Ingmarie Halling.

ABBA were down to earth Swedes who liked a good bad joke and a tune on the piano accordion backstage, says Ingmarie Halling.

Halling styled the band - did their hair and makeup and managed their wardrobe – while they were on tour.
She said Swedish people did not generally approve of celebrity and did not seek fame.

ABBA were no different.

Before making their entrance on stage, the group was more focused than nervous.
``There was no drama, no tragedy,’’ Halling said.

The PowerHouse Museum is exhibiting more than 20 original ABBA costumes, most designed by Owe Sandstrom, and Halling has curated backstage replicas and ABBA memorabilia.

Checkout our photogallery of the exhibition

Görel Hanser, Agnetha and Ing-Marie Halling arrives to the party.
Picture from tabloid 'Aftonbladet' 1998-08-18

Halling said Owe Sandstrom’s biology background and his pet cat drew him to the famous animal designs on the group’s white tunics.

There was also a design influence from the Northern Lights (Halling’s favourite purple off-the-shoulder dress) and the kimono, as the tour took in Japan.

The flicked hairstyles of the day were not easy, Halling recalled.

Halling said ABBA did not like touring and when they visited other countries they could not go sight-seeing because of the enormous following they attracted.

Despite phenomenal international success, ABBA only toured five months.

Halling pointed out that touring was not glamorous: Some dressing rooms smelled like a hockey team.
Her favourite ABBA song is When All is Said and Done.

These days, Halling likes to listen to Nickelback and The Streets. She is still friends with Anni-Frid “Frida” Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Fältskog.

Not everyone remembers the time Frida's wig flew off while performing The Girl with the Golden Hair during Abba's 1977 Australian tour. But it is seared into the memory of Ingmarie Halling.

It was her first gig as hair and make-up stylist for Abba, having deserted the Swedish ballet company on the eve of a Russian tour to travel with the band to Australia. She was responsible for attaching the wig to Anni-Frid Lyngstad's hair.

''In the first dance the wig came off - whoosh - swished off her head. I thought, 'Now I'm going to be sent home','' Halling says. But when Frida came off stage, the recriminations never came.

ABBA's Eurovision Song Contest costumes for Waterloo, above, are among the items on display at the ABBAWORLD exhibition.

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''She was just laughing, as she does all the time. She still has a good laugh about that today.''

Halling recalls the incident as she rummages through Abba memorabilia in the basement of the Powerhouse Museum, in preparation for tomorrow's opening of the exhibition ABBAWORLD, which she is curating.

''This brings me back, doing exactly this,'' she says, as she adjusts a white and gold cape around the shoulders of a mannequin.

The exhibition has already toured to London, Melbourne and Hungary, with as many costumes as could be found. Many were lost during the fast-and-loose 1970s, abandoned to the dressing up boxes of the band members' children, sold or left at photography studios and never recovered.

21 DEC 10

Media preview of ABBA WORLD exhibiton at Sydney's Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo , Sydney NSW. Pictures: Melvyn Knipe (Some display photographs are copied and cropped for the benefit of this web gallery) | See and buy thousands of photos at Ne

Halling is sorry to be missing an outfit made with gauze from a hospital, which was the only place the costume designer could source the required mesh.

She also regretted the absence of a green dress Frida had sold at a charity auction. ''And then, when we were in Melbourne, this guy rang up and said, 'I have a dress, would you like to use it?' I said: 'Is it possibly the green one?' '' It was indeed.

''It's very beautiful. I think every woman would like a dress like that … [with] the little Indian touch and the little Greek. She was absolutely stunning in that one.''

Australia played a big role in the worldwide success of Abba, with the band member Bjorn Ulvaeus saying the success of SOS and Mamma Mia drew attention to the band in countries that had previously dismissed them as a one-hit wonder.

Halling says that Sweden was in the throes of a social democracy movement that was resistant to the concept of promoting its musicians. Her boyfriend played guitar with the band; she knew Ulvaeus, Lyngstad, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Faltskog - and liked them without being overawed. The music scene in Sweden was small and familiar so she was overcome by the reception in Australia.

''The road from the airport to the city, people were standing along it all the way. Here they were appreciated in a way that they weren't in Sweden. It was a first for everyone.''

About 20,000 people attended each of their concerts at the Sydney Showground in 1977. Thousands waved at the band on the balcony of the Melbourne Town Hall. Band members were told that their interview with Molly Meldrum on Countdown attracted more viewers in Australia than the moon landing.

For a 24-year-old Halling, it was one of the most exciting experiences of her life. She was to stay with the band for the remainder of their career, witnessing many other costume dramas - such as the time they assembled a quick changeroom made from curtains behind the stage. They didn't realise that with the lights coming from behind, the audience was treated to a three-metre shadow of Frida changing outfits.

''Suddenly we could hear people shouting and we didn't realise [why] until afterwards.''

It is that casual and slapdash atmosphere that Halling has tried to capture in ABBAWORLD. Along with the costumes there are album covers, interviews with band members, photographs and footage, assembled in sets that re-create the studios and dressing rooms.

''We show how it looked behind stage, because most of the people don't know how not-glamorous it is with the old furniture.''

The Sydney concerts were among Abba's least glamorous shows. It had been raining for a week before the first concert. Frida slipped on stage, the fans had umbrellas and the dressing rooms were camping trailers.

''It was wet … and it was muddy and they were walking on all this in their costumes. It was terrible.''

But it was worth it - and certainly not enough to make Halling regret cancelling her job with the ballet company. They went on tour without her and sent postcards. ''They said, 'We're missing something here in Russia'.''