ABBAMAIL
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
ABBAMAIL is an ABBA fan organisation on the Internet. Based in Australia, ABBAMAIL's mission is to celebrate Abba, Abba fans and Abba fandom on the Internet. It contains monthly columns, regular news updates, FAQs, as well as a comprehensive archive including pictures, press releases and original articles.
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[edit] Origins
The ABBAMAIL e-mail list was created on 13 January 1997 to give Abba fans an unmoderated voice on the Internet. The incumbent list at the time, Abba-List, was criticised for not allowing freedom of speech.
Two members, Graeme Read and Grant Whittingham created ABBAMAIL as an alternative to Abba-List. The pair had been the President and Treasurer of the original Australian Abba Fan Club (1976 to 1983) respectively and brought their combined experience to the new venture. ABBAMAIL has since superseded Abba-List, which faded into obscurity.
Over five hundred people initially joined the list, and within months the web site had been created. Most of the content was provided by list members, with other content coming from the personal collection of the site owners.
[edit] Conventions
ABBAMAIL has been responsible for bringing fans together, both via the e-mail list and web site and via conventions held in Australia. The usual format of an ABBAMAIL convention is a welcome, followed by merchandise sales, rare or topical video presentations, a break for lunch, a guest speaker with question and answer sessions, followed by dinner and an Abba disco.
The following conventions have been held to date by ABBAMAIL in Sydney -
Australian Tour: 20 Year Celebration - March 1997. Special Guest - Annie Wright, who was an employee of RCA in the 1970s and accompanied the group on their Australian tour. [1]
Women of Abba - June 1997. [2]
Summer Night City - November 1998. [3]
The ABBA Generation - November 1999. Special Guest - Shelley Benson, who was Abba's promotional manager at RCA in the 1970s. [4]
CMP Down Under - September 2001. Special Guest - Abba historian and author, Carl Magnus Palm. [5]
MAD 05 - September 2005. [6]
[edit] The ABBAMAIL Effect
Through its ability to focus comments from a large number of Abba fans into one forum, ABBAMAIL has impacted parts of Abba's music production, such as PolyGram and Universal Music re-releasing CDs in a corrected form. In 1997, all eight studio albums were remastered and re-released. Audiophiles among the fan group immediately noticed errors and problems with this mastering and discussed being disappointed by the quality of the covers. Due to complaints forwarded via the list to people at Universal, a new set of remasters was released in 2001 with sound errors corrected. The original negatives were sourced for the cover art, resulting in the first clear covers since CDs had been released.
ABBAMAIL was also asked for assistance in locating additional material for the ABBA - In Concert DVD and the ABBA: The Movie DVD release. In his book, "Bright Lights, Dark Shadows - The Real Story of Abba" (considered to be the first serious biography on the group), author Carl Magnus Palm thanks the ABBAMAIL list along with many individual ABBAMAIL members who assisted him with his work.
Fans on the list connected initially via the e-mail list. These personal friendships have resulted in people travelling around the world in order to meet face to face.
[edit] Controversy
In May 2006, ABBAMAIL were threatened with legal action by MIPI (Music Industry Piracy Investigations) working on behalf of Universal Music. ABBAMAIL had offered bootleg recordings of non-commercially available television appearances and home recorded live concerts on CD. According to ABBAMAIL, Universal Music had known about this for several years and previously chose not to take any action.
Initially, they demanded all items in the web shop containing the Abba logo to be removed from sale. This was completed. A new demand was issued demanding all "master discs" used for manufacture. This was completed also.
A campaign was begun with Abba fans e-mailing the record company and the groups representatives to protest the action. As of 15 September 2006, the legal action was complete, at a cost of over AU$4,000 in legal fees. MIPI advised they were happy with the compliance of their demands and no further action was pending.
