Live at Wembley Arena

Live at Wembley Arena
Live album by ABBA
Released September 26, 2014 (Australia)
September 29, 2014 (Europe)
September 30, 2014 (US & Canada)
Recorded November 10, 1979
Genre Pop
Length 01:50:11
Label Polar
Universal
Producer Ludvig Andersson
ABBA chronology
The Albums
(2008)		 Live at Wembley Arena
(2014)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic [1]

Live at Wembley Arena is an album of live recordings by Swedish pop group ABBA, released by Polar Music on September 29, 2014, on 2 CD, 3 LP and digital format.

The album, produced by Ludvig Andersson, includes the complete concert at London's Wembley Arena (now The SSE Arena, Wembley) on November 10, 1979, the last of a six-night residency at the famous venue.

It features most of ABBA's hit singles and album favorites from their first eight years as a unit, as well as the never-before-released "I'm Still Alive", composed and performed by Agnetha Fältskog with lyrics by Björn Ulvaeus.

Overview

ABBA played to packed crowds at London's Wembley Arena from November 5 until the 10th, as part of their North American and European Tour of 1979, also known as ABBA: The Tour. Members of the group, like Björn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Fältskog, agreed that those concerts were the highlight of the entire tour. Music stars like The Clash's Joe Strummer and Ian Dury were among the audience.

Several songs from the Wembley concerts were filmed for the TV special ABBA in Concert, which was broadcast the following year. The song "The Way Old Friends Do", performed during the encore, was later included as the closing track of their 1980 album, Super Trouper. Songs from Wembley also appeared on 1986's ABBA Live, but were overdubbed in the studio by producer and sound engineer Michael B. Tretow. The BBC compiled its own one-hour version of the concerts and aired it on Christmas 1979. It circulates as an unofficial bootleg entitled "ABBA - Live In London".

In an interview with the webpage Ice The Site, in December 2013, ABBA songwriter and pianist Benny Andersson confirmed that a live album would be released "exactly as it was" sometime in 2014, as part of the band's 40th anniversary.

Andersson detailed that his son Ludvig went through hours of tapes, choosing the right material. It was Ludvig who decided that the November 10th 1979 concert was the one to be released. The decision was approved by all the members of ABBA, including vocalists Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog, who listened through it at the studio in Stockholm.

On June 9, 2014, ABBA's official Facebook and Instagram accounts confirmed the release and the next day, on June 10, the full track list was revealed.

The album omits the song "Not Bad At All", performed on tour by backing vocalist and fellow Swedish pop singer Tomas Ledin.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus, except where noted.

Disc 1

  1. "Gammal fäbodpsalm" (Traditional, arr. B. Andersson)
  2. "Voulez-Vous"
  3. "If It Wasn't for the Nights"
  4. "As Good as New"
  5. "Knowing Me, Knowing You" (written by B. Andersson, S. Anderson, B. Ulvaeus)
  6. "Rock Me"
  7. "Chiquitita"
  8. "Money, Money, Money"
  9. "I Have a Dream"
  10. "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)"
  11. "SOS" (written by B. Andersson, S. Anderson, B. Ulvaeus)
  12. "Fernando" (written by B. Andersson, S. Anderson, B. Ulvaeus)

Disc 2

  1. "The Name of the Game" (written by B. Andersson, S. Anderson, B. Ulvaeus)
  2. "Eagle"
  3. "Thank You For The Music"
  4. "Why Did It Have to Be Me"
  5. "Intermezzo No. 1"
  6. "I'm Still Alive" (written by A. Fältskog, B. Ulvaeus)
  7. "Summer Night City"
  8. "Take A Chance On Me"
  9. "Does Your Mother Know"
  10. "Hole in Your Soul"
  11. "The Way Old Friends Do"
  12. "Dancing Queen" (written by B. Andersson, S. Anderson, B. Ulvaeus)
  13. "Waterloo" (written by B. Andersson, S. Anderson, B. Ulvaeus)

Charts

Chart (2014) Peak
position
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[2] 9
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[3] 16
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[4] 28
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[5] 16
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)[6] 12
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[7] 50
French Albums (SNEP)[8] 87
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[9] 9
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[10] 15
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[11] 10

References

  1. ↑ "ABBA – Live at Wembley Arena" at AllMusic
  2. ↑ "Austriancharts.at – ABBA – Live At Wembley Arena" (in German). Hung Medien.
  3. ↑ "Ultratop.be – ABBA – Live At Wembley Arena" (in Dutch). Hung Medien.
  4. ↑ "Ultratop.be – ABBA – Live At Wembley Arena" (in French). Hung Medien.
  5. ↑ "Danishcharts.com – ABBA – Live At Wembley Arena". Hung Medien.
  6. ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – ABBA – Live At Wembley Arena" (in Dutch). Hung Medien.
  7. ↑ "ABBA: Live At Wembley Arena" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland.
  8. ↑ "Lescharts.com – ABBA – Live At Wembley Arena". Hung Medien.
  9. ↑ "Longplay-Chartverfolgung at Musicline" (in German). Musicline.de. Phononet GmbH.
  10. ↑ "Swedishcharts.com – ABBA – Live At Wembley Arena". Hung Medien.
  11. ↑ "Swisscharts.com – ABBA – Live At Wembley Arena". Hung Medien.

External links

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