Abba ex-members hint at come-back show: report

Swedish pop group Abba could re-form for a one-off performance after years of rejecting calls to take to the stage again, two former members of the band hinted in an interview Friday.

Asked by Britain's Times newspaper whether they would consider regrouping for an intimate show that could be filmed and beamed to audiences across the world, Benny Andersson responded: "Yeah, why not?"

"I don't know if the girls sing anymore," he said, referring to the female ex-members of the quartet, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Faeltskog.

"I know Frida was in the studio."

"It's not a bad idea, actually," he added, in response to the newspaper's suggestion of a performance with only invited guests and families, perhaps accompanied by a small orchestra.

Bjoern Ulvaeus, who with Andersson wrote hits including "Dancing Queen" and "Waterloo", joked: "We could sing 'The Way Old Folks Do'." He was referring to the song "The Way Old Friends Do," from the album "Super Trouper."

The reaction from the pair - speaking in London where they were working on a new musical theatre production - marks a change in tone to how they have responded to repeated requests to stage come-back shows in the past.

Last year, in the wake of the success of "Mamma Mia!" - the musical and film based on their hits - Ulvaeus vowed the group would never perform together again.

He told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper he wanted fans to remember the band as "young, exuberant, full of energy and ambition."

"We will never appear on stage again," he said. "There is simply no motivation to regroup. Money is not a factor and we would like people to remember us as we were."