Abba
Question: What is the connection between Abba and pickled herring?
Answer: They share the name Abba
It was on April 6th 1974, that ABBA entered our lives, and found global fame by taking part and winning the Eurovision song contest with the song ‘Waterloo’.
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On Thursday 23rd September, we had Abba fans and superfans singing along to the favourite Abba songs they had voted for. As well as sending their votes, they were invited to send a photo of themselves as part of the group by adding their face at www.faceinhole.com. Sarah Carr had a go at adding her face to Frida and, although she did not feel that it hadn’t done any justice to the group, she thought it was a bit of fun.
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Sarah also sent us a video to use of herself with Warwick Woodlows Park Evening Guild performing their version of Super Trooper. Their photo was in the magazine. Sara is going to one of the concerts being held at a purpose-built ABBA Arena in London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park where they are using computer technology to feature digital versions of the band members. Sarah has promised to let us know what it was like.
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Sarah was not the only one to share a video with us. Several years ago, Stella Tratt
we went to an ABBA exhibition in London and had the chance to perform with the group along with her husband Terry and her sister, Pauline, Chairman of Knowle TG!
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Abba seems to be popular with members and Judith Smith from Beaufort TG Bath remembered organising a coach load of TG members from Bath to Bristol Hippodrome for the Mamma Mia Musical.
Stella also told us about Abba providing inspiration for her when taking part in the Discovery Award.
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Abba inspired me! I found a photo of them involved in the" Keep Britain Tidy" campaign.
If Abba could do it, so could I! My Community Service would be litter-picking.
I have attached a photo of me undertaking the task wearing my Abba "Keep Britain Tidy" T shirt.’
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‘As you know I am an Abba Fan! As part of the Discovery Award I had to complete a Community Service. This was quite problematic because of all the restrictions imposed during the various Lockdowns.
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Although they are Swedish, Abba were known for recording in English and were the first non-English pop group to have massive success in the English market. They also recorded their songs in Spanish, French, German and their first language, Swedish. And we shared the video of the song, ‘Thank you for the music’ it translated into another language, Makaton. This is a unique language programme which uses symbols, signs and speech to enable people to communicate.
In 2020, 'Dancing Queen' was voted number one song to dance to in a survey carried out across the UK and members were invited to join in with a chair version which was rather lively and left a few of us out of breath.
Beryl suggested that we have a favourite Swedish snack of a cup of coffee and cinnamon roll to help us recover. Throughout the evening Beryl shared some favourite Swedish dishes, starting with pickled herrings. A company established in 1838 includes pickled herring in its well-known products. The company is called Abba and in 1974, they decided to let Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny and Anni-Frid share their name, though ABBA is actually an acronym of the first letters of the band members’ first names.
Open sandwiches
Meatballs
Beryl said that a lot of the ingredients had come from the well-known Swedish store with a yellow and blue logo, IKEA. She also helped us with the Swedish pronunciation, ‘Ick-EE-ah’.
As usual, it ran over time and It was voted a successful evening by members and their families and friends who came aong. Angela summed up their views with her email, ‘Thank you - it was a great evening. Loved the music!’
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