“Abbamania – The Show” in the Olympiahalle Munich – Munich

Although he still occasionally chatted with his old fellow musicians, most notably Björn Ulvaeus, Janne Schaffer was surprised: the guitarist knew that Abba met occasionally in the studio in their old age, but he had no idea that they would release a whole album in 2021. The Swedish band was rumored to have turned down an offer from a record company worth over a billion dollars a few years earlier. The return of the pop legends seemed even more unlikely than the current victory of a German participant in the Eurovision Song Contest, which Abba famously won in a surprise attack in 1974 with “Waterloo”.

By the way, with the help of Janne Schaffer, who not only made the suggestion for the riffy, rocking intro in the studio (Benny Andersson: “Okay, let’s leave it that way.”), but also played the guitar in the Swedish preliminary round; then everything came off the assembly line at the triumph in Brighton. And as early as 1973 – he had just had a number 1 album himself with “1973” – he was present at Abbas’ first ESC attempt with “Ring Ring”. They came second in qualifying at home “and were very disappointed,” Schaffer recalls, “expectations were high.”

In any case, the return of the Swedish superstars met the highest expectations of the fans: “Voyage” added a few more to the 400 million records sold so far, the quite successful older work after a 40-year break naturally ended up at number one in several countries. Janne Schaffer appreciates the development of the compositions and is “impressed by the female voices”; especially that of Agnetha, whose solo album he once produced, he considers “one of the best in the world”: “She just likes to sing.” The four of them just don’t want to go on the concert stage anymore. For this purpose, Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad had youthful immortal counterparts programmed, which now hold out the pixel bodies for them as holograms in the multimedia gigantic playback spectacle in London.

Janne Schaffer looked at it recently and, as a professional after 53 years in the business, is quite impressed: “It’s as close to Abba as it gets.” But: “I prefer listening to live music.” It’s the same for others, and that’s why the demand for Abba cover concerts has been rekindled by self-resuscitation. “Abbamania” calls itself “the ultimate big Abba show”, and quite rightly so: With a mammoth ensemble and a mountain of technology, it goes into the largest arenas, such as the Munich Olympic Hall again. Stockholmers Katja Nord and Camilla Dahlin (who appeared in an Abba video when she was a girl) invented the tribute show in 1996.

They donned kimonos and platform shoes for so long (longer than Abba herself) that they became stars themselves. The founders have now withdrawn from production and are leaving the stage to younger ones: the musical and show singers Kerstin Löcker from Austria and Maria Kristina Nissen from North Friesland. The musical director and conductor Hauke ​​Wendt has also freshly equipped the band and orchestra. “Voyage” was also a “game changer” for Wendt. The last Abba work is no longer from 1980, but from 2021, now you have to integrate “I Still have faith in you”, “Shut me down” and maybe a third new one not only musically but also dramaturgically into the journey through time , which no longer only goes backwards, but also into the future.

“Abbamania” always scores with its proximity to the original and its originals: This is how costume designers, photographers and musicians of yore were won over. This time Janne Schaffer is there. Björn Ulvaeus usually only played the acoustic guitar, so if you can hear an electric guitar in Abba, it was very often Schaffer’s, for example in “Mama Mia”, in “Voulez vous”, and also the electric sithar in “I have a dream” he recorded.

Open detailed view

Schaffer was more than a session musician. He was already helping Abba in the studio to find the Abba sound when the folk musicians Björn and Benny were trying out a whole new pop sound. “I was there at the beginning of everything. But no Swedes liked Abba back then,” he recalls, “they were too commercial for them”. He, the jazz rocker himself, was considered “edgy”, edgy, which is also why they got him. When he persuaded them to adopt a rockier sound in “King Kong” in 1974, they at least realized “that they didn’t want to become a rock’n’roll band,” jokes Schaffer.

From the third album “SOS” the four knew exactly where they wanted to go. Schaffer was still happy to help in the studio, took part in a trip to Rudi Carrell’s TV show “Am Running Band” in Bremen in 1977, but otherwise concentrated on his own career. “Abba have 54 songs, I have 5,000,” says the 78-year-old.

Schaffer was already part of the film community in 1970, when the US soul singer Johnny Nash came to Stockholm for the love drama experiment “Vill sa gärna tro” and not only brought “this new music” with him, but Bob Marley right away . Schaffer played twice at the Montreux Jazz Festival, worked with Tina Turner, Lee Hazlewood, Nancy Ninatra and Jeff Beck (live until Johnny Depp came for him), as well as Junge Mando Diao love him, Christina Aguilera put his old number “Sick of Sittin'” on her album, he is honored with a rock beer, and every Swede is with his children’s band The Electric Banana Band grown up, where he also looks closer to Abba in wildly patterned jackets.

In short: Janne Schaffer is a Swedish legend. In terms of status, Hauke ​​Wendt not only put his favorite song in the program for “Abbamania”, the epic “Eagle”, but he also lets him play two of his own songs in his feature block. Music from Sweden does not always have to be Abba.

Abbamania – The Show, Sunday, April 24, 8 p.m., Munich, Olympiahalle