STOCKHOLM (AP) - A traveling ABBA exhibit is to get a permanent home in a new museum dedicated mostly to the Swedish quartet that has sold nearly 400 million records since its heyday in the 1970s.

Former band member Bjoern Ulvaeus said Wednesday that "ABBA The Museum" will be part of a Swedish music hall of fame to be inaugurated in Stockholm next spring.

The museum will feature some of the band's glitzy stage costumes, instruments and other mementos that were displayed in the ABBAWORLD exhibition that toured Europe and Australia in 2009-2011.

Ulvaeus said he hoped all four former ABBA members would attend the opening, but ruled out any chance of a stage comeback: "We are the only group of that status that has never been reunited. I think that is cool."

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - A piano used by Stevie Wonder when he was a student in Michigan has been loaned to the Museum of the American Printing House for the Blind in Louisville, Ky., and will be on display starting next week.

The 1922 Steinway grand piano was long used by students at the Michigan School for the Blind, where Wonder, a child prodigy, studied in the mid-1960s. Wonder signed with Motown at the age of 11 and went on to become a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.

Museum spokeswoman Roberta WIlliams told The Courier-Journal the piano will be on loan indefinitely. It goes on display starting Oct. 11.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STOCKHOLM (AP) – Art Garfunkel had two concerts scheduled in Sweden and failed to show up for either one. He was supposed to play shows in Goteberg on Friday and in Malmo on Saturday. Organizers say they didn’t find Garfunkel at his hotel and learned he had left the country with his staff. It’s not certain why Garfunkel left.

UNDATED (AP) – The crowd at the annual “Mayberry Days” celebration got a surprise when a tape was played of Ron Howard praising Andy Griffith. He recorded the tape for the first Mayberry Days since Griffith died last July. Howard talks about how much he learned from Griffith when he played Opie on “The Andy Griffith Show.” He says Griffith made him feel like an equal even though he was just six when he started.