ABBA On The Web – March 2006
In a couple of previous columns, we took a detour away from ABBA as a group to visit some sites concentrating on Frida and/or Agnetha away from the group.To redress the balance, this time we’ll take a look at some sites dedicated to Benny and Björn, separately and together, before, during and after ABBA, their 1960s groups and their post-ABBA stage musicals.
The Björn Ulvaeus Hemsida is a self-confessed “tribute to the most talented member of ABBA”. Created by ABBA fan Karl Dan, it covers Björn’s career outside of ABBA in great detail, from the beginning of the Hootenanny Singers in the early 60s through to their dissolution in the mid-70s, the brief career of Björn and Benny as a duo, and post-ABBA recordings that he participated in. One cute highlight is a gallery featuring a rare Björn doll!Karl Dan has also created the Hep Stars Hemsida. The Hep Stars were the band that Benny was a part of during the second half of the 60s. During the time The Hep Stars were the biggest band in Sweden, even outdoing The Beatles! The site is similar in content and format to Karl Dan’s Björn site.
Benny is also subject to the solo site Benny’s Place, which declares itself to be “the webs first and only site dedicated to Benny Andersson!!”, which seems to be true enough – I don’t know of any other solo Benny site. The site includes a fairly detailed biography, some ABBA facts and links.Union Songs – An unofficial site about Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus by Marlene in the Netherlands is a quite detailed site dedicated to both men’s lives and careers.
Another website for both men is Benny Andersson/Björn Ulvaeus Then And Now by Pam in the USA. This huge site tells their story through words and pictures, with lots of rarely seen photos from the 1960s right through to 2005, including many during ABBA’s time.Disappointingly, most of these sites have not been updated for quite a long time. Only Then And Now has been updated within the last 12 months. There aren’t nearly as many sites for the boys as there are for Agnetha and Frida, though the sites that are online are all worthy tributes to the musical engine that drove ABBA.
There are of course official sites for the musicals that Benny and Björn have created since ABBA ended – Chess, Kristina från Duvemåla, and Mamma Mia!.Benny’s Mono Music has a site which includes the full discography of the label’s releases. Benny has been involved as performer, composer and/or producer on most of the records released by Mono over the past 20 years.
