Super troupers from Down Under

WHEN John Tyrrell set up his ABBA tribute band 25 years ago, he wasn't expecting to get to meet the members of the real ABBA - much less earn their endorsement.

Bjorn Again, as his band is named in a nod to Bjorn Ulvaeus from the Swedish pop group, was set up on a whim in 1988, when Tyrrell and a friend mused that it would be fun to parody ABBA in a show, though the real band had dissolved about six years before.

They got the two remaining singers, a bass player and a drummer, strapped on platform shoes, sprinkled some glitter, traded their Australian accent for ABBA's Swedish one, and started staging shows on weekends "just for a bit of fun".