This has to be one of the most brilliant TV Specials ABBA ever made but also one of the most irritating and frustrating. They looked fantastic but you never got decent close-up camera shots.

Rather surprisingly, Mamma Mia was not included in the setlist for this show.

Songs performed:

1. Eagle
2. Take A Chance On Me
3. Introductions - Björn, Agnetha, Benny and Frida
4. Money Money Money (LIVE)
5. SOS (LIVE)
6. That's Me
7. Tiger
8. Dancing Queen
9. Benny introduced Waterloo
10. Waterloo
11. Frida introduced Fernando
12. Fernando (one verse only)
13. Agnetha introduced Summer Night City
14. Summer Night City
15. (The Name of the Game)*
16. Knowing Me, Knowing You
17. If It Wasn't For The Nights - the original television broadcast featured a slightly different early mix.  The DVD release used ABBA's final mix for the performance but the early mix was included on the DVD release as a bonus feature.
18. Björn introduced Thank You For The Music
19. Thank You For The Music (LIVE)

*The Name of The Game was not included in the original television broadcast in Japan in 1978.  We became aware of its existence, and that it was filmed at the same time as Knowing Me, Knowing You and If It Wasn't For the Nights (ie. in 1977 live costumes) in 1994 because a brief clip of it was shown on the BBC's A For ABBA programme in 1994. However, it WAS included in the DVD release of the ABBA in Japan  DVD and so is included in the gallery here in the order in which it appears on the DVD - and therefore in the programme.  Why it was not originally broadcast is not clear.  I wouldn't be surprised if it was a timing issue, which might also explain why only a shortened version of Fernando was performed.

Talking of A For ABBA, they showed an out-take of Frida's introduction where she forgot her lines. But not only that, the clip of Björn was different to this TV Special because the clip shown in A For ABBA showed him pointing twice at the camera when introducing himself when he says "the first B in ABBA" and then again when he says "Björn Borg". 

Eagle was particularly frustrating as you never got a close-up although the stage setting is beautiful like being up in the clouds.

The clips in the pink and blue sparkly outfits (That's Me, Tiger andDancing Queen) were really frustrating because of the Japanese dancers hogging the limelight. 

In the original broadcast version of Summer Night City, the screen was annoyingly split into four containing shots of ABBA promos (Money, Money, Money, The Name of the Game and Summer Night City can be identified), scenes from Stockholm/Sweden and the performance of Summer Night City took up only a quarter of the screen at any one time. A possible explanation for this (now we have the full screen version on the ABBA in Japan DVD), is that the camera is knocked slightly off balance at one point. It was possibly felt that by splitting the screen up with four different moving images, viewers wouldn't notice the mistake!  I have included the DVD released pictures in the gallery here rather than the original broadcast version.

Knowing Me, Knowing You seemed a strange choice of song to perform in the 1977 tour costumes with happy, colourful balloons in the background - all too jolly for a sad song.

This programme was released on the ABBA in Japan DVD in October 2009.

1. Thank You For The Music - the wonderful way Agnetha takes a piece of gold confetti away from her lip after it stuck there after falling from above.

Björn started off the introductions:

Bjorn: "Hello! I'm the first B. My first name is the same as the famous tennis player, Björn Borg. Now we've toured many countries. We've been in Europe and we've been in Australia and we sure would like to come to Japan and do some concerts as well but now this time, it's just a TV special. And now I'd like to introduce the A in front of me. Here she is ..."

Agnetha: "Hello! I'm Agnetha. I know it's very hard for you to pronounce but you can say "Agnetha" or you can say "Anna". When we came here, we discovered that you have very long days. In Sweden we have only five hours daylight by now. We go ski-ing, we play ice-hockey and and we talk about love! And here's the next B."

Benny: "Hello, I'm B for Benny. I just wonder what you people know about Sweden and the Swedes. I guess you've heard about the midnight sun. You've probably heard about the writer August Strindberg and our movie-maker Ingemar Bergman maybe Alfred Nobel and the Nobel Prize. And if you listen to music, I hope that you've heard about the lady I'm going to present to you right now. Here's Frida."

Frida: "Hello. My name is Anni-Frid- the last A in ABBA. We all met because of our interest in music and also because the boys fell madly in love with us girls! So it all came very natural - and as we have known each other for so long, it's quite easy to keep the group together. And now I would like to introduce the next song and it's Money Money Money.

Benny introducing Waterloo:
"One of the main reasons for us being here in Japan today is the Eurovision Song Contest. We won it in 1974 in Brighton in England with a song called Waterloo"

Frida introducing Fernando:
"Since the Eurovision Song Contest, we have had a lot of hits all around the world and I must say it's really fantastic to have a job like ours and to be able to go all around and meet a lot of people. Now we would like to calm it down a little bit and sing for you Fernando.

Agnetha introducing Summer Night City:
"At home we have summer houses on an island outside Stockholm where we spend the summers - with long lazy days and short wonderful nights. Stockholm is really a Summer Night City!"

Björn introducing Thank You For The Music:
"Well now there's nothing more left to say than thank you for staying with us listening and watching. We're really happy that we could come here to Japan and make this Special. We like to think that through our songs we can communicate with people, so what's more appropriate to say than Thank You For The Music.

Lyrics available on the Official ABBA site: Eagle, Take A Chance On Me, Money Money Money, SOS, That's Me, Tiger, Dancing Queen, Waterloo, Fernando, Summer Night City, Knowing Me, Knowing You, If It Wasn't For The Nights, Thank You For The Music

Thanks to Jan Bach for information and Mayumi Taheri for broadcast information.
Thanks also to Philippe Dupont, Pascale Ranson, Tania Arana Matus, Icethesite, Danny Guyon, Jozsef, Jun Seo, Ian Cole and Petr Mlejnek.
YouTube links c/o ABBA Music Videos