ABBA are wooed to fill Jacko's O2 run
Published: 02 Jul 2009
POP legends ABBA are being primed to see if they will take on the
record-breaking run of shows planned for Michael Jackson.
AEG Live, the team behind the King of Pop's planned 50-night residency are
trying to tempt the Mamma Mia band out of retirement with mega-bucks deals.
Jacko was due to kick off his This Is It string of shows at the
London
02 on July 13.
AEG Live now face a multi-million pound black hole if they cannot fill the
slots.
The firm's chief David Campbell said: "There's a little foursome out in Sweden we keep talking to."
ABBA stormed onto the world stage in 1973, winning the Eurovision Song
Contest with Waterloo.
Benny Andersson, 62, Bjorn Ulvaeus, 64, Agnetha Faltskog, 59 and Anni-Frid
Lyngstad, 63, pumped out hits including Super Trouper, Fernando and Dancing
Queen.
But personal tensions saw them split in 1983.
A source said of the ABBA offer: "There are millions on the table.
"But there are many hurdles to overcome."
Source:
The Sun
ABBA TO FILL
JACKSON
GIG SLOTS?
Swedish supergroup ABBA are set to come out of retirement - the band have
reportedly been offered a mega-bucks deal to take over MICHAEL JACKSON's London comeback tour.
The King Of Pop was booked in for a 50-date run of concerts at the U.K. capital's
O2 arena, set to begin later this month (13Jul09) and run into next year (10).
His sudden death last week (25Jun09) left show promoters AEG Live facing a race
against time to try and fill the empty dates.
And the company have offered the Mamma Mia hitmakers a multi-million dollar
deal to take on the mammoth residency, according to
Britain's The Sun newspaper.
O2 Arena boss David Campbell tells the publication, "There's a little foursome
out in Sweden
we keep talking to."
The band shot to fame in 1973 and achieved phenomenal success, but personal
tensions within the band saw them split just a decade later.
A source adds, "There are millions on the table. But there are many hurdles to
overcome.”
02 July 2009
08:11
Source:
Contact Music
The first story appeared completely out of the blue in one of Britain's most
notorious tabloids, The Sun. The second story is an example of how the story was
re-reported, claiming that ABBA was indeed "coming out of retirement". Within
hours the ABBA member's spokeswoman Görel Hanser released a statement saying
that “It is absolutely not true, they have not been in contact with the members
of ABBA.” (source:
Sveriges Radio). On the BBC television programme Friday Night with Jonathan
Ross on 3 July the host asked Benny Andersson if there was any truth to the
story and Benny replied "Absolutely not. No one has asked us to start with, and
if they did we … wouldn’t say yes." When pressed about whether ABBA would ever
"get back together again" Benny responded "Well you can never say never, can
you? You never know what’s gonna happen." See the interview
here. The
story is also analysed at
Examiner.com. |
