was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

rock band from

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, that existed from 1983 to 1988.

History

started as , a side project to the Swedish punk band , and included three of its members. When broke up in 1983, re-emerged as ; with

Joakim Thåström Sven Joakim Eriksson Thåström (born 20 March 1957), better known as Thåström, is a Swedish singer and songwriter, mostly known for the bands Ebba Grön and Imperiet. He has moved between a number of genres, from punk to rock, industrial and ...

(lead vocals, guitar), Anders "Stry" Sjöholm (vocals, guitar) and Gunnar "Gurra" Ljungstedt (

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...

s), all three originally from . They were joined by Christian Falk (

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

) and Per Hägglund ( sax,

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

). Stry left in 1984 and Gurra the following year. Gurra was replaced by Fred Asp on the drums. In 1987 Per Hägglund left and disbanded in 1988. 's sound was inspired by punk, rock and

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

. Their lyrics were left-wing and anti-imperialist; songs like "

C. C. Cowboys C. or c. may refer to: * Century, sometimes abbreviated as ''c.'' or ''C.'', a period of 100 years * Cent (currency), abbreviated ''c.'' or ''¢'', a monetary unit that equals of the basic unit of many currencies * Caius or Gaius, abbreviated a ...

", "" (Always Red, Always Right), and "" (Where’s the Wolf?) were inspired by Russian

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

poet Mayakovsky. Mainly successful in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

and Scandinavia, also toured overseas, playing in the United States, Cuba, Central America and South America. In 1988, released their only English language album, called '. It featured translated versions of their old songs. The album had an intensive promotional European tour, but was only popular in Sweden. This put an end to plans for an international career. Their original name (meaning The Space Empire), was taken from the

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

movie '' The Empire Strikes Back'' (

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

), the Swedish title being '.

Personnel

Members

* Christian Falk - bass, backing vocals (1983-1988; died 2014) *

- lead vocals, lead guitar (1983-1988) *Per Hägglund - synthesizer, saxophone (1983-1987) *Gunnar Ljungstedt - drums (1983-1985) *Stry Terrarie - lead vocals, organ, guitar (1983-1984) *Fred Asp - drums (1985-1988)

Line-ups

Discography

Albums

*1983 - ' *1984 - ' (Mini-LP) *1985 - ' *1985 - ' (Live album) *1986 - ' *1988 - ' *1988 - ' *1988 - ' (Live album/compilation) *1990 - ' (Compilation) *1995 - '' Greatest Hits'' (Compilation) *2002 - ' (Compilation) *2009 - ' (Compilation)

Singles

*1981 - "" (as Rymdimperiet) *1982 - "" (as Rymdimperiet) *1983 - "" (as Rymdimperiet) *1983 - "" *1984 - "" *1984 - "" *1985 - "" *1985 - "" *1986 - "" *1986 - "" *1986 - "" *1987 - "" *1987 - "" *1988 - "Be the President" *1988 - "" *1988 - "" {{Authority control Musical groups established in 1983 Musical groups disestablished in 1988 Swedish new wave musical groups Swedish post-punk music groups 1983 establishments in Sweden 1988 disestablishments in Sweden