BJÖRN AGAIN
with Bob Kemmis
June 17
Jubilee Auditorium
Bang-a-Boomerang! Dancing queens and kings are Björn Again
The band impersonating ABBA want you to lay all your love on them
While the members of ABBA began to make music together in 1966, it wasn't until the 1970s that they became the most commercially successful pop band of the decade. After hits such as "Mamma Mia," "S.O.S." and "Waterloo," their bubbly music and popularity continues to soar at weddings, birthday parties and dances, and with contemporary bands such as the A-Teens and U2 that cover their songs. While ABBA disbanded in 1982 because of marital troubles between the two couples who comprised the band, cover band Björn Again has successfully rekindled the magic and brought the platform boots and flared pants out of the closet once again.
Björn Again are more like impersonators than a cover band, which makes a conversation with them beyond entertaining – they conduct press interviews as ABBA. The quartet hail from Australia, where ABBA fever – 20 years later – has yet to fade away. Take the 1995 movie Muriel's Wedding, for example, which features ABBA songs during pivotal moments throughout the flick. As Muriel, the lonely lead character played by Toni Collette, dreams about the day she will marry, "Dancing Queen" provides the looped soundtrack to her fantasy.
"What a beautiful film, those two girls who tried to be Agnetha (Fältskog) and myself, that was very strange, you know," says the woman who goes by Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad. "I think they did a very good job, actually. We played at the launch of Muriel's Wedding in Cairns. That was very exciting, to meet Toni Collette and the other stars of the film. They were very sweet to us. They loved it, they were trying to emulate us and that was very nice because it's the biggest form of flattery, isn't it?"
She said it. The flattery of Björn Again has reached Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson from ABBA, who have heaped praise upon the group. In addition to the original lineup of ABBA, Björn Again counts Tom Jones, the Spice Girls, the Duchess of York and Metallica among their fans.
"It was pretty outrageous to watch Metallica watch us. They came to the show at The Reading Festival and they were at the front of the stage banging their heads and all their hair was going everywhere to our music. They loved the band."
Speaking of outrageous, if VH1 ever did a "Behind the Scenes" segment on Björn Again, what would we find scandalous about the band?
"Well, we do like our ice cream," continues Frida sweetly, "and between you and I, Benny likes to sniff the herring. And that is very outrageous from where we come from, so I believe that that is not a very nice thing to do."
For the past 12 years, Björn Again have performed as ABBA in nearly 2000 shows in 143 countries, which illustrates how far the Swedish band's music has reached. Over 20 million people own a copy of ABBA Gold, most of whom have an opportunity to see the band during one of their world tours. As Benny Andersson has said himself, "Fans had better make the most out of Björn Again because that's the closest they are going to get to seeing ABBA."
"We play some beautiful tunes and we love to spread the word of harmonies, beautiful people and beautiful glitter. There will be lots of satin – people who get dressed up is always a bonus, we always like to see that we are spreading fashion. The guys like letting their hair down a little bit too with a little bit of rock and roll, so the audience can look forward to that very much.
"Our mission in the world is to spread love and happiness and lots of glitter. I don't think there's enough glitter in the charts at the moment, I have to say that. There are a lot of nasty words in the charts today and if people would concentrate more on loving and spreading the word of happiness, maybe that would be a good thing." |
