Pop Junkie
at the Old Fire Station, 7th & 8th October

ABBA were fabulous. Obviously. And though Bjorn Again and Mamma Mia are undoubtedly very good, they always pander to the mainstream taste. Unless you have been a born and bred ABBA fanatic, sticking with them even through that rocky time between the early 80's and ABBA Gold, then you probably haven't felt that there was anything lacking from the many blue-eyeshadowed renditions of Waterloo from tenuously named tribute bands. There is a certain lunatic fringe (of which I am a card-carrying member) who crave nothing more than an emotional performance of 'The Day Before You Came'. Until this has been taken on board it is impossible to grasp the full extent of my elation at an ABBA show that did not wholly consist of platform shoes and 'Dancing Queen', but instead was compiled of a collection characters for whom ABBA was part of their culture, not just their record collection.

Pop Junkie, solely performed by Chris Green (the creator of Tina C.), was funny, balanced, sharp, intelligent and poignant. To explore his own obsession with the group he used a number of different characters, exploiting his androgynous presence to perfectly embody both male and female characters, including a chauvinist stand-up with a spongeable Trinitron, an American academic with convincing arguments about ABBA psychology based on the evolution of Frida's hair colour and a drugged-up journalist discussing lifestyle choices in a 24-hour hypermarket. Some of his other characters were either unbearably moving - such as the half and half (it's all in the costume) Northern drag star or the unrequited Benny from BABA (the dyslexic tribute band) - or dangerously close to the truth. Nigel from the Nantwich Arts Cradle could only fully be appreciated if you have worked in a theatre box office, and boy did I chuckle. When the performance ended with a touching performance of 'I Wonder' I honestly have never felt so satisfied with a piece of ABBA theatre.

So, was the show appreciated by the audience? Very much so, but is was so poorly attended (15 including the 2 on the sound desk) that the response was clearly lacking. It was a sign of true professionalism that he managed to give so much to so few. If only the technical support had been so fluid, but that can easily be rectified into the tour.

If you too are a self-confessed ABBAration, make sure you don't miss this. Superb.

Pam Green