Yesterday (27 August) was a day of firsts: the first time ABBA’s grand piano—which featured in the band’s hit recordings throughout the 1970s—was played live in the UK. In another unprecedented step, the Australian ABBA tribute act Björn Again rocked the usually refined atmosphere of Sotheby’s London as the auction house announced its forthcoming Rock and Pop sale. On 29 September, the piano, used in classic tunes such as Dancing Queen and Waterloo, will go under the hammer (est £600,000-£800,000) along with around 100 other lots, including Bob Dylan’s manuscript for A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall (est £150,000-£200,000). “It’s difficult to buy ABBA items as the band has kept a lot of material. The ABBA museum in Stockholm also owns many key objects,” says Philip Errington, the books and manuscripts specialist at Sotheby’s where the show has just begun. Indeed, the house hopes to diversify by holding annual Rock and Pop auctions in alternate years in its London and New York salerooms.
