Product Description

THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF THEIR GLITTERING CAREER.

Brighton, April 1974: ABBA storm to victory in the Eurovision Song Contest with 'Waterloo', resplendent in their shiny satin costumes and silver platform boots. More than twenty-five years and 350 million record sales later, ABBA are more popular than ever, even though the group have not recorded a note since they split up in 1983. Worldwide, they are the second biggest-selling band of all time, surpassed only by the Beatles.

Drawing on exclusive interviews with the group and their manager and mentor, Stig Anderson, Jean-Marie Potiez has reconstructed the complete history of ABBA's glittering career: their early days as teen idols in Sweden, the heady rush of Eurovision success, the struggle to prove ABBA were not just one-hit wonders, the careful crafting of the unique (but much-imitated) ABBA sound, the nine hit albums, the world tours, the making of ABBA: The Movie, and the eventual break-up.

The book is fully illustrated throughout with hundreds of glorious photographs, many of which are from ABBA's private archives and previously unpublished, forming a sublime gallery of the group's most dazzling costumes. Finally, the comprehensive discography details all of ABBA's album releases.

ABBA: The Book is a timely celebration of one of the most successful and influential pop groups of all time. It is the definitive ABBA book that every fan will treasure.

Jean-Marie Potiez is a music journalist and ABBA expert who has devoted the last three years to writing and researching ABBA: The Book. In 1994, he conceived and co-directed the TV documentary Thank You ABBA, distributed worldwide by Polygram.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #427780 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 263 pages

Synopsis
Worldwide, ABBA are the second biggest-selling band of all time. With a collection of previously unpublished images, this book tells the story of the Swedish supergroup.

From the Author
The definitive ABBA biography
ABBA: The Book is the definitive ABBA biography that every fan will treasure. It takes a new approach to the ABBA story. Drawing on exclusive interviews with the group, their collaborators and their manager and mentor Stig Anderson, I have reconstructed the complete history of ABBA's glittering career. I have also spent about 3 years researching the Swedish press archives. For the first time, the career of each member of the group prior to the formation of ABBA is pieced together. Access to numerous archives has enabled me to retrace their step, detailing all their activities and tours before and after they came together as ABBA the group, and following the success of ABBA in Scandinavia, the UK and the rest of Europe, Australia and the United States. As a result of exhaustive research,

ABBA: The Book is the most complete and factually accurate history of ABBA to date. It is also a visual biography - it contains more than 300 illustrations including many rare and previously unpublished photographs, as well as a number of interesting documents such as record sleeves, advertisements, tickets, newspaper cuttings and magazine covers. In addition, the book is packed with quotes from the four members of the group about what life was with ABBA, and from their collaborators or famous ABBA admirers.

Many old and new fans will be able to explore the complete history of their favourite group in detail. I have included a lot of previously unpublished information and anecdotes. For example, did you know that in 1973, the group replaced the blond Agnetha by another blond female singer on a promotional tour? Did you know that in 1975 the Polish fans, taking Björn to be a woman, portrayed him with breasts?

What gives me most pleasure is that each of you, on reading this book, is going to discover - or rediscover - the story and the magic of ABBA.

Happy reading!

Jean-Marie Potiez (author of ABBA: The Book).

Customer Reviews

A celebratory tribute
Abba remain hugely popular in Britain and many other countries more than twenty years after they disbanded. This book is not an in-depth study of the different personalities and their difficulties, but it gives plenty of information about the members of Abba and their manager, including their lives before and after Abba. And (at least in my hardcover edition) there are pictures – plenty of them.

Regarding the four members of Abba, three of them (Benny, Bjorn and Agnetha) were born and raised in Sweden, all apparently having fairly normal childhoods, only their musical talent setting them apart from others. All three became hugely successful in the Swedish pop charts, Agnetha as a solo singer, Benny and Bjorn as members of separate groups.

The odd one out was Anni-Frid, better known as Frida. She was born in Norway as the illegitimate child of a German father and Norwegian mother. Frida was mainly raised by her grandmother, who took her to Sweden, where her mother joined them but died of illness a few months later, aged just 21. Frida also found it much harder than the others to achieve success in music, but she did eventually have some big Swedish hits of her own.

The author presents the main years (1969 to 1982) on a year-by-year basis, explaining the different events that occurred in each year – records, tours, TV, their personal lives – in a semi-diary format.

As far as the music is concerned, the story is quite complicated and not always easy to follow, but that is no fault of the author. Before they became Abba, they were four separate acts, each with their own careers and signed to different record companies. Once they came together as Abba, different things were happening in Japan, Australia, Germany, Sweden and elsewhere with different records – even before 1974. That was the year that Abba won Eurovision and charted for the first time in Britain and America.

There have been many books on Abba and will surely be many more. Despite being a huge Abba fan, this is the first I've read. If you're only going to have one book on Abba, it might as well be this one.

This Winner Takes It All
Hands down the best book available on ABBA. It's meticulously chronologically detailed (similar to the recent Beatles Anthology) and is a great read from start to finish. It contains the best quality photos I've seen of the group, printed on high quality paper. Beware, though: it does contain much information that the average ABBA fan will already know, and the individual members contribute little new in the way of personal insight or experience. The individuals comprising ABBA, unlike the Beatles, will remain an enigma; the first truly postmodern supergroup.

Your coffee table needs this book!
Jean-Marie Potiez has produced a wonderful book. The fantastic photos (many of which have not previously been published) are worth the price of the book alone. The photos must have been very carefully selected: they are all, unfailingly, flattering and the band never look less than achingly glamorous. The informative and enjoyable commentary, pieced together from a mind-boggling number of interviews, is clearly a labour of love and there are many surprisingly revealing and poignant quotes. Particularly sweet (and, ultimately, sad, given the couple's subsequent history) is Frida's statement that the best thing that ever happened to her was Benny, not ABBA. The history of the ultimate pop group is traced on a year-by-year basis, from the mid 1960s, following the pre-ABBA careers of each member, through the romantic encounters, to the Eurovision win, to the will-we-ever-have-another-hit? tension, to (phew!) world domination. Every step is lavishly illustrated with great photos. ABBA's story reads like a film script - humble beginnings, beautiful people in love, amazing talent, runaway success leading to a heartbreaking denoument. There is even a 'where are they now?' epilogue. This book wipes the floor with Potiez's video documentary of the band ("Thank you ABBA"). While it will certainly be a treasured luxury for ABBA's huge army of fans, this excellent book will also be of interest to anybody with an interest in perfect pop.