Photo & © Thore Rodelius
Yesterday morning I jumped on the train to Gothenburg, and my first BAO concert ever! Just over three hours later I check in at centrally located Grand Hotel Opera. I spend some time in front of my computer before I make an appointment with Simon and his mother, who are going to be my companions for the evening. After a tasty and inexpensive dinner at Jensen Bøfhus we walk leisurely to Trädgårdsföreningen, where BAB this evening had come on their summer tour.
We are among the first in the queue, but soon it´s filled, mostly by people of mature age, who fold up camping chairs to sit on. Big irritation occurs in stages since late arriving audience doesn´t understand, or care, that the queue swings along the sidewalk, but place themselves in front of those who queued for a long time. Guards are demanded, but unfortunately the man who goes out to the angry visitors doesn´t succeed to control the situation, leaving them in the end to their fate.
But to be truthful, it isn´t really into that queue Simon and I are standing, but at the iron gate next to it, where it says Cash and Guest list. There we stand all alone for a while before more people start backing us. Now and then, we perceive the faint tones from the scene, where the sound check is in progress, including Helen’s voice in Kära Syster. Just after half past five we are let into the area. Then I get a big and powerful man behind me, who continually makes every effort to crowding. When we get to the guy with the list, the man cries aloud over my shoulder “Are you the one who has the guest list?” and seems to consider himself as a “very important person”, who should be let in. But I ignore him totally, step up and say my name. Simon, who will be admitted along with me, succeeds with some effort also to get past him, and I can not help but wonder why the rude man landed on that list. He cerrtainly must not have been invited because of his polite and courteous manner!!
It´s a way to walk up to the stage, but since most of the queuing people achieved, or are approaching, retirement age, they are not running. We wait for Simon’s mother, who passed through the regular entrance, and decide after some consideration, to take seats just behind the dance floor, on white plastic chairs that are available for lending. As long as the dance floor is empty, we have a great look, and I think I will be able to take some decent pictures. Until I pick up the camera and find that it has no battery! I have put the battery on charge at home in the kitchen the night before, and it´s still there! Already my courage falls precariously…
Otherwise, we are just fine on our seats. To stand right up for four hours doesn´t attract me, neither to jump and dance close to the stage, I would have to undergo a minor personality change to do that. It wouldn´t simply be me. However, it´s a misery to move from the chair once in place, it´s extremely crowded between rows of seats. You could always accidentally bump in someone or step on someone’s picnic. There are a few narrow paths where you can go, but they are too few. At least, Simon and I manage to reach the record sales before the concert begins. There isn´t much that we miss, so we just buy a couple of signed tour posters.
At 7.00 pm the program begins. A couple of girls from ”BAO praos” start the dancing, closely followed by another couple. Benny has the habit to call a race, and pledging 50 SEK to the couple which first enters the dance floor. But this evening he has a hard time to see which couple it is, and shouts asking to Görel, who comes to his rescue and sorts out the situation.
Here is a part of the track list, which I largely have Simon to thank for! Not least, the instrumental tunes. Some misunderstanding may have sneaked in, and if so, I apologize for that:
Glasgow Boogie
Calle J:s vals
Schottis i Tyrolen
När tvenne hjärta slå
För dig
Kära Syster
Det är vi ändå
Gladan
New Dehli
Nu mår jag mycket bättre
Månstrålar klara
Midsommarpolka
Beatrice
Upp till dig
Allt syns när man är naken
Bonde söker fru
Sommaren du fick
Kisses of Fire
PAUS
De ljuva drömmarnas orkester
Aj aj aj vilken röd liten ros
Drömmen om Elin
Lottis schottis
Vitalins vals
Födelsedagsvals till Mona
Skenbart
Fait Accompli
Bälter Svens paradpolkett
Jag hör…
Laureen
En dag i sänder
Gamle svarten
Vår sista dans
O Sole Mio
Cadillac
Hawaii
Hasta Mañana
I Do I Do I Do
True Love
Du är min man
Potpourri:
– Säg det med ett leende
– Vårat gäng
– Bättre och bättre dag för dag
– Ett glatt humör
Why Did It Have To Be Me
The concert ends with the band walking down from the stage and onto the dance floor, where they mix with the audience while they continue to play. Then I see in my mind’s eye how the band members slowly disappear from the dance floor behind the stage with their instruments, and how the music fades out more and more, and finally ceases completely. I think this would have been the most striking conclusion of the evening. But to my surprise they enter the stage again and line up in another encore; O Klang och Jubeltid. Certainly one of my absolute favorites on the new album, but it could have been performed anywhere else in the program.
What is missing in the track list above is a long list of schottische, polkas and waltzes that not even the oracle Simon at my side managed to name.
Helen was wearing two different dresses during the evening, the orange with gold collar, which she also wore on the appearance of Allsång på Skansen earlier this summer, and a purple-blue beautiful dress, sometimes with scarves, and in Skenbart with a fur trim.
Here is a brief summary of what I experienced as positive and negative during the evening. To save the best for last, I begin with the negative impressions:
1. We were sitting too far from the stage for me to become emotionally involved. I need to see the eyes, facial expressions and gestures of those who sing and play. Now I could hardly see them at all, except on big screens, and how fun is that on a scale? Missed even fans rocking in the narrow space between the stage and dance floor.
2. I have never learned to dance. For me, the dancing couples mostly were a nuisance that obscured the view, and prevented the seats far forward. Moreover, I wonder why on earth they allowed people to stand on the dance floor, closest to the stage? They must have been in the way even for the dancers.
3. The volume was too low, especially at the beginning of the evening. I want to feel the bass vibrate through my body! There were exceptions, but those I will return to among the positive points below…
4. My forgotten camera battery. A clear annoyance. Photographing would have both kept me busy during the four-hour concert, and probably gained me a better position in front of the stage in the second act, so I would have avoided so much whining!
Now for the positive elements:
1. Benny’s small talk between songs. It felt strange and funny to hear him speak live.
2. Helen of course. It was wonderful to hear her in Kära Syster, not to mention En dag i sänder, which in my opinion was the evening’s best song! She was also very funny, such as in the sad lot of the Hawaiian song.
3. Tommy. Due to the moderate volume during the concert Tommy’s powerful voice excelled, and was the one which was best heard. And he made really strong songs, Fait Accompli, Jag hör… and Cadillac, to name a few of them. And he was funny too.
4. Kalle. I was surprised both by his voice and sense in Beatrice and O Sole Mio.
5. The record-selling children who were moving among the audience during the evening. Especially a little girl who danced to the music! I recognized her last name because she was a child of one of the musicians in the orchestra. The apple doesn´t fall far from the pear tree!
6. TV team from SVT so discreetly managed to film the concert without disturbing the audience.
7. Last but not least, the pleasant company, which I didn´t want to be without! Simon, I already knew, but also his northern mother was a very pleasant acquaintance.
At eleven the concert was over and after half an eternity, we managed to get us out of Trädgårdsföreningen and return to our respective hotels. Today it was time to return home, but tomorrow is approaching a new BAO concert, this time at Galejan, so to be continued…
Galejan, July 30
I´m early outside the Skansen entrance, just before 4 pm, even though I didn´t made an appointment with Julia until half past four. I buy a hot dog to strengthen me for the long evening and get to see Karin outside the entrance. She has a ticket to pick up, and has been informed that a special cash for the event is just about to open the cash-third. A sign with Press and VIP is set up and we wait patiently, eager to join the queue at Galejan, to get as good seats as possible in front of the stage. Eventually, we gratefully receive our tickets and walk up the hill to the rear Skansen entrance. There, the queue is already long, but Karin passes it, going to her friends holding the pole position, and whom she had met earlier that day. With momentum Julia and I follow her, and although I´m normally quite allergic to people who push themselves ahead in the queue, I´m soon so preoccupied with saying hello to both Swedish and foreign friends, and to collect money for the copies of Aftonbladet with the large BAB-story in it, which I bought for some of them the day before, that I completely forget that pushing is exactly what I have done myself this time!
After a long and warm waiting they finally let us in, after a number of wheelchair users who are given precedence. Me and Julia, who haven´t been to Galejan before, feel a little hesitant, but hurry after the others towards the dance floor entrance, that’s still blocked with red and white bands. We make friends with Maria from Italy. After another moment of anticipation they take the bands away and walk / run up to the stage. When the show starts Benny points out that the idea is that we will be able to dance on the dance floor, but that three lines of audience standing in front of the stage is OK. I, Julia and Maria are in the third linee, so we feel safe, but behind us there are still several lines, so people scattered not quite as desired. However, we see couples dancing behind our big cluster, so some room must still have been created on the floor.
In Gothenburg a couple of days before I felt that I was sitting too far from the stage to get a sense of closeness, and was not really affected by what took place. But now that I´m only a few feet from the edge of the stage, I find it totally different! The music snatches hold of me and makes me happy, even in the initial number Glasgow Boogie! Nor the sound, I can complain about this evening, I feel the bass in my body, and even outside the stadium I can hear the orchestra very well. We can stand it for about an hour in front of the stage, Julia and I, quite cramped packed with BAO- and ABBA fans from numerous countries. Since we are close to suffer from heat stroke, and I notice how the feeling in my feet starts to disappear, which is a bit ominous that early in the evening. So we whisper to Maria, standing next to us, that we´re going outside for a while. Enjoying the breezy winds which meet us. We walk around for a while at the yard. There are many people who are sitting and standing everywhere, but it’s much easier to walk around than in Trädgårn in Gothenburg a few days ago. Buying the first Christmas present: a copy of O Klang och Jubeltid, signed by Benny, Helen and Tommy! After a while, we´re going back and put us next to the wall in a corner of the dance floor, and move gradually to a different corner, where we discover that we have an even better look at the stage.
The program is broadly similar, at least for me, no noticeable changes have been done. And it´s about the same songs that make the biggest impression on me; Glasgow Boogie, Kära Syster, Det är vi ändå, Beatrice, Allt syns när man är naken, Sommaren du fick, Fait Accompli, Jag hör…, En dag i sänder, Cadillac and True Love. I´m not very fond of Du är min man, but on the other hand, it´s wonderful to see the dance floor filled to capacity, for it´s undeniably a popular dance tune! Trying to shoot from almost anywhere where I stand, but there were always heads in front of me. Thinking in my own mind that a maximum length of 1.50 to set foot on the dance floor would´t have been so crazy! Some ABBA fans have brought a banner which they unfold beneath the stage. Become almost a bit sad when I see it, and think that this is what remains for them now; ABBA songs with one of the original members on stage. Closer than this they will never come…
In the break I´m in a perpetual long queue to buy still water. But when I reach the desk still water is sold out, only mineral water is there (here I think it would be better to say ”carbonated” or even ”sparkling”, even if I’m not sure Ramlösa can be considered exactly sparkling water…), so I get a glass of wine instead. The second act is if possible even better than the first one. If the wine plays a part in it or not, I can not say, but the mood and the atmosphere are perfect, and I´m inclined to appoint the concert to one of the nicest events I visited this year! So the list of negative remarks will be brief this time, and consists of only two things that nobody can be blamed for; it was too hot when we arrived – and my feet ached when we left…