Features
Super troupers
Viv Hardwick talks to Mark Thomas about
pretending to be Bjorn from Abba for ten years as the
boss of Abba Mania, the show which claims to be the
top tribute to the sound of Sweden's best-known band.
MARK Thomas
claims to have
enjoyed ten solid
years of switching
from a Welsh to a
Swedish accent and
becoming a soundalike version of
Bjorn from Abba after deciding to
create the touring tribute show,
Abba Mania.
The drummer-turned-copycat
brings a week-long run to
Darlington's Civic Theatre next
month having seen the show grow in
size and popularity to the extent
where it played six months in the
West End right alongside Abba's
own musical Mamma Mia!
"Basically, I came back from
playing a show with The New
Seekers in 1998 and got talking to a
girl who'd been in an Abba tribute
the previous weekend and it had
gone down enormously well. So I
went home and set about creating
my own show," says Thomas who
feels that the wealth of Abba tribute
tours are quenching a need.
"We couldn't be playing eight
places tonight, but eight places or
more will probably need Abbastyle
entertainment. There's room
for us all. It just shows the
healthiness in the market. Even so,
he has to turn out in a wig, "and
costumes I'd rather not talk about,
but we played in the West End and
have done some pretty big television
events and I genuinely can't
imagine playing any other pop
music that is getting on for 1,100
performances... and still enjoy it
and look forward to running out
on stage."
Abba Mania focuses on the
definitive period when the
Eurovision winners ruled the
music world in the late 1970s
and early 1980s. "I think the
only difference is that we'll
always try to push the
boundaries of the show in
terms of technical progress.
Our PA and lighting system,
for example, is far superior
to anything that Abba could
have bought at the time and
so there are things that are up-todate
with the performance that need
to be because the customers expect
the best." Playing just down the road
from Mama Mia! meant that Benny
and Bjorn, co-creators of Mama
Mia!, were aware of Abba Mania.
"They were aware of us, and so were
their legal team because we were
effectively encroaching on their
space. The great thing for Mama
Mia! was that it was completely sold
out for six months, so we couldn't
have taken a ticket off them because
they had none to sell," says Thomas.
Abba Mania went on to play a big
German TV special in 2004 which
celebrated 30 years of Abba. "On
that show was the cast of Mama
Mia! and some original band
members of Abba from the
Eurovision Song Contest and the
original costume designers. Bjorn
finished the show off. I got to meet
him in a roundabout way and it was
a great thrill because he's such an
immensely talented individual. If
you read any of their books and
interviews then you find they are
totally flattered. It is wonderfully
humble of them and I remember
reading that Bjorn said he doesn't
understand why their music is still
alive today and thriving. He's hugely
grateful and because they were so
close to the music they didn't realise
how good it was."
He says he's fortunate to have
enough time on occasion to play jazz
to help retain his sanity, but adds:
"It's just been a barnstorming career
to be honest, I wouldn't change it."
Asked about where Abba Mania
stands in the pecking order of
tribute acts, Thomas replies: "When
I first started the intention was to do
the best show that I could create and
I was more in competition with
myself. From that point it's really
difficult because every show is going
to say that they're the best. I think
the real yardstick is how many
people you play to. Last weekend we
played to 20,000 people in Brussels at
a live event and if you take a look at
the website and view the others in
terms of dates and who has the most
dates, then you see it's us."
HE admits he does keep a close
eye on the competition for the
Abba market. "You'd be a bit
naive from a business perspective
not to take a look at what the
competition was doing. I'm quietly
satisfied looking at our business and
what size venues we do. And, yeah,
we're the busiest."
Belguim, France, Denmark, Korea
and Australia are all destinations
this year. Thomas confesses to
staying in character all night but
feels that he has to perform as
himself and "I leap about as I leap
about and not as he leaps about, so
that people can see you're having a
good time as opposed to acts I've
seen who don't cut it as a live,
honest performance. Pretending to
be someone pretending to have a
good time is a bit too far for me."
The only downside to being all
things Abba is that the tours take
him away from his home in the
idyllic village of Pwll and the
relentless travelling. "Other than
that it beats working," he says.
The rest of the line-up has
changed frequently and as well as
having to play and sing, he looks for
people who will jell into an act
which has two hours of "high range
singing in a Swedish accent".
He claims that it doesn't feel weird
that people want to meet him as
Bjorn. "But we never lose sight of
the fact we're playing someone else's
music. That keeps your feet on the
ground. I thought it would last two
years and by 2002 I'd be back in a
jobcentre and now I don't know. The
Mama Mia! film release and 30 stage
productions are opening up the rest
of the world to Abba. I think that's
going to help us. As a career it's
been amazing and getting busier.
Long live Abba."
* Abba Mania, Darlington Civic
Theatre, June 3-7. Box Office:
01325-486555. Also September 11,
Journal Tyne Theatre, Newcastle,
Box Office: 0844-493-9999 plus
September 13, Scarborough
10:53am Thursday 22nd May 2008
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