Every single ABBA song from memory in one remarkable day

Wow. What a remarkable achievement – and achieved with such ease and style too, a genuine and genuinely unusual highlight at this year’s Festival of Chichester.

On Saturday, starting at 9.45am, finishing just before 5.15pm, with two coffee breaks and a lunch break, David Bathurst – already well known for his astonishing feats of memory – added the complete works of ABBA to his list of triumphs.

Two years ago he served up from memory every single original song The Beatles ever recorded. This time he turned his attention to the Swedish fab four – and what a day it was.

Once again, he was accompanied at the piano on a large proportion of the songs by the immensely talented pianist David Russell, and their complete understanding was a key element of the day’s huge success. Important too were the brief introductions David B gave to each song, all part of the context. But the delight above all was the fluency of it all. Months of hard work and learning lay behind the day, but on the day it was the apparent effortlessness which struck you most – plus the enjoyment, not just ours, but David’s too. David brought out the humour and added plenty of his own at a truly memorable event for the Festival of Chichester, an event which drew precisely the crowds it deserved. It was a quiet start, but the hall was full to overflowing with standing room only by the time the morning session ended. The afternoon session grew similarly.

The brilliance of the Festival of Chichester is its variety, its willingness to embrace the unusual. David is a wonderful ally in that respect – and you couldn’t help but feel a little awe as song after song tumbled out. Of course, there were plenty of crackers, the sing-along hits that we all know and love. But much of the pleasure was in the obscurities. For every Mamma Mia there was a Tropical Loveland and a Hey, Hey Helen. For every The Name of The Game, there was a Hole In Your Soul and a Dum Dum Diddle. Among the niche numbers were some that had almost certainly never before been performed in this country.

A fabulous delight – and David had every right to be thrilled with it.

After the event he said: “The whole day was an amazing experience. I had really good audiences: during the latter part of the morning the hall was full, and one of the highlights of the day was getting everybody in the packed hall to stand to sing Dancing Queen.”

His favourite performance of the day was singing Our Last Summer with backing not from the piano but the a cappella singing group Cavatina.

David added: “I would like to thank everybody who helped to make the day such a great success. Although the final sum raised can’t yet be known, just over £1,000 in cash was donated on the day and this will be split equally between Boxgrove Priory, Sage House Dementia Hub and Sussex Snowdrop Trust.”