Have you heard? There’s a new Taylor Swift album coming out this Friday! OMG!!!

That short paragraph, which has used up my entire monthly allowance of exclamation marks, should give you some idea of the sense of sheer excitement chez Newton. Should we pre-order? Will there be round-the-block queues at 5am outside HMV?

In this era of internet sales, the answer to that last question is probably a resounding “no”, which is a just a little bit sad in my view.

My own childhood was punctuated by the purchase of Abba albums. Mum would take the bus to the nearest shopping mall, and when I came home from school, there it would be: black vinyl, all lovely and shiny with its inimitable smell. Scratch it at your peril.

I would jump on it (not literally, obvs) with unrestrained joy, poring over the sleeve notes to learn the lyrics of a dozen brand new songs. To this day, I know them with an almost Pavlovian reflex, and can even remember the tiny spelling errors (“And I loose my temper 10 times a day”), a sign of the career I was destined for.

This love, shared by the Other Half, has been passed on to daughter through our genes. She loves Abba almost as much as she does Taylor Swift (but not quite).

There has been much celebration lately of Abba’s half-century on the UK music scene. As a family, we love the Eurovision Song Contest and lapped up the re-run of the 1974 edition, won by the ebullient Swedes with Waterloo.

What a joy it was to see Katie Boyle, coiffed like Margaret Thatcher and apparently sans culottes (a visible panty line showed through her satin maxi-dress, resulting in the offending underwear being removed at the eleventh hour).

Devonian David Vine provided the commentary, and the interval entertainment came courtesy of none other than The Wombles, at the apogee of their fame. I wonder what Abba made of them?

The 17 entries ranged from Spanish tuna-style music to a wacky Dutch duo (there’s always one) led by a guy named Mouth. Olivia Newton-John represented the UK, singing about the Salvation Army – that wouldn’t be cool now, and it probably wasn’t then. France pulled out days earlier following the untimely death of president Georges Pompidou.

The action took place in Brighton, and we enjoyed a few days there last week to end the Easter holidays. We were delighted to find numerous opportunities to celebrate our favourite Scandinavian foursome, including a marvellous museum exhibition complete with Abba-esque soundtrack (I knew all the words) and superior dressing up items (I suspect my bottom is significantly larger than Agnetha’s).

Jaw-dropping insights included the fact that the audience consisted largely of Brighton council employees and their families, and that equipment – a drumkit, a bubble-car for a Womble - was begged and borrowed for a fiver on a Sunday morning. Health and safety would have had a fit.

It all seemed very simplistic by today’s standards. A jury of 10 cast their votes in each country, and it was all done and dusted in two hours.

It was hard to imagine Liverpool running on a similar scale, with double the entries - even after the semi-finals - and a lengthy voting system involving public online participation in heaven knows how many countries. Four hours, it took, and we loved every minute of glorious multi-colour razzmatazz.

Having donned glitzy costumes and air guitars for the obligatory selfies, we discussed our favourite Abba tracks. Him: Fernando. Her: Take A Chance On Me. Mine: well, mine were the most obscure, album tracks from the days of stack heels and gatefold sleeves.

Will Taylor Swift’s musical legacy still be with us, several decades hence? Will we be reminiscing, misty-eyed, about the Eras Tour?

Who can say? One thing is for certain: out of the three of us, Daughter is the one most likely to find out.

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The London Marathon takes place on Sunday – good luck to all Cornish athletes who are on their way to the Big Smoke to take part.

A new study has revealed the songs that should be included on runners' playlists. Sweepstake comparison site Casinos Sweeps used Spotify’s Playlist Miner tool to examine 1,400 ‘jogging’ and ‘running’ related playlists to find those favoured as motivators.

Appearing on 14% of all playlists, Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill is the number one choice - presumably thanks to its title rather than its plodding beat. The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights and Miley Cyrus’ Flowers also made the top five (I’ve redacted the other two because I’ve never heard of them).

I shall make sure these are on the background when I’m cheering on the runners from the comfort of my sofa, with a big mug of coffee and a slab of motivational chocolate cake.