Abba (and Waterloo) fans already knew it was about to be released! Last Monday, it came true: a new DVD with previously unreleased material is on sale worldwide, under the title Abba in Japan.

Icethesite writes: "The DVD celebrates ABBA's adventures in Japan in 1978 and 1980. The centrepiece of the release is ABBA Special, a television extravaganza filmed when the group visited Japan in November 1978. This legendary television special is now released on DVD for the first time. Moreover, it has been reassembled from the unedited material, which means that you will get more ABBA for your money! Fernando, which featured a couple of verses and a chorus in the original broadcast, is now seen in complete form for the first time. And the performance of Summer night city, originally presented in a split-screen format with ABBA only taking up a quarter of the screen, is now focused entirely on ABBA. Finally, The name of the game, which was edited out of the original broadcast, has been reinserted in its rightful place".

The DVD comes with two bonus selections. The first is the fascinating fly-on-the-wall documentary ABBA in Japan Nov. 1978, which covers the group’s visit at the time of the television special. The disc also features the performance of If it wasn’t for the nights from the special, but with the original, slightly different sound mix as featured in the broadcast – at the time, the song hadn’t been released on record yet and it was subject to further mixes by ABBA before finally being issued on the Voulez-vous album.

ABBA in Japan is also released in a 2-disc Limited Special Edition. The contents of the first disc are identical to the single-disc version. The second disc in the Limited Special Edition features a very rare behind-the-scenes documentary from ABBA’s concert tour of Japan in March 1980. The disc also features two galleries: one containing photos from the visit in 1978, and one offering a generous selection of Japanese single and album sleeves. Further goodies come in the shape of three ABBA photo cards and the original tour sticker from ABBA’s concert tour of Japan.

Here's the TV spot: