Hi, just wanted to share my view on the 1979 Rotterdam (Netherlands) concert by ABBA on october 24. I received my ticket as a birtdaygift by my parents and has been the best gift ever untill now.

It all started getting crazy when I saw reviews and pics from the Canadian and USA concerts in pop magazines. I was sooooo desparate, as untill then i still didn't have succeeded in getting a ticket. My parents drove me mad by saying that there were more important things than a concert by ABBA. But they had the ticket already without telling me!!!! When the Stockholm concert had been reviewed in a paper I tried everything to get a ticket. Seeing my absolute madness they decided to tell me what they had in mind for me.... What a lucky day it was!!!  Meanwhile with some friends I was busy trying to find out where ABBA would arrive (airport) and stay (hotel). Well, that same paper told me the next day that ABBA was going to arrive from France in a private plane on october 24 at Rotterdam Airport at 2.00 Pm but they arrived at 2.45 PM. I promised my parents to stay at school, as they
had noticed my activities to go to the airport. As a gift my mum spent 2 hours on the balcony to take a pic from the plane crossing over our appartment. They didn't know I had one my friends posted on the airport. Two black limo's were waiting for ABBA. When the aircraft had landed (a white Misere from Air Marine), first Benny came out, followed by Agnetha, Frida and Bjorn. They looked very tired. They posed in order to give the fans a chance to take some pices a few minutes in front of the airplane, and then made their way to the cars. Around 3 o'clock they arrived at Hilton Rotterdam, where another friend of me was posted. Bjorn first went in the
Hotel's Lobby, followed by the others and ABBA were welcomed by fans and the dutch fanclub. Gorel followed shortly afterwards and within 3 minutes the group dissapeared in the elevator to the 10th floor. At 5.30 PM Agnetha was the first one to come down again and made her way, followed by Bjorn, to the car. They didn't give 1 signature away! After 3 minutes the other ABBA couple went to their car. They also drove straight to Ahoy, were the concert would be held.

Exactly at 8.00 PM the concert started. Before that I was completely in trance by that mysterious blue curtain around the stage. All of a sudden the lights dimmed and we only heard Benny's synthesizer playing the well known intro. Then the lights flashed on and the curtains opened. I still remember the public going wild, while agnetha + frida were standing still. Soon Voulez-Vous started and we all went mad! Although the voices needed a warming up, it was a exciting beginning.  Bjorn welcomed us with HELLO
ROTTERDAM and then the rest of the show followed.

SONGS:
If it wasn't for the nights
Asd good as new
knowing me
rock me
not bad at all
chiquitita
money
i have a dream
gimme gimme
sos
fernando
name of the game
eagle
why did it have to be me
intermezzo no. 1
i'm still alive
summer night city
take a chance on me
does your mother know
hole in your soul
the way old friends do
dancing queen
waterloo

With "i have a dream" a dutch childrens choir came on stage, but sang a bit out of tune. But all the lighters in the air made it like a fairytale. Eagle had Lasse's great guitar solo and Frida wore a Feyenoord shirt (rotterdam Soccer club) at Why did it have to be me. Benny did some workout during Take a chance on me (very funny!!). After they sang Dancing Queen and did the instrumental outro they dissapeared, leaving us shouting for more. That kept on for about 5 minutes. the curtains were still open, so we knew there was
more to come. Finally ABBA came back and when Bjorn grab the mic, he couldn't make himself heard!! When we went quiet he spoke the historical words "DO YOU WANNA HEAR AN OLDIE?" and the rest you know: WATERLOO!!! We all went mad and danced and jumped and sang and no one sat down anymore! The lucky ones in front of the stage ran forwards and one lucky bastard
(sorry!!) was able to grab Frida's towel she threw into the public. (Who got it????) After Waterloo they kept on bowing, waving, jumping upo and down and while playing the instrumental of Dancing queen again -after the extended Waterloo) the curtains closed. What an experience that had been! I bought the concert book and a large VOULEZ VOUS poster afterwards and went home. Some were lucky to meet and greet Bjorn and Benny at the After party. Agnetha + Frida were at the hotel in bed already. Also Bjorn, Benny and Gorel were presented a large painting by the Yugoslavian painter (living in Holland) Paic Cedo. The party lasted not very long: a small press conference, some pics with contest winners and a drink and quickly after that B, B and G were gone. The next day they flew to Germany to complete the rest of the tour.

It was my greatest experience untill now in CONCERT LAND and I stil recall the best moments. I know lots of others have once met ABBA personal or in concert and i am curious about what they felt and thought about their meeting with ABBA. Mine was Absolutely Fabulous!!!

See that girl, watch that scene.........
 

Mike A. Aarts, Schiedam, Netherlands.
(published on ABBAMAIL, 7 November 2000)

**************************

I saw them in Rotterdam in 1979. I have only a few clear recollections of the event, mainly that a friend of mine drove me and a girlfriend in an old Volkswagen Beetle and we were sitting on the backseat which a Beetle doesn`t really have. I remember the concert was great but we had just about the worst seats, it was actually standing room for the vendors so we really had to look hard to recognize Abba from that distance and every time a famous song came up (in other word just about every song) everybody with good seats stood up and held up their banners blocking our view. No big screens back then but still it was a great experience. It was my second concert in my whole life after seeing Blondie in my hometown but it was totally awesome.

Posted on www.abbasite.com on May 27, 2004

******************


I not only went to their concert; I ACTUALLY SANG WITH THEM ON STAGE! I was singing in a children`s choir in Rotterdam at that time and one day we were asked to perform I Have A Dream with ABBA in the Ahoy` venue in Rotterdam on October 24 1979. I already was a big ABBA fan at the age of 11 so you can imagine the incredible happiness I felt when this news was brought to us.
I remember every single second of that evening. Björn coming to our dressing room (wearing an outrageous pink outfit, which was NOT his stage outfit) to go through the schedule of that evening and wishing us luck. The rehearsals with Björn and the band were great. It was so nice that Björn accompanied us through all preparations. They might as well have put a tour manager on the job. Before we went on stage to rehearse, Agnetha and Frida were rehearsing If It Wasn`t For The Nights. I remember my blood ran cold when I saw them in the flesh (without any makeup on...). I also remember Agnetha having a quarrel with the band. Of course I didn`t understand what the fuzz was about because they were talking in swedish. We were allowed to watch the whole concert from the cycle track of the Ahoy` hall (where no peolpe were allowed), actually the best `seats` of the whole venue! One song before I Have A Dream we were brought backstage to get ready for our performance. During the bridge of I Have A Dream we were led to our places by some crew members in complete darkness. Performing on stage with ABBA was a dream. You could not really see the 10.000 people in the audience because the stage lights were really blinding us. I was standing close to Frida and was forcing myself not to look at her constantly. We actually had to sing an encore, because the crowd had gone mad with enthousiasm. You know that originally our choir was asked to study I Have A Dream as well as Thank You For The Music, because initially Abba was intending to perform TYFTM with a childrens choir as well. It was only until that evening that we heard we only had to perform I Have A Dream.
After the concert I made it into their dressing room with a few of my fellow choir members. Four little kids were no threat to the security people blocking their dressing room. Arguably I am the only fan who has been kissed on both cheeks simultaneously by Frida and Agnetha (still in their stage outfits!). I never washed my cheeks ever since. I remember they were sweating like crazy. Juicy detail: Frida smelled like booze. Maybe she had had one too many the night before and was sweating it all out when she kissed me. However she`s still my all time favourite! I have all four of their autographs with a personal thank you on a Voulez-Vous postcard. I`m very ashamed to say, but I`m not really sure where I have that postcard now. I really need to look for it one of these days ...
Yes fellow site members: be jealous. BE VERY JEALOUS ...

Posted on www.abbasite.com on May 28, 2004

 

Enter your search terms Submit search form   Web www.ABBAannual.com