Lasse Wellander dead: heartbroken ABBA fans pay tribute as guitarist dies aged 70

ABBA fans have paid tribute to the band’s guitarist Lasse Wellander who died at the age of 70 following a battle with cancer.

The Swedish musician first started working with the band in 1974 and featured on all eight of their albums.

Lasse Wellander passed away in his sleep on Good Friday

“Always been a fan of Abba. Rest well, sir and thanks for everything,” one fan wrote.

“So sad Lasse Wellander was my favourite !!!” another added.

A third wrote: “I’m so sad,” with a sad-face emoji.

A statement released by Lasse’s family on Sunday read: “It is with indescribable sadness that we have to announce that our beloved Lasse has fallen asleep.

ABBA star dies aged 70 as heartbroken family share tribute

On this day in history: ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest

“Lasse recently fell ill with what turned out to be cancer that had spread, and early on Good Friday he passed away surrounded by his loved ones.”

“We love and miss you so much,” they added.

His work featured on 24 of the band’s recordings and he toured with Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad from 1975 to 1980.

He then went on to work with other artists after ABBA split in 1982.

Lasse worked on the Mamma Mia! movie soundtrack which starred Meryl Streep and Piers Brosnan.

He released a string of solo albums, the first in 1981 and 11 more in the years that followed.

His latest work was in 2021, where he helped to create ABBA’s most recent album Voyage.

Lasse on stage at the Wembley Arena on November 5th, 1979Credit: Redferns

Lasse joins Technican Michael Tretow, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson duing the production of a new ABBA album in 1978Credit: Alamy

!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;
n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,
document,’script’,’
fbq(‘init’, ‘752905198150451’);
fbq(‘track’, “PageView”);