Swedish guitarist Finn Sjöberg’s name is forever etched in the music history books through his work with 1970s pop superstars ABBA.
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His guitar playing was integral to many of ABBA’s now classic songs such as Mamma Mia and Rock Me. He also toured the world with ABBA as part of their live band, which in 1977 took him to Australia for the first time, at the height of ABBA-mania in Australia.
“We landed in Australia after 32 hours on the plane,” he recalls today.
“There were lots of people at the airports, and people standing beside the motorway from the airport into Sydney.
“We did 10 big concerts in four cities, all sold out.
“And there were people waiting outside the concert in Sydney for two days, the last day waiting in pouring rain.”
The 1977 Australian tour was also filmed and later released as ABBA: The Movie. Sjöberg recently published a coffee table book detailing the Australian ABBA tour, with many rare never-before-seen photos from his own collection, which will appeal to many ABBA fans in Australia.
“The book is called Med plektrum i fickan which translates to ‘with a plectrum in your pocket’,” he says.
“Aside from the ABBA section, the book is also about my musical career from the very beginning until I changed direction in life.
“I have listened to a lot of different music, played a lot of different stuff, produced a lot of different albums, everything from children’s albums to rock ’n’ roll albums and released numerous solo albums along the way.
“So, over the years I collected a lot of photos and other materials and memories.
“Unfortunately, the book is in Swedish, but because of an extensive ABBA chapter some people around the world have bought it anyway.
“And for them, I have provided an English translation of the chapter.
“The book contains around 240 pictures and there is a Spotify playlist with examples for each chapter.”
Now in his sixth decade of making music, Sjöberg has experienced both the highs and lows of the music industry, which has brought him much wisdom in his later years.
“Being a musician is not a safe occupation, unless you are authentic and unique,” he says.
“I was lucky to have a steady job with Swedish singer and entertainer Lill Lindfors for 17 years.
“But over time I found out that I could not be a musician only, so I also studied to be a civil engineer and for a long time, I supplemented my music career with IT consulting.
“I do not think it is important to earn all your money from music, as some people do think.
“The most important thing is to be able to love music and play.”
For more on Finn Sjöberg’s music and book, visit: finnsjoberg.se/
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From the diaries — June 2010
With American pop-rock band Train due to tour Australia this coming May, it has brought back memories of the time I interviewed the group’s then guitarist Jimmy Stafford in June 2010 at a boutique hotel on vibrant Chapel St, South Yarra.
At the time, the group had been riding high on the back of their fifth album, Save Me, San Francisco, which had been released the previous year and from which the ukulele-driven single Hey, Soul Sister garnered the band a #1 in 16 countries.
Upon my arrival for the interview, both Stafford and Pat Monahan (Train lead vocalist) were in the hotel’s upstairs foyer filming an interview with Australian Take 40.
Upon completion, Stafford came downstairs and took a seat next to me for the interview.
During our chat, Stafford talked about the band’s recent changes to their line-up and management and how inspired they were now feeling, and that they were enjoying their second wind of success with Hey, Soul Sister.
The band had spent the previous few years on a break that saw them go through a series of changes and a reassessment of their career path.
“We kind of lost it [interest in the band] as maybe we took it for granted a bit,” he revealed to me in the interview.
“And we started chasing rainbows because of the success of Drops Of Jupiter.
“It was like, ‘now we got to do to this again’ and so you keep trying to write songs for the wrong reasons.
“Then a couple of original band members left or were let go for different reasons.
“So, we brought new people in and because of that, the whole band chemistry changed.”
In 2016, after eight albums with Train, Stafford departed the band and another chapter in the band’s history came to an end.
He was replaced by guitarist Luis Carlos Maldonado, who in turn was replaced by Taylor Locke in 2021.
This week’s global album music charts
Australia: ARIA Top 50: No.1, Short n’ Sweet, Sabrina Carpenter
USA: Billboard Hot 200: No.1, SOS, SZA
UK: Top 100: No.1, Diamonds, Elton John
Fun fact
The 1974 hit When Will I See You Again, by American soul girl group The Three Degrees, is unique in its lyrical composition, as every line of the song is actually asking a question.
Joe Matera is a local singer-songwriter, recording artist, guitarist and music journalist providing readers with all the latest music news.
Musical Musings columnist