To better set the stage for the following post and associated
videos, the Telegraph had the following story last Wednesday:
Benny Andersson interview for the Benny Andersson band on Hampstead Heath
Reading the article above reminded me of all the
B/W film that I and most other serious ABBA fans
have seen over the years that featured the guys
playing in Skiffle bands, at venues not unlike the
ones described here by Benny in the mid-late
1960's.
"Every town in Sweden used to a have a Volkpark with a stage and a dance floor where in the summer bands would play and people would bring their own booze and dance," says Andersson when we meet in the hotel he owns in Stockholm. "In the Eighties that started to decline, so in 2000 we started to play in Skansen to try and recreate the feeling of those big bands from the forties and the fifties."
This is perhaps the best single example I can think of,
when the music sounds like it was done just right, and
with Helen Sjรถholm, you know the problem will never
be with the singer,
From 0:40 to 0:56 of this Rick Steves video of Skansen,
you can get a sense of the sort of folk dancing I suspect
Benny's talking about.
By the time the interview below with Jonathan Ross
concludes, and you combine it with his insightful
earlier comments in The Telegraph, you really can't
help but come away even more impressed, because
it's clear that Benny's positive attitude is undoubtedly
one of the keys to his continued success and health,
because he seems to keep things in their proper
perspective.
He really enjoys the life he has now, believes the other
three do as well, he has the freedom to write whatever
he wants and has the good sense not to want to turn
his life -and his family's- upside-down:
"To have talent is just luck. But you have to take care of your talent by working.
I try to write music every day. I am not an artist. I don't have that drive or ego to
perform. I just want to write music that other people want to listen to. I want to
have a conversation through the music and for it to be as good and meaningful
as it can be."
Benny's so calm and reassuring that I almost think he could play
a shrink in a Woody Allen comedy.
----------
From BBC One, July 3rd, 2009
For more info on other clips of BBC One programs see:
For more info and prior Jonathan Ross interviews,see
His program started airing on BBC America in mid-June,
and based on the schedules of guests so far -I'm watching
it right now with Dustin Hoffman- it would appear that
they're on in the U.S. roughly 2-3 weeks after they first
appear LIVE on his show in London, since for the first week,
the BBC iPlayer has exclusivity with the video throughout world.
His BBC America webpage is at:
Closing out this post with Molly Sandรฉn singing the
same song from above, Thank You for the Music
from just over three-and-a-half years ago at Skansen
on New Year's Eve.
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