A Bus Journey in Sweden To a Time Before Abba
STOCKHOLM — Catherine King was easy to spot at a recent gig for Benny Anderssons Orkester: She stood by the stage with an Australian flag tied to the fence. Ms. King, 49, had traveled from her home in Tasmania to catch four concerts on the Swedish tour.
“I fell in love with Abba when I was 7, but unfortunately my parents wouldn’t let me go to their shows in Sydney,” Ms. King said. “I never forgave them for that.”
“Just joking,” she added. (She was not.)
Benny Andersson, the bearded pianist, was a key architect of Abba’s sound, writing and producing hits with his bandmate Bjorn Ulvaeus.
But the gigs by the large ensemble he has been leading since 2001 do not cater to the “Mamma Mia!” constituency.
Mr. Andersson, 72, sees his group, which goes by BAO, as part of the tradition of the hardworking “dansbands” that entertained Swedes for generations. Dansbands, whose popularity peaked in the 1980s, would roam the country and play mainly pop, rock, disco and the cheesy easy-listening known as schlager with one goal in mind: Get people to dance. Many wore fantastically garish matching costumes.
Like most dansbands, BAO tours by bus, in this case a comfortable double-decker. The extra room is needed because Mr. Andersson’s crew is supersize: 15 members — including string and horn sections and two singers — compared with four to six in a regular dansband.
The set list is just as expansive, with 50 numbers over four hours. Only a handful are by Abba. “I do them for those in the audience who are Abba fans because they would know these songs,” Mr. Andersson said. “The rest of the audience, probably not.”
BAO’s sets are diverse: Wagner’s “Ring” cycle, only more upbeat, and waltzes, big-band jazz, pop tunes, polkas.
With recording solo projects, composing musicals, writing a suite for a Swedish royal wedding, and helping to oversee his former band’s legacy, Mr. Andersson’s post-Abba career has been fruitful.
He gathers the BAO troops for live dates every few years. This summer, the group played eight outdoor venues. The al fresco bit is crucial, because a BAO gig is as much community celebration as it is concert. A square wooden dance floor, festooned with multicolor lights, is set up right in front of the stage.
The dance floor is a wonderful equalizer and a nod to the tradition of the “folkpark,” where many dansbands plied their trade. Folkparks were places to dance and enjoy carnival-type attractions. Abba’s members played them in the 1960s, before switching to arenas worldwide.
Mr. Andersson said: “We thought we should bring our own folkpark to the people: the dance floor, the games of darts, the hot dogs, the chocolate wheel — a wheel of fortune where you win chocolate.” He added, “It was too messy so all we kept are the dance floor and the lights. But that’s enough.”