A Touch of Class (often shortened in initials as ATC) were an international pop group based in Germany, although the four members each came from different countries—Joseph "Joey" Murray (born 5 July 1974) from New Zealand, Sarah Egglestone (b. 4 April 1975) from Australia, Livio Salvi (b. 25 January 1977) from Italy, and Tracey Elizabeth Packham (b. 30 July 1977) from the United Kingdom. The pop group was active from 1999 to 2003 and their most successful release was "

Around the World (La La La La La) "Around the World (La La La La La)" is the debut single of German-based international Eurodance group ATC (also known as A Touch of Class). The song is a cover of the Russian hit "Pesenka" by Ruki Vverh! and uses the song's melody with addition ...

", released in 2000. The group disbanded in 2004.

Career

The four met together in Hamburg, Germany as cast members of the international Broadway theatre German production of the stage musical ''

Cats The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of t ...

'' from October 1997 to April 1998. Sarah Egglestone played Bombalurina, Livio Salvi played

Mungojerrie Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer are fictional characters in T. S. Eliot's 1939 poetry book '' Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats''. The Jellicle cat duo are mischievous petty thieves who often cause trouble for their human family. Although orig ...

, Tracey Packham played

Syllabub Syllabub is a sweet dish made by curdling sweet cream or milk with an acid such as wine or cider. It was a popular British confection from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Early recipes for syllabub are for a drink of cider with milk. By the 1 ...

, and Joey Murray played as

Munkustrap Munkustrap is a Jellicle cat from T. S. Eliot's 1939 poem "The Naming of Cats". He is a principal character and the main narrator in Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1981 musical ''Cats'', which is based on Eliot's poems. Munkustrap is the storyteller and ...

/ swing dancer. The four quickly became friends and decided to form a dance group. Egglestone noted, "We were there sitting watching television one day, seeing groups and saying 'there's no reason ..why we can't do this.'" The group first met with producers

Alex Christensen Alex Christensen (born 7 April 1967), also known by his stage names Jasper Forks or Alex C., is a German dance music producer, songwriter, and DJ generally known as the face and one of the founding members of U96. Since 2002, he has been coll ...

and Thomas M. Stein in 1999 and began working on material under the name ATC. The group experimented with merging male and female vocals together. "Producers don't seem to want to mix the voices so often ..that helps give us that little bit of an edge," Murray remarked. Their first

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

, "

" (which was an English cover of the song "

Pesenka "Pesenka" ( rus, Песенка, , ˈpʲesʲɪnkə, , little song, links=y), sometimes known as "Pesenka (La La La)", is a song by the Russian pop–dance–techno group Ruki Vverh! (, 'Hands Up!'). The song, with lyrics in Russian and music by ...

" by the Russian group

Ruki Vverh! Ruki Vverh! (russian: Руки Вверх, meaning "Hands Up!") is the name of Russian pop and dance musician Sergey Zhukov. They were originally a duo which consisted of Zhukov and Aleksey Potekhin. The duo came to prominence in the 1990s.

) was first released on 1 April 2000 and went

number one Number One most commonly refers to: * 1 (number) Number One, No. 1, or #1 may also refer to: Music Albums * ''Number 1'' (Big Bang album), and the title song * ''No. 1'' (BoA album), and the title song * ''No.1'' (EP), by CLC * ''n.1 ...

in Germany for six weeks in summer 2000. It was later an only

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...

in the United Kingdom and United States. Their debut album ''

Planet Pop ''Planet Pop'' is the debut album by Eurodance group A Touch of Class. The album was released internationally on 6 November 2000 and in the United States on 6 February 2001. It reached No. 73 on the ''Billboard'' 200. The album's lead singl ...

'', featuring songs from Alex Christensen and Clyde Ward, was released on 6 February 2001 by

Sony BMG Music Entertainment Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyout o ...

and

Republic Records Republic Records is a New York City–based American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). It was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially an ...

, for which they were awarded an

ECHO In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the lis ...

for Best Dance Act. In 2001, the group released the single I'm In Heaven (When You Kiss Me), which was moderately successful in parts of Europe. In 2002, "Set Me Free" was released as a single but was not successful. In 2003, the DJ and producer

ATB André Tanneberger (; born 26 February 1973), better known by his stage name ATB, is a German DJ, musician, and producer of trance music. According to the official world DJ rankings governed by ''DJ Magazine'', ATB was ranked No. 11 in 2009 and ...

successfully took the band's record label to court, and the band was forced to formally drop the ATC initials. Following the name change, the group released a final single, "New York City", and their second album, ''Touch the Sky'' in 2003, but they did not match the success of their previous records. In 2004, the group disbanded as the members decided to go their separate ways.

Discography

Albums

Singles

References

External links

ATC @ Bubblegum Dancer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Touch of Class 1999 establishments in Germany 2003 disestablishments in Germany Europop groups Eurodance groups Musical groups established in 1999 Musical groups disestablished in 2003 Musical groups from Hamburg Sony BMG artists