ABBA on the Web - December 2008
If you logged on to the internet in the mid- to late-nineties and entered
“ABBA” into a search engine, you probably found this issue’s featured
website.
ABBAnatic – The
Alternative ABBA Webpage was created by Michael T, nicknamed Funnyguy,
from the USA. Michael recently wrote on his blog
(http://www.amanandamouse.blogspot.com/)that this was in fact the internet’s
first ABBA website, which he started in 1992 and continued to maintain until
1996.
In the final version that is still online today Michael acknowledges that
there are “numerous” ABBA websites, and wants “something to set this page
apart from the others”. And what is there today is still surprisingly
unique.
The main page includes two columns of buttons linking to the other pages
of the site. It’s a simple yet effective main page design.
Starting at the top left column is Kristina på North America: An
Interactive Adventure, which tells Michael’s personal story of the 1996
concert performances of Benny and Björn’s musical Kristina från Duvemåla in
Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Next comes the ironically-titled Official ABBA Bootleg Page. This details
several bootleg CDs that had been available up to that time.
Agnetha & Frida: The Post-ABBA Page includes both women’s
English-language solo releases. Frida’s Swedish single Även en blomma has
just been released.
Muriel’s Wedding discusses the 1994 Australian film that played such a
major part in the early-90s ABBA revival.
Mas ABBA Links is an obvious play on the compilation CD Mas Oro (the
Spanish More Gold), and includes links to other websites that were around at
the time. Only a small handful of the links are still active.
Starting at the top of the right column, In Search Of… ABBA Day 1996 and
then some Michael tells of his adventures visiting Europe visiting
Stockholm, finding ABBA sites in the city, then visiting Scheidem for that
year’s ABBF Fan Club Day.
ABBA Lyrics A-Y is exactly what it says: lyrics to ABBA songs. What’s
interesting is that it seems that this site is the source of several
incorrect versions of lyrics, both that have been used officially (“do you
still recall the frightful night we crossed the Rio Grande” that appeared on
the Love Stories CD in 1998) and on many fan websites.
Chess in HTML details the various CDs of the Chess musical that had been
released to that time – the original 1984 album, the Broadway cast recording
and the Swedish Chess In Concert.
Ring Ring or Wrong Wrong: A Controversy details various versions of the
Ring Ring album that had been released over the years, questioning whether
it’s appropriate to have been released under the name ABBA, a name that did
not exist when the album was first released in 1973.
Finally, ABBA Today shows us then-recent photographs of the ABBA members.
Though it’s an old site, with nothing new to offer, it is fun to go back
and have a look at how ABBA was celebrated in the early days of the
internet.
