Bjorn Ulvaeus, the second-hairiest member of Abba, has agreed to grant The Sunday Times an interview on one condition: we serve him lunch. Not buy him lunch; a songwriter worth $300 million by some estimates hardly needs a freebie. But to physically bring him food and put it down in front of him.
So here I am, nervously hurrying over to Ulvaeus’s table, in waiter’s waistcoat and pinny, bearing taramasalata, tzatziki, roasted red pepper hummus and a selection of olives. We’re in Nikos’s taverna on the Greek island of Skopelos. Except we’re not really. We’re actually in London’s O2 arena, in a theme-park version of a Greek taverna. There are ferry timetables and Nana Mouskouri posters on the walls. The set designers have exhausted Britain’s entire stock of plastic bougainvillea.
