ABBA blog

In April 2020, when Paul McCartney was interviewed on the Howard Stern show about the forthcoming re-edited version of The Beatles' Let It Be movie, he was asked when it would be released. The film had previously been announced for September 2020, but the current pandemic had turned things upside down. As McCartney replied, "Nobody knows when anything is coming out right now".

This is pretty much the situation I'm in at the moment with my book ABBA On Record - Packaged Promoted Reviewed. The plan is to publish it in 2021, but there are factors beyond my control that will affect the schedule. The book will be published, no doubt about that, but the publication date is not just dependent on my own input to the project. For instance, I have promised to include information about the new ABBA songs, and at the moment we don't know when they will be made public. There are also other factors related to the production of the book that I have limited control over.

To be perfectly honest, part of the reason for the long delay is also that this book project turned out to be much bigger than I'd expected. In many ways, it's harder to see through than ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions, and I'm far from finished at this stage.

However, I've been very gratified by the feedback from my proofreaders on the completed chapters so far: plenty of new information that we never knew. It's so easy to lose perspective on of what you're writing, but I'm confident that I'm doing good work and that going the extra mile will be worth it in the end.

Right now, for instance, I'm trying to make sense of the charts used in a number of countries during ABBA's heyday. In the main part of the book, I'm listing the chart positions for the various record releases, but I thought that I should also have an explanation at the start of the book on how those various charts were compiled. It's so easy to say "number one in Sweden" or "UK number one", but what do these chart positions really mean and what are they worth?

Through researching the charts I've also made a startling discovery from the very beginning of ABBA's career, that could very well have affected the future of the group. Intriguing stuff, and all will be revealed in the book. In short, I haven't lost any of my excitement for this book, and discovering new or long-forgotten facts.

Thank you for reading this and thank you for your patience in waiting for ABBA On Record. If you want to support this project, you may pre-order your copy here.