The constant drivel that is masquarading as true fact has made me quite angry and I am only on the third chapter or so-we are reliably informed that 'no one in the uk has heard of Sweden in 1974'...errr no. I had heard of Sweden in 1974 and I was a little kid! That the Eurovison Song contest rules clearly state that only Monaco and some other countries can win (not true and Monaco had only won once!!) whearas Luxembourg are mocked and sneered at for having the termerity to be a small country and that they were only allowed to because they played the Bay City Rollers on Radio Luxembourg...(so how'd they win in the 60s before the Rollers even existed then?)In fact... Lux was tradionally one of the most dominant countries in the ESC at the time, small country or no. Just one of the many glaring inaccuracies in this waste of paper 'book'.

There are no sources listed, no evidence offered for the many sweeping statements. This is not how to write a biography. how do we know that a person said this or did this or had this motivation-we list our sources and say why we came to this conclusion, we do not constantly make sweeping statements as if they were fact for the sake of a cheap gag...


Possibly the worst book I've ever read!   April 14, 2002
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

The only saving grace of reading this book was that I desperately needed to warn potential readers and that led me to read the reviews on this page. Now I know I'm not crazy!
This book is so bad it could be used in schools as an example of how to write poorly. Where do I start:

1. The chronology.
The authors seem to imagine it is entertaining to leap around the years of the ABBA phenomenon at random, sometimes within the same sentence. I prefer to think of this as a horrible mess.

2. The opinions.
The actual content about ABBA would fill a medium sized pamphlet. The rest of this book is half baked opinions on everything from the music industry to hairstyles. Few of these opinions are interesting and those that are are 99% innaccurate.

3. Factual errors.
As has been mentioned in the other reviews, many so called facts in this book are innaccurate.

4. Lack of content.
As stated above, much of this book has nothing to do with ABBA at all. Instead the reader is subjected to 3rd Form essays about whatever stream of consciousness happened to permeate the [...] authors at the time of 'writing'.

How on Earth this got published I can't begin to guess. If it was written in 1978 I could maybe understand it because it that was the era of pure ABBA exploitation but this was thrown together (loosely) in 1995 and has pretentions to be a 'serious' work. Alarming! Avoid! Appalling!


Execrable   October 19, 2000
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

The "authors" of this book use the word 'execrable' at least half a dozen times throughout this laughable attempt at serious rock journalism. They might as well be describing their lame attempt at documenting the "authentic history" of ABBA. The only question is why did they bother?

Fantastically poor researching skills, bad writing, a total lack of credible references to support their numerous "theories" about the group's motivation - and that's just in the first chapter!

If I could award no stars for this "effort", I would. For any serious lover of music or anyone who would like to discover the true and more factually accurate story about one of the world's few supergroups, invest your hard earned cash into "ABBA - The Book" or "From Waterloo to Mamma Mia"! At least those books do honour to the profession of rock journalism.


Don't believe a word...   September 18, 2000
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

This is the kind of book that makes every ABBA- fan scream for justice...but in the end...who cares ? So many inaccuracies, page after page so many mistakes. Here are a few:

Oldham: "No more care free laughter" Agnetha sings mournfully on "Knowing Me, Knowing You" - sorry, but Frida sang the lead vocals. Oldham: "After their 1979 tour ABBA knew- they would never tour again" - so tell me, Andrew, who toured Japan the following year then- impersonaters? Oldham: "Frida moved to London to record "Something's Going On" - well, she moved to London but that happened two years later. Oldham: "Opus 10 ultimately died of boredom before delivery but the one song they recorded- I Am The City- was a sign that they have not lost their vitality"- once again nulle points for you, Andrew, that song was recorded way back in 1982.

And these are just a few mistakes Andrew Oldham makes in his book- and if a writer of a biography doen't even know that Frida sang lead on "Knowing Me, Knwoing You" (that was even mentioned in the liner notes on the "Arrival"-album, Mr Oldham) how could I ever believe you know anything about this group ? Money-grabbing, yes, washing dirty dishes, yes, interesting, no and well-researched- absolutely no,no,no. Don't buy this, okay ?