Monday, November 30, 2009
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Bjon Again Career Highlights
PUBLIC CONCERT SHOWS WORLDWIDE
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๏The Ritz Carlton, Jakarta, NYE 2008
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๏Gold Reef City Casino, Johannesburg, Dec 2009
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๏Sydney Opera House 2007 and 2008 - pictured right
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๏Melbourne Arts Centre 2007
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๏Brisbane Concert Hall Nov 2007
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๏The Royal Albert Hall London 1992, 1992 & 1998
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๏Wembley Arena London 2000
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๏Glasgow SECC 2000
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๏The Point Dublin Ireland
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๏Nelson Mandella Theatre Johannesburg
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๏The Regent Theatre Melbourne
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๏Irving Plaza New York
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๏Elysee Montmatre Paris
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MUSIC FESTIVALS
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๏Homebake Sydney 2006
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๏The Reading Festival UK 1992 - at the specific request of Nirvana
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๏Glastonbury Festival UK - pictured right
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๏T in the Park Scotland
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๏Out in The Green Switzerland
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๏Belga Beach Belgium
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๏Feile Ireland
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๏PinkPop Holland
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๏Roskilde Denmark
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๏V2000 UK
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AMAZING EVENTS
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๏World Premiere ‘Muriel's Wedding’ Cannes Film Festival 1994
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๏‘Route of Kings’ Hyde Park London - supports to Shania Twain, Cliff Richard
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๏Formula One Grand Prix Driver's Ball (Monaco ’94 & ’00)
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๏Hong Kong Handover – Royal Yacht Club (1997)
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๏Johnny Walker Golf Classic (Thailand)
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๏World Expo (Lisbon, Portugal)
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๏Antwerp Proms (Belgium) with Toto, Paul Young and 200 piece orchestra and choir
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๏Opening of Glasgow's new Hampden Stadium with Rod Stewart - pictured right
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๏Harrods 150th Anniversary (London)
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๏Gay Pride London 1996
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๏Y2K World Millennium Concert (Mumbai, India)
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๏Launch of new Chinese TV Channel CCTV to over 1 billion TV audience worldwide (Beijing, China)
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๏MTV Music Awards After–Show Party (Sweden)
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๏Bill Gate's launch of Microsoft Windows Server (2003)
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SUPPORTS
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๏Spice Girls ‘SpiceWorld’ Tour (1998) - pictured right
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๏Cliff Richard
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๏Cher
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๏Shania Twain
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๏Rod Stewart
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๏Bon Jovi
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๏Antwerp Proms (Belgium) with Toto, Paul Young and 200 piece orchestra and choir
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OTHER CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
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๏‘Best Variety Production Show of 2005’ at the 2005 Mo Awards Australia
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๏In 1992 Björn Again had a European chart hit with their single ‘A Little Respect’.
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๏Trivial Pursuit containing questions on Björn Again in the UK version - pictured right
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๏Australian Top 10 Entertainers List (BRW Aust)
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๏Australian Top 50 Entertainment Exports list
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๏A Guinness Book of Records entry because of BA’s history making performance using fibre optic technology, Prince of Wales Trust Variety Concert, ‘94
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๏Performance on Top of The Pops UK 1992
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๏Old Trafford ‘01 - England vs Sweden Soccer match - on field 3 song performance just before kick off
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๏Performance at the 1st ever Grand Final of ‘Dancing With The Stars’ Australia 2004
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๏Appearance on Bert Newton’s final ever episode of ‘Good Morning Australia’ CH10 Australia - see right
Quick Facts About Bjorn Again
Established:
Melbourne Australia October 1988
First Gig:
The Tote in Collingwood Melbourne 6th May 1989
Founders:
John Tyrrell and Rod Leissle, who jointly own the band and Björn Again trademark globally
Territories
1. Australia/Asia/Pacific - managed by John Tyrrell from Melbourne
2. UK/Europe - managed by Rod Leissle from London
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1.North America - managed by ShowBox Productions Calgary, Canada
Number of Countries Toured:
Over 70 worldwide, and counting ....
Total Shows to date:
Estimated to be well over 5000 in 20 years, Rod & John trying to agree on how many!
Biggest Audience:
Gay Pride London June ‘96 to over 300,000 people
Biggest Own Show:
Glasgow SECC Dec ‘01 (over 9,700 hard ticket sales) - promoted by (and well done) DF concerts Glasgow
First communication from ABBA:
Telegram from Björn Ulvaeus 1990
Björn Again met Benny and Björn:
Stockholm Nov 1992
Björn Again Shows have been attended by:
Tom Jones, Rowan ‘Mr Bean’ Atkinson, Robert Plant (Led Zepplin), Paul Kelly, The Wiggles, Molly Meldrum, Sarah Ferguson, Dave Grohl, Bill Gates, Toni Collette, U2, Kurt Cobain and many more
Highlight gig of 2006:
Homebake Festival Sydney Domain (Dec)
Highlight gig of 2008:
The 2 shows at the Sydney Opera House, June 2008
TV Highlight in recent years:
The Bjorn Again Story
Björn Again were founded in 1988 by 2 Melbourne muso mates - Rod Leissle (left) and John Tyrrell (right) pictured above.
It was while John and Rod were working together at a metallurgical research laboratory in Melbourne mid 1988 that they decided to brainstorm some entertainment concepts. This included ideas for clubs, trivia nights, live bands and shows.
One day in October 1988, Rod suggested to John they put together an ABBA show, as ABBA were by far the biggest band in the 70s in Australia but were now long forgotten, and an ABBA show done in the right way may just be a great entertainment concept.
At first John was not into the idea: ‘What! An ABBA band! You’ve got to be kidding!’ - but then thought that if it was done cleverly and properly, with a very punchy rocky feel and in a parody-humourous style it may work. Plus it was the right time as the kids who were originally into ABBA in the 70s were now at the age where they were going out to see live bands in pubs and clubs. This could even be a cult type band. ‘Alright Rod - let’s do it!’ At the very least it would be a lot of fun putting it together, especially auditioning all those girls!
The first press advertisements seeking band members were placed in October 1988, auditions took place in the months after, the original band lineup was finalised late 1988 and rehearsals began. Crikey where do we find platform shoes?
The band’s name was decided as ‘Björn Again’ as suggested by Rod, no doubt the perfect name for the concept. John was appointed the band’s manager, who arranged the first gig which took place at The Tote in Collingwood Melbourne Australia on Saturday May 6th 1989. The gig was packed and the audience went nuts. Björn Again had ARRIVED!
After then, despite attracting lots of gig/tour interest and media attention, it was originally felt that the concept had a limited life as the band would never be involved in recording or touring interstate or overseas as cover bands just can’t do any of that. But with a relentless drive to push the scope of BA wider and further, the band expanded and expanded, progressing to become a household name world wide and the most successful tribute band of all time, even attracting the attention of ABBA, the band they were paying tribute to!














