I am always surprised when people talk about the 70s as if it were some kind of ancient era; it seems like no time at all since those sunshiny days of throwaway pop. Except I didn’t throw the pop away.
I fell in love with ABBA.
There, I’ve said it. It wasn’t cool then and it isn’t cool now. But I loved their music, joined the fan club, hung up posters, queued to see their movie, bought their records.
Today, there is even an ABBA museum in Stockholm, full of memories for millions of visitors. But here are some pictures that will not be on display:
my first published illustrations…
At the Benjamin Britten high school I worked as Art Editor on the school newspaper – that was my first introduction to publishing. Issue 1 of “The Voice of Britten” featured ABBA on the cover and an article (which I also wrote) with more illustrations inside.
It is extraordinary for me to look at these pictures again, drawn (rather badly!) in early 1979. No computers, no photoshop, just drawings photocopied, text typed on a typewriter (!!!) and stapled together. I was 14 years old and Agnetha and Bjorn had just announced their divorce. I remember being SO worried that there would be no more music to come. Oh how I loved them!
A year or so later more music DID come: The Winner Takes it All – Agnetha’s favourite song.
With it, arrived a more ambitious publishing opportunity than a “school rag”: a drawing competition in the ABBA magazine to promote the song. Of course I entered…
I didn’t win, but as a runner up, I got my drawing published IN THE ABBA MAGAZINE! It was a heady moment! And I knew then, that publishing, and illustration, was something I loved, and thus the Swedish superstars launched my career…
Time passed by. ABBA went their separate ways. Sadly, the ridicule I faced back in the 70s for liking them, has never gone away. So much music snobbery still exists. Whether they were good or bad is irrelevant. I liked them, and that’s all that matters.
So what is the enduring appeal?
I think, in a way, critics just got them all wrong. Because so much of their music isn’t really light and happy. The melodies may be, but even early songs like S.O.S are filled with minor chords and sad lyrics…
They were a band who wrote about kitchen-sink relationships; about love and the trials and tribulations. And pre-teens with their first crushes related to that. ABBA educated a whole generation on matters of the heart with a whole string of torchy tragedies. Their 1975 Greatest Hits album cover, with the immortal “park bench” picture (like a denim clad photo-picture-strip from Jackie Magazine), haunted me for years. It speaks of mundane suburban heartbreak, of jealousies and unspoken crushes, of disappointments and bittersweet, autumnal love.
I guess the early costumes worked against them, but few bands have stood the test of time as much as ABBA. Their records, so well produced, sound as fresh and sparkling today as they did 45 years ago. Plus the fact that Agnetha and Anni-Frid really could SING.
Thank you for the music? of course, but thanks also for the inspiration. From ABBA to children’s book illustration, is a big jump – but that initial springboard was as bouncy as any 70s pop song!
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