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News added 2001-01-15
Benny to do another album!!
At long last Benny is in the studio doing a solo album again.
Apperently it will be along the lines of the previous two ones.
Kalle Moraeus and the rest of Orsa Spelmän will be part of some songs.
It is not likely to be released at least until the autumn, recordings are
supposed to start soon.
News added 2000-10-08
Björn & Benny to perform live!
See news in the 'Kristina' section, for possible live performances by
the bearded pair.
News added 2000-09-06
ABBA live in China.
Well not really ABBA, but instead Swedish cover band Arrival. Together with
Robert Wells and his Rhapsody In Rock show (rock band with symphony orchestra), Arrival will perform in China.
They were in Vietnam some time ago, and the audience there went totally nuts. They
hope the same for China.
Arrival will open up and perform for an hour. Then Wells and his multitude of
musicans will go on for an hour. Then they will all perform ABBA's 1977 musical
The Girl With The Golden Hair. The event will be in Bejing on September 16th,
to celibrate 50-years of Swedish - Chinese diplomatic relations.
News added 2000-08-02
Another comfort.
Bennys instrumental song Tröstevisa [Comforting Song] has got lyrics added
by Norweigan bard Finn Kalvik. Björn and Benny worked with him some twentyfive years ago.
He has recorded it as a duet with Swedish singer Cajsa-Stina Åkerström. It is scheduled for
release in Norway soon. A Swedish release date is not known.
News added 2000-03-16
Björn to do folk music.
It has been announced that Björn will appear at this years 'Västerviksfestivalen',
the biggest folk music festival in Scandinavia. It is held annually in the town
he grow up. The organizer is Hansi Schwartz, who was a member of Hotennay Singers
with Björn. It is not announced what Björn will do, so there is speculation
that some sort of Hotennany reunion might happen.
News added 2000-02-13
Benny scores again.
Benny is working on the score music for director Roy
Andersson's new film. Roy made a few films in the 70's.
He has since mostly been making commercials. He has won many
international awards for these. The curent film 'Sånger
Från Andra Våningen' [Songs from the second floor] has been
in the making for a big chunk of the 90's. It is expected
to hit the cinemas in the fall. But may get a world premiere
at the Cannes festival in May.
News added 1999-09-05
Björn & Benny do pop again.
In an interview in Expressen Björn confesses that he and Benny is making a pop
song. It has been seven years since last, when they did Josefin Nilssons album. The song
they work on now is a duet for "some well known British solo artists". As they have not
yet finnished composing, it may still never be recorded. The artists must of course approve
the song.
There is of course the constant talk of reunions. But these are all
turned down. Björn said they recently got an offer to tour the world for a year, and they
would get the amount similar to "a small nations budget". Other offers has included
doing Happy New Year live on this New years eve. He says "that is not a day to work, but
to celibrate".
News added 1999-05-29
Benny do hymn for the new Millenium.
The hymn Innan Gryningen [Before the dawn] has the music composed by Benny. It
is supposed to be sung in the churches at new year to elebrate the new millenium.
The hymn that is the first religous work of Benny has got the lyrics from Ylva Eggehorn.
It was performed for the first time for an audience yesterday at a convention held by the
Swedish Church Students. Singing it was Lisa Gustafsson, that was part of the 'Kristina Från
Duvemåla' cast.
News added 1999-03-14
Just A Notion finnaly released.
At long last the single by Swedish cover band Arrival has been released. Apart from
Just A Notion there is also Hey Hey Helen. All is produced by ABBA's
bass player Rutger Gunnarsson. It is available for SEK 60 + P&P.
Click
on the picture to see the complete sleeve!
News added 1998-12-23
Actor Path - The Next Generation.
Just like her mother, Linda Ulvaeus, has gone in to acting. The film Under Solen by
British (but living in Sweden since 20 years) director Colin Nutley. Linda is one of the
actors that has got her name on the poster, so I suppose it is a fairly large part.
News added 1998-11-07
New Concert album released.
The 'B&B' concerts at Scandinavium, which was a tremendous success, was recorded by
the ever present Bernard Löhr. They was then mixed at Mono Music Studio by Benny and
Bernard. This week a selection of 16-tracks was released on the CD Från Waterloo Till Duvemåla.
The songs span from Sunny Girl to Guldet Blev Till Sand, but strangely enuogh baring in
mind the album title, NOT Waterloo. Artists are, apart from a symphony orechestra,
Helen Sjöholm, Karin Glenmark, Tommy Körberg, Anders Glenmark and Orsa Spelmän. They each do a few songs each
and some where all are performing. See the records for sale section for prices.
The album is released on Sony's 'Columbia' label, all though the actual
recordings are owned by Benny's Mono Music. If this is because of the rush release, or meaning
that Mono Musics days as an independent are over is anyones guess. Sony has however always
handeld the marketing and distribution in of the various Mono Music releases, and when Josefin Nilsson's
album was exported outside Sweden, it was released on various Sony labels.
News added 1998-07-14 and 1998-07-29
Concerts added.
The concerts with ABBA music [See "News added 1998-03-29"
for more information about that.] proved so popular that extra shows has
been added. They will take place on the same day as the previous shows,
in other words they will do double shows at both dates. Plus also an extra
concert on the day before. So 18/9, 19/9 & 19/9 for Göteborg and
30/10, 31/10 & 31/10 for Stockholm.
News added 1998-07-12
Björn receives prize.
Björn Ulvaeus was very surprised when he was in the audience at
the "Visfestialen I Västervik" [a very famous and popular folk music
festival held every summer in Västervik] this friday (10/7). It was
announced that he had got this years Fred Åkerström Prize. This
was for long and outstanding work with Swedish folk music, from Hotenanny
Singers to Kristina Från Duvemåla via ABBA. The prize is more
of an honour then a big amount of money, it is SEK 20,000.
News added 1998-05-13
Björn & Benny at the zoo.
At a traditional name giving ceremony at Skansen, a Stockholm zoo,
today two bears were named. They got the names Björn & Benny by
non less than Björn & Benny.
News added 1998-04-25
Arrival has got a record deal.
Swedish cover band Arrival has got a deal on Torgny Söderberg's
& Lasse Holm's new label Musikverkstaden. They will release a single
and an album is supposed to be out this autumn. The single is as previously
mentioned here the full version of Just A Notion. [See "News
added 1998-01-25" for more information about that.] No date has been
given for the single release.
See also in the Kristina page for the release of a new version of the
Chess song Pity The Child. It has been translated to Swedish by
Björn.
Kristina on the web & new Mono
Music release.
The official site for Kristina Från Duvemåla is now open,
see my 'Kristina' page for a link.
A third single has been released from Sjunde Ön, last years
album by Görel Crona. The single Stockholm also includes En
Ljummen Kväll I Maj. It has the Mono Music catalogue number MMCD-S
122. As with all her previous releases, there is NO Björn or
Benny involvement. Price is SEK 60 + P&P.
News added 1998-04-03
Music for a jumping horse...
Benny has made the music for horse jumper Louise 'Lussan' Nathhorst. With her horse 'Walk On Top'
she has much success. When Benny saw her on a jumping competition in Stockholm he got so impressed
that he offerd to do the music that is played during the competitions. She feels very priviliged by this of course.
News added 1998-03-29
New music to old Björn &
Benny songs.
It has been made public that the dynamic duo is working on their old
material. The result will be a show that has premiere on September 19th
at the Scandinavium arena here in Göteborg (Gothenburg). Several shows
are likely to be performed. Solo vocalists that so far has been asked to
perform are Josefin Nilsson of Ainbusk Singers and Tommy Körberg.
More information will be disclosed at a press conference this week in Stockholm.
The show will include songs from Waterloo up to Kristina Från
Duvemåla. After the run in Göteborg the whole thing will
move on to the Globen arena in Stockholm on October 31st.
News added 1998-02-22 and updated 1998-02-24
New album with Björn &
Benny songs.
An album with songs by this dynamic duo has just been released. Some
one thought really hard and came up with the title Låtar av Björn
& Benny (Songs By Björn & Benny). All songs are in Swedish,
and performed by a few different artists. Main man in the project seems
to be Micke Littwold who sings some songs, and produced the whole album.
The other singer are previously unknown, except Vicki Benkert, who among
other has toured with Roxette. Neither Björn, nor Benny has been involved
in this cover project. The album is available for SEK 170 + P&P.
News added 1998-02-08 updated 1998-02-15
Chess in concert once again.
The live album that was out a few years back was recorded in Göteborg
(Gothenburg) and now once again they will perform Chess in concert
here. This time in the out door venue Trädgårdsföreningen,
on the 5th of June. This is part of a mini tour that takes them to Helsingborg
(June 7th), Skokloster slott (June 9th) and Ulriksdals slott (June 10th).
There might be extra concerts on some of these venues. As is now usual
on these events artists include: Karin Glenmark, Tommy Körberg, Anders
Glenmark, Lena Ericsson, Johan Schinkler. And the whole thing is, as also
is usual, conducted by Anders Eljas. I could help with tickets if anyone
is interested.
News added 1998-01-30
New album on Mono Music.
Orsa Spelmän this week released Ödra (Mono Music MMCD
013). The album is produced by Benny as usual. He has not composed any
songs this time, but he plays accordion and keyboards on some. Last Sunday
he helped push for the album on the TV show Söndagsöppet,
where they all performed.
Ainbusk Singers in the studio.
After more then a decade in the music business, Ainbusk Singers are
finally working on their debut album. They have made one album before,
but that one was a live recording. This time how ever it seems as there
will be no Benny involvement. The record will be released by Sonet, a Stockholm
Label Group/PolyGram label. It is being produced by Nils Erikson, it is
his first production for others then himself. Marie Nilsson does the lyrics
as usual. The music is composed by Anders Lundqvist.
News added 1998-01-28
Benny to receive prize.
Benny Andersson, as well as Boogie piano player Charlie Norman (with
whom Frida toured during the 60's) has been appointed to receive "His Majesty
The King's Medal". This is for outstanding achievement for Swedish music.
It is in the 8th size, and with a high blue ribbon. What ever that means...
News added 1998-01-25
Just A Notion to be released
as a single.
After almost 20 years since it was first recorded, the ABBA song Just
A Notion is going to be released in full. However it is not the ABBA
recording that is to be out. It is Swedish ABBA cover band Arrival, that
has got the permission of Sweden Music (Polar's publishing branch) to record
it. The man who played bass on the original recording, Rutger Gunnarsson,
will produce the song. They will try to do it as close to the ABBA demo
as possible. The recording is planned to be made in February, and negotiations
with various record labels are being made. Arrival, from Göteborg,
are made up of Pelle Andersson (Björn), Vicky Zetterberg (Agnetha),
Ingela Fransson (Frida) and Anders Haglund (Benny).
Kristina star sings ABBA song.
Helen Sjöholm greeted 1998 by singing Happy New Year in
TV. A live performance with just a small band helping out. She truly has
a great voice, born 25 years earlier a famous Swedish pop group might have
got the name ABBH... This must be viewed as one of Björn & Benny's
big talents, to be able to find all these wonderful female vocalists: Frida,
Agnetha, Lena Andersson, Karin Glenmark, Josefin Nilsson, Helen Sjöholm,
Åsa Bergh.
News added 1997-12-23
Benny to the opera & does new
musical.
Benny Andersson has been nominated to join the board of the Royal Opera
in Stockholm. It is up to the Swedish Government to make the formal decision,
but that is very likely to be only a formality. Benny has also worked on
new music to the Astrid Lindgren story Mio Min Mio which is opening
up in Stockholm as a musical for children. The play is directed by Kristina
Lugn, the most famous poet in Sweden. Benny has previously done the music
for Mio Min Mio when it was a film, about ten years ago. It is not
yet known if this new music will be released on CD.
News added November 1997
Various news
Not much is happening in the ABBA camp. After New Year Kristina Från
Duvemåla will open up at the Cirkus venue in Stockholm. There
has been a lot of money spent on renovating it. Björn & Benny
are supposed to be working on an English language edition of the musical
for international release as well.
Anders Glenmark has a new album out. Cecilia Vennersten has also a new
one out, this time without the help of One
More Time . Peter Jöback too has an album out, with musical songs.
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