Abba Fabba Do!

I've been away... I'm back.

As the world falls apart, at least we have music. There seems to be great live music everywhere now in this post-ish-pandemic period.

But of all the gigs I've been to recently – and that includes seeing Bob Dylan's resumed and wonderful Never Ending Tour at Le Grand Rex theatre in Paris – the most mindblowing, back in London, featured ABBA. Or at least the Other Fab Four's 3D avatars.

Performing alongside a live 10-piece band and with a light show and visuals worthy of a Pink Floyd wet dream, they left me and my companions speechless – which is quite an achievement.

There had been endless hype about how groundbreaking this show was going to be. But it didn't live up to that hype – it went far, far beyond it.

The music – 90 non-stop minutes of it – is just about all of ABBA's finest moments, with the dial turned up way past 11. The only pauses are for some genuinely funny and poignant comments from Benny, Bjorn, Agnetha and Anni-Frid – via their avatars but, like the whole extravaganza, full of warmth and humanity.

It's expensive but worth every pound. Just go!

Singing Queen

In 1974 I was writing a record review page on a provincial evening newspaper. The man from Epic Records used to turn up every so often with a box of new releases, and one that came with no information at all was called Waterloo by Abba (which didn't sound like a great name for a band).

I can still remember hearing it for the first time (which is pretty much the same as every time ever since) and writing my one paragraph that said there was no doubt this was a number one hit single.

I always loved Abba. Right from when I had absolutely no idea who they were.

And now Agnetha is back among us. The alleged recluse is suddenly everywhere, promoting her new album.

In one interview she talked in detail about singing The Winner Takes It All, recorded in the midst of the pain of her divorce - and written by Bjorn, the husband she was parting from. She reckons it was Abba's finest moment, and it's hard not to agree. It is heartbreak transformed into music... something that so many songwriters attempt to achieve. But here you had the intensity of the doomed couple between them producing something that no one else could.

There still seem to be tears in Agnetha's voice in the new songs... such as When You Really Loved Someone and I Keep Them On The Floor Beside My Bed.

Tears and a diamond-hard resilience.

She's still got it. And I'll still buy it.