Rundt om Skoller = Around Skoller

Rundt om Skoller was a 4-part, weekly series which was broadcast from 4 to 25 September 1982 on Saturdays evenings on DR, hosted by Danish/American entertainer, Eddie Skoller.

Guests over the 4 weeks were Chattanooga (singer trio), Niels Hausgaard, Barbara Dickson, Bodil Udsen, Frida, Rolv Wesenlund, Knud Kristensen, Henrik Koefoed (comedy skech), Birgit Nilsson, Anne Linnet Band, Wenche Myhre, Ghita Nørby, Povel Ramel and Tomas Ledin. The other world-famous superstar of this mini-series was Cliff Richard, just like on Mies on 2 October 1982.

Programme running order:

1. Frida - I Know There's Something Going On.
2. Frida interview with Eddie Skoller (who was married to Norwegian singer Sissel Kyrkjebø who has performed in Chess In Concert) in which she talks about being famous and being recognised everywhere.
3. Rolv Wesenlund - interview and Sweden, Sweden
4. Knud Kristensen (Danish musical writer and folk-singer - also known as Sebastian) – interview and Rue Fontaine
5. Chat with Rolv Wesenlund and Johannes Møllehave (Danish priest, author and lecturer)
6. Eddie - Jeg holder med Kina (I Like Chinese, the Monty Python song). Frida sang backing vocals with Marve (Rolv), with both dressed like a Chinaman in overalls and she moved about "like" a Chinese workman too!
7. Rolv Wesenlund - Underbart är kort
8. Frida - Baby Don't You Cry No More in a white lacy dress with Eddie and a Norwegian comedian Marve Fleksnes (real name Rolv Wesenlund, mainly known as "Fleksnes") doing backing vocals for her.
9. Frida & Sebastian - Sangen om langfart (Song About a Long Voyage) . Frida sang the Swedish part and Sebastian sang the Danish part. The chorus was in Danish and sung by both Frida and  Sebastian. Frida had trouble remembering the lyrics so looked to Sebastian for help. Apparently the lyrics are a bit cryptic and implied and you really need to be Scandinavian to understand them although even so, Scandinavian's find Sebastian's lyrics a bit strange anyway!
10. Eddie Skoller - closing song Stille, hjerte, sol går ned.

Eddie Skoller died on 27 August 2023.

Broadcast information:
Saturday 18 September 1982, 20:20-21:25, DR, Denmark
Saturday 29 April 2017, 16:30-17:45, DR, Denmark

1. Frida fluffs the line in the second verse at, "I know what you think and what's in your mind"
2. When Eddie was nervous, Frida took his arm during the interview

Eddie Skoller: Welcome Frida!
Frida: Thank you (waiting) Eddie he, he!.

Eddie: Yeah, how does it feel to be solo?

Frida: It feels very nice to be solo, it's different! But I have to say ABBA isn’t finished, because of that.

Eddie: ABBA will continue.

Frida: ABBA will continue, yes.

Eddie: But you are kind of a free woman in this way.

Frida: In this way yeah. I think that it’s nice to try something different. I think at the same time that, even though we work as individuals (solo) outside the group, in a way we can give some positive to the group.

Eddie: That’s for sure.

Frida: Mmm (Yes)

Eddie: But the group will continue as a group and are the others in the group also going to make a solo LP, is there any plans about that?

Frida: Yes, Agnetha is releasing a solo LP, in the beginning of next year and Benny and Björn are of course writing on new material for ABBA. It takes a little while.

Eddie: Eh how, I would like to know when you are sitting beside a person who’s world famous. (Frida making a funny face – after that giggle). How ehh if, if, if.

Frida: Keep your nerves down (giggles)

Eddie: Okay he he! Would you when you think about eh, what the enormous fame has done, would you do it all over again?

Frida: (Thinking) Yes, I don’t regret anything. I think, all the positive things, has been some of the things which was negative and to be in this ‘business’ is something which is fantastic and I would very much like to make it happen all over again. I should actually do it all over again, in my next life. (nodding). No I don’t regret anything.

Eddie: But now you are as a Swede, you could say, that you can still buy stuff in the supermarket, without any need for a stand-n. If you had been American, then you probably would have had to have another life. Right?

Frida: Eh, I buy stuff at the supermarket, exactly like any other person and it has never been a problem and also I live in Stockholm, and there people have known us for many years. I’ve lived there almost all my life, so people don’t see you as a star, the same way as they do when you go to, for example, England or Germany.

Eddie: You have children (smiling).

Frida: I have children yes! I have two (looking very happy), a son who’s 19 years old and a daughter who’s 15.

Eddie: And who is.. The girl, it’s a 15 year old girl.

Frida:Yes that’s right.

Eddie: Whom is her idols?

Frida: Mmm, I don’t know if I can say it, please don’t tell her that I told you he he!

Eddie: Okay

Frida: She likes Donna Summer very much, she is one of her favourites. But she has a very wide taste in music, she likes other kinds also.
Eddie: Now when you are going to have a solo career and at the same time be in the group and all the work that there is in the group. Then it must take even more of your time, that means that you, eh, you have a very little time for the family.
Frida: No, it isn’t so hard, because I can plan it in a good way, so the work and the family can sort of work together and also, my children are so big now, so they don’t need as much attention as they did a few years ago. And ABBA mostly work in the studio and the time that is left I can give out to my solo work and my family, without anybody getting hurt.

Eddie: Originally you are Norwegian.

Frida: Yes I’m born in Norway.

Eddie: And for how long did you live in Norway?

Frida: For two years, ha ha!

Eddie:Oh well that’s not so long.

Frida: No it’s not so long.

Eddie: But eh we are gonna, our next guest is actually from Norwegian.

Frida: Yes

Eddie: And eh, now look here, it is his birthday today.

Frida: Norway’s flag, oh.

Eddie: I think that we should eh, we should celebrate him, with welcoming him, with a..

Frida: It’s little (Pointing at the flag)

Eddie: Yes I have a little one, it’s because I’m not as famous as you are.

(The audience and Frida are laughing)

Frida: And I’m also born in Norway hehe.

Eddie: But eh, I think that we should welcome Rolv Wesenlund. Happy birthday..
Eddie, Frida and the audience: ..To you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Rolv, happy birthday to you.
Rolv Wesenlund: Hello (To Frida – Plus kissing her hand)

Frida: Grattis (Congratulations – Happy birthday)

Rolv: Thank you.

Frida: Do you want it? (The flag)

Rolv: Oh.
Frida: There hi hi
Eddie: There you are (Giving Rolv a little microphone)
Frida: You can’t talk until you put it he he!
Eddie: I know that you people in Norway, are used to have the microphones in the flowers.
Rolv: Are they there? (Pointing to the flowers) Good evening! Good evening! (giggles). In the old days it was like that, that they hid the microphones in the flowers and then when you had to say: “I love you”, then you had to pull your body a little to the right, like this..
Frida: (giggles)
Rolv: And then you had to do it like this: “Jeg elsker dig” (I love you).. Haha, it’s better now! Yes.
Eddie: Yes, but eh. Welcome Rolv.
Rolv: Thank you.
Eddie: We just had the opportunity to see on Danish TV a documentary about Norway, where they also talked about the Norwegian humour. Is Norwegian humour more different to the Danish and Swedish?
Rolv: Ehm, of course the nation has it’s different ways. But I think there is bigger difference between a big town and a country, than for example Oslo and Copenhagen. The town has it’s way of being and a long stretch land like Norway can be divided up in 2-3 humour places. And I guess that’s the same in Denmark and Sweden?
Frida: Yes
Eddie: I was thinking if you go to Stockholm or Copenhagen and perform, is there then a little difference between the audience?
Rolv: No, actually not except that the Swedes can’t understand Norwegian (Looking at Frida)
Frida: (Hitting him gently with her elbow)
Rolv: You are on your mother country basis.
Frida: Yes in a way.
Rolv: So, there is language problems we have to put subtitles on each others (For example on TV). It’s a shame, but we have to live with it.
Frida: Do you think? 
Rolv: Yes it’s a shame. You don’t go on stage and tell a joke, a joke (Saying what it’s called in Norwegian and Swedish).
Frida: Yes.
Rolv: What is it called in Danish?
Eddie: En vittighed (A joke)
Rolv: Yes it’s also called that in Norwegian. There is only 200 words, that’s different in Danish and Norwegian.
Frida: Is it so?
Rolv: Yes, you don’t go on stage and tell something to an audience, who doesn’t have a chance to understand what you are saying. So you choose to translate it. Is this subtitled?
Eddie: Yes it’s sub-titled
Rolv: Yes, that’s good!
(Frida and the audience laughing)
Eddie: So you mean, if you translate it, some of the fun (or the important things in the telling) goes away!?
Rolv: Yes
Eddie: That’s for sure.
Rolv: Many only know their mother language and that makes it “basic” understandable outside (In other countries). Did you ever try to tell a Danish joke in English? Then you begin like this: “have you heard about…? Oh you see we have a special thing in Denmark that..”. There you lost everything on the floor.
(Frida and the audience laughing)
Eddie: You have a special relationship to the Swedes, you could say, though you can see it more on the football stadium, should we say eh, yeah.
Rolv: Yes
Eddie: But I know that there’s a little between Norway and Sweden etc.
Rolv: Well, first of all we don’t have a long gathered history with Sweden. We had a Union, which lasted from 1814 to 1905, where we took the Danish king. First the offer was sent too a house in Bernadotte, in Sweden. But they never answered. So it ended up.. (giggles). No but we have a short history, the Union ended, with peace, in a way. But it almost ended up with civil war. It is like that when two nations go up against each other. My grandfather was border security - and was ready to shoot the Swedes. Now we write 1982 and many things have happened since. Hehe, but now we still have some kind of border unfriendliness (?), it’s the same as the one between Århus and Copenhagen. That we have on Swedish and Norwegian basis. In Sweden you tell Norwegian-jokes (stories) and in Norway you tell Sweden-jokes (stories). So it is a competition where you tell stupid “the others” are and because of that there is a “hate-song” which was made about Norway. It was called: “Norge, Norge (Norway, Norway)”. And it told bad things about all and everything that was Norwegian. Many Norwegians got mad about that song and we of course couldn’t, let it be “unanswered”. I really want to sing that song now, it’s called: “Sverige, Sverige (Sweden, Sweden)”, if it’s okay!? (Asking Frida). You have to be neutral (You have to be somewhere in the middle), little Hammarskjöldsk, yes, okay?
Frida: Ja
Eddie: Here comes Rolv Wesenlund with: Sverige, Sverige (Sweden, Sweden).

Rolv Wesenlund singing:

(Translation of the song)

Sverige, Sverige (Sweden, Sweden)

Hello Swedish brother,
You’re not very sweet.
Not even to your mother,
No you are not shy.
No we aren’t sweet either,
Now listen to me, who do
You think is the worst of us.

Sweden, Sweden
You are a big shit, Sweden,
Sweden, I say it out loud.
Swedes, Swedes, you
Speak bad Norwegian, when
You try you look like a torsk (That’s a fish)
And it sounds like Gothenburg’s (That words is a made up word)

Yeah Swedes are fantastic,
So big and yet so small, they
Avoid all the violent, we
Norwegians, jump on. They
Haven’t got oil, but they have
A strong selfishness and they
Have a jealousy which goes up

To here. Sweden, Sweden, you
Are a super country, Sweden,
Sweden, you take everything
you can. Swedes, Swedes, they
have a complex Mother Sveas son,
a product of itchy and pretty, it’s
a country which says sex.

Talking: It’s true that the Swedes,
Don’t understand Norwegian and
Not even do they speak bad Norwegian,
But also bad English, for example Tom
Jonas, Stockholm upen (?). And then the
Swedish flag. It’s totally wrong, the
yellow and blue against the blue sky
it must get invincible, and it does.

(Singing again)
I’m so happy that I’m Norwegian,
They don’t have anything to give,
The blue and yellow crowd. When
They get beaten up by Råsunda,
Does Svensson a chock. He is a bad
Looser and losing he don’t like. He is
A good man for the Russians who,

Sees red all the time. We are a little
Sad on your behalf. Sweden, Sweden,
How’s it gonna go with you. Swedes,
Swedes, don’t take it in such a bad way,
That you are and where, a nation of old
People, while you’re Nabors are young.
Sweden, what is your crown (The money)

Worth. It comes from my breast, a happy chorus.

(The instrumental from the Swedish anthem is played – some of the words in the lyrics is changed though!!)

You old, you naughty, (Frida stands up, because it’s the Swedish anthem’ instrumental)
You loud speaking north.
No I wanna live I wanna die in Norway.

Rolv: Yeah that’s how neighbours ship can be.
Eddie: Yeah Rolv, I would like to hear, how is it to be almost identified with a person like flexness?

Rolv: Ehm, yes, that is a media-question, because in Denmark I’ve only made Flexness and Leopold in ‘Sommer I Tyrol’ (Summer in Tyrol – Which is an old Danish film and play). But in my home country I’ve performed for 25 years, in different roles, so that’s okay. – It could be an opening for something else.
Frida: How is it always to be Flexness always?
Rolv: How is it always to be an ABBA?

Frida: Haha you ask.

Rolv: You also go into another role sometimes. But I don’t complain. I wouldn’t choose anything else if I could do it all over again and too separate work with private life is not so hard.

Frida: No it is others who can make it difficult. The media for example.

Rolv: Yes, if people think that by doing like this, you can start to perform. Together with your children and family. Maybe you are at Christmas shopping with your family and then it sounds like this: “Make something funny!”. You don’t do that..! It doesn’t work that way.

Frida: (giggles)

Rolv: Last summer I did something I haven’t done in 25 years (laughs). I hit a person! Like this haha (Showing his hand). He got two chances and he was big. I could have handled it, and I got surprised.- So I said: “One more time and you go out like a light (laughs)”, he came and talked while we where eating. He was drunk, so he was easy to hit (talking in a “Drunk way”)
(Audience and Rolv laughing)

Frida: Yes it is a problem that you run into a lot, when you sit on a restaurant and enjoy a good dinner, it’s a little late and after a while some none orange free people (people who are rood – drunk), what to come in contact with you oohhh..

Frida: But I’ve never hit anyone..

Rolv: No.

Frida: Maybe I should do that (Laughs)

Eddie: Hehe, but now…. 


Thank you to Sandy Dencker for the translation

Jeg holder med Kina

Verden i dag er ved at gå helt agurk.
Jeg ved, at det også bekymrer jer.
Men det er ikke altid, man ved,
hvem man skal holde med.

Derfor siger jeg, mens tid er:
Jeg holder med Kina.
Kina skal man ikke grin' a'.
Glem både Moskva og Washington.
Nu bliver det Peking, det handler om.

Jeg holder med Kina.
Kina skal man ikke grin' a'.
inesere er ikke store, næ, næ, næ.
De fleste går cirka til mine knæ.

Kinesere i Kina går det 13 på et dusin a'.
Det bliver ikke det rene fis
med tri smi kinisiri på hijbri plids.
Der bliver fler' og fler'.
Snart en milliard eller mer'.

Ligegyldig hvor man ser.
De smiler og bukker og nikker og ler.
Jeg holder med Kina.
Det gør min nabo også ved si'n a'.

Kina kan vi sige mange, mange tak
for Mao, tao, pingpong og skak.
Danske piger er duller.
Nej, gi' mig forårsruller.

Dertil spiser jeg en skål med kinakål.
Og med kinasko fra Hongkong med gummisål.
Min hund er pekingeser.
Min kat er siameser.

Og i parentes er de sågar
begyndt at gå til selvforsvar.
Jeg holder med Kina.
Kina skal man aldrig grin' a'.

Bare vent og se, de er på vej.
Altid venlige og siger aldrig nej.
Wao aj tjungalang.
Wao aj tjungalang.
Wao aj tjungalang.
Ni hama, ni hama, ni hama daijing.

Wao aj tjungalang.
Wao aj tjungalang.
Wao aj tjungalang.
Ni hama, ni hama, ni hama daijing.

Thanks to Remko Van Drongelen, Philip Muytjens, Paul Russell, Jan Bach, Carvalho, Jun Seo, Jozsef, Steen Pedersen, Even Steinar Ormbostad, Ian Cole and Filip B Jensen for information. HUGE thanks to Sandy Dencker for the translation
Extra thanks to www.dr.dk 
YouTube link c/o Brightnights1