They’re like The Beatles now, in the sense that they’re part of the culture … it’s a reference point, it’s everything else, you know.

The book charts the band's meteoric rise to stardom, plus the high and low points both professionally and in their personal lives. It’s very detailed stories about how the album sleeves were put together, it’s about chart success, it’s about how the record company people in the UK and the US primarily promoted or tried to promote their music. ABBA AT 50" by Palazzo Editions, follows ABBA's surprise new music announcement after a 40 year pause alongside the universally-praised digital show, ABBA Voyage. Yeah, I have, I mean it’s mostly just a matter of typing it out and finding the right tone for that book. In 2021, after a forty-year hiatus, the band released a new album Voyage, and announced an accompanying concert featuring their digital avatars, dubbed "ABBAtars.It was a bit of a challenge, because I’m used to writing these really detailed books, but I only had 45,000 words, because that’s what they asked for … although I extended it to 50,000. After winning 1974's Eurovision Song Contest with their song "Waterloo," ABBA catapulted to fame, capturing hearts across the globe with their melodic and ever-so-catchy pop songs. The author balances the professional aspects (recording, touring and promoting, studio interactions) with the personal aspects (romantic relationships and children) seamlessly. While not as well-refined or developed in design or content as Carl Magnus Palm's own self-published books of recent (the excellent revised "ABBA The Complete Recording Sessions" or the anticipated "ABBA On Record"), this book will engage fans new and old of their enduring legacy in music and culture.

Even my teenage daughters love Abba and because I knew next to nothing about them I couldn’t wait to read this book. Beautifully illustrated with essential images, this book examines the group's enduring legacy and much-loved musical repertoire of perfectly crafted pop. I considered starting this feature/interview with the line, ‘Ring, ring, I stare at the phone on the wall’ as a build-up to tracking down Carl Magnus Palm, seen as the world’s leading historian for a certain legendary pop quartet from his home nation.The art and the skill is in making such precision seem effortless, and ABBA accomplished that very well. As far as I know … and for me – and I guess it’s the same for you, at least to an extent – I’ve been working from home for 30 years, so things just continued as they always had, largely. ABBA at 50' is packed with history, trivia and photographs of the band from birth till the present day. Responsible for ABBA music reissue liner notes and several books including the exhaustively comprehensive "Bright Lights, Dark Shadows", this book comes at a perfect time. This managed to be both a trip down memory lane as well as an introduction to music I missed the first time around.

For a nonfiction book it flows nicely in the story is put together well it’s all I would have to say I highly recommend this book it is a great read. I remember 30 years ago when people said to me, when I was working on my first book, ‘You better hurry up, before the ABBA revival dies down. The author has included little known tidbits about the writing process, touring, costumes, biographies and increasingly stressed family life. But the 1990s ushered in a new wave of ABBA appreciation, and their music found favor again in modern popular culture.among 20 top-10 singles – including classic hits such as ‘Dancing Queen’, ‘Mamma Mia’, ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You’, ‘The Winner Takes It all’, ‘Super Trouper’ and ‘Take a Chance on Me’. A People's History of Slade (Spenwood Books, 2023) and This Day in Music's Guide to The Clash (This Day in Music, 2018), currently writing, editing and collating Solid Bond in Your Heart: A People's History of The Jam (Spenwood Books, 2024). It covers a major group during a period of great change in music history as well as the relationships of four very real people.

Meanwhile, I tell him I can’t believe it’s five years since we last spoke, marking the publication of ABBA: The Complete Recording Sessions. Regarding Voyage, the sixth ABBA studio album to top the UK charts and their 10 th chart-topping LP in this country altogether, last time we spoke you told me you had access to exclusive material that few had before, with official permission, when writing ABBA: The Complete Recording Sessions. The other thing is that, because everybody else is so super-excited about it, and, ‘Ooh, it’s the best thing I’ve ever seen.

With regard to listening to the back-catalogue, it’s great to wallow in nostalgia now and again, but I’m guessing that’s just a part of your life. But of the bands that are around today, the ones that I’ve bought every album and everything are the Fleet Foxes.