Abba The Movie – Fan Event
I have to confess to being pretty much a novice when it comes to Abba, I have a greatest hits compilation and that’s about it. However my other half was raised on them and when I spotted this event advertised for a cinema in town, how could I resist?
I’d never seen the film before but I had quick glance at the plot online and it sounded right up my street of cheesy music films. (I feel I have to stress that I really am only talking about the plot here.)
The event aspect was a few extras before and after the main features. Beforehand we got a look at the Abba Museum, some background into the Abba Voyage show, and some exclusive clips of rehearsals for the 1977 tour. Afterward, there were three sing-along lyric videos.
The premise of the film is simple, Abba are on tour in Australia and a radio deejay is told to get an in-depth interview with the band. Basically, this means we get lots of live footage of Abba on stage while the little subplot sees the deejay forgetting his press card and traversing the country in his attempt to meet the band all of which are thwarted by their bodyguard, played by Tom Oliver aka Lou Carpenter in Neighbours. There is a bizarre dream sequence in there too.
The live footage is very much the highlight though. The film has been restored for this cinematic release and looks fabulous. Seeing Abba-mania at its height is something else. The age range of the audience is brilliant and the running joke about them being clean feels like a hat tip to A Hard Day’s
Night.
I came out of the cinema with a smile on my face and I’ve been humming Abba tunes ever since!
