A wonderful account (without narration) of ABBA's tour of Japan in March 1980 showing them in between TV shows, press conferences and some of the concert itself - specifically:
- ABBA arriving at New Tokyo International Airport on 9th March 1980 at 4.10pm
- Press conference in the Banqueting Hall of the Hotel New Otani, Tokyo on 10th March
- Record company Discomate's 5th anniversary celebration and party (where ABBA was the special guest and received a commemorative gold disc) held in the banqueting room at the New Otani Hotel. They are seen holding boxes of It was Nihon-Shu (Japanese sake, an alcoholic drink). The girl who gave the flowers to ABBA members was the head of the fan club at that time! The woman next to ABBA was a singer.
- preparing for concerts
- sound rehearsal including behind the scenes
- interviews with all four ABBA members
- arriving at Festival Hall, Osaka on 21st March
- Benny at the Tea House
- Departure by train (Shinkansen from Shin-Osaka Station, train scenes from Osaka to Nagoya including Agnetha picking up a little boy a
- arriving at Aichi Prefecture Gymnasium, Nagoya on 24th March
- gifts from the fans (wearing special Japanese outfits) as featured in magazine article
- ABBA's departure from New Tokyo International Airport 28th March 10.30
pm
Featured songs (all filmed on concerts, but dubbed with studio
recording):
"Voulez-Vous"
"If it Wasn't For the Nights"
"As Good as New" (at last, a performance of this song - shame we can'
hear it properly)
"Not Bad at All" by Tomas Ledin
"Hole in Your Soul"
"Dancing Queen"
"Thank You for the Music" (though no concert footage)
"Waterloo"
"I Have a Dream" (with a Japanese children's choir)
The little song
that Frida continually sings about a squirrel is called "Ekorren" (The
Squirrel). The Swedish generation who grew up in the Fifties would
be most familiar with a recording of "Ekorren" by Alice Babs.
This documentary had been rumoured to exist for many, many years and
only a privileged few had access to it. Apparently one Japanese fan visited the offices of Discomate Records in
1984 (must have been shortly before they went bankrupt) and saw a film
of ABBA's tour in Japan which had different content to the ABBA in Japan
programme. So its existence has been known about for some time.
It was definitely worth the wait.
Seeing ABBA so relaxed is a rare treat. Whilst they had no free time during this trip whatsoever, this documentary shows them as real people, not the strictly-controlled image we usually see. We therefore see more of their individual personalities and see them having fun, being natural, warm and happy - and now we them even more!
Agnetha and Frida dancing closely together on stage and Benny giving his cigar to the airport official at the end because he can't take it on the flight!
Frida punches Björn in the face as they leave the stage at the end of Hole In Your Soul!
Thanks to M and R, Julian Körner, Mayumi Taheri and Jozsef