ABBA - Live (1997)

ABBA is the most successful pop group of all time, with 380 million records sold. During their 10 years of existence, they released eight studio albums and appeared on countless TV shows in many countries around the world, so it's no wonder that they only managed to do four tours (three of which were major).
Although fans had always been waiting for a live album to be released, and the band members had also thought about it several times, it never happened.

However, four years after the band's "hiatus" (they never officially announced their breakup), they released an album that was not exactly well-timed, as the band's popularity had fallen to an unprecedented low. This was the first ABBA album, which was released on CD and LP at the same time, and at that time, due to the higher price of CD, the publishers tried to compensate CD buyers with bonus recordings, so 3 additional songs were added to this material. (Which was actually four, because the song Name of the Game was played at the same time with Eagle...)
(The cassette version only included the bonus songs after the 1997 remaster.)

The compilation of the concert material was not the most fortunate either, as it was cut from three different recordings. The backbone of the recording was the 1979 Wembley recordings, but two songs from the 1977 Australian tour and four from an American TV show called "Dick Cavett Meets ABBA" were mixed in, the latter being one of ABBA's last live performances in April 1981.

The sound of the music was also a bit unfortunate, as the original drum tracks were replaced with synthetic drums in most songs, which made the material even less live.

From the negative closing sentences above, you can (understandably) conclude that the 1986 live album was a worthless scum. Well, since "few live ABBA albums were made", it is interesting to listen to how these few songs sounded live, without studio tricks and subsequent cosmetic changes; since we already know the hits we have heard so many times (perhaps) to the point of boredom, with their smallest subtleties, as it would be impossible to perform them perfectly the same way live.

In 1997, all ABBA albums were remastered with 24-bit technology, including this one. However, it is no longer available and is not distributed. The 2001 reissue of the complete set of albums did not include this album. (As did the 2008 "ABBA - The Albums" 9-CD paperback box set.)

However, this year "compensation" came, as the band members, together with Ulvaeus' son (who is also Agnetha's son...), listened to the 1979 Wembley Stadium recordings (they performed six nights, between November 5 and 10) and found one - the last one - good enough to be released in its entirety. This time, they simply remixed the recordings with the original drums. The two-CD album (also released on three vinyls) was released on September 29, 2014.

At the time, the BBC filmed several songs from the performances, and made a TV show called "ABBA in Concert", which was broadcast on the following They were screened in 2001. A one-hour selection of the recordings was mixed and played on BBC radio at Christmas that year. This recording later became a bootleg among fans under the title "ABBA - Live In London".