PerthNorg

Calling all Dancing Queens

An Australian ABBA fan site is being sued by Universal Music for selling unlicensed ABBA recordings and has demanded the site hand over details of those who have supplied and bought the recordings.

The ‘bootleg’ recordings are CDs and DVDs that contain old ABBA concerts, radio and TV appearances that have never been officially licensed and released.

Abbamail – owned by diehard fans Graeme Read and Grant Whittingham - has operated for nine years without any attention from Universal Music, who is pursuing the claim through Music Industry Piracy Investigations.

On their website the pair claim they provided the recordings for diehard fans who had bought all the official stuff and wanted to continue to add to their collection.

They claim that it is Universal Music Sweden who is behind the lawsuit and who they accuse of trying to shut down “a number of fantastic sites built by ABBA fans.”

Despite the fact that Read and Whittingham have stopped selling the recordings Universal Music now demands to know who supplied the recordings and who bought them. Furthermore they want Read to hand over his personal collection of recordings, which he has refused to do.

But it seems that Abba fans are behind the pair with Abbamail forums and the official ABBA site full of supporters who are finding the whole business a bit heavy-handed.