ABBA blog

I really enjoyed the well-produced one-hour programme about Stig Anderson, broadcast on SVT here in Sweden last week. If you haven't watched it yet, at the time of writing there is a version with English subtitles available on YouTube. I think Stig would have been worth at least 90 minutes, but I'm sure the producers were hamstrung by what SVT thought would be a viable film length. If your appetite was whetted, there is a lot about Stig in my forthcoming book ABBA On Record (abbaonrecord.com). More on that below, but first some news about the book itself.

I'm pleased to report that the production files for ABBA On Record have now been submitted to the printers. If nothing goes wrong in the printing and distribution chain, I expect the book to start shipping in mid-March. I can also reveal that ABBA On Record has been extended by eight pages, from the projected 448 pages to 456. More details about the production of the book on the Basic Facts page.

Back to Stig: Writing a book like ABBA On Record, one of the most fascinating aspects was trying to detail Stig Anderson's role in making ABBA a global success. This has been written about before, not least by me, but here I've really tried to study his efforts in-depth, and the actions he took to make everything happen, both before and after Waterloo. Moreover, the book also features an analysis of what kind of manager he was. The term "manager" is in itself meaningless unless you define what it entails in each individual case, and I relished the challenge of figuring out what characterised Stig, the ABBA manager. His presence is, of course, felt throughout the book.

Stig was a complex and controversial character, and in the decades since he passed away, he has somehow largely disappeared from the ABBA story. Speaking for myself, I have always been keen on ensuring that his part of the story is represented well, when I have the power to do so. Because things ended so bitterly between Stig and ABBA, it's also easy to forget that they were once a very close team, so one of the best things when writing about Stig in ABBA On Record, was to be reminded that there was a time when the ABBA members would be happy to point out how important he was to them. How about this 1976 quote from Benny, for instance: “The nicest thing of all was when Stig entered the picture and said, ‘Don’t give up now, keep on writing, because the songs are good’. You get a little doubtful whether the songs really are good when nothing happens with them: you write songs and more songs and they are recorded, and nothing happens with them. […] I believe that was the most important thing for [Björn and I] and for ABBA in general, this encouragement from Stig.”

Learn more about ABBA On Record and pre-order your copy at abbaonrecord.com.