I’ve just been called a Big Softie! Oh no – Abba heart, I’m an old rocker (and less of the old actually!)

Well, I didn’t know I had it in me, but last night I finally came out.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen and everybody else who is reading this … I love Abba!

Abba are up their with my favourite bands.

My Top Ten goes like this:

At No I …. drum rollllllll… his Royal Bobness takes the No 1 spot, stone me, he’s keeping on keeping on rolling with his band.

At No 2 … wait for it, wait for it! THE DOORS – yes, that’s right. Ol’ Jim might have acted as a bit of door knob at times – but he was never down for that goddamn long

AT No 3 … Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds … Nick tragically became a real travelling troubadour of heartbreak – although he still doesn’t mind using his fans as footstools at Glastonbury and other venues!

AT No 4 … Roger Chapman’s Street Walkers (actually me’n Roger had a bit of a falling out a few years ago, so he’s lucky to get a mention here)

AT No 5 … ZZ Top … although sadly now I can only love them half as much.

AT No 6 … Oasis! The Mancs with their wonderwall of hard driving sound of Madness…

AT No 7… Joe Bonamassa – that geeky bluesman who could blow Alexis Korner off the stage, if he was still around to be blown off (if you forgive the phraseology).

AT No 8 … Dr John and any of his boogie-woogie bands and particularly anything he did with Etta James …

AT No 9 … Nina Simone – I once went to Paris to interview her and she was out!

AND AT No 10 … yep, you’ve got it… ABBA!

Yes, I have to admit it, I fell in love with  Agnetha Fältskog in the 1980s. But it was unrequited so being the kind of manly man I am I fell in love Anni-Frid Lyngstad instead … I wanted to form a trio with them and abb a bit of fun.

It never happened of course.

I love some of their lyrics … not many can better them (OK, they’re not wring Gates of Eden of Murder Most Fowl but…)

Well, I can dance with you honey
If you think it’s funny
Does your mother know that you’re out

Or

Sometimes I see how the brave new world arrives and I see how it thrives in the ashes of our lives

Or

Seems to me now that the dreams we had before are all dead, nothing more than confetti on the floor

Or

what happened to the wonderful adventures, the places I had planned for us to go? Well, some of that we did but most we didn’t, and why, I just don’t know

And then this! Heartbreakingly beautiful and it moved me to tears… I admitted this to a mate and this is what he said:

“Ya big softie!”

Yep, Leigh G Banks is no longer ‘the man’ – even in his own mind!

No he is just a big softie.

Have a listen and see what you think … tell me if it made you weep.

Here are the lyrics

I Still Have Faith in You

ABBA

I still have faith in you
I see it now
Through all these years that faith lives on
Somehow

There was a union
Of heart and mind
The likes of which are rare
And, oh, so hard to find

Do I have it in me?
I believe it is in there
For I know I hear a bittersweet song
In the memories we share

I still have faith in you
And I will say
I never really thought I’d feel this way

But I remind myself
Of who we are
How inconceivable it is to reach this far

Do I have it in me?
I believe it is in there
For I know I hear a bittersweet song
In the memories we share

We do have it in us
New spirit has arrived
The joy and the sorrow
We have a story and it survived

And we need one another
Like fighters in a ring
We’re in this together
Passion and courage is everything

I still have faith in you
It stands above
The crazy things we did
It all comes down to love

Do I have it in me?
I believe it is in there
For I know I hear a bittersweet song
In the memories we share
Do I have it in me?

We do have it in us
New spirit has arrived
The joy and the sorrow
We have a story and it survived

And we know that we need one another
Like fighters in a ring
We’re in this together
Passion and courage is everything

and we still have it in us
We’ve only just begun
(Do I have it in me?)
We stand on a summit
Humble and grateful to have survived

I still have faith in you
It’s stands above the crazy things we did
It all comes down to love
Do I have it in me?

#abba #haveigotitinme #1970s