ABBA in Japan

Filmed 17-26 November
Location Tokyo, Japan
Broadcast This was NOT broadcast on TV, but shown in local halls in Japan
Released This show has not been included on any officially released video or DVD **
Notes Documentary following ABBA around Japan at the press conference, radio & TV appearances, scenes at Narita Airport (where they also sing a little traditional song "Ekorren", in rehearsals for the TV special, etc.  It looks like they are filmed at the Ginza Now TV appearance and also during the ABBA Special.

**Thanks to some Japanese fans, it's now clear WHY no-one has a good quality copy of this documentary. Here's the explanation from Japanese fan Reiko:

"During the 1970s before MTV existed, there were not many opportunities to see foreign acts. Of course, there were video tapes to buy, but they were too expensive at that time, about 4 to 5 times more expensive. So, music shops used to rent the "promotion films" (36mm format) from the record companies and then show them to fans at big local halls.  Behind-the-scenes shots during their promotional tour tour in Japan were of great interest for the Japanese fans, so it it assumed that it was made by ABBA's Japanese record company , Discomate.   I saw this film at the city hall, when I was at high school."

"During this period, the film was rented out everywhere in Japan. But, Discomate went bankrupt in the mid 1980's and since then, this film has been forgotten."

"So, the record company made the 36 mm form film for general use and then they also made a copy on a video tape to secure the product."

So it would appear that somewhere along the line, a video copy has found its way into the fan market and been copied and copied - hence the bad quality that most of us have.

  

Duration  
Watch Out For

Agnetha, Benny and Frida caught smoking

Transcript  
Lyrics  
Pictures Click on picture to see a larger (but still dreadful quality!) image:

   

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Credits Thanks to Mayumi Taheri, Jun Seo, Jozsef and Reiko Jesperson.
A million thanks to
Alexandre Carvalho for the better pictures.