When I lived in the USA, Fred Rogers had his own children’s’ show on American television. In the popular programme Rogers sort of played himself – he is Mr Rogers. The show usually opened with him arriving ‘home’ and singing his trademark opening song “A beautiful day in the neighbourhood” before speaking directly to camera and asking “won’t you be my neighbour?”.
I confess to enjoying this background hum of gentle activity on day time television. The pace was slow, the themes authentic. Though the years have passed, as I began watching Tom Hanks portray Rogers, I admit to harbouring my own pre-conceived ideas about the storyline. Nearly all of them were wrong.
I was delighted to discover that this film is as much about Fred Rogers as it is about the journalist, Lloyd Vogel, (played by Matthew Rhys) who interviews Rogers at length over the course of several months. I relish films which reveal the internal struggles of writers. Especially ‘tortured’ writers, of which Vogel is definitely one. His character is based on real life journalist, Tom Junod, who wrote the 1998 article “Can you say … Hero?” published in Esquire.
During one interview there was an intense, pivotal moment when Vogel, an angry troubled soul, challenges Rogers about the success of his role as a father. Clearly wounded and outraged by this probing, deeply personal question, Rogers squares up to this intentional nastiness with a glaring, lip pursing silence, before delivering a thoughtful gracious response. In this particular scene, I found veteran actor Hanks, mesmerising in his depiction of a man choosing to process and control his raw anger before speaking out or taking action which might hurt another person.
Whether or not you’re familiar with the work of Fred Rogers, A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood, delivers a heart-warming story in which kindness overcomes cruelty.
To help us choose a long lasting Christmas tree Sorted Magazine asked Chris Bonnet, the founder of Gardening Express for his top tips “If you want your tree to look the best then it’s worth doing a few checks to get the best value for your money. Don’t base your selection just on looks, as some trees that look green and lively may actually be drying already, and keep in mind that some sellers also paint their trees.”
Chris suggests that it’s a good idea to measure how much space you have available and choose a tree to fit, taking into account the tree topper and stand. Look at the colour of the tree, the greener the better. Avoid trees with grey or brown colouring. Check that the needles are flexible; tough needles that snap easily are the first sign of a dying tree. Check if the needles are shedding by running your hands through the branches or tapping on the trunk of the tree. Keep in mind that some shedding of needles is expected, especially with the warmer climate this year, but if lots are falling off then you may want to consider a fresher tree. Pines and firs are considered more family friendly as they have softer needles, whereas spruces have a strong distinctive pine scent. A tree which has been kept in partial shade will adjust better to the indoors because it’s been protected from sunlight.
And Chris’s final tip? He said: “Alternatively, people can save themselves the trouble and buy their Christmas tree online from us at Gardening Express and get it delivered straight to their door!”
Frankie & Benny’s has pledged to donate a festive meal to someone in need for every turkey dinner they sell. Sasha Storey, Head of Brand, said: “Frankie & Benny’s is a restaurant brand with families at its core, so it’s really important for us that we support other families in need at this time of year. The cost of living crisis will be hard for so many and we must remember to try to help others now and in the future as best we can.”
This Christmas campaign operates in partnership with Feeding Britain. Andrew Forsey, National Director of Feeding Britain, said: “With growing numbers of people relying on our help to put food on the table, this partnership is absolutely crucial to supporting our mission to tackle food poverty in the UK. We are enormously grateful.”
Feeding Britain is an award winning charity which supports a national network of 60 regional anti-hunger partnerships comprising more than 600 local organisations, ranging from community centres and schools, to local authorities and social enterprises.
For £1 Feeding Britain can provide a meal for those in need. For every Yuletide Stuffed Turkey dinner sold Frankie & Benny’s will donate £1 to Feeding Britain. To help others this Christmas please visit: https://feedingbritain.org/donate/
Common football phrases have been translated into different languages for fans who are looking to expand their vocabulary while following football this winter. The most popular expressions used to describe the ‘beautiful game’ have been translated by an award winning team of linguists at Busuu, offering English football fans international lingo to shout at the TV during matches.
To get a better grasp at the competing nations’ culture and do a bit of language learning, fans are encouraged to familiarise themselves with international football talk. English fans can put their language skills to the test by learning how to say common phrases like “Foul!”, “They’ve bottled it!” and “Back of the net!” in Spanish, German, Italian, Arabic and French.
A spokesperson for Busuu said: “Watching sports in a different language allows you to combine a pastime you love with a more challenging activity, making it an enjoyable and effective approach to learning a new language. We encourage football fans to switch the match commentary to a language they’re trying to pick up, because this way their brain won’t associate learning with hard work, but instead they’ll absorb the expressions and jargon subconsciously.
“Even if acquiring a new language is not your goal, then learning to ‘speak football’ in a foreign language can be useful when you want to chat with international footie fans and impress your friends with foreign expressions while watching matches on the TV. There’s no doubt that it would make the entire room chuckle if instead of “Man on!” you shouted “Achtund, Hintermann!” at the TV.”
Here’s Busuu’s list of popular football lingo in different languages:
What bird do you associate with this time of year? For most people, the answer is the robin. But for the team at Hope for Justice, at Christmas especially, they think of the bird in their logo, the swallow. Tim Nelson, Chief Executive at Hope for Justice explained: “Over winter, swallows travel an incredible 6,000 miles from the UK to South Africa and Namibia. It takes them six weeks, and as well as coping with extreme weather conditions, they run the risk of starvation and exhaustion. But, despite their long migration, swallows nearly always come back to the same colony, and almost half have been found to return to the exact same nest.”
This process has close parallels to the work at Hope for Justice. As well as rescuing people out of exploitative situations, they work to safely reunite survivors of modern slavery with their families. Many of the survivors they work with have been trafficked across continents. Even more feel worlds away from the person they once were and the life they once had.
Tim said: “No matter where someone is on their journey, we walk alongside them so they feel safe, supported, seen. And our greatest joy of all comes when we step back, and watch them fly. This Christmas, you can help a survivor feel like themselves again. You can help a survivor return home. And you can be the reason they can soar to their full potential.”
Thanks to a generous match-donor, whatever you can give to Hope for Justice this year will be doubled, meaning you can have twice the impact. Please donate here.
When it comes to discussing the mental mindset of an athlete, one story comes to mind, and many people know the story by its hit family friendly movie portrayal Cool Runnings.
Over one billion people watched Dudley Tal Stokes and his team crash out of the Olympic Games in 1988 in Calgary. A crash that happened at 80mph, resulting in the team’s helmets dragging along the wall of the run for over 2000ft. Many people remember the team walking alongside their sled with overwhelming applause from the onlookers and fellow teams competing.
For a person who had been a highflyer his whole life, the outcome was extremely devastating. Dudley, a graduate of the RMA Sandhurst and a Pilot in the elite Jamaica Defence Force Air Wing, was recognised as someone who had a winner’s mentality.
Dudley Tal Stokes comments: “Burnout is the term used to describe a lethargy felt by someone towards their mode of earning a living and is thought to be the result of internal and external pressures that cause them to lose motivation and interest in what they are doing. This is often recognised as the longterm condition of quiet quitting. But I was not a quitter …
“I could have easily quit after what happened at my first Winter Olympics, but instead I focused on my key three areas to get up and keep going; physicality, mentality, and ability. A Senior Military Officer for whom I worked with had recently passed over for promotion and explained to me ‘Dudley, you think you are looking at me, but that is not so. This is not me; this is just the kit’. In other words, the body may be present, but the meaningful presence is what is within.
“Everybody will fail, but you have to come back, learn from the previous failure, access the goal and try again another way, and that’s exactly what I went on to do.”
Ultimately, six years after the 1988 games, the Jamaican bobsleigh team became the tenth best team in the world. Hard work and an Olympian mindset paid off. Dudley has since personally competed in two more Olympic Games, and the Jamaican bobsleigh team were 14th sled overall in the Lillehammer Norway games in 1994, beating all the American sleds.
THE INTERVIEW: A SNEAK PEEK
Steve Legg (SL): Growing up did you have a sort of sense of destiny that you were on this planet to achieve something amazing?
Dudley ‘Tal’ Stokes (DTS):
I always dreamt of representing Jamaica. Now, Jamaica is a relatively small place, but the guy who grew up to the west of me went on to win a bronze medal in the 4 x 100 and the World Championships in 1983. And then the guy who was two miles to the east of me, was a guy named Jimmy Adams, who then played for the West Indies for many, many years, in the shadow of Brian Lara. But he actually scored as many centuries as Brian Lara did. Lara scored some huge ones.
In Jamaica you’re rubbing shoulders with athletic royalty all the time. The high school I went to, the coach of the high school was a guy called Herb McKinley, was Jamaica’s first Olympic medalist, and he won medals in the ’48 games at 200 and 400 and came back four years later and won a medal at the 100 meters. This outstanding athlete and he was a high school coach.
You have this sense that there is something for you to do in sport. And I think many, many Jamaican children grow with that. And it feeds the sort of athletic excellence that we produce because it starts very young and people start thinking and dreaming. They build that desire and they do the work and the competitive pressures through outstanding athletes. And I was in those pressures. I wasn’t getting anywhere. I thought I’d lost my chance and then the bobsleigh opportunity came along.
SL: I mean, who would’ve thought it? We fell in love with the movie, Cool Running, the Jamaican Bobsleigh Team. A concept so outrageous it could only be made if it was true.
DTS:Yeah. Well that is one of the things that you just couldn’t make up. There is no imagination that ever lived that would’ve sat down and said, “Yeah, this is how it’s going to be.” Is an incredible story that has unfolded.
SL: Oh man, we’re going to talk about it, but just going back to what you said, I love that mindset. Is it a typical Jamaican mindset that anything is possible?
DTS:Yeah, and I think it has become typical and that’s because examples of it abound and they’re not far from you. You go down to the plaza on a Saturday afternoon and you’re going to run into somebody who has achieved at the highest level. That just happens all the time in Jamaica. It’s not myth. You can see the guy right there, you see Usain Bolt standing over there and you say hi to him and he say hi back and wave. When you’re that close to that level, it is not hard for you to make the association and to start thinking and dreaming about taking such a step yourself.
And I think that’s endemic in Jamaican society and it throws up a lot of performers in the areas in where you have opportunities, in athletics and football, cricket, in those areas in entertainment. Those are the areas, because of the economic realities, these are where the opportunities lie and so the talent goes there.
Christian campaigners are highlighting the realities of violence against women during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. Red chairs are being placed in churches, businesses, train stations and schools to raise awareness that, globally, a woman or girl dies at the hands of an intimate partner or family member every 11 minutes.
The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence is an annual campaign that begins on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and runs through to International Human Rights Day on 10 December.
The Red Chair Project began in French churches, but now through the Christian Network to End Domestic Abuse, is being replicated throughout the world by Christian organisations who want to galvanise the church to speak up and do something about violence against women and girls.
The Red Chair Project involves reserving an empty chair in a public place with a sign in red highlighting facts about domestic violence. The empty chair also serves as a visual symbol of the lives lost to gender-based violence. The colour red reminds us all of the violence faced by millions of women in war zones, on city streets, and also in their own homes. The sign is available in French, English, Spanish, Hindi, Romanian, Hungarian, and more.
Bekah Legg, CEO of Christian charity Restored says; “At Restored, we speak up about violence against women 365 days a year, but this is a great opportunity for everyone to do something simple. Violence against women is such a pervasive problem, that most people don’t know where to start, but this project makes it easy to make a difference and start to change a culture which normalises violence against women.”
Restored will be sharing pictures of Red Chairs around the country on their social media over the 16 Days of Activism. If you would like to get involved and set up your own Red Chair in your community, find out more and download the resources at www.restored-uk.org/redchair.
David Baddiel, Frank Skinner and The Lightning Seedshave recorded a new version of their iconic football anthem ‘Three Lions (It’s Coming Home for Christmas)’. They were so inspired when England Women won the Euros this summer that they re-recorded the track with new lyrics and an audio clip of the Lionesses triumphant press conference rendition of the song. David Baddiel said: “At last it’s between me and Mariah Carey for who really is the voice of Christmas. We just had to do it. Christmas World Cup songs are not like buses. If we’d let this opportunity pull away, it would have been a very long wait for the next one.”
Frank Skinner added. “ ‘Three Lions on a sleigh, with She-Lion’s Inspiration, Santa says let’s play, the Christmas tree formation’ is just one new verse destined to get the country up on their feet and singing for 90 minutes.” In the feel good video, Sir Geoff Hurst swaps his England kit for a Santa Suit; Lioness heroes Jess Carter and Beth England recreate their celebratory dance; while David, Frank and the Lightning Seeds decorate the tree as kids join in the festivities. Watch the video HERE.
‘Three Lions (Football’s Coming Home)’ is the only song to have ever become UK number one on four separate occasions with the same artists: twice in 1996 when it was originally released, for three straight weeks in 1998 and again in 2018 when it made chart history by moving up from number 24 to number one in one week! During the 2020 Euros, the song spent four weeks in the top ten and on the final day of that tournament had over three million Spotify streams.
Three Lions (It’s Coming Home For Christmas) is available from Sony Music in the following formats all of which fit snuggly under the Christmas tree:
7” Limited edition signed white vinyl White Cassette 7” white vinyl CD single And from all download and streaming services.
This is a very personal story but I feel it is important to highlight to everyone why I will not be watching the World Cup.
A few years ago, while I was working out in the Middle East, I had the chance to do some charity work in a labour camp; yes that’s what they are called. We went in to provide phone cards so the ‘workers’ could phone home. As soon as I arrived in the building I had to run out as I was being physically sick from the awful stench of body odour, urine, faeces and stale food all mixed together.
A few minutes later (with some menthol rub on my nose) I went back in to offer the phone cards. The sight that I saw in there was beyond my worst expectations. These men were sleeping in a room where three of the four walls were lined with triple bunk beds. The only free floor space was just big enough for them to have a single hot plate to cook on. All their clothes and possessions had to stay on their beds as the room with nine people didn’t have space for wardrobes.
Their washing facilities were repulsive with rows of eight toilets (all open with no privacy) on one side, with rows of sinks for washing clothes, plates and hands, lined opposite the toilets.
While all these abhorrent living conditions are going on, there are other factors that these poor souls have to go through. They do not get annual leave, in many cases they work for two years with one day of rest a week. They are not afforded suitable medical insurance (in these countries there is no National Health Service) which is why there are rumours of deaths of up to 6,000 people. And lastly, upon entering the country their passports are taken off them and held until they leave the country. The entire system is effectively built like modern day slavery.
This is the reality of life for some of these people. And I believe it is people like this who have built the stadiums in Qatar. In my opinion if we treated our pets half as bad, the RSPCA would rightly, be on us. Yet we have allowed hundreds of men to live in terrible conditions so that we can take pleasure from watching football.
Steve Legg interviewed Mike Watson live and discovered how an ordinary lad from Sheffield ventured into show biz.
Mike Watson first arrived in Sweden in 1964 as part of the Hi-Grades, American singer Larry Finnegan’s backing group during his Sweden tour of that year. Subsequently, Watson became a member of various Swedish bands, most notably Lenne and the Lee Kings (who scored two Number Two hits in 1966 with Stop The Music and L.O.D.), and Lasse Samuelsson’s Dynamite Brass.
Mike started working as a session musician in 1969 and did his first known ABBA related session in July 1971 when he played bass on a Frida single, produced by Benny. Watson also contributed to People Need Love, the very first recording issued under the name Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid.
Although Rutger Gunnarsson was to be ABBA’s most frequently used bass player, Mike Watson played on notable tracks such as SOS, Mamma Mia, If It Wasn’t For The Nights, The Winner Takes It All, and Super Trouper. He is also the man dressed up as Napoleon on the cover of ABBA’s Waterloo album.
Mike Watson
THE INTERVIEW
Steve Legg (SL): Mike. What a career over 50 years, I believe, in the business. Are you living the dream?
Mike Watson (MW):Yeah, I started … I’ve been living the dream, yeah, that’s for sure. I’ve toured all over the world. In the last 10 years I’ve been with these Abba tributes and we’ve been … well, everywhere. China, America. This year, I’ve been in America doing five tours. So yeah, I’m pretty busy, still.
SL: Do you still enjoy traveling to gigs, driving, stopping at service stations, picking up a pork pie somewhere or the Swedish equivalent?
MW:Well, there’s a lot of waiting around. It’s waiting for the sound check and do the sound check. Then there’s waiting to do the show. But it’s the life I’ve chosen. And enjoying it.
SL: Yeah, well that’s good. That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? So how did a Sheffield lad end up in Sweden in 1964? It doesn’t seem the most logical career path, perhaps.
MW:Well, I was with a group in London called The Hi-Grades and we came to Sweden to accompany on tour, an American singer, rock and roll singer. And we ended up staying here, two of the band, since 1965. Yeah, it’s been a long time.
SL: So, what made you stay? What is it about Sweden?
MW: I got the jobs, I got the gigs. And then I started playing with different bands in the ’60s and then around ’70 I started a … became a studio musician in Stockholm playing with all the Swedish groups or recordings. And then I started with Abba in 1973, 1972, recording with them. As a studio musician. I was in the studio maybe three or four days a week when I lived in Stockholm.
SL: So, what do you love most about Sweden? Are you a meatballs, hygge, Norrlands Guld fan?
MW:Yeah, yeah, Swedish meatballs. Yeah, great. Ikea, I Love Ikea.
SL: And of course, hygge. We know all about hygge these days in the UK. It’s candles, it’s twinkly lights, it’s snuggling down and getting cosy.
MW: Yeah, well there’s a lot of snow in Sweden, so I hope we get … I live on the west coast, down between Malmö and Gothenburg and we don’t really get a lot of much snow down there, but I hope there’ll be snow for Christmas. When you got all the Christmas lights … we’re very into the Christmas with the lights around the house. Love it.
SL: And how do you celebrate Christmas? Do you celebrate on Christmas Eve? Which I know is the Scandinavian tradition, roast duck and opening all your presents.
MW:Yeah, we do that and usually my kids come and all my grandchildren, my great grandchildren. So, the house is really full around Christmas and New Year.
SL: Oh, sounds beautiful. Were you musical as a kid, Mike?
MW:Well, my mother was in show business and that’s where I started in 1958, ’59. They were working for the American forces, entertaining in Germany, France, Spain, all over Europe. And she put me in the show when I was 11, 12 years old and that’s when I started playing guitar and doing an Elvis copy. And then they took in a drummer and another guitar player. And then in the end we were a group. We were called The Hi-Grades and that’s where I started playing. We were three guitars and I was playing bass on a guitar and then I bought a bass and that’s where I started playing bass.
SL: Why did you choose the bass?
MW:Well, we were three guitars. Somebody had to play bass.
SL: Simple as that.
MW: So, I started playing bass. Yeah, it was as simple as that.
SL: So how does someone become a session musician? You’ve obviously got to be really good. And I’m assuming right place at the right time, meeting the right people?
MW: I was at the right place in the right time. There was a changeover in Sweden from like a stand-up bass to electric bass and there wasn’t a lot of electric bass players around pop. And then I learnt to read music and became a session musician. I don’t think it’s anything you train for, it’s just that you got the contacts and you just play.
SL: Mike, 1971, was a pretty key moment. You met Abba for the first time, is that right?
MW: Well, I met Björn and Benny around in the middle of the ’60s because I was in a Swedish pop band in ’66 and you’d meet them on tour, all the bands, playing a festival or something. So I met them already then, and that’s maybe why they used me later on, because I knew them.
SL: Did you have any idea they’d become global superstars back then?
MW: Never, never. I mean, you thought you were going to be a musician after, or I’ll do this for a few years and I’ll have to do something else. But I couldn’t do anything else. So I never thought it would last this long and that. I’ve been working since 1979 with different tribute bands all over the world.
SL: Wow. So you never had a plan B?
MW:Never, never. I’ve never had a real job.
SL: But I’ve got some comedian friends who do painting and decorating and all sorts of stuff when it’s quiet. But I love the fact you never had a plan B.
MW: Never also, and I’ve always had a lot of work, except for this big lockdown that came in 2020. I didn’t work for a year and a half. Everything has started up again now, so it’s back to normal, yeah. It really is. And I’m very fortunately able to still play. I mean, I’m 75 and I’m still on tour. It’s great. Love it.
SL: So I’m a huge Abba fan. What was it like sessioning with them? Are we talking an early start or getting together halfway through the day with coffee and pastries?
MW: Well, all the sessions started at ten o’clock in the morning and there would be a coffee for me because they started with the drums and getting the sound and then we’d start paying about 11 o’clock. A usual session would be Benny would sit at the piano. He’d run through the songs and we’d maybe write some chords down and we’d start messing around with the song. And we could play all day till five, six, seven o’clock in the evening just to get really the bass and the drums right, and then they’d do everything again later on.
So we never really saw the girls in the studio, Frida and Agnetha. They might come by to say hello to their husbands at that time, but we never saw them. For us, it was just working with Björn and Benny, and Björn would sit with an acoustic guitar and he would sing. Sometimes the lyrics were not really written yet. And that was a session and we might play all day and maybe the day after just to get the bass and drums right. But it was a lot of fun. We had a lot of fun. We were all young and enthusiastic.
SL: How would you describe the process? Collaborative, experimental, or anything else?
MW:Experimental because there was no music to read. Benny would sit at the piano and we’d play around with the songs. We might do it as a tango and there’d be another style. We’d play, try to find things, and then when the bass and drums were right, they’d say, “Okay, we’ll go from there.” And then the bass and drums were ready and then they would do all the dubbing over that.
SL: And you played bass on a number of very notable tracks, SOS, Mamma Mia, Super Trooper. Probably my favourite one, The Winner Takes it All, with a great bass line, if you don’t mind me saying so, Mike.
MW: That is my favourite song as well actually. I love that song. The lyrics are great. And I loved playing when we played with Abba. It’s always, that song’s absolutely my favourite, or, I should say, Abba-solutely.
SL: I see what you did there. And it’s a poignant song as well, isn’t it?
MW: Yeah. It’s a beautiful song. The lyrics came at the right time. They were splitting up, so it always hits you, the lyric, when we play it. Great song.
SL: Could you tell that was going to be a mega hit?
MW: Not when we actually played the song in the studio, because I never heard the song when it was finished until I got the LP, they sent the LP home to me, and we just heard without any, the girls singing on the song. There was a lot of experimenting going on. I remember doing, “I do, I do, I do,” and I thought, oh, I’ll do this bass line, and that was the first thing I did. Then they said, “No, no, we’ll do something else. Do something else.” And then at four o’clock in the afternoon, well, we tried lots of things. I did the same thing that I did at the beginning, and they said, “Yeah, that’s what we want.” Yeah.
Also, when you hear a song, you just know. We’re like, “That’s what you should play.” So a lot of experimenting going on.
SL: What heady, exciting times. And you’re very modest. You’ve not mentioned your modelling career either, have you, yet?
MW: Ooh, my modelling career. Yeah, well, you want to hear about that?
SL: Of course we do.
MW: I think Björn and Benny phoned me one morning and said, “Oh, tomorrow we’re going to do a photo session and we need a little guy to stand in the background.” That’s why they called me Little Mike, anyway. And we went to this old café outside of Stockholm. We were taking photos all day long. The photos became the album cover for the Waterloo album with the Abba in the front and I’m standing in the background with my back to the camera dressed as Napoleon. That was my modelling career. Very short.
SL: So Mike, this show, 6th of January, next year at the Brighton Centre. Have you performed in Brighton before?
MW: Yes. Last time was 1973. We worked with three brothers called The Brotherly Love. They were from Liverpool. I made a short trip back to England a few months, and then I was back in Sweden. But that was the last time, 1973.
SL: And of course the ABBA were there in 1974, winning the Eurovision Song Contest, weren’t they?
MW: Yeah. We should be coming in 1974, it would’ve been exactly 50 years. Yeah.
SL: So this show, Arrival From Sweden Show, what can we expect on the 6th of January in Brighton Centre?
MW: You’re going to expect ABBA because they’ve got all the clothes, the hits. All the hits in the show. And ABBA Arrival from Sweden, they’ve been going since 1995. Not with the same people all the time, of course, but they’ve done a hundred tours in America. They’ve been all over the world. But the show is like ABBA. It’s like seeing ABBA. They’ve got the costumes and there’s great musicians. Swedish musicians are very competent, so you’re going to enjoy it.
SL: Oh, do you know what, I can’t wait. And you’ve got the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra as well.
MW: Yeah, yeah. It’s great. They’ve done a lot of concerts for all over America, everywhere with the Philharmonic, so it’s going to be an extra thing. It’s going to be very big.
SL: Wow. What an amazing night for all ages. I can’t wait Mike. It’s been fascinating chatting to you. Highlights of your career, is there one big thing that you think, “Yeah, that was it”?
MW: Oh, well, probably ABBA is the big thing because it’s worldwide. I played with Elton John, Wilson Picket, Arthur Conley. There was a lot of artists coming over to Sweden in the 70’s for the radio TV show, and I was the bass player there, so I met a lot of artists coming over from England and America in those days.
SL: It’s been a blast Mike. Thank you so much. There’s only one way I can end this, and I’m sure people say to you many times, but thank you for the music.
MW: You’re welcome.
THE SHOW
Arrival From Sweden The World’s Greatest ABBA Show With ABBA Original Musicians – Brighton Centre 6th January 2023
‘ARRIVAL From Sweden in the production The Music of ABBA’ comes to the Brighton Centre, featuring original ABBA Musicians and the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. The press, the audience and the ABBA-fan club all agree this is the closest you will ever come to see the real ABBA live on stage.
The 11-piece live band with ABBA original musicians including bass player Mike Watson who performed with ABBA in the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest and on such notable tracks such as SOS, Mamma Mia and the Winner Takes It All, to name but a few, will take you on a musical journey performed by ARRIVAL from Sweden this world-renowned group, bringing the music of ABBA to life, together with Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.
ARRIVAL From Sweden is the most successful ABBA show touring the world today. To date they have performed concerts and tours in over 70 countries. With 80 SOLD OUT tours in the USA since 2005 and playing over a thousand shows in America, ARRIVAL from Sweden has also performed with almost 100 symphony orchestras which all together has given them the reputation as the world’s greatest ABBA show.
Hits like Dancing Queen, Mamma Mia, Does Your Mother Know, The Winner Takes It All, Gimme, Gimme and many more are delivered with such accuracy that it’s hard to believe it’s not the real ABBA on Stage.
For a limited time (midnight on 30/11) fans can get £10 off a pair of tickets with the promo code ‘SORTED’
