The Story Of My Fanatic Years

Picture it. Vilppula, Finland. The 1970's. The sleepy little hamlet situated exactly in the middle of nowhere in rural Finland. A young boy humming along to the sounds pouring from the wireless... Honey Honey, Mamma Mia, Money Money Money, Dum Dum Diddle, Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!... And yet every single day he left the house he had to fight against the prejudiced torrent of punk, rockabilly and worst of all: the so-called Finnish New Wave. Hunted, despised, living like an animal. It was like dancing on tightrope. And how I danced and danced. Almost became a dancing queen. Almost but not quite

In the beginning of the eighties I started collecting everything with ABBA on it. During those years I poured all my money to the sweaty palms of ice-cold record dealers. Coloured / shaped / one-sided vinyl / pic disc / G/Fold sleeve / poster-pull-out / pic cover / diff. pic / special edition / souvenir edition / limited one / edited / remix / ext. version / PROMO! All magic words to this little ABBA Fan. It has to mentioned here that before I knew what those terms meant, I only knew about the albums. Well, I knew that there were these small records called singles, but I had never seen one. Then a friend taped me some B-sides and I suddenly realized that these small records actually were quite desirable, usually having beautiful covers and tracks not available on albums. Needless to say, this friend had been out of Vilppula several times while I had not...

Pump it, pump it, pump it, baby... ... Then I discovered the mail-order business. I remember franticly browsing thru a fresh catalogue from Adrians or (later) POP Import. Heart pumping, temperature rising (to the fever pitch occasionally), seeing what goodies they have in store for me now.

On those days, in Finland, ordering stuff from overseas was very expensive with all the triple- sized P&Ps and cheque provisions for the bank. Sometimes a surprise expense would come along. I can still recall one order from POP Import that cost me the customs fee DOUBLE. Needless to say ot hurt. I won't go to it deeper now, I just say that it was NOT POP Import's fault but the Finnish customs "service". It left me bitter, Bitter, BITTER...

So by the middle of the eighties I had numerous ABBA pen pals, got newsletters from several fan clubs, went to see Chess in London. Towards the end of the decade things began sort of fade. And then...

ŠKari S. 1997