This is a tale of woe, so please have some hankies at the ready.
It's 1976, and it's just been announced that
ABBA are coming to perform at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne the following March. My 7-year-old self is excited beyond compare. It's all me and my schoolfriends have been discussing for months.
Only, there is something to burst my bubble and steal my joy.
My father.
He informed me that the seats had sold out in minutes, and although 'I don't care if we have to pay fifty dollars for seats there's no way we're sitting on the grass!'
Me, I couldn't care if you stuck me in a barrel of warm shit up to my neck, I just want to see ABBA.
Anyway, I never did get to see them.
Almost everybody I've ever met, both previously and since, did.
Including my entire Grade 2 class.
Bitter, much?
You betcha...
:-( my condolences...I did see them. I was 12, and I sat on the grass. To be honest I don't remember much about the concert, just little bits and pieces. I remember much more about seeing the day before at the Melbourne Town Hall. I remember that like it was yesterday because I was mere feet away from them when they arrived...and even when they were waving from the balcony I was still much closer to them than I was at the concert the following day. That being said, if I hadn't seen that concert I would still be in therapy to this day. If I couldn't say "I went to an ABBA concert", I would be utterly devastated. We all thought they would come back...but they never did :( At least there is ABBA-The Movie which captured the Australian tour in a beautiful way. The concert footage from that film still looks utterly amazing and, in my opinion, is the best concert footage *ever* filmed...of anyone...ever...in the history of time. Thank you Lasse Hallstrom :)
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