Mamma Mia! Pop fans gear up for Abbaworld exhibition at Earls Court

There's been the best-selling greatest hits album, the award-winning stage show and the record-breaking movie that have all helped keep Dancing Queen a wedding disco perennial for more than 30 years.

And now for Abba fans still hungry for more, the biggest celebration of the Swedish pop sensations to date is gearing up to open in London next week.

The four band members have lent treasured mementoes of their lives and careers to Abbaworld — a new exhibition at Earls Court.

Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Björn Ulvaeus will walk the red carpet for a gala night on Tuesday before the public get their first look on Wednesday.

Magnus Danielsson, president of Touring Exhibitions which is presenting Abbaworld, said interest had been phenomenal since booking lines opened last month.

"Abba go across generations in a way not many bands do. And what Mamma Mia! has done for the Abba brand is widen the target audience further," he added.

"Having Björn and Frida there for the opening is going to create a lot of credibility for it."

Abbaworld includes rooms which allow fans to get on stage with three-dimensional holograms of their idols.

There is an Abba quiz and the chance to sing and dance with the band and to be filmed as part of an Abba video.

There are also gold discs, 20 costumes such as those worn by the group when they won the Eurovision song contest with Waterloo in 1974 and a replica of the helicopter used on the Arrival album cover.

Stellan Skarsgard, the Swedish actor who appears in the film Mamma Mia!, narrates the audio guide on the history of the band whose other members were Agnetha Fältskog and Benny Andersson.

Vaughan Davies, a travel agent who heads the UK branch of the Abba Fan Club, will be coming from his home in Guernsey for a preview this weekend.

Mr Davies, 48, said that in the long-term Abbaworld should be in Stockholm, which was the original plan.

But he admitted: "There's a fair amount of excitement in fan circles. The fact that they have decided to share all the memories and the gold discs is wonderful."