ATC (Swe)

ATC

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Sweden (

Stockholm

)

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Heavy Metal

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1978 - 1985

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Photos / Videos

A.T.C. (at first ABOVE THE CLOUDS but later on choosing the abbreviating as their official moniker) was an early hard rock band from Stockholm, Sweden. The band formed in 1978 but back then they played pop music in the new wave direction and had a different line-up. When their rhythm guitarist Mats "Mappe" Björkman had been on a trip to England he attended some hard rock concerts and found some interesting records which resulted in a change in musical direction for the band who started playing more aggressive sounds. This was in 1980. When the band was formed most of the members were in their early teens with drummer Per Liljefors being the youngest one (only 12 years of age). In February of 1983 they signed a contract with manager Mikael Lundstedt who helped the band to a record deal for one LP with major label Polygram/Vertigo. Their one and only album 'Cut In Ice' was released in 1984 and this year they were also featured in the popular Swedish music magazine Okej.

They had a budget of 4000 US dollars and nine days to record and mix the album but in the end they only used six of the days. The next three days they partied and had lots of fun. In 1985 the band got a new manager from Bulgaria who spend a lot of money in the band. Among other things he did a very expensive but lousy video according to the band. He tried to force the band to get rid of their vocalist. This was one of the reasons why the band split up another reasons was that Mappe wanted to create a much darker sound while the others wanted to make the music more commercial. Mappe left ATC in 1985 to join Candlemass. ATC went through a line-up change and became DOWNTOWN and then the intriguingly titled CHEESE who issued one single, 'Won't Come Easy / Hold On', in 1987.

Interesting Facts #1: 2 new songs was recorded in 1985 with produced Michael B Tretow (known to have produced some of ABBA's songs). However the band split and the songs was sadly never released.
Interesting Facts #2: The song "Hard" was featured on Janne Stark's compilation CD: Swedish Hard Rock And Heavy Metal 1970-1996.

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