Richard Cook - Abba - The Singles: The First Ten Years (NME, 1982)

At the event in North London for Rip It Up and Start Again in 2005 , I remember a voice in the audience piping up - apropos of absolutely nothing that the panel were discussing - to cry out: " ABBA were better than the Velvet Underground! " A poptimist, obviously - responding to an uncontrollable contrarian urge from within. At the time I thought that - alongside its Tourettic quality and…