BBC Radio 4's Front Row programme will tonight feature an interview with Benny and Björn.
UPDATE: Listen now via BBC iPlayer
The programme starts at 19.15. The pre-broadcast information: ABBA's Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, the songwriters of the musicals CHESS and Mamma Mia!, discuss preparations for a one-night-only UK concert performance of their musical Kristina.
Many thanks to Kaarin Goodburn for this brief summary of the interview:
* most great songwriting partnerships known by their surnames, but not Benny and Björn
* reinvented pop music
* a quick burst of Kevin Odekirk's Gold Can Turn to Sand (i.e. in English)
* B&B were both in London earlier today to oversee rehearsals for Kristina at RAH
* Benny got a feel for what the music was between the lines (by reading Kristina)
* Bjorn was gathering ideas for lyrics at the same time
* went for Kristina as it felt right to them, rather than because it was Swedish - it could have been anything
* Bjorn read a lot of books e.g. "Doctor Chicago" (lots of laughs from B&B and the interviewer at that gaffe!!!)
* they didn't worry that the story may not play well commercially given the themes of sorrow, despair, child death, emigration
* Benny said if you focus on Kristina then it's more of a tragedy, but that's not the overall theme
* Russell Watson singing In the Dead of Darkness from Kristina at Carnegie Hall (excerpt)
* interviewer says ABBA songs are rhythm with a sense of melancholy all the way through
* the way of writing (both doing music) changed in 75/76 with Bjorn getting more interested in the lyrical side
* B&B never talked about marital problems with each other - Benny joked about Two For The Price Of One
* TWTIA and WAISAD are purely fiction - if it wasn't it was unintentional
* Bjorn has never said he doesn't like something Benny's written (in relation to BAO/BAB)
* with ABBA they wrote a song at a time then recorded in say batches of 3
* they worked for almost 5 years on Kristina
* You Have to Be There (in English) (Excerpt from Kristina at Carnegie Hall)
* Benny (on hearing ABBA on the radio): it's good fun and something to be proud of
* with Kristina it was a matter of being true to Moberg, his characters and the story
* ever share a stage with the girls again, will ABBA reform? Bjorn: No. Benny: Why do we have to say no to a question all the time? Bjorn: If we say yes but don't mean it then there will be headlines tomorrow
* it's a No then!
* quick mention of the Carnegie Hall CD coming out
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in: Kristina News
