BABBA still living in the ‘70s

Erin Pearson
MANY cover bands take music lovers back to the catchy music and stellar costumes of the ’70s, leaving younger audiences to imagine what it was like living back then day after day.
They should ask the BABBA quartet for a description.
The tribute group has travelled around the globe playing the hit songs from Swedish pop group ABBA and spending night after night caught up in the ‘70s rush.
A self-confessed Billy Joel diehard fan, Michael Ingvarson takes on the persona of Benny three nights a week.
He told the Independent his job was “the best in the world”.
“Being Benny, it’s great fun,” Ingvarson said.
“At times it’s kind of surreal but when I’m on stage it becomes real and I realise that he is such a great performer and talented songwriter.”
Only a young boy when ABBA mania hit the world, Ingvarson said he still remembered when the craze for the band “took over”.
“I was about seven in 1977 but I remember the reaction,” he said.
“Kids had stickers all over their school bags and the songs were all over Countdown.”
The BABBA foursome stumbled across each other by luck when two of their number enrolled in the same Melbourne University music course and came across the remaining members seeking work in the music industry.
“The original girls had performed in a battle of the bands competition together at the Royal Darby Hotel and the pub’s owner offered thems a regular job as an ABBA thing,” Ingvarson said.
“Not long after I joined along with Hey, Hey it’s Saturday’s Kim May as our bass player and it just progressed from there.”
The group prepared for its debut with little understanding or expectation of the fanfare to follow.
“We played our first gig to see what would happen and 450 people turned up,” he said.
“We realised something good was going on here.”
Fifteen years later, the group still travels the globe covering the song’s of one of the world’s greatest pop bands.
Ingvarson described the BABBA show as “contagious”, with all the right costumes, music and dance moves.
“It’s a real trip down memory lane for everyone who experienced ABBA the first time round and we’re booked a year and a half ahead,” he said.
The self-described song-writer has three children to original BABBA member Frida.
BABBA will visit the Geelong region to play at Batesford’s Dog Rocks Hotel on July 17 and Breakwater’s Buckley’s on August 7.