JANE Ellis from Abba Forever admits that the tricky bit of their tribute show is singing in a Swedish accent.

The singer, who plays Agnetha, says the whole cast and crew are simply huge Abba fans. who are determined to recreate the sights and sounds of the Swedish super stars’ concerts as closely as possible.

“We are always learning something new, we all studied the videos to catch the mannerisms and characteristics, and where possible the personalities. For example our Freda is a little flirtatious on stage. We studied them intensely to learn how to pronounce the words because the Swedish accent takes us way out of our comfort zone. You have to stay focussed on how they sang it, there is no gloss of your own.”

Taking the part of Bjorn is James Lawley, who Jane worked with on a previous project, so the chemistry on stage is based on the longevity of a genuine friendship.

“James has been with us for many years and then went off for other things and was drawn back. We are all good friends in the production and all have the same drive to do the music justice,’’ she said.

The hard work paid off as Forever Abba has toured the world notching up show dates, festivals and concerts in Iceland, Austria, France, Romania, Denmark, Portugal Cyprus, Norway, France, a 55,000 crowd in South Africa, Russia and the most tricky of all - Sweden.

Jane says that treading the boards in the home country of such mega stars was daunting, she felt she had to win the people over. “It was quite scary I felt out on a limb but it was lovely to see such a beautiful country, to see what it was like for Abba.’’

It is obviously a touch of winner takes it all as Abba Forever have been invited back to Sweden six times and next month it will be Swindon thanking them for the music as they perform at the Wyvern Theatre.

Jane first remembers Abba songs when she was a young girl singing along with her sister in the back of her dad’s car and later people would remark on her likeness to Agnetha - who was always her favourite. “My husband says I am more like her than I realise. Like her, I am shy off stage but on stage we become charismatic,’’ said Jane.

Her husband is Anthony Forshaw the bass player with the Abba Forever band and the sound engineer for the shows. The couple have two daughters.

Prior to the tribute show, Jane sang in all girl band and has written some of her own songs and collaborated on an album with singer/songwriter Mathew Mayer.

Growing up she learned to play piano and took dancing lessons at performing arts college but singing is her first love.

Although she says her family were quite shocked when she chose music as her career as her background is farming.

She says that the music of Abba really is universal as they have fans from all over the world including Russia.

“They love Abba in Russia and we did some bizarre work over there on New Year’s Eve which was broadcast throughout the Baltic states. We also did a show on a beach in France that was televised by MTV,’’ said Jane.

Abba Forever comes to Swindon’s Wyvern Theatre on Monday September 10 at 7.30pm. tickets are £25 from 01793 524481 or visit www.swindontheatares.co.uk - Flicky Harrison