Genius segue from Abba’s SOS to Message in a Bottle (from about 09:10 mins) in this life-affirming performance by tribute band nonpareil Bjorn Again. Probably also the best tribute band name ever as well. ‘Champagne Vauxhall Nova’ comes close but sadly the actual band couldn’t live up to their name!
SOS
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That’s brilliant, if it’s not some photo shop jiggery pokery, which I hope not.
Huge fan of ABBA -Waterloo on Eurovision was a watershed moment for me in my musical awakening…the power of music!
Saw Björn Again at the Hacienda sometime in the early 90’s. If you can remember it, you weren’t really there.
SOS is some song, isn’t it?
Spellbinding song.
And in D minor I’m sure.
SOS was a very important single for ABBA.
Now, at a distance of 45 years, people imagine that winning the Eurovision song contest in 1974 with “Waterloo” automatically triggered a long list of huge no.1 singles for the band, but that wasn’t the case.
In the UK, the performance of the five singles following “Waterloo” was as follows:
“Honey, Honey” Did not chart
“Hasta Mañana” Did not chart
“So Long” Did not chart
“I’ve Been Waiting for You” Did not chart
“I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do” No.38
SOS broke that poor run, put ABBA back in business, and set up the run of world-conquering singles for which they’re still remembered.
Good point. And in the midst of the poor run, bizarrely, they released their first Greatest Hits album, which had grim stuff like Nina, Pretty Ballerina on it. SOS was the single that got them and the world in sync, as it were.
I did not realise that @duco01
Pretty sure that Greatest Hit album was the first album I ever owned…the one with them snogging on it @barry-blue?
Currently going through my ABBA box set . First two albums…where is Waterloo?
And there’s some cracking pop songs here…Ring Ring, Another Town another Train for example.
Edit. Waterloo is actually on the album called Waterloo. Apologies. It won’t happen again.
That’s the one. It does include the awesome Ring Ring, always a delight.
Bjorn Again gigs were the first time I heard Honey, Honey and Rock Me. I prefer their live versions.
Moving on now, cherry picking Arrival because Dancing Queen is just SO commercial. But, ignoring the Partridge conortations…Knowing Me, Knowing You…blimey.
The Album and Voulez Vouz, so so and have to be in the right mood for them.
And then their swan song The Visitors. Which I once described on this very site as “clunky.” I was wrong.
Don’t forget the great Super Trouper album, and the imaginatively-named ABBA, which I’ve recently been rediscovering thanks to the inclusion of the glorious ‘I’ve Been Waiting For You’ in MM2HWGA!
I had that reaction to DQ for a long, long time but now recognise and celebrate it as the work of absolute pop genius that it is.
The poor run would have been shortened if they had chosen to go with either “Mamma Mia” or “SOS” as the first single from the ABBA album instead of “So Long”. Who was it at the record company that thought that those two were the fourth and fifth best singles from that album?
@duco01 – I wasn’t really aware of that, cheers.
Guess it’s the equivalent of giving a Fergie or a Klopp the time to succeed 🙂 Of course, it’s only with hindsight that we can see that any doubts about those two were misplaced, similarly with the Nordic dream team of Fältskog, Ulvaeus, Andersson and Lyngstad.
It’s not Photoshopped, they were doing this from 1991/92 and it’s on 1993’s live album (which features an unreleased Abba song, Just Like That).
I missed the gig it was recorded at, as I was flying back from a skiing holiday.
SOS is just about as brilliant as pop music gets.
Winner takes it all is also just about the saddest song ever written. (Agnetha in the video looks uncannily like a girl I used to go out with. To me, anyway.)
Surely the best named tribute act is Not Was Not Was?
🙂
Sensational.
A fave of mine is/was By Jovi. Always sounded like they should be a a poodle rock act doing Ken Dodd jokes.
Ticklish When Wet.
Oasish
?
Oasisn’t.
The Pretenders
?
My favourite pub band name is Paddy Goes To Holyhead, who used to perform regularly at the long-lost Biddy Mulligan’s in Kilburn (or was it Cricklewood – it was a borderline location). I never saw them so I don’t know if they tributed anyone particular or just played pub rock.
Similar vein: the blessed Hank Wangford once did an Edinburgh Festival gig under the name Hankie Goes to Holyrood.
My pals were in a band called The Lazy Boys Of Banknock.
Tribute bands have become lazy – there was a time when they had to come up with a witty name – Bjorn Again, Champagne Vauxhall Nova, Nowaysis, The Bootleg Beatles etc. I’ve noticed a worrying recent trend – simply the name of the band with ‘tribute’ in small letters underneath. Not on. Not on at all.
SOS my favourite ABBA song. Was checking that , as I thought, they are an Aussie tribute band and was surprised to read they now have multiple bands touring under the name Bjorn Again.
Yeah, the franchise started early/mid-90s.
I knew a singer who used to do gigs as Ronan Cheating
I’ve seen Bjorn Again twice now, great band – go and see them if you have the chance.
I might get yelled at here, but they may well be the best live act in the world: they’ve got the best pop back catalogue to choose from, they play the songs brilliantly, and they know how to work an audience because basically they’re as road-hardened as anyone is at the moment.
I’ve been saying that for years. I saw them with a pal on their first UK tour in 1991. We liked them so much, we went to their next gig each with another friend, and carried on like that until we were booking coaches to Butlins festivals. I saw them 52 times in nine months, prior to their 1992 Reading Festival set (where they supported Nirvana).
Unfortunately, ‘Frida’ went home to Oz after Reading, a London musical theatre singer took over the role, and they lost some of the magic for me. I’ve only seen them a handful of times since.
I could write a book about some of the nonsense we got up to. I probably already have on here.
Seen them twice in Bristol, once in the 90s and once just over a year ago. They were brilliant both times. A sensational night out, I could not stop smiling.
Also one of the few (only?) tribute bands to actually have a hit single, their answer record to Erasure’s ‘Abbaesque’ EP – the quite brilliantly titled ‘Erasureish’.
And the UK number 55 smash Santa Claus Is Coming To Town/Little Drummer Boy. The A-side was an early mash-up of Waterloo.
The best ABBA tribute band name ever was ABBATOIR
Nice one Mousey!
But for a rockier version of the Waterloo Hitmakers, this track by The Leather Nun take some beating.
And then, over in Brooklyn, there is Devas, the all-girl Devo tribute band.
If Benny and Bjorn had been called Steve and Derek, the band would have been called ASDA.
Another thing to take on board with ABBA is that they achieved all that success in the UK without performing on TOTP. They performed Waterloo on the show I think but after that they made a short film where Agnetha and Frida often look forlorn and broken-hearted while Benny and Bjorn seem to be permanently very chipper, like they are up to something.
I think the truth is they were like little annoying boys, addicted to pranks and practical jokes. As the money rolled in, their tricks became more elaborate (usually at Agnetha and Frida’s expense). Basically the two singers’ nerves were in shreds by the time we got to the early 80s.
@black-celebration
I think you’re onto something. I imagine Bjorn as the main protagonist here. A bit of a goofy grin on his face while Benny is in on the joke but a little bit above it all. I should think the girls might need a shoulder to cry on.
@freddy-steady Bjorn is definitely the ringleader. He’s a bad influence on Benny.
If you can imagine Agnetha entering the room only to be soaked by a bucket of water set as a booby trap above the door – Bjorn will be on the floor laughing, holding his belly with one hand and pointing at Agnetha with the other.
Benny will affectionately tell Bjorn off and tell him that he must not to do it again. Agnetha sighs.
@black-celebration
Gosh, yes! Absolutely, and it would always be poor Agnetha on the receiving end of Bjorn’s zany antics. An Australian Tour press conference was interrupted by an embarrassing moment with a whoopee cushion – Bjorn giggling away like the overgrown schoolboy he is, Benny a little shame faced. Frida wouldn’t have been targeted at all I think.
No – they wouldn’t dare mess with Frida! Relationships are complicated so Frida was actually a bit sad about this.
In the last Winner Takes it All session, Agnetha arrived with her right eye framed by a circle of black ink (thanks to Bjorn’s trick telescope!). Frida rounded on the boys – “Why always HER? Am I not FUN?? Look at me! I can laugh!” she then poured coffee over Benny and stubbed out her cigarette on his head three times saying “Ha! Ha! HA!”. She then marched out, slamming the door behind her.
After a few seconds of silence Bjorn and Benny exploded into convulsive laughter and Agnetha handled the rest of the song alone.
This needs to be pitched as a Scandi-noir sitcom…ABBAsolutely Fabulous, perhaps? Or To The Mamma Bjorn?
Poor old Frida!
It was hard being the only Norwegian in a band of Superstar Swedes and she was naturally the butt of Björn’s amusing japes. She barely had time to clean the black ink from around here eye before she was back on stage, in her matching tight fitting white jumpsuit. And in front of the eyes of the world it soon became a very uncomfortable occasion as the Scandi Songbird scratched and writhed as the itching powder that Björn, the little scamp, had liberally sprinkled all over it, did it’s dastardly work!
Poor Frida, the humiliation just went On and On and On!
Saw Bjorn Again in Montpellier around ten years ago ( never knew there are various franchisees doing the rounds in Europe). One of the best musical nights of my life, fantastic fun. I also really, really enjoyed both Mamma Mia movies.
I should add that I hate Abba, always did and always will. Manufactured pop cynically designed to fill a Beatles-sized hole in the universe. Appalling saccharine lyrics, admittedly catchy hooks churned out on a production line that would disgrace Tin Pan Alley. Awful, awful, awful.
I feel a lot better now – must go, Disappointing Bob is at the door
Completely wrong about ABBA there. Embarrassingly so.
You mean I am Wrong – there’s a shocker! But I am, of course, Right
Don’t know if you listen to the Chart Music podcast, if not it is highly recommended. The latest one dealing with Christmas Day 1977 Top of the Pops had a very eloquent explanation about the genius of ABBA.
Would I be right in presuming that there are now tribute bands who have existed longer than the band whose music they are playing?
Abba, Gabriel-era Genesis, the Beatles all spring to mind.
I enjoyed the article about super-niched covers bands.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/17/nuns-on-the-drums-the-bizarre-world-of-superniche-cover-bands?fbclid=IwAR2G87AGfeYsOrIUwoUfcwV_7oAHF-rMM7tNIJH-p9GgknqN_S8XW_4i3Qc
And how can one not enjoy Xper Xr who did a whole album or Euro-Techno hits on traditional Chinese instruments?
I suspect @Beany might be curious about this guy.
That’s brilliant. Probably told this before, but when did that stop me? Back in the early 90s during my brief inglorious radio career, probably at the time @fentonsteve was stalking them round the country, I encountered Bjorn Again at GLR waiting to go on. They were in full kit, even for going on the radio – a surreal experience. They were very chatty and breezy too – good fun.
I got to know them reasonably well personally and the basic chat rules were:
Jumpsuits on: Swedelish
Jumpsuits off: Ozzie
Jumpsuits off – got to know them really well. ☺️
I know of at least three tribute bands to ‘The Wurzels’; MangledWurzels, Twerzels and A.D Rice & the Wazzucks, which seems a tad excessive.
The A.D Rice outfit specialise in the stuff done during the time Adge Cutler was alive.
Three Wurzels tribute bands. See, you won’t get this on the Steve Hoffman forum.
Would a documentary about them be called, if you will, a smockumentary?
“This combine harvester goes up to 11”