IF THESE four walls could talk... they’d tell the story of a triumphant, historic night.
A new exhibition is recreating the scene of a suite in Brighton’s Grand hotel in which Abba celebrated their Eurovision success in 1974.
The Swedish pop group’s rousing rendition of Waterloo at Brighton Dome swept them to victory – and the rest is history.
The exhibition includes a copy of the Evening Argus from the week of the competition with the headline “Euro-Song shock as France quits”.
It references France’s decision to withdraw from the contest after the death of president Georges Pompidou.
Abba co-founder Bjorn Ulvaeus can be seen holding the paper in the remodelled Grand suite in the picture above.
Mr Ulvaeus said the exhibition reminded him of how surreal the band’s Eurovision success felt.
He said: “The hotel room in Brighton was like the room [then wife] Agnetha [Faltskog] and I must have had, the bed in which I woke up at four in the morning the day after, finally realising what had happened, because everything was chaos before.
“It happened overnight so it was ‘today we’re famous and yesterday we weren’t’.”
Also on display in the show is a copy of the Evening Argus “Eurovision Song Contest Score Sheet”, a special pull-out for local viewers to keep up with the scoring on the night.
Abba: Super Trouper, which is at the Southbank Centre in London until April 29, takes visitors through a series of rooms replicating famous scenes from the band’s history.
The show also features music from the group and is narrated by Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker.
In June this year, Abba were honoured with a blue plaque outside Brighton Dome.
In a video message expressing his gratitude, band member Benny Andersson said: “These are days I’ll never forget.
“The Dome was a perfect venue for it. Thank you for this.
“I’ll go down and take a look at it one day. And also see the Brighton football team play.”
Speaking at the launch of the exhibition, Mr Ulvaeus said there was no chance of an Abba reunion.
He said: “The simple answer is because we don’t want to. I guess because it would be such hassle, it would be enormous.
“And it would take such... you cannot imagine the tension and the attention from everyone.
“So it would be like robbing yourself of, perhaps, two or three years out of your life when I could be paddling on my surf ski in the archipelago of Stockholm instead.
“There’s a choice.”
- For more information on Abba: Super Troupers, visit southbankcentre.co.uk.
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