Abba reforming!

Fretwired

Saw them live .. excellent.

Remember the Sex Pistols came on to Dancing Queen on the Filthy Lucre tour .. Rotten thought it an ironic statement on the banality of pop music that punk swept away .. he was shocked to find the audience singing along and jumping up and down .. they obviously saw things differently .. he was very upset .. :-)

ToneControl

I liked their sad ones the best: SOS,  Winner takes it all,...

breakstuff

The Winner Takes It All is one of my favourite vocals of all time.Such heartbreaking lyrics sung so brilliantly, made all the more special due to the fact that she was living that heartbreak and the pain described was totally real.Stunning work.

axisus

My favourite is the melancholy Name of the game. Pure brilliance.

Sambostar

 That makes me cry if I'm honest.  Winner takes it all.

ICBM

I can't believe I'm saying this this, but I'm genuinely in two minds about this. I absolutely love ABBA, and have since I was eight years old - and a part of me wants to see them reform and produce new material or even just play the old stuff, but another part of me thinks Bjorn was right when he said some years ago that they never would, because it was better to remember them as they were.

Mamma Mia also proves that they already know how to trash their own history…

Sambostar

Idiot (I meant me BTW)

Alnico

I Love Abba.
When i drove my truck i used to blast it and never turn it down at traffic lights.
On a sunny day with the windows down there were few better ways to cheer yourself up at 56mph.
I hope they will be brilliant now they're more mature.

Gassage

Strat_a_tat_tat said:

Isn't it some kind of virtual show... not an actual reforming of the band???

I think you're right.

richardhomer

dindude said:

richardhomer said:

I f*cking hate Abba....

That makes you officially miserable you realise. Abba are pop-perfection.

I'm prepared to be guilty as charged on this one....

I find their music sickly, over-produced and over-sentimental.

Some form of revisionism set in a while ago that deemed them 'cool'. I get that they're mainstream pop - but the Bee Gees could probably lay claim to the greatest ever band in that genre, on the basis of longevity and sheer variety of material. In terms of song craft, I don't think Abba are in the same league.

Sambostar

But they're from Sweden.

ICBM

richardhomer said:

Some form of revisionism set in a while ago that deemed them 'cool'. I get that they're mainstream pop - but the Bee Gees could probably lay claim to the greatest ever band in that genre, on the basis of longevity and sheer variety of material. In terms of song craft, I don't think Abba are in the same league.

I disagree - I think they're almost exactly equivalent. For a long time it wasn't considered cool to like the Bee Gees either - and although they lasted longer, how much that they did after the 1970s has really stood up as well? To be fair they were also successful in the 60s, but so were the members of ABBA - Agnetha especially, she was quite a big star in Europe in the 60s and if she'd sung in English back then, I think she would have been well-known here too.

Gassage

You can't be a Richard Homer any more.

You are a Richard Straight.

RocknRollDave

Abba?! I'd have put more money on the Smiths, the Jam or, to be frank, The Beatles getting back together!
This really is one of those NEVER GONNA HAPPEN / Hell freezing over moments

scrumhalf

I just wonder how many of the Abba fans on here came across the band from a historical distance, and being able to elect to listen to them.

Back in the day, when their stuff dominated the airwaves because radio chiefs had the intelligence and adventurousness of a dried turd it was a case of death by repetition.

I hated them then, I hated them when they became retro-cool, and I remain constant in mmy feelings towards their over-polished, soulless, worked-out-to-the-most-minute-detail pap. There is no muse in there, there is no soul, there is no moment.

Good pop music? Give me The Sweet any day.

richardhomer

scrumhalf said:

I just wonder how many of the Abba fans on here came across the band from a historical distance, and being ablke to elect to listen to them.

Back in the day, when their stuff dominated the airwaves because radio chiefs had the intelligence and adventurousness of a dried turd it was a case of death by repetition.

I hated them then, I hated them when they became retro-cool, and I remain constant in mmy feelings towards their over-polished, soulless, worked-out-to-the-most-minute-detail pap. There is no muse in there, there is no soul, there is no moment.

Good pop music? Give me The Sweet any day.

Thank god I'm not the only one to realise they're rubbish!

The way things are going I'm expecting @ICBM, @Gasssge, @Dindude, et al to wade in with some revisionist love for The Dooleys, Tina Charles and Racey....

Winny_Pooh

ABBA are great but who honestly puts on an album nowadays to listen all through?

Fleetwood Mac were always closer to my idea of pop perfection

RocknRollDave

Remembering Abba fans has been big in the news recently

goldtop

"Rubbish" ... ?

boogieman

goldtop said:

"Rubbish" ... ?

Quite. People might not like them but they were hardly rubbish. Catchy lightweight pop at its finest. If you want rubbish there's more than enough genuinely crap stuff out there. Cheeky Girls anyone?