In the late seventies, during the Swedish pop group ABBA's tour of
Australia, a movie was made covering some of their live performances.
(Almost like the kind of thing you would nowadays find as bonus
material on a DVD.)

Experiencing this in a state-of-the-art movie theatre represented the
'ultimate' in playback of recorded music at the time. Many ABBA fans
(myself included!) tried to re-create the experience at home with the
8 or 16mm rented movie version - with varying degrees of success, I
might add.

I'm sure that with modern home theatre equipment, the task would be
much simpler - if only I could source the original movie in a suitable
format. Unfortunately I have not been able to find this movie in ANY
format whatsoever.

My own searches so far have convinced me that if this movie is still
commercially available today, it certainly isn't easy to find. I'm
willing to spend some money to get a copy of the material in any
format that could still reasonably be reproduced today. So a
successfull result of this research would include a source (supplier)
of the movie as well as a source (supplier) of the equipment that
would be required to screen the movie.

I'm planning a 40-something re-union with a couple of friends. All of
them saw (and loved) the original ABBA movie, but no-one has seen it
in the last 15 to 20 years.

Please note: Although I would be very happy to find something as
'low-fi' as a VHS (or even Betamax!)version of the movie, the actual
objective is to find at least a stereo soundtrack.

---

Request for Question Clarification by rainbow-ga on 09 Sep 2004 12:41 PDT

Hi flaub,

This information may interest you:

http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Studio/5073/movie/video.htm

I have located the movie in VHS Pal format (UK VHS 1982 edition) for
auction, with 5 days left. The current bid is £16.00.  Would this
interest you?

Best regards,
Rainbow

Dear flaub,

As my research revealed, the original live soundtrack to "Abba - The
Movie" has never been released as an official LP or CD so far. Neither
has the movie itself seen release on DVD so far (this is scheduled for
2005) or been released in NTSC format on video in the USA.

There have been bootleg releases of both the soundtrack on CD and the
movie on VHS and DVD; however, those unauthorized releases are of
course illegal. Google Answers Researchers are forbidden to provide
information connected with illegal activities, but I am sure that you
did not want a copy of the movie or the soundtrack from a questionable
source anyway.

So any answer ponting to a source for a legitimate copy of "Abba - The
Movie" would alway lead to a VHS in European PAL format. This minor
inconvenience is, alas, unavoidable unavoidable if you desire to get a
copy of the movie.

The VHS of "Abba - The Movie" is currently not in production. But I
have found a total of five copies (new and used) for sale from private
individuals at Amazon UK and Amazon Germany:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/detail/offer-listing/-/B00004CI08/all/ref=olp_tab_all/202-2298174-9306227

http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/tg/detail/offer-listing/-/B00004CI08/all/ref%3Dolp_tab_all/028-3489347-0725323

Regarding the unfavorable circumstances, this is most likely the best
option that is currently available. I really hope that it will be
useful for you.

Best regards,
Scriptor

G'day Flaub


It looks like Screensound Australia may have a film (not VHS) print of
Abba - the Movie. Just search their archives and it pops up.

http://www.screensound.gov.au/

Requests can be made by mail, fax, phone or personal visits through
ScreenSound Australia's Canberra, Melbourne, and Sydney Offices, and
Access Centres in Adelaide, Brisbane, Hobart and Perth during normal
office hours, Monday to Friday. (Appointments should be made for
personal visits.)

General requests are handled in the order received, with a turnaround
time of 14 days maximum. Specific deadlines may be accommodated upon
request.


And just for fun, here is a page of trivia about the film:

http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Studio/5073/movie/secret.htm

All the best,

* j *

Ooops. I was assuming you might live in Australia. Possibly not.