THERE ARE TWO types of people. There are the ones who were forced to learn exhausting dance routines to ABBA songs to perform at every primary school open day. These are the ones who wasted precious hours of their lives learning the words to every ABBA song for no apparent reason in their school choirs.
Then there are the other type of people: the ones who can still tolerate listening to ABBA. For those lucky people, there’s a new exhibition coming to London to celebrate the history of the Swedish band.
The exhibition, named Super Troupers, will open at Southbank Centre in Waterloo (43 years after the single Waterloo was released) but it looks set to be pretty intimate.
Only seventeen people will be able to enter at any time. They’ll get a guided tour through several rooms representing different significant moments from ABBA’s career, including a replica of the hotel room that they stayed in during the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest and their recording studio in Stockholm where all of their greatest hits were composed and recorded.
Each room will have it’s own score to accompany visitors as they make their way through the tour.
The exhibition will also feature handwritten notes by the band members, personal photos, their instruments, costumes and all their Eurovision medals. It looks like a must see for any ABBA fanatics and the members of ABBA are equally excited about it, giving it their seal of approval.
ABBA’s Anni-Frid (Frida) Lyngstad said “We are so excited that the exhibition is taking place at the Southbank Centre, which is just a few short steps away from Waterloo.”
The exhibition will draw particular attention to the bleak socio-political situation of the 1970s and how ABBA’s positive, upbeat pop music rose to fame in the UK at that time, despite the surrounding atmosphere.
Paul Denton, the producer from the Southbank Centre said:
“During the 1970s there was a three-day working week, a hung parliament and economically Britain was quite poor. ABBA were seen as quite exotic creatures from Sweden. Obviously their music is what carried them through [it] caught the hearts and imagination of the poeple. But this sets the scene.”
It sounds a bit like we need our own ABBA to sort us out in this day and age. Let’s pray it’s Robyn.
The exhibition is “an immersive theatrical experience” rather than a traditional exhibition with objects locked up behind glass, according to Paul Denton.
There’s no doubt that this is a very unique opportunity that would probably get you in your parents good books for a long time (given that they aren’t the type to storm out of IKEA the moment that Money, Money, Money begins to play on IKEA radio).
The exhibition will be open from the 14th of December to the 29th of April 2018. Tickets are on sale Tuesday 4th of July.
