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September 2011

 

 Watch Benny and Ludvig on Skavlan svt.            


click on the picture above to watch.

 Benny Andersson reveals extent of alcohol addiction    

Today Daily Telegraph has published the following:

Benny Andersson, part of the songwriting duo behind Swedish pop group ABBA, has revealed for the first time that he had to seek help to cure an addiction for alcohol.

Andersson, 64, who disclosed he had been teetotal for nine years in an interview last year, has never discuss the extent of his problems until now.
In an interview recorded for Sweden's SVT channel, broadcast later today, he said: "When it's about the difficult battle against addiction, it doesn't matter who you are.
"I wasn't feeling well without alcohol, so I knew that I was in trouble. I sought help and I got it."
Mr Andersson finally beat his addiction in 2001, a full 20 years after the group's last UK hit, "The Winner Takes it all".
"I knew that if I continued drinking there was a risk I would lose everything. If you drink enough for a long enough time, you will lose things," he said.
     
Newpaper pic's from Raffem.com
Mr Andersson went on the show with his son Ludvig, who described his own battle with drink and drugs
"When you have genes and you are putting as much effort into it as I was, it's possible to drink and get addicted pretty quickly. In addition, if you take a lot of other drugs, as I was doing, the process goes even faster," he said.
ABBA's string of hits in the 1970s and 1980s thrust them into the list of top 10 bestselling bands of all time. But their success came to a painful end with the break up of the band's two couples, with Mr Andersson divorcing Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Björn Ulvaeus, his songwriting partner, divorcing Agnetha Fältskog.
"We will never appear on stage again", Mr Ulvaeus told the Sunday Telegraph in a 1983 interview, six months after their last performance in December 1982. "There is simply no motivation to regroup. Money is not a factor and we would like people to remember us as we were: young, exuberant, full of energy and ambition."

Mr Ulvaeus and Mr Andersson have continued to work together, however, writing the music for the musical Chess, composing occasional new songs, and more recently working on Mamma Mia, the hugely successful ABBA musical, which became a hit film starring Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan in 2008.
Anni-Frid Lyngstad is now formally titled Her Serene Highness Princess Anni-Frid Synni Reuss of Plauen, after marrying a German Prince. She continues to record and release solo work. Agnetha Fältskog released her last album, My Colouring Book, in 2004 and lives a relatively reclusive life on the Swedish island of Ekerö.
Mr Andersson, meanwhile, continues to perform regularly with the Benny Anderssons Orkester.

Daily Telegraph


'Cam me' by Atlas available on iTunes now..






 Mamma Mia! Broadway’s 10th longest running show      

The company of Mamma Mia! celebrated becoming Broadway’s 10th longest running show Wednesday, September 14 with a Magnolia Bakery cupcake giveaway and post-performance party.10 lucky audience members went home with special commemorative boxed cupcakes courtesy of Magnolia, which designed a special wedding-themed cupcake in honour of the musical.

Mamma Mia!, which performs at the Winter Garden Theatre, uses the songs of ABBA. It follows the story of a forty-something mother planning her daughter’s wedding — unaware that the girl has invited three men who might be her father. The show has music and lyrics by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, is written by Catherine Johnson, and directed by Phyllida Lloyd.

left: Lisa Brescia receives an anniversary cupcake at the Mamma Mia! curtain call (© David Gordon)










Rare and uncut footage of the opening of the ABBA/Olivia special from 1978. The footage is amazing!




1/9/2011



       

You Have To Be There?
Watch SuBo kill this great song. (and we don't mean in a good way!)


 Pic of the month                                              

Produc


Dancing games seem to be the new rhythmic hitting of a plastic guitar game. Terpsichorean über-minds Ubisoft already have big names in their roster, what with the Black Eyed Peas and MJ rubbing elbows (and Kinects). Now a new sort of musician has entered the picture: Swedes.

Some time before Christmas in Europe, Ubisoft is releasing Abba: You Can Dance for the Wii. Yes, a dancing game with a cheesy quote from Dancing Queen as the subtitle. But it’s not atrociously bad electro-pop like BEP or classic ass shakers like the Jackson oeuvre, so you can instead force glow-imbued sprites to move to modern favorites like Super Trouper.
No word yet on other platforms, but the game should be a nice way for the European Slim Wii to get broken in.

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