Mamma Mia, it’s a rich ABBA world. By Kelvin Bissett

Travel

In Stockholm’s Gamla Stan there is an exact spot in a cobblestone square where thousands of ABBA fans every year make a photographic pilgrimage.

It was here that the famous “fur coats” picture was taken of Frida, Benny, Bjorn and Agnetha all wrapped up in 1970s chick fluffy mink jackets, platforms and bellbottoms.

The picture was splashed everywhere in Australia from newspapers to the cover of women’s magazines, leaving the image burnt into the memory banks of even the mildest ABBA devotees.

The group’s launch into the stratosphere after their 1974 Eurovision Song Contest win with Waterloo caught record distributors short of publicity shots, except for this one.

The scene for the photo, next to an antique water pump in the stortorget (chief town square), is in the old town precinct ringed by 16th and 17th century buildings on the island of Standen.

Stockholm, sited delicately on islands in Lake Malaren, is by any measure one of northern Europe’s major tourist draw-cards. But the ABBA connection gives the Swedish capital extra appeal for Australians.

The recent 840,000 sales of the compilation ABBA Gold underlines that Australia’s 28-year obsession has not dimmed.

The Nordiska Museet has a temporary exhibit at present with enough ABBA memories – many tongue in cheek – to drown any pangs for an ABBA fix. Who can forget those cat jumpsuits worn by Agnetha and Frida during their 1977 world concert tour?

Both getups are there ready to be cringed over.

According to the English language guide to the exhibition, Frida got the idea for the costumes from an Asian fashion magazine.

“Cats fascinate me. They have an elegant way of moving. I’d like to be a dangerous cat,” she explains in the guide.

Album covers, boxes of magazines, swap cards, T-shirts and Benny’s analogue Yamaha synthesiser are there, behind glass.

It’s impossible to miss a wall picture of the four taken in Adelaide beside a bamboozled then Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser and wife Tammy.

But without the exhibition, the truth is that making a connection with the ABBA story in Stockholm is hard work. There are no organised ABBA tours and a request for ABBA information at the central Sverigehuset tourist office was met with an ambivalent shrug, reflecting the general Swedish mood about the band.

The only help offered by the tourist office, after some persistence, was directions to a building just down the Hamngatan that was once Polar Studios where ABBA recorded early tunes.

Adding poignancy to the location is a ticket office opposite emblazoned with posters for Benny and Bjorn’s latest Mamma Mia! stage show, proving that even the simplest superficial pop music can have a long shelf life.

Trawling the dozens of Internet ABBA websites may also help. Of special assistance is the ABBA Legacy site on the web.

Among the sacred sites recommended for the ABBA obsessed is the Grona Lund Tivoli, an amusement park only a short bus or ferry trip from the city. On a stage here the band did some early gigs.

Just a walk away in the same neighbourhood is Skansen, a blend of open-air-zoo and rebuilt Swedish peasant villages with twee windmills and mini farms.

It is not the brown bears there named Benny and Bjorn that are of primary interest; rather a small reconstructed building called Julius Kronberg’s Studio.

It was in this dwelling where the brooding cover picture of the band’s final studio album, The Visitors, was snapped.

In the adjacent Djurgården National City Park, where Swedish royalty once went shooting, is a canal where scenes from the Australian-made ABBA-The Movie were shot.

Drottningholm Palace, about 11km from the city centre, is the usual residence of the Swedish royal family.

It is also often open for guided walking tours of its gardens.

A number of ABBA pictures were taken here, including one involving a fountained wall from the cover picture of The Name Of The Game single.

Photos: 1) Heyday: ABBA remain to this day the toast of Stockholm. 2) Pilgrimage: A Viking longboat on the historic Stockholm Norrstrom waterfront, home to many present-day temples of ABBA worship.

Thai International flies from Sydney to Stockholm via Bangkok. Or take Qantas-British Airways to London with connecting flights to Stockholm. Details from the Consulate of Sweden on from Sydney (02) 9262 6433 or visit website Scandinavia.com.au Transcribed for ABBA World

The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia) · 21 October 2002

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