Abba are back.

 Abba are back. 

If any of the rumours are to be believed then this has to be true. In fact it's well been well documented. So now seems as good a time as any to dig out your 1970s gladrags, re-capture that extraordinary decade and just re-discover that moment where everything seemed groovy, right on and everybody found something to feel good about even though Britain, itself, seemed to be tearing itself apart in one of the great industrial upheavals it had ever known.

Think about it. The miners went out on strike, the lights went off, there were power cuts galore, the country was going to hell in a handcart while the sense of disruption and dislocation could be felt quite noticeably in every high street, road, back yard, council estate and terraced home. Britain was losing itself in a nightmarish tangle of unrest, fiery political confrontation and nothing but its own misery. The battle lines were drawn and the 1970s looked as though it should have been consigned to the dust heap much sooner than it did.

But then something happened. Now that would be the most incredible understatement of all time. The truth was that in one of the most amazing pop music developments in recent history, a pop group arrived in Britain from Sweden. Little did we know it at the time but this pop group would become  the finest cultural phenomena that any of us had ever seen. Before we'd had time to show off our latest flared trousers or platform shoes, Abba exploded into our consciousness in a way that the Beatles had done so sensationally at the beginning of the 1960s.

In 1974 Agnetha Faltskog, Benny Ulvaeus, Benny Anderson, Anna- Frid Lyngstad won the Eurovision Song Contest with a song about a famous historical battle. Waterloo was a jolly, jaunty, summery, disco flavoured ditty full of singalong lyrics and old fashioned pub piano frivolity. On first hearing it was destined to win Eurovision because it appealed to every pop music enthusiast who wanted a variation on a theme. It had a rhythmic beat, utter simplicity and most of us would end up singing the song in our shower or bath. How could they fail?

During the 1960's the two boys and two girls formed an unknown folk group in Sweden, appearing in all of the local clubs and pubs without ever thinking that anything would ever come of it. The music itself may have been pleasant and listenable but it would never have transcended any musical spectrum because although inherently popular in the folk community, the couples needed something much more profound and meaningful. They were looking for an audience who were now accustomed to the Beatles, Manfred Mann, the Monkees, the Seekers and New Seekers so it had to be good.  

So they persevered for a while until the penny dropped. Let's go in another direction. It was all very well producing the kind of music that they'd grown up with but there had to be more than folk music or music to caress your ears after a hard day at the office. And then it came to pass that Abba were born and after a few tentative hit and misses, the Eurovision Song Contest, held in Brighton 47 years ago, came to Abba's rescue. 

And now after over four decades since their last appearance on a stage or a recording studio, Abba have announced that they are well and truly back. Now that's what some of us call good news. At first you must have thought it was some weird April Fools joke that nobody could have foreseen. You have to be kidding. Abba have re-formed? Surely not. And yet this is one pop reunion that seemed highly unlikely since most of us had now assumed that both couples had the needle to each other, incensed in the extreme and had nothing but outright contempt for each other. They parted gratefully and that was it. No more Abba. Don't even think about it. 

Now though in 2021, an older but even wiser Abba have blown the cobwebs away, oiled the vocal chords thoroughly and a long overdue reconciliation is on the way. Their new single 'Don't Shut Me Down' is a nostalgic and wistful throwback, a song that pleads for acceptance once again perhaps but almost reaches out to you hoping that you'll still be there for us when the lights go down. If you go to You Tube you'll find the lyrics but not the faces but then you give Abba the benefit of the doubt. 

There is speculation now that Abba could be touring again in November which sounds cool to us. Now there are those who are either overjoyed or simply appalled at this improbable comeback. The cynics of course will claim that Abba were cheesy, kitsch, sweet and melodic but just rubbish. Don't call us we'll call you. All of those songs about broken relationships, making up again and kissing and then bizarre songs about a Mexican man called Fernando were barely tolerable. Still, who were we to judge?

But throughout the 1970s that elusive formula for consistent success could never be questioned or challenged. Abba were pop gold, an epic achievement, a harmonious, fun loving bunch of guys and girls who couldn't get enough of the so called cheese. Benny sat at the piano, Bjorn played the guitar and the girls Anna and Agnetha just swirled and swayed in their silk kimonos, funky dresses with belts and white boots that went up to their hips. The girls pouted and preened, flaunting their femininity endlessly while always hitting the right note. It was a perfect combination, the right chemistry. 

The singles and albums came racing off the conveyor belt and then the West End musical was followed quite deliciously by the movies quite recently, a delightful concoction of well known actors, comediennes and actresses with their very easy listening interpretation of Abba's greatest hits. We were now besotted with Abba despite those negative spoilsports who just thought they were one or two hit wonders whose music would just disappear within a couple of months. We knew that Abba would become world wide stars because their music was inoffensive, life affirming, catchy and lyrically adventurous. 

So they trod the world stages and released the kind of sweet natured songs about love, rejection, hurt, betrayal and acknowledging the debt they owed to music. These were the songs that spoke eloquently to a generation who couldn't keep their feet still on the disco dance floors of the mid to late 1970s. There was the bittersweet Winner Takes it All, the romantic Fernando, Knowing Me and Knowing You which has now latterly become satirical and irreverent but remains a song about the group losing its way, Thankyou for the Music and Supertrooper, classical slow and fast moving dance numbers. 

However the best known and perhaps much loved of all Abba's hits have retained their iconic status throughout the ages. Dancing Queen was the epitome of disco, a dramatic departure from the norm for the group. Dancing Queen was one of the first singles that gave Abba street credibility, a heightened wow factor, a sense that the group were trying desperately to keep right up to date with the current developments within the music industry. The single had a soul inflection to it, an almost American vibe to it with flashing and colourful disco lights and just a reminder that Abba could still get on down. 

And finally there was the unforgettably brilliant and masterly Ma Ma Mia, a superlative and sumptuous track that would eventually pave the way for the celebrated title of two Abba related films. Ma Ma Mia must surely now be one of the most recognisable songs in the group's now fabled back catalogue. It is yet another celebratory, all encompassing, hugely entertaining and  beautifully crafted pop song that propelled the band to much newer heights than they could ever have imagined.

Now though Ladies and Gentlemen. It gives you great pleasure to welcome back Abba. We had a feeling this would turn out to be a good year for the entirely unexpected. Abba's Arrival album, released towards the end of the 1970s, showed the group at its peak, a helicopter on the front cover of the album depicting the group landing in perhaps another country. This should be the time for digging out Adidas T-shirts, eating Arctic Roll desserts, Black Forest Gateaus and privately hoping that one day Britain would have more than three TV channels to watch. Abba are back and you haven't just awoken from a dream.