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ABBA In Concert - DVD |
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 Between September and November 1979, ABBA embarked on a concert tour in North America and Europe. The tour was captured on film in a co-production between polar - ABBA's record company - and Sveiges television. The concert film was produced and directed by Urban Lasson, who was employed by Svieges [SVT]. The film mainly consisted of documentary scenes filmed mainly in the USA, with the main concert footage being filmed at London's Wembley Arena in England. The film was ready for broadcast in 1980 and due to ABBA's tremendous popularity it became a huge export success. 'ABBA In Concert' was originally released on VHS back in 1993. A DVD release had been on the cards for some time but it had taken the team at Universal some time to put all the pieces into place.
One of the things the team looked into was the availability of extra bonus footage. Universal were informed by Urban Lasson that the songs which are seen on the video version were more or less the only songs that were filmed. The reason given was that it was originally only intended to be a television special with a running time of less than an hour. Therefore the songs selected were chosen because of their suitability for filming and there was no need to carry out any further filming. There were however two exceptions.
The first was the performance of 'The Way Old Friends Do' which has been broadcast on a limited number of occasions over the years. It was not included in most versions of 'ABBA Live In Concert' and not on any of the video re-releases put out so far.
The second was 'Thank You For The Music' which remained unedited when the film was completed, therefore the inclusion of this footage is a first, unseen by anyone until now.
Also included on this release is the edited version of 'I Have a Dream' without the interruptions of rehearsals of the childrens choirs. These three songs are the only concert performances which have been added to the line up. For additional extras Universal Music arranged to have on-camera interviews made with director Urban Lasson and ABBA's tour producer, Thomas Johansson. These were filmed in January and Febuary 2004, Just before the DVD release.
Carl Magnus Palm has once again supplied the DVD's liner notes, these were actually completed a year before the DVD was ready for release. Carl's essay is presented in a full colour 28-page booklet, illustrated with pictures from the tour and also one or two shots from the making of 'ABBA In Concert'. This whole package has been designed by Niclas Hakansson at Oglivy design in Stockholm. The 'ABBA In Concert' DVD also contains a gallery of images and pictures from the Original Souvenir Tour Programme, provided by Thomas Nordin, as a final extra, there is also a trailer for the musical 'Mamma Mia!' with a short on-camera interview with Björn Ulvaeus.
Fans have complained that the DVD didn't include enough concert footage and that it is just a re-hash of the video release without the extras it features, it could easily be classed as just that. The majority of tracks featured in 'ABBA In Concert' are edited versions, many are incomplete. 'Take a Chance On Me' and 'Waterloo' are both edited versions, whilst 'Voulez Vous' is edited with the girls performing only the second verse of the song. 'Knowing Me, knowing You' also suffers a similar fate with only the first verse being filmed. Fans know that all the tracks exist in their entirety in 'live' form - just look at the amount they have been release on bootlegs!!
Most of the complete performances come at the end of the DVD - Dancing Queen, Hole in Your Soul etc.
If the film of the tour was meant to promote ABBA's 'Voulez Vous' and 'Greatest Hits Vol 2' albums then surely more of the classic ABBA tracks should have been included. Where are the live performances of their top selling hits 'Fernando', 'Money, Money Money' and 'SOS'? All are notably missing, even though they formed part of the first part of the Wembley Arena concerts - take a look at the 'official ABBA magazines' of the early 80's. The band were at their peak during the filming of 'ABBA In Concert' and it was the classic tracks which fans went to see them perform live.
The inclusion of the background scenes features is one of the important pieces of the film, but was it really necessary to feature so many shots of rollerskaters? All of the concerts were well covered by photographers - just take a look at the picture below
 Agnetha's solo spot from the 1979 tour 'I'm Still Alive' still remains unreleased after more than 27 years since it was first performed. Anni-Frid's show stopping 'Why Did It Have To Be Me' is also missing. older fans will remember that Frida wore a different football club shirt on stage every night during this song. If they were actually recorded on audio tape (as we know they were) why weren't they filmed as well??
Once again fans have been left high and dry, dissapointed and disheartened and some may say 'out of pocket' by this latest release from the universal stable.
Perhaps we'll have to wait and see what the future holds for ABBA fans searching for those elusive 'live' concert performances.
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