Sure, we looked dumb - but we saved a shedload of tax: Abba explain those outfits
Abba's trademark outfits of spangles and sparkles were in fact part of a (not-so-fiendish) tax-saving scheme.
Wearing them meant the Swedish supergroup could exploit a Swedish law which meant clothes were tax deductible if - and this bit's crucial - their owners could prove they were not used for daily wear.
Band member Bjorn Ulvaeus recalls in a piece carried in the Mail on Sunday’s Event magazine: “In my honest opinion, we looked like nuts in those years. Nobody can have been as badly dressed on stage as we were.”
Sure, but that dampens no one's spirits if you win the Eurovision, right?
Abba – which also included Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Agnetha Faltskog and Benny Andersson – have launched a new book which is being serialised by the magazine. This year marks the 40th anniversary of their breakthrough Eurovision Song Contest victory.
Bjorn added: “We figured with our clothes, people would remember us even if we finished ninth.”
Frida notes: “We chose clothes we felt comfortable in. My favourite was a body stocking with a little dress cut diagonally. I thought I was elegant and sexy in it.”
Most of us have fashion disasters we'd rather forget - but that's not a luxury available to multi-squillion selling pop stars. Their unique look is captured forever in Madame Tussauds - check out Bjorn's dungaree tassels and sparkly bits. And does Benny's outfit yell 'cowboy astronaut' to you, or is that just us?
Abba were together from 1972 to 1982. There has been no announcement of a reunion. Boo!
