Viva Abba

A journalist chases the Swedish supergroup Abba across Australia hoping to deliver a career saving interview to his boss.

Forget what I have just written, it isn't important. It is just an excuse to see a group about their work and learn just a little about their lives and personalities. The stress being on the word "little."

The setting of Australia is interesting because the group were about as big in Oz as any group has ever been anywhere at anytime - and I include the Beatles in that. They just had the widest fan base of any group I have seen. They closed whole cities centres down with people just wanting to see them no matter hear them play!

(For this reason alone we should be grateful that it is not just an in-concert film.)

Pop music is not known for its longevity, but lots of the material here is not only brilliant, but perfectly performed and eternal. Although I am almost fighting myself in saying it, they perfected the three minute pop song. When they burst in to Dancing Queen it sends a shiver down your spine - the girls voices just compliment each other so well that it is frightening. Agnetha and Frieda sing like a choir of angels - and yet there is only two of them!

Sadly they are not around anymore (as a group) and there is nothing to replace them. I loved everything about them from their naff 1970's satin clothes (for newcomers, they were even a joke at the time!) to their second language English which leads to bizarre grammatical errors ("for twenty years I have not seen you with a rifle in your hands(!)"). I feel for the kids today, there is nothing as good as this around. Watch this movie to see what a brilliant little pop music product they were.

Now that it's out in DVD, the ABBA fans who missed the movie when originally released can delight in seeing their favorite group as they were then. Even though, the band has been disbanded for over 20 years, ABBA was unique for groups of the time, in that they left a fairly large legacy of surprisingly good quality videos of their music. This movie, although trite contains a fascinating video record of one of their most impressive tours. With the introduction of the musical Mamma Mia (based on ABBA songs) on Broadway several years back, which started an ABBA resurgence of sorts, the existence of videos like this one has let another whole generation get hooked on ABBA music. ABBA was an extremely attractive and very talented group which will live on through these videos. The video and sound quality of the DVDs ( I watch on an HD set ) is excellent considering the time period they were recorded. I liked ABBA back then, but never really followed their music closely. Now I'm hooked, and grateful for the video record that exists of " one of the greatest pop groups that ever was" ( from U2)

As far as I know this movie started as a filmed document of the 1977 Abba Australia tour and has been decided to be made into a movie to be released theatrically as they went along. Of course it has lots of errors in continuity and we can spot that many a song has footage from different performances from different days, but that is no problem at all since it is still a wonderful document of a pop group who made it which wasn't based on "attitude" or "manifestation against politicians" - it was simply extremely well crafted music. Of course this was during the very short period when pop/rock music matured and subsequently needed a more aggressive replacement for younger generations. It already was around the corner and would come in the form of British punk.

There is hardly any "acting" in this movie, and the "backstage/behind the scenes sequences" of the Abba members are only O.K. because none of them tries to "act".

It's great and ironical at the same time to see some of the split screens and wide angle closeups (even some of the interviews) that reflect the movie "Woodstock" (1970), a documentary film of the 1969 rock music event with an entirely different philosophy. The only thing both music styles might have in common is the peacefulness. But rich and "clean" rock stars (=Abba) certainly aren't politically left wing anymore.

As a regular movie, this work suffers tremendously from the poor "plot" around the goofy radio reporter trying to get his Abba interview. Some of the dialog (if not all) is simply bad. But the excellent on stage footage (and even the two "video clips" using studio tracks: "The Name of the Game" and "Eagle") more than makes up for it all. The sound is excellent as well and I just have a vhs in mono sound which I taped from tv some years ago.

BTW: I still have serious doubt whether Bjorn ever really played the guitar on stage in the sense of a serious audible instrumental track. There are two (excellent)guitarists in the backing band and when Bjorn suddenly rises his hands or ceases playing, there is no guitar missing. Benny definitely plays the Yamaha CP 70 piano though. I can tell, it's my profession.

This is a movie just for fans. The heart of this movie is that its "ABBA" in concert. Between songs we see the super group in interviews. A subplot has a D.J. trying to land an interview with them. If Mr. D.J. doesn't land the interview he will be out of a job. Hit songs performed include the classics "Dancing Queen", "Fernando", "Ring Ring" and "Thank You for the Music. Not out on Dvd. The director of this movie went on to become a big time Hollywood Director. If you thought this might be a movie "Based on the hit play Mama Mia" so sorry this is not that movie. A highlight of this is when the group invites a group of children to sing back up to "I have a Dream". The movie was shoot in and around 1976 or 1977 when the group was touring Australia. In all this movie is for fans of the group. If your not a fan you will be bored!

ABBA are my favourite group and I rented the movie from the library. It is mainly showing their 1977 tour in Australia. They perform most of their popular hits such as Waterloo and Fernando. You will find it quite interesting as it just shows how popular ABBA were in the 1970's. The film is made into a story. Be entertained by this great documentary. I didn't know that you could still get it anyway, but I was really happy to ind it. I had always wanted to see it and I was very amazed when I saw it. If people like ABBA, they will enjoy the movie. Scenes include the press conference, concerts, the Radio DJ searching for them and also his dream.