The catalogue marketing for ABBA, beginning in earnest with 1992’s ABBA Gold compilation album (which has been on the UK charts for over 1,100 weeks), has raised the bar so ridiculously high that even huge acts like The Beatles and Queen must operate in its shadow.
It has involved a series of carefully plotted peaks, notably the Mamma Mia! musical (starting in 1999), two Mamma Mia! films (2008 and 2018), the opening of the ABBA Museum in Stockholm in 2013 and the launch last year of the ABBA Voyage virtual concert.
Working it more like frontline rather than deep catalogue, the pace has never really let up.
The latest push is for the cinema re-release of ABBA: The Movie. It does not matter that the movie is, as Cahiers du Cinéma might describe it, “patchy” and “very much of its time”; it is yet more ABBA content and a time capsule curio of 1977 when it was originally released.
There is a promise of “extremely rare footage from the 1977 tour” with the reissue and remaster of the film, but the main marketing focus is a two-day fan event screening on 17th and 19th September. These are, apparently, the only two days the film will be on the big screen.
The film follows the band on their Australian tour and has some incredible live footage and plenty of coverage of the hysteria around their arrival in the country. It also weaves in a ludicrous (fictional) subplot about a local DJ trying to track them down for an interview. That bit is not great. No matter.
“Brace yourself for a cinematic experience that combines backstage secrets, unforgettable live performances, and a glimpse into the lives of these musical icons at the pinnacle of their fame,” screams the press release.
The band put out the Voyage album in late 2021 (their first new music in 40 years), primarily to set up the Voyage show, but have repeatedly insisted there will be no reunion tour or even one-off shows. Of course, they have the incredible luxury of not needing the money (and this automatically erases the risk of it being underwhelming); so “ABBAtars” and now the reissue of a semi-concert film is all the fans are going to get.
The band’s legacy has always been pushed by the power of the music and, as such, it keeps connecting with younger audiences. Inevitably, the film is also an opportunity to cross-promote the ABBA Voyage show in London, which marked its first anniversary in May this year.
Legacies are never a given and ABBA are the textbook example of how to keep wheels spinning and getting bigger without going down the obvious routes to inevitably diminishing returns.
