ABBA have refused the chance to play Glastonbury, despite a promise to bring back this year’s festival just for them.

Glasto’s Michael Eavis said last year he was “already regretting” cancelling the festival for a “fallow” year, adding of an unnamed band said to be ABBA: “If they re-form, I’ll change my mind.”

Bookies offered odds of 33/1 on the Swedish pop legends playing Worthy Farm in Somerset.

But, following the announcement that they had recorded two new songs, the prospect of a Glasto show has been ruled out.

(Image: Daily Mirror)

Gorel Hanser, ABBA’s spokeswoman and manager, yesterday told the Mirror: “No, ­definitely not. We should remember them how they were in the 1970s, and listen to how they sing today.”

Fans were thrilled when Bjorn Ulvaeus, 73, Benny Andersson, 71, Agnetha Faltskog, 68, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, 72, revealed that, after 35 years, they had recorded two new tracks.

They will reveal one song in a two-hour BBC documentary in December, followed by a tour featuring holograms of the band, dubbed ABBAtars.

Gorel said the quartet had been “happily surprised” by the reaction from fans in recent days.

(Image: Redferns)

“Everyone is so joyful,” she added. “It was great to spread a happy word in the world right now. They are happily surprised, all four of them.”

Gorel describes the group’s new ballad, I Still Have Faith In You, as “melancholic”, while their second track Don’t Shut Me Down is “uptempo” but not dance music. Accompanying videos will feat­­ure the 1970s-era ABBAtars.

The Glastonbury festival, which has a regular “legends” slot, is due to return in June, 2019.