Paul Wonderful was a founding member of The Joshua Trio, whose mission, you may recall, was to bring the music of U2 to a wider public. Now, when not fronting The Glam Tarts or the Hairy Bowsies, this man of many musical faces is paying homage to Sweden s finest in Abbaesque.
The Abba songs, says Paul, are done as close to the originals as is possible, and it s a bit lighthearted and jokey on stage. We act as if we re Bjvrn, Benny, Agnetha and Annafrid. Benny [who is played by Paul himself] does a kind of a Riverdance, and we teach dances to the audience as well, Ring Ring and Gimme Gimme Gimme . We ve had Joe Rooney the comedian come on and do a version of his underwater Riverdance, where he wears flippers and tights . . . it s difficult to explain, really . . .
So what possessed ABBAesque to get together? Shrewd business acumen certainly seems to have played a part . . .
We kind of reckoned that there were a lot of people into the ABBA thing, and there was the obvious success of Bjvrn Again, but I have to admit that I m surprised by the degree to which people are into ABBA it s a bigger phenomenon than I originally thought. I d say there s 26 ABBA songs that almost everybody would know it s kind of amazing really.
My mother now would be in her sixties, and she loves ABBA. She s wanted to go to our gigs, though she wasn t in a hurry to go and see my other things, I can tell ye. . . . And then again I m hearing stories about my nieces who are two and three, and they ve got ABBA tapes. And when you play the festivals down the country you d have five and six-year-olds, probably dressed like Spice Girls, coming up to do the dances, and they would know the songs. And yet you d get people who are into the trendiest of things who also like ABBA; that kind of kitchy thing doesn t seem to have worn off. Then obviously there s a huge gay interest. So you re getting a lot of different people into it.
ancient rune stone
What words of wisdom does the ABBAfied Paul say? He gives the hurdy-gurdy thing his best shot, singing out:
Hello, I am Benny, I am from Sweden. I drive a car, I eat muesli. I like to do lots of things but I love music most of all, and it has made my life.
We tell little stories behind some of the songs, continues Paul, resuming the wryly humorous tone he uses in normal conversation. There s always a bit of jealousy from Annafrid when I get married to a member of the audience before I Do, I Do, I Do . Generally speaking on stage we would play up to each other; sometimes Agnetha comes over to my side of the stage, which I like, but I m not so fond of when Annafrid goes over to Bjvrn, and it seems that more of the girls are into Bjvrn than they are into me, which I haven t really come to terms with yet we seem to be mirroring ABBA in that respect as well. Unfortunately, I think Glen (who plays Bjvrn) is probably better looking than Bjvrn was, as well.
Do ABBAesque feel an affinity on etheric levels, even with the band who are the very source of their existence?
What we believe is that Bjvrn, Benny, Annafrid and Agnetha came across an ancient rune stone which gave them special powers in the woods in Sweden and there s a lot of woods in Sweden and they eh, eh . . . (call it highly perceptive, but here I get the feeling that Paul s making things up) and eh, they . . . were basically able to take the form of three Irish people, and one Norwegian, coincidentally I think they wanted a little bit of authenticity, there.
Basically, bullshits Paul, concluding his rather bizarre thesis, we believe that we are Bjvrn, Benny, Annafrid and Agnetha when we re on stage.
Have ABBAesque ever met their real counterparts? Indeed they have. Well, sort of. Paul launches into the story of their closest encounter.
Our keyboard player in The Glam Tarts was going out with somebody who was Swedish and claimed to be the niece of Benny, and she said that Benny was dead on. She had heard that Bjvrn wasn t as nice as Benny, and someone else told me that as well. Paul looks happy at this recollection, particularly since Bjvrn s better looks tend to pull all the chicks. So at least I m kind of pleased about that . . . n
ABBAesque play at The Point on New Year s Eve.