Abba drummer Ola Brunkert bleeds to death in Majorca

Ola Brunkert, the Abba drummer who bled to death in his garden last night

Members of the Swedish pop supergroup Abba have paid tribute to their former drummer who has bled to death at his home in Spain.

Police said the body of Ola Brunkert, 62, a retired musician who lived alone at his home on the Mediterranean island of Majorca, was found last night by a neighbour, lying in his garden in a pool of blood with an injury to the neck.

A police spokesman said that a post-mortem examination had confirmed that the death was an accident. Brunkert had hit his head against a glass door in his dining room, shattering the glass and cutting himself in the neck. He had managed to wrap a towel around his neck and leave the house to seek help, but collapsed in the garden.

The Swede played as a session musician with Abba, which recorded and performed in the 1970s and early Eighties. He played on their first single, People Need Love, and went on to perform on all their albums and in the 1977 film Abba: the Movie. He also toured with the group in 1977, 1979 and 1980.

He had been a jazz drummer and a member of the blues band Slim’s Blues Gang, before joining the pop group Science Poption in the mid-Sixties.

Brunkert retired to Majorca 20 years ago, although he continued to perform with his jazz group. He lived in the seaside apartment complex of Betlem in the municipality of Arta, in the eastern part of the island. His wife, Inger, died less than a year ago, according to a local council official.

Benny Anderson, an ABBA band member, told Expressen, a Swedish daily newspaper, that he was sad to hear of the drummer’s death. "It is tragic," he said.

Fellow band member Bjorn Ulvaeus added that Brunkert had been "one of the best."

"I remember him as a good friend when we worked together in the mid-1970s. He was a very creative musician who contributed a lot when we toured together and worked in the studio," Ulvaeus told Expressen.

According to ABBA’s official website, Brunkert and the bass player Rutger Gunnarsson were the only musicians to appear on all ABBA albums.

Abba’s four stars —Ulvaeus, Andersson, Agnetha Faeltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad —became international sensations with hits such as Money, Money, Money, Waterloo, Fernando and Dancing Queen. Despite having broken up a quarter of a century ago, the group still sells between two and three million albums a year.