Unfortunately, no one seems to know which sports jersey Frida wore at that particular concert. I checked with a few fans who attended that concert, or have been studying the 1979 tour and keeping record of what jerseys she wore at each concert. They think it was either Wolverhampton or Aston Villa. One remembers it as being purple, so it might have been Aston Villa. If anyone reading this knows for sure, could you please tell us at ask@abbaomnibus.com.

(thanks to Sara Russell, Ian Jones, and Andrew Casey for help with this answer)

I don't know right now when the book will be available in Australia. Most local bookstore websites originally showed a release date of 1 or 16 April, but now they all show 1 July 2020, with supplies delayed due to the slowing down of international cargo. But I know people who ordered from Angus & Robertson who received their book several weeks ago.

Ordering links can be found here.

'The Name Of The Game' may have been cut simply to reduce the length of the special for TV broadcast. 'Fernando' was also shortened in the original special. Unfortunately, the exact reason is not known.

About the original version of ABBA The Site, what was the song selection for the "custom playlist" section which according to the "Please Sign Up" message was 148? I suppose this includes the entirety of The Complete Studio Recordings and ABBA Live, but then when the site was launched the early [Swedish but English-language recording] 7" version of 'Waterloo' with Bjorn and Benny's "oh yeah!" at 0:13 was only wide-spread knowledge and the message still said "148" after it was officially released, so that might be an exclusion and a few tracks from Thank You For The Music Disc 4 (the language medleys and 'Slipping Through My Fingers'/'Me And I' especially) might've still ended up here. Maybe a few more exclusions or not?

Well, that's a blast from the past. I had to go digging in the internet archive, as I couldn't remember the details on the old version of the official site (plus I'd never really bothered with the tracks online, as I already had everything multiple times over on CD, LP, and SP)

The playlist included audio of most the songs on the 2001 remastered CDs of Ring Ring, Waterloo (missing 1 track), ABBA (missing 1 track), Arrival, ABBA - The Album (missing 1 track), Voulez-Vous, Super Trouper, The Visitors, plus Gracias Por La Musica (missing 2 tracks), Greatest Hits, Greatest Hits Vol. 2, The Singles - The First Ten Years, ABBA Gold, ABBA Oro (missing 3 tracks), More ABBA Gold, and Thank You For The Music (missing 6 tracks) - a total of 116 songs. I'm not sure of the 148 total, unless some songs were counted more than once.

It was missing the following tracks:
ABBA Undeleted; Estoy Soñando; Hasta Mañana (Spanish version); Lovelight (alternate mix); Medley: Pick A Bale Of Cotton/On Top Of Old Smokey/Midnight Special;  Ring Ring (1974 single remix); Ring Ring (Spanish version) Ring Ring (Swedish/Spanish/German version); Slipping Through My Fingers/Me And I (live); Summer Night City (full-length version); Thank You For The Music (Doris Day version); Waterloo (French/Swedish version).

It was also missing the following tracks, which at the time the site was created had not been released on CD. They were not added after they were released:
On And On And On (full length version); Ring Ring (1974 US remix); Voulez-Vous (extended remix); Waterloo (alternate mix).

As a bonus, the site included 30 second snippets of the special birthday recordings Sång till Görel, Hovas vittne, and Tivedshambo.

Any insights as to why the 1979 song 'Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!' did not chart in Canada and the USA despite being released as a single specifically to coincide with the ABBA tour to those two countries?

Thanks,
Ross 

The North American leg of the tour finished on October 7. The official release date of the single was 15 October (in the break between the American and European legs of the tour), but it was not released until February 1980 in North America, so any impact from the tour was lost. The American single was also heavily edited (down to 3.35).

Both songs were in development at around the same time. Recording for 'Rubber Ball Man' started on 8 August 1979, and continued through that month. In late July and into August ABBA were also rehearsing for their upcoming tour of North America, and 'Under My Sun' was tried out during the rehearsals.

I'd like to know about if any more of the ABBA albums Super Trouper, The Visitors,
Ring Ring, Waterloo, ABBA, Will any of these titles be released as half speed masters like Arrival, ABBA The Album and Voulez Vous.

Regards,
Grisha , Australia

With the precedent set with the 40th anniversary releases of Arrival, ABBA - The Album, and Voulez-Vous, I think we can assume that this year we will get similar this year for Super Trouper, and on through the remaining albums' 40th anniversaries, and possibly then the 50th anniversaries of the first three albums to complete the set.

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