the proposal “stupid and anti-human”.
”I have had a lot of positive response even if someone thought I ought to stick to the accordion,” he told SvD.
In order to save the area from what Andersson believes to be a mistake, he would even reunite Abba if he thought it could be of help.
”Slussen is that important. But there is not much time, we’d need at least one day’s rehearsing,” Benny Andersson told SvD on Saturday.
On Monday, the day of the fateful decision, Andersson was one of many Swedish celebrities on hand at City Hall to entreat deputy mayor for culture, Madeleine Sjöstedt, to rethink the proposal.
However, Sjöstedt wasn’t to be swayed by Andersson and the others. She said she will vote yes when the decision is taken later in the day.
“I think it will be good,” said Sjöstedt, who added that it wouldn’t be fair on all the people that have been working on the proposal for all these years to scrap it at the last minute.
But according to Andersson, many Stockholmers are unaware of exactly what the new proposal entails.
“Stockholmers should have their say in a referendum,” Andersson said to Dagens Nyheter (DN) on Monday.
the local
Rebecca Martin

         Linda Ulvaeus at new book launch



        
    



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