Abba: Super Troupers
Royal Festival Hall, London Until April 29
How did a band that split up 35 years ago become a bandwagon that never stops? Abba’s latest plans include a second Mamma Mia! movie, a West End revival of Benny and Bjorn’s musical Chess, and a virtual world tour, with live musicians backing the recorded voices of Agnetha and Frida.
From left, Bjorn, Frida, Agnetha and Benny in 1976. How did a band that split up 35 years ago become a bandwagon that never stops?
This exhibition borrows from Stockholm’s Abba museum. It was opened by Bjorn, a wry, spry 72. ‘People ask how it feels to be a museum piece while you’re still alive, and I say, “Weird, but you get used to it.” ’
When Mamma Mia! the musical opened, I interviewed Benny and Bjorn and said: ‘It can’t fail, can it?’ One of them replied: ‘Oh, anything can fail.’ Well, this show can’t. It’s intimate, intelligent and dripping with atmosphere.
A host leads you through re-creations of Abba’s studio in Stockholm, their dressing room in Sydney (a sodden caravan), the forest folk gig where they met, and their private plane.
But it all begins in a dismal British living room in 1973, with a TV set showing Ted Heath warning of an uncomfortable Christmas. The parallels with 2017 hardly need spelling out, but the narrator, Jarvis Cocker, doesn’t let that stop him. The script is the only let-down in a lovable production.
Above: the suitcase of Dr Olsson, the band’s tour doctor. This exhibition borrows from Stockholm’s Abba museum. It was opened by Bjorn, a wry, spry 72
In the studio, you can sing Dancing Queen and remix Money, Money, Money. In the forest, you hear how Benny and Bjorn became possibly the only men in pop history to spot that their girlfriends sang better than they did.
Throughout, you feel the joy of the early hits, and, better still, the sumptuous sorrow of the later ones. In the shop, you can buy Benny’s new album, Piano, which shows how close Abba’s compositions came to Bach.
It’s a modest gem – just like this exhibition.
THIS WEEK’S CD RELEASES
By Adam Woods
The Rolling Stones On Air Polydor, Out now
On Air collects 32 songs recorded for the BBC from 1963 to 1965, mostly Chuck Berry covers and old blues numbers but also some early writing (The Last Time, (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction). The Stones had still to peak but it’s a slice of history.
Jim James Tribute To Vol 2 ATO, Out now
A follow-up to an EP of George Harrison songs finds him exquisitely adapting more of his favourites. Some feel Trump-specific, like The Beach Boys’ I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times, slowed to a soulful crawl, but even on Ray Noble and Al Bowlly’s Love Is The Sweetest Thing, the mood is of kindly sadness.