[image]
[title]‘I don’t wanna talk…’
It’s late on a Saturday night – Sunday morning, technically – and the melodic twang and muffled lyrics of ‘The Winner Takes It All’ have drifted through the walls of a nightclub bathroom. Within the cubicles, Abba’s 1980 heartbreak anthem awakens something. ‘It’s my favourite one! I need to run out, I’m peeing!’ yells a woman decked out in sequins as she shoves the door open and scrambles to wash her hands. Around her, drunken girls scream the lyrics in each other’s faces and laddish groups sway with their fingers locked in each other’s hair. Who, but Abba, could evoke such a response?
Fifty years have passed since Benny, Björn, Agnetha and Anna-Frid won Eurovision and Abba-mania is on the rise once again. DesignMyNight, the nightlife discovery website, has a whole page dedicated to Abba-themed events, with head of brand Katie Kirwan telling me interest in Abba events rose 153 percent year on year in 2023. That’s why I’m spending my Saturday at Club de Fromage’s ‘Abba special’, one of the numerous parties themed around the Swedish supergroup that is sweeping the country to sold-out crowds.
When I tell friends where I’m going, they all have the same reaction: ‘Abba are really ‘in’ right now, aren’t they?’ But were they ever out? We’re talking about one of the most popular bands of all time in Europe, with a staggering 30 million monthly listeners on Spotify. The 2021 arrival of Abba Voyage, their impressive-slash-terrifying-depending-on-your-world-view hologram show, and a new album of the same name, have only added to the hype.
Abba Voyage, staged at a purpose-built arena in east London, is on the official side of the Abba industry, alongside immersive dining experience ‘Mamma Mia! The Party’. But in parallel, a whole ‘unofficial’ Abba economy has emerged. UK nightlife is still reeling from the impact of Covid, with people going out less and more than a third of nightclubs having closed since June 2020. Yet despite these depressing stats, Abba events are booming, and it’s not just clubs getting in on it. There are bingo nights, bottomless brunches and boat parties, all themed around the Scandi four-piece. The cost of a night out, like everything else, is on the rise, and people are being pickier. For many, the choice is simple: spend the evening pretending to enjoy drum and bass or singing your heart out to Abba? They’re going with the latter.
Since the group split in 1982, a sporadic trickle of Abba-themed material has kept interest alive: Abba Gold in 1992, ‘Mamma Mia!’ (the stage musical) in 1999, the film in 2008 and its sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again in 2018. At every age, you’ll find people who grew up on Abba and want to pass the magic on (I was given Abba Gold for my second birthday by a godparent with impeccable taste).
There’s a comfort in booking tickets when you already know the songs are going to be bangers
Even those who think Abba are a bit naff have a nostalgic association that pushes them into guilty-pleasure territory. Whether it’s hen nights belting out ‘Chiquitita’ at karaoke or techno DJs ironically dropping ‘Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!’ mid-set, Abba unites fans by giving them permission to embrace the cringe.
Still, it’s the songs that bring people back; a hefty back catalogue of bops, exploring timeless topics of love, longing and Napoleon’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. You know what to expect at an Abba club night – big emotions and even bigger flares – and there’s comfort in booking tickets for something when you already know the songs are all going to be bangers.
My first ever Abba club night, at Manchester’s legendary Deaf Institute in 2018, was a purist affair, with a strict Abba-only playlist whose lesser-known B-sides were met with muted response. It didn’t matter. The crowd loved the novelty and we laughed and screamed and held each other. Like Fernando himself, I was called by the drums again years later in London. This time, the venue was the sprawling Electric Brixton for a night more Abba-themed than Abba-exclusive. Sister Sledge and Donna Summer played alongside Queen and Fleetwood Mac; Abba used as code for anything retro for the partying attendees.
Now, I’m back for another Abba night, and try to bat away my scepticism towards the band’s resurgence in popularity. On stage, dancers dressed as old women (don’t ask me why) groove and the crowd can’t get enough. The fresher’s night aesthetic is somewhat at odds with the demographics attending, who are far more varied in age. Sure, there are groups of lads-lads-lads and drunk girls in the loo giving each other pep talks, but the vomit and necking off with strangers are kept to a minimum. The overwhelming feeling is one of camaraderieship; even in moments of musical melancholy (‘SOS’, ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You’), joy pervades. After all, making heartbreak sound sweet is what Abba does best.
Ryan Storey, whose company Wonderland Events holds Abba nights across the country, put on his first Abba party at a Bristol student night in 2018. At first, his team were a little apprehensive – were 19-year-olds even that into Abba? – but Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again had hit cinemas that summer, and they needn’t have worried. ‘We honestly couldn't believe the reaction to it,’ Storey says. ‘I've never seen people go so crazy for music that they weren't alive for.’
Within three weeks, Storey was staging a tour of Abba Disco Wonderland parties across the country. Soon, they were expanding into bigger venues, such as SWG3 in Glasgow, and found that the punters were no longer all young and sweet, only 17. Guests in their mid-forties were dancing alongside 20-somethings. Many older guests told him they’d usually be ‘off-put’ by club nights, but ‘that just wasn't the case here at all’.
It’s hard to think of many acts that have enough of a catalogue to carry a whole club night
It’s a similar environment described by partiers at London’s popular Taylor Swift-themed club night Swiftogeddon, which declares itself an event for ‘fans to come together and worship at the altar’ of the singer. It’s hard to think of many acts other than Abba or Taylor that elicit such a response, while having enough of a catalogue to carry a whole club night.
On the dance floor at Club de Fromage, I get chatting to Levy, 29. ‘I was expecting more Abba,’ he admits, when the DJ oh-so-smoothly segues from ‘Angel Eyes’ into Robbie Williams’ ‘Angels’. One Direction, Bieber and the ‘YMCA’ are interspersed among the Abba hits and the crowd don’t seem to mind. Most DJs would struggle to sustain an audience for four hours on Abba alone – during my first night in Manchester, ‘Dancing Queen’ was played three times. At Abba Disco Wonderland, High School Musical always makes an appearance. ‘It’s about giving people exactly what they want,’ Storey says. ‘For the night, people can sing, dance with their friends. In the classic cliche way, dance like no one’s watching.’
Slightly surprising, perhaps, is the lack of fancy dress at this event. I get chatting to Harriet and Fern, both 28. In floral flares and matching tops, they’re the rare few to opt for a seventies vibe. ‘We thought more people would be dressed up,’ Fern tells me – when they went to Abba bingo, they were the only ones not in full-blown costume. At activity events like bingo or brunch, people tend to go all out, and the crowd is even more varied.
‘We get 18 to 65 year olds coming, and they all just want a fun space that’s something different,’ Storey says of his own Abba bingo nights. Last year, Wonderland Events started running Abba boat parties on the Thames, which naturally took off on TikTok (many of this year’s events, which kick off in May, have already sold out). There’s a scene in the ‘Mamma Mia!’ sequel where a boat helmed by Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard arrives on the island, with the partiers on board joyfully performing a tightly choreographed rendition of ‘Dancing Queen’. The boat parties are a bit that; the water’s just a lot less blue and passersby on dry land are more likely to give you the finger than join in.
It’s easy to treat these Abba events with such an eye roll – until you step inside one yourself. The truth is, there’s something undeniably special about the group’s ability to unite different generations and genders. As confetti rains down on the glowstick-clutching crowds at Club de Fromage, all cynicism melts away. A piano tinkles and out blare the words: ‘I'm nothing special, in fact I’m a bit of a bore’. I slip into the crowd, joining the partiers in prayer to thank Abba for the music.