Back in the mists of time, ATL were known as Arthur Turner's Lovechild? Since 1999, it's been simply ATL.
And the legendary Oxford drunk rockers took quite a while getting around to signing a deal. Anyone else who'd supported Radiohead, Ride, Supergrass and the Candyskins - and given them all a run for their money - should have been snapped up immediately...
......right?
Wrong!
The four piece turned down deals from two majors on the grounds that they didn't want to "suck corporate dick". A general disdain for major record company types means ATL could never in a million years have signed a major deal.
ATL lead singer Mac's personal reticence towards major A&R men stretches back a while into the seven years he spent as a promotor at Oxford's Jericho Tavern. The Jericho was one of those toilet circuit joints that kept indie guitar music alive through the dark years of the early '90s and Mac has a fair claim to having been a key figure in many of the Oxford success stories of the last few years. As he so modestly put it:
"Ride, Radiohead, Supergrass - I invented them all!"
The A&R men would phone him regularly for the gossip on the local talent - in fact he was even offered a job in A&R himself, but it really wasn't his style:
"It's no good, I'd actually want to sign bands....I'd get fired within a week!"
