Going retro on me

Back in the late 1970s I heard Abba’s song SOS for the first time and fell in love with it and then heartily embraced nearly all songs Abba. Mum used to like them as well so we’d see all the Abba specials on tv, hear them on the radio etc. I loved them and because they were so popular there was lots to embrace.

When I was 21 I was given the record (vinyl) of Abba Arrival as a joke. I had a bit of a laugh but was kind of glad I had been given it because I secretly still like Abba even if it was a bit uncool. I still have the record.

Fast forward nearly 30 years and there’s an Abba Singstar game for the Playstation. It has been out a couple of years I think but we only just bought it from eBay last week and consequently we’ve been having our very own Abba revival here.

For those unfamiliar with Singstar you hook up a couple of microphones to your Playstation, select a song and the system judges you, flashing up words throughout the song like bad, awful, cool and good. It also gives you points at the end and lets you know if you’re a Wannabe, a Hit Artist or a Singstar. As I know most of the Abba songs I usually sit in the cool and good categories and get good scores – usually. You can battle with a friend and there’s some songs where one person does the lead and the other does backing vocals.

A friend came round last Friday night before we went out and we did a duet together where she was backing and I was lead. I stuffed up because I was too busy laughing at her attempt at backing vocals. We laughed even more when we played it back and had a listen to ourselves.

I’ve done singing lessons and think I’m a fairly accomplished singer but singing along to Abba is a lot harder than you might think. Those two women can really sing so there’s been a couple of nights this week that have seen me fire up the Singstar and belt out Gimme Gimme Gimme or Voulez Vouz to see if I can beat my score.

JJ has also embraced Abba and his favourite song is Mamma Mia. I now cannot stand to hear the song again. Bless him for trying though. Actually I think this is the start – finally – of him having more of a musical appreciation. Last Saturday before he went to bed he asked if he could listen to some relaxing music to help him get to sleep. I put a Deep Forest CD on for him. He’s now got a second Deep Forest CD in his room and a CD of Abba’s music done on a Hammond organ. He can keep that one. Goodness knows where I got it from.

In his unknown endeavour to embrace retro he’s also started using this lamp at night when he goes to bed.

Now I just hope to pass on my love of the op-shop to him and my work is done.