ABBA bassist recalls the glory days
It’s the perfect celebration of ABBA’s Eurovision song contest triumph in Brighton exactly 50 years ago.
Transcript
00:00 Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers. Now, in
00:07 this 50th anniversary year of ABBA winning Eurovision in Brighton on the 6th of April
00:14 1974, it's really lovely to speak to Mike Watson, who is coming to Brighton to play
00:21 with Arrival, playing the music of ABBA, actually one day before that 50th anniversary. But
00:28 the point is, Mike, for the whole of ABBA's career, all their success, you were a big
00:35 part of the band, weren't you? You were on so many of the songs, playing with the four
00:40 of them. What on earth was that like to be so much at the heart of music history, basically?
00:49 That was great being a part of ABBA. I'm just amazed that like 50 years ago, since we started
00:57 a couple of years before, 1972, we started playing with them in the studio. So I'm just
01:04 as amazed as everybody else that they're still around, they're still going well. And I'm
01:08 fortunate to be able to go out and play ABBA with Arrival.
01:15 As you say, the music just does not age at all, does it? It's kept freshness, hasn't
01:21 it?
01:22 Yeah, it doesn't matter where you, you know, I've played all over the world with Arrival
01:25 and every country comes on, ABBA comes on the radio, you know, it's everywhere. Even
01:32 China, I was in China for a month playing with ABBA.
01:35 And you can hear so much in the background, but as soon as you hear ABBA, your ears prick
01:41 up, don't they?
01:44 Yeah. And what's amazing now is when we play out the concert, you think that, oh, it's
01:53 everybody's 50 years on, you know, but the teenagers just in the audience singing along.
02:00 And that's great. That's really, really, really great.
02:05 And as you were saying, they were big stars in their own right before they became ABBA,
02:10 so they were used to fame. But when superstardom around the world came along, how on earth
02:15 did they cope with that? How did they keep their feet on the ground during those huge
02:19 years of ABBA? And you were part of it.
02:27 I think they're just down to earth people, all of them, you know, nice people. They never
02:34 had that big ego thing that a lot of big artists have. They're just down to earth.
02:43 Fantastic. And you were with them and through until the end then, which must have been a
02:49 sad time when the band split.
02:52 Yeah, well, yeah. Well, the boys went on, you know, Björn and Benny did the Chess and
02:59 another musical here in Sweden. Chess was in London, of course, and then there was the
03:08 films that came. And I think that brought them back again. They'd already been there,
03:14 but it was like a reunion for them. Now voyage.
03:19 Well, they'd never really gone away, had they? But it put the focus back on...
03:24 They've always been there. Yeah. Every day I heard them on the radio.
03:29 Can you explain why they are still so important? Why they still have this hold? And Brighton
03:36 have just announced they're going to put a plaque up on the dome where they won Eurovision
03:41 that night. Why are they still so significant?
03:46 I think the songs are unique. The girls together are unique and Björn and Benny's songwriting
03:54 and the production with Michael Trettoffer, the technician, the sound guy. It's very unique
04:02 and it's up there with the Beatles, Stones, Beach Boys, Queen, of course.
04:08 Absolutely. And for you, it must feel incredible just to think, look back, to realise that
04:14 you were right in the thick of it all. Yeah. I'm just amazed as everybody else, you
04:21 know, that I was a part of it and I'm still a part of it and I can still go out and play
04:28 and I was talking to Laszlo, one of the guitar players, who was also out playing with a trivia
04:39 band, and we said, we never get tired of playing these songs because they're so intricate.
04:46 You know, you can't, you have to keep on your toes all the time because there's a lot of
04:51 happening for us. So we never get tired of playing the songs. That's what makes them
04:57 unique I guess. Fantastic. Well, they've certainly stood
05:01 every test of time haven't they? Mike, really lovely to speak to you. The show that you're
05:05 involved in, Arrival from Sweden, is at the Brighton Centre then on Friday, April the
05:12 5th. Lovely to speak to you. Thank you very much indeed.
05:16 Thank you very much. Bye.