Benny Andersson/Björn Ulvaeus Then and Now | home
B and B 2
Mona, Benny, Björn and Lena. The new couples.
Chess tryouts
Benny wrote the music, Björn the
lyrics ,and Tim Rice wrote the
storyline.
The album Chess was released
worldwide Oct. 26, 1984
The stars in the musical were Elaine Page, Barbra Dickson, Tommy Körberg
and Murray Head. The most famous of the songs was One Night in Bankok written
by Björn and Benny and sung by Murray.
Björn, Benny, Tim Rice and Elaine Page
Nov. 1, 1984 Chess the Music was played
as a concert only, in Stockholm.
Agnetha and the children were
in the audience.
With Michael Tretow
The kids enjoying dad's work. Agnetha was there.
1984 on TV with Frida.
In 1985 B and B wrote and produced Anders and Karin Glenmarks's next album, Gemini.
It included the song Just Like That that had been written for ABBA but never released.
1986
May 14 B and B go to London for the premiere of Chess. Frida also attends with a new color for her hair.
There were problems with the musical though. It was about human relationships
and a Chess match between a Russian and American player. It was a little complicted butit did play for 3 years in Lonon to mixed reviews. But in the USA it was different.
It didn't carch on and shut down after 2 months.
In New york 1987
In 1988 Chess opened in New York City on Broadway. Björn and Benny appeared on
Good Morning America via satellite from Stockholm May 20, 1988 on Skeppsholmen
at Benny's Mono Music Studio. Björn said during the interview regarding ABBA, "We haven't officialy split up, that's true...the door is open."
1987
1987 Geminism with Anders and Karen Glenmark
B&B decided to produce a record with the
Glenmarks instead of doing anything with
ABBA at that time.
Geminism was recorded at Polar and released by Mono Music. Björn and Benny wrote songs for them,i nstead of doing anything with ABBA at that time.
Geminism was recorded at Polar and released by Mono Music. Björn and Benny wrote songs for them.
The late 1980's brought a sadness with them. Abba wasn't reforming and in fact, all the members had sold their shares of Polar and a gap was growing between them and Stig. Then there was a conflict over royalty issues with Stig and 3 members of ABBA that had to be resolved in court. Björn, Benny and Agnetha never resolved their friendships with Stig after that. Björn tried, but Stig refused his calls.
Agnetha was quoted as saying " It was a sad and sorry end to a successful collaberation."
1990's
In 1991 B&B begin talking about writing another musical, this time about Swedish
history involving migration to the USA in the 19th century.
June 1992 B&B performed with Bono
of U2 during a Stockholm concert.
They backed up Bono on Dancing Queen.
Bono ended the performance by saying, "We're not worthy" while bowing to B&B.
With that, a new age for ABBA came into being. ABBA music was suddenly popular once again!
1992 ABBA Gold was released and sold over 20 million! Much to B&B's surprise!
1993 Josefin Nilsson puts out a record with 10 songs written by B&B.
Kristina of Duvemåla is about a 19th century Swedish girl, Kristina, who marries,
begins having children, lives a poor life in the countryside, faces starvation, and
along with her family and brother in laws family immigrate to America to gain a hopefully better life.
They wind up in Minnesota USA and Kristina becomes very homesick.
She deals with her belief in God and the hard new life in America.
The music is outstanding! Plenty of Swedish style folk music.
During auditions for Kristina of Duvemåla Dec. 1994
B&B with the cast
Opening night in Göteborg, Oct. 1995.
This musical was 3 hours long!
Minnesota USA 1996
During October 1996 Björn and Benny along with the came to the USA and
performed a few concerts in Minnesota which is where most of the Swedish
immigrants arrived 100 years ago.
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