THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF AB/CD

It all started in the end of 1983. Nalcolm and Clim were sitting in Clims apartment sharing a big bottle of vodka listening to AC/DC´s Highway to Hell.
Suddenly Nalcolm had this brilliant idea of starting an AC/DC cover band. Clim agreed.

BENGUS JOINS

Nalcolm was at that time working as a postman in Sätra, the suburb of Stockholm from which all the AB/CD members came from.
He knew that a guitarplayer named Bengt, who just loved AC/DC, lived in the area where he used to deliver mail. Bengt was already at that time called Bengus and was also very "famous" because of his imitations of Angus Young with his band The Weed.

Neither Nalcolm or Clim knew Bengus in person then, they hadn´t even spoke to him.
But they knew what they were after, so Nalcolm wrote a letter to Bengus in English and made it look like some kind of manager wrote it and asked for his services. He glued two stamps from Helvetica (Sounds like "Hell" in Swedish) on the envelope, and the next day at work Nalcolm dropped the letter in Bengus´mailbox.

The same day Bengus called to ask what this was all about. Nalcolm explained and of course he wanted to join the band. The singer, Braijan and the drummer at that time Putte Finger (Put the Finger) joined after a couple of days.

LOOKALIKES

In one of the first rehearsals, Braijan suddenly jumped in with this cap on his head which his Grandma had sewed a wig into! The wig was a part of the cap..!
With "that thing" on his head he looked like some kind of crazy and weird copy of Brian Johnson.
We all laughed so much we could´t barely stand up !!
Bengus later got his outfit. Of course his cap had the red plastic devil-horns and the letter "B"in the front instead of Angus´ "A".
The Brilliant name "AB/CD" was Braijans idea.

They picked the best songs from the originals setlist and started to rehearse.

GIG TIME !

One of the first gigs (1984) was at a very popular rock club at that time called "Studion" (The Studio) at S:T Eriksplan, Stockholm, where all the Swedish hardrock celebrities used to go, such as the guys from EUROPE, Easy Action, Treat, 220 Volts, Trash and the girls from "Aphrodite" -later called DRAIN STH.
The place was crowded and the gig was a huge success.
The rumors begin to fly and after a few more gigs AB/CD had a very good reputation. Everybody in the swedish music business seemed to talk about AB/CD.

ROCK´N´ROLL & HUMOUR !!

"We were probably the only band in Sweden, and anywhere else I think, who was doing this "cover thing" to 100 %, concentrating on only one act and their songs. And....we even looked like the originals. The audience thought it was fantastic. It both looked and sounded very close to AC/DC.
And one of the most important things in this context was probably that you were allowed to laugh at the whole thing.
Hardrock business at that time was taken too seriously. I think everyone involved suffered from that, but didn´t know about it until they saw us....!!"
We were sort of "A Big Relief" for Rock´n´Rollers.

Brian Johnson once said:
- Rock'n'Roll is supposed to be a laugh, and we´ve done a hell of a lot of it !

Bon Scott also shows his sense of humor in the "Let there be Rock" video interview, where he tells the story of when he first saw Angus on stage;
"I laughed and I laughed - and I still laugh." he said.

AB/CD had just taken the whole thing a little bit further considering the humor.
How could we be serious...? We didn't even want to..We just wanted to play and give ourselves and the audience a good time....and A GOOD LAUGH !

We´re sort of The Disciples of AC/DC . - "A Good Time Rock'n'Roll Band !".

Nalcolm says:

"It´s important though, to make things clear here on the internet where AC/DC fans everyday see our webpage and are maybe wondering what the hell this is ?"
Whatever you might think: - We have never tried to make AC/DC look silly or bad. If someone think so, they´re very wrong."
The biggest love we have is for the Best Rock'n'Roll band of all time - AC/DC !

RECORD CONTRACT

Nalcolm was working as a producer at a studio in Stockholm called Soundtrade in 1986 where he met another guy named Christer who also were producing bands. He had heard about AB/CD and wanted to know more about the band, and Nalcolm told him about "the cover band thing".

- Don´t you write songs of your own too ?, he asked.
- Well, I´ve recorded some stuff on my 4-channel recorder at home, Nalcolm replied.
- Great, can I listen to it ?
- Sure, but I didn´t bring the tape.
- Just sing it, he said.

Nalcolm sat down, played "drums" on his knees and sang the the chorus line from "Victim Of Rock" - "Died Of an Electric Shock".

Christer just freaked out: - Great Stuff !! Bring the tape and we´ll make a presentation to Sanji Tandan !!
Sanji, was at that time working at Alpha Records and is today one of the biggest guys at Warner Music International.
The next day he listened to it and he decided that we´d do a mini-lp with six songs.

The mini-lp "Victim of Rock" was recorded in only a few days. It was released in early -87 and printed in only 2500 copies that were sold out in a very short time. Despite the big demand for the album, Alpha Records didn´t bother to print any more copies of it. Why we don´t know. But shortly thereafter the record company was no more.....

MORE GIGS AND NEW RECORD DEAL

AB/CD continued to do gigs, mostly in Stockholm. But it wasn´t until 1991 when their new drummer "Flint" got in contact with swedish legendary singer-songwriter Tomas Ledin, who also is (believe it or not) a big AC/DC fan, that the band once again got into recording sessions.

Flint told Tomas about Nalcolms new demos and he got very interested. After a few days they had a meeting and decided to record a new full length album.

The album "The Rock'n'Roll Devil" was recorded at ABBAs POLAR STUDIOS in Stockholm, which was one of the alternative locations for the recording of AC/DCs "Back in Black" album. Led Zeppelin recorded their album "In through the outdoor" there in the late seventies.
Tomas got a record deal with BMG/RCA Records and the album had official releases in Sweden, Japan, Germany, Switzerland and Finland.
Loads of albums were also shipped on import to for example the U.S.A.

"Both us and BMG was very surprised when the album in just about 2 months had sold over 20.000 copies. Switzerland had the biggest sells." Bengus says."You know, there were almost no advertizing at all, it was just all by the word of mouth. We hadn't even done a gig outside of Stockholm!".

NEW ALBUM - CENSORED

In late 1994 it was time for a new album. Nalcolm came up with the idea of doing an album with the topic "attack pop celebrities". Every song on the album was supposed to be a "kick in the ass" on several famous popstars.
But BMG was afraid of reprisals, so they had to censor all the lyrics and the result turned out to be sort of "a regular rock`n`roll album".

"Mikey's Butt" was from the beginning called "Bolton's Butt". In "Six Feet Down Below" there were more things in the lyrics going straight for Madonna. "Too Short to be the king" was obviously about Prince.....Rock´n´Rolex is a kick in the ass on Yngwie Malmsteen"

In this moment AB/CDs"demobox" is full of new powerful material.....
...and we´re looking for a new record company.......to get a good deal....

Paul Brynolf / Manager