ABBA departed Adelaide at 12 noon and arrived in Perth at 1.30pm local time on March 9th. Prior to their arrival, the tarmac beside the aircraft was alive with cameramen, reporters and airport staff all waiting for the first glimpse of the group. On arrival the crowd swarmed around the cars but there were no incidents apart from damage to a girl’s bicycle.
Rather than going straight to the Parmelia Hotel where ABBA were staying, they went straight to the Swan River for a sail on the yacht Sir Henry Merkin. “The girls brought their bikinis in their hand luggage”, said promoter Patti Mostyn at the Parmelia. “They have not had any time off since they arrived in Australia and they wanted a swim.” Some of the most famous photographs of ABBA during the 1977 Concert Tour are in fact those taken on the Swan River.
The crew went straight to their hotel ‘The Parmelia’ in Mill Street Perth, where they checked in and then headed off to the Perth Entertainment Centre to commence setup.
Perth was the last stop of the tour and ABBA performed 5 concerts there over 3 days at the Perth Entertainment Centre On Wellington Street.
On the 10th, there was a Sound & String Rehearsal at 3pm followed by two shows at six and nine. Both shows were sild out with 8000 tickets sold for each show.
The first show on the 10th was marred by a bomb scare. About 20 minutes before the end of the show, a phone call was received by staff at the Entertainment Centre. The caller, a woman, told the staff member that there was a bomb planted in the Centre to kill ABBA. They were told it was due to go off at 8.05pm. The information was given to Bjorn who was backstage at that time and the decision was made to evacuate. A voice came through the amplifier telling the 8000 people that there would be a 15-minute internal. They were asked to leave the hall in an orderly fashion. The bomb threat was not mentioned to the audience.
ABBA were taken to their cars and driven away from the Centre. Police and bomb squad experts did a search of the Centre and found nothing. The show was delayed for about an hour but ABBA returned, and the show went on.
On the 11th, ABBA would perform only one show at 9pm which left them free for the day to relax and meet other hotel guests. At the same time ABBA were touring Australia, a few other international artists were also there and many were staying at the same hotel. These included The Dubliners, Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Searchers, Stephane Grappeli, the Diz Disley Trio and Alice Cooper, who was performing at the Entertainment Centre on 14th and 15th.
After this gathering of the famous for the media, ABBA then took to the grounds for a workout, after which they relaxed by the pool and were visited and serenaded by an Aboriginal group from the New Era Fellowship. The small group apparently played Bang A Boomerang on didgeridoos.