Five decades ago ABBA stormed to the top of pop’s Mount Olympus by winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest.
In the English seaside town of Brighton, nothing could stop the four Swedes instant classic Waterloo from taking top honours ahead of a strong contemporaneous line-up that included Olivia Newton-John representing England with Long Live Love.
Despite that success, global domination wasn’t immediate. ABBA had to overcome reluctant radio programmers and snooty music press long before the likes of Pete Townsend and Elvis Costello sang their praises citing SOS for its pop brilliance.
An early ABBA adopter was Molly Meldrum who famously spun Mamma Mia on ABC-TV’s Countdown. The rest of Australia took heed and ABBA never looked back.
Like many of the second and third wave of pop/rock giants, ABBA as a touring force has long since hung up their platform boots. Their Voyager show is currently playing in London, wooing crowds with ABBA avatars. But if you want to see and hear the band live, you’ll have to take Benny Andersson’s advice “and go and see Bjorn Again”, as it’s the closest you’ll get.
Starting out at The Tote in Melbourne in 1989, Bjorn Again has played more than 5000 shows. Along the way they’ve opened for the Spice Girls, played everywhere from the Sydney Opera House and Glastonbury to Russell Crowe’s first wedding.
With 35 years of gigs under the belt, calling Bjorn Again a tribute band feels dismissive. If anything, it’s a celebration of one of the finest catalogs in pop history.
Their current Waterloo Anniversary Tour is more of an immersive concert/theatre experience. The casting of the four leads – Jodie Thornton (Agnetha), Laura Davidson (Anni-Frid), Ashley Reeder (Benny) and Rhys Warden (Bjorn) – is note perfect. So is the sense of humour and the wonky Swedish accents.
ABBA isn’t alone in the world of homage. Elvis Presley impersonators or tribute acts are an industry and the same can be said of The Beatles, Talking Heads, The Doors and pretty much every other major artist you can think of. Who could forget the clever merging of Led Zeppelin and reggae that was manifest with the mighty Dread Zeppelin.
Late last year I saw Britain’s The Doors Alive along with a thousand other people at The Tivoli in Brisbane. The first half of the show – with the stage too well lit – felt like watching a very good cover band. By the second half their frontman had morphed into the Lizard King himself.
There’s also a growing trend for tribute bands to be built around someone once associated with the original group, such as the Dire Straits Experience, who’ll be here shortly, which features Chris White who played sax with the real thing. Robin A. Smith is currently touring Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells without Oldfield but with his imprimatur.
But Bjorn Again – in their field – sits atop their own Olympus. The show starts with a video montage of ABBA’s highs and touring life, before morphing into Bjorn Again replicating key moments in the band’s career. The house lights dim and Thornton and Davidson bound on stage to join a band already in full flight with the same zeal the original girls took to their Eurovision moment 50 years ago.
The choreography, the staging and the voices are superb. The costumes are fine reproductions and there are enough outfit changes to rival a Diana Ross gig. Split in two halves, the show’s opening gambit includes Super Trouper, Honey Honey, SOS and Knowing Me Knowing You. Switching to ballad mode, the first set closed with a run of ballads including I Have a Dream, The Winner Takes It All and Thank You For the Music.
Post-interval, Bjorn Again shifts everything up a gear. With two sold-out shows at QPAC in Brisbane, where I saw the show, they make the matinee audience feel like they’re rocking it like 1977.
Does Your Mother Know and Money Money Money are terrific. Rock Me appears from the relative margins and does just that. While the girls nip off for a costume change, the boys lift the metaphorical roof with a cover of Bon Jovi’s Living on a Prayer.
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Back out front, Anna and Frida (sort of) lead us through a disco run that includes Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight) and Voulez Vous with a cast of all-male dancers.
Bjorn Again is currently on the road and will tour New Zealand before continuing an extensive lap of Australia through until early 2025. They never really stop – so we won’t give away all the spoilers – but, yes, Dancing Queen was sublime.
By the time the show concludes, it hardly matters that Bjorn Again are a tribute band. The songs are still breathing, and they perform them without peer.
To couple nostalgia and expectations, and to somehow supersede them, while revisiting songs that exist in the permanent now is a helluva achievement.
One emotion rang out in the room more than any other as the audience made it its way to the exits, and it was unbridled joy. Bravo.
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