Bright Lights Dark Shadows cover art

Bright Lights Dark Shadows

The real story of Abba

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Bright Lights Dark Shadows

By: Carl Palm
Narrated by: Adrian Mulraney
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

 An exploration of all aspects of the Abba member’s lives and careers. Amazingly detailed, it examines the group member’s family backgrounds, the pre-Abba days, the legendary Seventies, the marriages, the divorces, the business ups and downs and the post-Abba solo careers.©2002 Carl Magnus Palm by agreement with Bengt Nordin Agency (P)2011 Bolinda Publishing Entertainment & Celebrities Music Celebrity Career

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Little Girl Blue cover art
King's Counsellor cover art
That Mitchell and Webb Sound: The Complete Series 1-5 cover art
On This Day in Politics cover art
Clockwork Angels cover art
Overpaid, Oversexed and Over There cover art
Billy Joel cover art
Nilsson cover art
Positively 4th Street cover art
My Cross to Bear cover art
Sing to Me cover art
The Rise of Prince: 1958-1988 cover art
Maximum Volume: The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin cover art
Van Halen Rising cover art
Can't Buy Me Love cover art
Fortunate Son cover art

Critic reviews

“Another fine addition to the canon of music biographies… Palm’s biography is extremely thorough and dipped deeply in a pond of melancholy.” (The Times)
“A melancholy insight into the gulf between dreams and reality.” (Stuff)
“How did Abba do it? And why, 20 years after they split, are they still so popular? Palm’s book achieves the difficult feat of capturing the multiple layers of Abba… with a deftness unusual in a rock biography.” (The Sunday Times)
"It ain’t exactly Keith Richards’s LIFE, full of hair-raising stories of rock-and-roll, but, as its title implies, this book exposes the humanity behind the otherworldly presence that is the Swedish band Abba. In the 1970s they were pioneers of dance pop and world music while maintaining a sleek, detached edge that, at times, made them seem cold and calculating. The text is delivered deftly by Adrian Mulraney, whose familiarity with stage performance in Australian theater makes him a natural for the high drama of Abba's up-and-down saga. His voice resonates with a condescending tone that decries the ego game of pop success while revealing the intimate details of the musicians’ personal lives." (AudioFile Magazine)
All stars
Most relevant  
A very very in depth and engaging account of one of the biggest music phenomenons the world has ever seen. It took a while to get through but gives a very clear picture of the lives and the music and the impact they had on the world.

If you love their music, you'll love there story..

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A well researched biography of the group, my only complaint there was far too much info regarding their business ventures

Well read and absorbing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A very indepth account of one of the world's Supergroups. Delving details with a compassionate narrator. A must for anyone interested in the music industry and in particular Abba.

Labour of love

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Nice distinct English from the reader, however, pronunciation of Swedish names or words is abysmal, clearly no effort made to consult with anyone Swedish in this case. Shame!

Interesting and in depth account of ABBA, their career, musical development and much more.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A superb overview and insight into the best pop band ever. Loads of facts and superb research. It could do with an an additional update as it's now slightly out of date at the end, but a terrific effort.

Definitive in terms of info

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great for a music industry insider . This went into every record and how it did . This became repetitive and boring . Enjoyed the content about the band members but this was soon over and back to taking about production

Not enough personal content

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Long And at times boring and hard to follow. Abba are an incredible story but this was a bit long winded!!

Bit boring

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
a well written book, though it feels clunky and awkwardly phrased in places, which I suspect is a result of the translation from Swedish to English.
Similarly the narration is mostly good, but every time there is a Swedish phrase or name to be said the narrator slows right down and takes a deep breath, which is very noticeable.
However the story is extremely interesting and written with great care and detail.

very interesting story, great detail

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Enjoyed mostly but far too much about the financial side and the personal lives were skimmed over with very little details I didn’t know. Announcing of song names etc done in a very irritating way.

Succinct

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Like many fans of Abba, the first time I saw them was on the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton and you could tell, they were good and well above the average. Abba really made it big in Germany with plenty of radio time and TV appearances. Listening to Abba when I was serving in the forces in Germany brought a lot of happiness into my life and I am still a massive fan. Many years ago, I bought ‘ Abba - The Complete Recording Sessions ‘ by the same author and it was a truly informative read and I even re-read it quite often. I was very pleased to see that he had taken on this project and I can’t recommend it highly enough. Massive amount of detail which true fans will love. The only thing that would have made it better would have been the inclusion of a PDF file with photos which I am fairly sure would be in the physical copy.

Abba - As it was

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews