Conventions
ABBAMAIL was responsible for bringing fans together, both via the e-mail list and web site and via fan conventions held in Australia. The usual format of an ABBAMAIL convention was a welcome, followed by merchandise sales, rare or topical video presentations, a break for lunch, a guest speaker with question and answer sessions, followed by dinner and an ABBA disco.
The following conventions were held by ABBAMAIL in Sydney -
Australian Tour: 20 Year Celebration – March 1997. Special Guest – Annie Wright, who was an employee of RCA in the 1970s and accompanied the group on their Australian tour.
Women of ABBA – June 1997.
Summer Night City – November 1998.
The ABBA Generation – November 1999. Special Guest – Shelley Benson, who was Abba's promotional manager at RCA in the 1970s. According to ABBAMAIL founders, the event was inspired by Gabriel Zubowski, an ABBA fan from Poland. [2]
CMP Down Under – September 2001. Special Guest – ABBA historian and author, Carl Magnus Palm.
MAD 05 – September 2005.
The ABBAMAIL Effect
Through its ability to focus comments from a large number of ABBA fans into one forum, ABBAMAIL impacted parts of ABBA's music production, such as PolyGram and Universal Music re-releasing CDs in a corrected form. In 1997, all eight studio albums were remastered and re-released. Audiophiles among the fan group immediately noticed errors and problems with this mastering and discussed being disappointed by the quality of the covers. The original negatives were sourced for the cover art, resulting in the first clear covers since CDs had been released.
ABBAMAIL was also asked for assistance in locating additional material for the ABBA – In Concert DVD and the ABBA: The Movie DVD release. In his book, "Bright Lights, Dark Shadows – The Real Story of ABBA", author Carl Magnus Palm thanks the ABBAMAIL list along with many individual ABBAMAIL members who assisted him with his work.
Fans on the list connected initially via the e-mail list. These personal friendships have resulted in people travelling around the world in order to meet face to face.
Controversy
In May 2006, ABBAMAIL were threatened with legal action by MIPI (Music Industry Piracy Investigations) working on behalf of Universal Music. ABBAMAIL had offered bootleg recordings of non-commercially available television appearances and home-recorded live concerts on CD. According to ABBAMAIL, Universal Music had known about this for several years and previously chose not to take any action.
Initially, they demanded all items in the web shop containing the ABBA logo to be removed from sale. This was completed. A new demand was issued demanding names and addresses of all ABBA fans who had purchased material from the site. This was not completed.
A campaign was begun with ABBAMAIL supporters e-mailing the record company and the group's representatives to protest the action. As of 15 September 2006, the legal action was complete at a cost of over A$4,000 in legal fees. MIPI advised they were happy with the compliance with their demands and no further action was pending. [3]
ABBA were a Swedish pop supergroup formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The group's name is an acronym of the first letters of their first names arranged as a palindrome. They are one of the most popular and successful musical groups of all time, and are one of the best-selling music acts in the history of popular music, topping the charts worldwide from 1974 to 1982, and again in 2021 following their reunion.
Stig Erik Leopold "Stikkan" Anderson was a Swedish music manager, lyricist and music publisher. He was the co-founder of Polar Music, and is best known for managing the Swedish pop band ABBA.
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"Mamma Mia" is a song by the Swedish pop group ABBA, written by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Stig Anderson, with the lead vocals shared by Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. It is the opening track on the group's third album, the self-titled ABBA (1975). The song was released in September 1975 as its sixth single. The song's name is derived from Italian, where it is an interjection used in situations of surprise, anguish, or excitement. It corresponds to the English interjection "my, my!" The song was ABBA's first number one in the UK since "Waterloo" in 1974.
Ted Arnbjörn Gärdestad was a Swedish singer, songwriter, musician and actor known internationally as Ted. Gärdestad began his acting career in 1966 and began playing music in 1971, signing with Polar Music. Assigned with in-house producers Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, Gärdestad released his first single, "Hela världen runt," in late 1971 and worked closely with the four members of ABBA to create his debut album Undringar (1972). As Polar Music's best-selling solo artist, he continued to work with the group members throughout the 1970s, releasing three more albums Ted (1973), Upptåg (1974) and Franska Kort (1976), which were moderately successful. In 1978, Gärdestad released his first English-language album, Blue Virgin Isles, which did not have success internationally, as his predecessor albums had in his home country.
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The Visitors is the eighth studio album by Swedish pop group ABBA. It was released on 30 November 1981.
A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. Making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging. Recordings may be copied and traded among fans without financial exchange, but some bootleggers have sold recordings for profit, sometimes by adding professional-quality sound engineering and packaging to the raw material. Bootlegs usually consist of unreleased studio recordings, live performances or interviews without the quality control of official releases.
The discography of Swedish pop music group ABBA consists of nine studio albums, two live albums, seven compilation albums, four box sets, five video albums, 50 singles, and 43 music videos. To date, ABBA have sold 150 million records worldwide becoming one of the best-selling music artists in history. They have scored 9 No. 1 singles and 10 No. 1 albums in the UK, becoming the most successful Swedish act of all time on the Official Charts.
Gracias Por La Música is a Spanish-language album by Swedish pop group ABBA, released in Spain on 5 April 1980 and Latin America on May 10. Gracias Por La Música was originally released due to the unexpected surge in popularity for the group in Latin American countries such as Mexico and Argentina after the release of the Spanish-language versions of "Chiquitita" and "I Have a Dream" in 1979. These tracks were both released as singles and went on to become big hits. Encouraged by this success, the band therefore decided to record another eight tracks in Spanish and release a full-length album especially for the Latin American market. The album was also released in ABBA's native Sweden on June 23, and in Japan on July 21 after ABBA played eleven successful concerts earlier in March.
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The Best of ABBA is a compilation greatest hits album by Swedish pop group ABBA, first released in August 1975 in the Netherlands. It was then released in West Germany, and then in Australia and New Zealand in November 1975, before being released in Austria and India in 1976. Despite not being released in Norway, imports led the album to chart. After import copies were being sold in Scandinavia, ABBA's Greatest Hits was rush-released there in November 1975. The album topped the charts in Australia, Austria and New Zealand, and went on to be certified 24× Platinum in New Zealand and 22× Platinum in Australia. The album is tied with Dire Straits' album Brothers in Arms for being the best-selling album in New Zealand.
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Carl Magnus Palm is a Swedish author and historian, writing in Swedish and English, best known for his work on the Swedish pop group ABBA.
