Sweet Geek Memory
A chance remark in a bar last night reminded me of a blackmail-able photograph at my mum's house.
It's me, at the age of 12, dressed in a homemade ABBA jumper and proudly displaying the Arrival album. As I recall, the jumper had dirty-pink sleeves and body, maroon polo-neck and cuffs and the ABBA logo across the chest. Christ I was a geek as a kid.
I first saw ABBA doing Waterloo on the preview shows for the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest. I was nine years old and cried my eyes out cos my parents wouldn't let me stay up to see the final show. I listened hard from my bedroom and, when I heard the song start, sneaked downstairs and watched through the crack of the door. I sneaked back later for the voting and silently cheered when they won.
That obsession lasted approximately 5 years, before that I'd loved New Seekers since the age of 7. I remember saving my pocket money to buy their I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing album, my dad took me to get it from a record shop in Litherland near my nan's house. The money was hot sweaty coins in my hand and he lifted me up so I could hand it over the counter to the sales girl. I recall she was not endeared, no wonder - I bloody hated when people did that when I worked in retail.
A while later there was another album - a live one that came with a fold out stage. You got little cut- out figures of the band you could move around and you could place them in slots so they stood on stage. I still remember all their names - Eve, Lynn, Marty, Pete and Paul. Well, I should remember, I used to kiss them all goodnight on a poster on my bedroom wall.
Eve was my favourite and, as I unwisely revealed on Chelsea's blog, I took to using her name and I think I probably used to pretend I *was* her. She was dark, confident and slightly aloof. She disappeared after the band split up when the blonde one, Lynn Paul, started demanding more of the spotlight.
Those must have been happy times as I remember them quite fondly, unlike my ABBA phase that reminds me of being an uncomfortable kid who wasn't very good at making friends. I suppose I'm proud I stood my ground when the other kids laughed at me for being an ABBA fan, but it was just so unshakably NOT COOL.
Thank God Chrissie Hynde and Debbie Harry came along later and taught me the semblances of cred.
7 comments:
*sigh* A post I never got to do... I too had those New Seeker lps. I was allowed to stay up for the Eurovision Song Contest though.
The actors agent I used to work with lived with a dumpy dyke who was conflicted to say the least. Five minutes after meeting anyone she would have got into the conversation she had been adopted. People on buses, Su Pollard, muggers...
Anyway she was a New Seekers groupie. Followed them all over the country. Even when they had gone through a squillion line-ups. She reckoned Eve Graham was a Lesbitarian!
Ooooo I had that single as well, with the New Seekers sitting quite horizontally outside Edinburgh Castle which is obviously on a steep hill. I never understood how they did that. They were obviously just very good at posing for photos.
And what do you mean, ABBA weren't cool?
I was allowed to stay up too.
I'm sure if you had remaind a steadfast ABBA fan you would now be happy at the Retro Eurovision Party, and a huge Kate Bush fan.
Eurovision parties and huge Kate Bush fan. Sounds familiar...
As I was only 1 1/2 at the time I wasn't allowed to stay up to see ABBA win (wasn't your first the following year when Teach-In won? I seem to recall...) I went to Brighton for (sort of) the first time a couple of weeks ago. Despite it being a horribly ugly building, I was extremely moved to see the Brighton Centre, the event there ultimately having such a profound effect on my life.
ABBA not cool or cred? Feh. I suppose I was lucky enough to be too young for coolness to be a factor in whether you liked ABBA or not at the time. Though, of course, I was fantastically cool for liking Siouxsie And The Banshees when I was five. And Blondie, obviously.
The photo you describe sounds *fabulous* and a must-see by the way.
Goddamn you and your razor sharp memory - "ding-a-dong every hour, when you pick a flower" etc
Oh I do love this post even if it does make me feel ancient. I remember watching The Eurovision Song Contest the year ABBA won.
I still have ABBA's Greatest Hits album. The first one with the black gatefold sleeve which you can't get anymore. Made bloomin' sure I didn't leave THAT at my ex-girlfriend's house when we split up.
*sigh*
And do you remeber Eve & Lynn's advice page in Popswop (cheaper than Music Star & far more girly-what does tell you) God I'm showing my age
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