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AC/DC to bring Black Ice down under
THEIR knees might be creaking and the school uniform has seen better days, but AC/DC will be ready to rock when they bring their Black Ice World Tour to Australia in February. Their first Australian tour since 2001 is their largest yet, with 48 semi-trailers required to shift sets around the country. Last year they released Black Ice, their first CD in eight years – the second-biggest-selling CD in the world, which topped the charts in 29 countries. Their back catalogue was the biggest-selling of 2008, even outstripping the Beatles. Gallery Pictures: AC/DC in action Their European shows sold out in 10 minutes, and promoter Garry Van Egmond is prepared for a similar reaction here when tickets go on sale on Monday, May 25. "They play all their big hits. They naturally play a few hits from Black Ice. It's two hours of great rock 'n' roll," he said. Tickets will be available for $99, or $149.90 for the best seats. Van Egmond said the band gave specific instructions to keep prices reasonable. "They want everybody to be able to afford it," he said. "They won't allow pre-sale selling – it will be 9am on a Monday and the same for everyone, there is no preferential treatment." Townsville fans, who campaigned to get AC/DC to visit their city, will miss out with promoters saying the were unable to host the outdoor show in north Queensland as it would be held in February, during the wet season. "We're very sorry but it's during the wrong time of the year, and (Townsville fans) may have to come to Brisbane," Van Egmond said. And while they may be wild rockers on stage, behind the scenes the band, aged between 54 and 61, couldn't be more professional. "These are the most dedicated, straight people I've ever dealt with as a band, who are really involved with what happens with them," Van Egmond said. By the time their tour winds up in 18 months, they will have played to an estimated three million people around the world. AC/DC back to play
Aussie rock legends AC/DC will return home in 2010 for their first tour in almost a decade - with concerts in five capital cities. The band will perform in February and March to expected sell-out crowds in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth as part of its worldwide Black Ice Tour. Grammy and ARIA award winning band Wolfmother will support the tour, with the Sydney concert to be held at ANZ Stadium, Olympic Park. AC/DC last performed on home soil in 2001 and next's year's concert roadshow will travel around Australia in 48 semi-trailers. The tour sold out across Europe and America on the back of last year's Black Ice album release which sold about two million copies in the first week of release. In their 30 years of rocking, AC/DC have sold more than 200 million records worldwide. Tickets go on sale on May 25.
Happy New Year: Free Shipping and Big Savings Through Friday
For Those About To Rock The New Year, 2009 is about to hit with full force while The Boxing Day Week Sale in the AC/DC Official Store is nearing the end of the tracks. These are the last three days to enjoy 35% off the entire store. It doesn't end there though, the AC/DC Official Store is raising the stakes today in celebration of the New Year. From now until the end of The Boxing Day Week Sale all orders of $50 or more will receive Free Shipping! To up the ante well also toss in a free Black Ice Word Tour Program. Now that's a whole lotta Rosie! We salute you, Boxing Day Sale: Big Savings On Your Entire Order All Week
For Those That Just Rocked the Holidays, The annual Boxing Day Sale is on at the AC/DC Official Store. Still recovering from the blowout in Tampa? Or maybe you're gearing up for the Rock 'n Roll Train to roll through Cleveland. Either way, make sure you commemorate the year that was and the year that will be with all the AC/DC swag you've got room for. Visit the AC/DC Official Store today and you will save 35% off your entire order during the Boxing Day Week Sale. Save on Black Ice, Tour Shirts, Posters and much more. The sale ends on 1/2/09 so take advantage today. We salute you, AC/DC's Vince Lovegrove recalls how he took on Bon Scott
BON Scott was desperate for success, almost 28, and had not reached the fame and fortune he desired. The pressure was on and he felt trapped, frustrated, almost too old and without direction. About 11pm on May 3, 1974, at the Old Lion Hotel in North Adelaide, during a rehearsal with the Mount Lofty Rangers, a very drunk, distressed and belligerent Bon Scott had a raging argument with a member of the band. Bon stormed out of the venue, threw a bottle of Jack Daniels on to the ground, then screamed off on his Suzuki 550 motorbike. Three hours later, I received a phone call from his wife, Irene, at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Bon was in a coma, near death, after a disastrous collision with a car. I drove to the hospital, and there was Bon as I had never seen him; limp, smashed to smithereens, his jaw wired, most of his teeth knocked out, a broken collar bone, several cracked and broken ribs, deep cuts across his throat. He was in a coma for three days. He remained in hospital for 18 days. This happened before Bon was to find fame with AC/DC. Irene tells me that, before Bon went into the coma that night, the nurse sarcastically said to her: "He says he's a singer." My friendship with Bon Scott goes way back to 1966, when we were lads in Perth. Ronald Belford "Bonnie" Scott was a 19-year-old Scottish migrant working as a postman in Fremantle and I was an 18-year-old sales assistant at Pellew's Menswear, which was conveniently situated just around the corner from the post office. Ron, as his mother Isa still calls him, was the drummer in the Spektors and I was the singer with the Winztons, the top two teen bands in Perth. Rhythm guitar player Ted Holoway and I decided to form a new band, the Valentines, comprising half the members from the Winztons and half from the Spektors. We wanted Bon in the band - as a second singer. When he sang, Bon took off into charisma-land; his eyes would twinkle, his brows would slightly raise, his lips would purse into an impish grin, his swagger demanding attention. Bon had a raw, unique voice which would be perfect as an offset to my rather flimsy pop voice. The Valentines became one of Australia's most popular bands of the '60s - I can even remember a young Jimmy Barnes in the audience when we played in Adelaide. We were very poor, almost starving, driving down the highways, absorbed with rock'n'roll, stealing people's front door milk money to survive, living on boiled potatoes, the dreams of success our mantra. We enjoyed a mad three years, the five of us, performing in every, single, poky hall and drug-infested club in tiny towns in every pocket of Australia. We slept in the van together, slumped over the equipment; we ate together, travelled together and were in each other's pockets almost 24 hours of every day - all for one and one for all. But, as Bon so quaintly put it in the lyrics of one of his songs later on, "it ain't no fun waiting around to be a millionaire". We suffered near-malnutrition just to experience that hour or so on stage, our adrenalin-rush, audience-feedback addiction satisfied once more in a fix of rock'n'roll performance. Our main charter wasn't to achieve the brilliance of musicianship but to live the life. We had a few run-ins with the law; our charter was sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. I say this as a matter of fact, not a matter of pride. When the Valentines split in 1970, we all went our separate ways. I moved to Adelaide to work on a magazine. Bon went to Sydney and joined the Levi Smith Clefs, which then changed its name to Fraternity. In the summer of 1971, thanks, in part, to the generous spirit and blind-faith-belief of Adelaide entrepreneur Hamish Henry, Fraternity moved from Sydney to Adelaide, where they lived a seemingly idyllic communal lifestyle on a 3.5ha property 26km from the city, in Aldgate. Fraternity were excellent musicians led by bassist Bruce Howe, who was a dogmatic taskmaster, and he weaved his mentor magic on Bon Scott. A few months into 1972, Fraternity left Australia for England, Bon marrying his beautiful, blonde girlfriend, Irene Thornton, before departure. Less than two years after leaving to crack the big time in Europe, Fraternity crawled back into Adelaide, their tails between their legs, the big time having eluded them. Bon and Irene landed in Perth on their way home to Adelaide on December 28, 1973. Bon didn't waste any time. He had a strong work ethic, and after returning to his adopted home of Adelaide he immediately began earning money doing any kind of work. He scraped barnacles from the bottom of boats and he worked at the Wallaroo fertiliser plant. Musician Peter Head, former leader of Adelaide's Headband and a virtuoso piano player, befriended Bon. Bon would go to Peter's home after a day shovelling shit, and show him musical ideas he had had during his day's work. Bon's knowledge of the guitar was limited, so Peter began teaching him how to bridge chords and construct a song. One of the songs from these sessions was a beautiful ballad called Clarissa, about a local Adelaide working girl. Another was the country-tinged Up in the Hills Too Long, which for me was a sign of things to come with Bon's lyrics; simple, clever, sardonic, tongue-in-cheek. Bon always carried a standard, spiral-bound, exercise book in which he wrote words and rhymes. That habit stayed with him until the day he died. Head had a make-shift band, the Mount Lofty Rangers, for out-of-work musicians, and Bon was one of the many drifting lead singers. Another was Glen Shorrock and another was Adelaide theatre legend Robyn Archer. Bon left the Mount Lofty Rangers after his accident. When he was released from hospital, Bon stayed alternatively at Irene's home and my home, which I shared with my wife, Helen. We owned a booking and management agency called Jovan, and we managed a fledgling Cold Chisel and a group called Stars. We booked into Adelaide most major Australian acts, such as Lobby Loyde, Kevin Borich, Skyhooks, Chain, and Buster Brown, with Angry Anderson on vocals. There was a young, dinky little glam band from Sydney that we both loved called AC/DC. Leaders of the band were brothers Angus and Malcolm Young. I knew their big brother, George, from the old Valentines days. George and his former Easybeats colleague Harry Vanda wrote us a few songs, and Bon idolised that group's singer, Stevie Wright. Malcolm, then 21, and Angus, just 19, were impatient fireballs, hungry for live performance experience and success. Helen and I loved the young AC/DC with their satin, knee-length pantaloons and school uniform. Bon was now recovering from his motorbike accident. He was hobbling around on crutches, sometimes a walking stick, and was earning money by helping Helen and I paint the office, placing posters and other assorted promotion jobs. Before another AC/DC visit, George Young phoned me and said the band was looking for a new singer. I immediately told him that the best guy for the job was Bon. George responded by saying Bon's accident would not allow him to perform, and that maybe he was too old. Nevertheless I had a meeting with Malcolm and Angus, and suggested Bon as their new singer. They asked me to bring him out to the Pooraka Hotel that night, and to come backstage after the show. When he watched the band, Bon was impressed, and he immediately wanted to join them, but thought they may be a bit too inexperienced and too young. After the show, backstage, Bon expressed his doubts about them being "able to rock". The two Young brothers told Bon he was "too old to rock". The upshot was that they had a jam session that night in the home of Bon's former mentor, Bruce Howe, and at the end of the session, at dawn, it was obvious that AC/DC had found a new singer. And Bon had found a new band. Bon and I kept in touch over the years and I last saw him in 1978 in Atlanta, Georgia. I was filming a documentary about Australian music and AC/DC were headlining a concert. The group had been touring America and Europe non-stop for almost three years at that stage, and they were getting close to breaking through internationally, but that was still 18 months away. After the show, Bon and I went back to his hotel, the Peachtree Plaza Hotel. My old singing mate and I had our first heart-to-heart conversation for about 18 months. He told me he was tired of it all, that he hoped the band "cracks it soon". He said they were nearly there, that he could smell the success, but if they didn't make it in the next year or two, he would leave the band. He said there still wasn't much money, that he was still broke. He told me he would come back to Australia if it didn't happen soon for AC/DC. He told others he would stay in America. I am sure he told different people a different story. But he was certainly lonely. There was unquestionably an undercurrent of resigned sadness behind his impish grin. He was 32 years old. Less than two years later, on February 19, 1980, Bon Scott was found dead, alone, slumped in a Renault car in south London. He had drunk himself to death, according to the coroner's report. A very lonely death. Those of us in Australia who knew Bon well, those of us who had known him since the '60s, could not quite comprehend how, on the edge of international success, he could die alone in a car, parked in a lonely London street, in the middle of winter, with not a friend in sight. Vince Lovegrove will take part in a free panel discussion on AC/DC and Adelaide's Rock History at the Dunstan Playhouse on December 5 at 5.45pm as part of the Adelaide International Guitar Festival. AC/DC rocks fans all night long
There's a reason AC/DC is once again rock's best selling act with its new Black Ice album and on a recession-proof, sold-out arena tour, which included Saturday night's high voltage concert at Sunrise's BankAtlantic Center. At a time of great uncertainty and forced change, AC/DC offers reliable comfort food albeit of a very loud and unrelenting variety for the eyes and ears. Thanks to the popularity of video games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero, classic rock riffs are back in vogue which could explain why so many teens, as well as some of their dads, came to hear a 61-year-old lead singer howl innuendo-laden '70s staples like Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap and Highway to Hell and why, nearly two hours later, everyone kept cheering in the arena's miles of aisles as fans slowly made their way to the exits, long after the band left the building. If Washington, D.C. could somehow figure out a way to corral the recipe and unleash the rapture AC/DC pumps into its fans, the nation's depressed mood could improve tenfold. There are few things that are dependable these days, but an AC/DC concert works for precisely that reason. AC/DC will always close its shows with For Those About to Rock (We Salute You) and its ''21 gun salute'' round of cannon fire, leather and gravel throat singer Brian Johnson will briefly ride the rope of a huge bell that descends from the rafters for Hells Bells, and guitarist Angus Young, in his trademark English schoolboy costume of course, will drop trou after a strip tease in the middle of The Jack. (Except rather than the full moon of yesteryear, the ever-lean and diminutive Young reveals undies emblazoned with the AC/DC logo). The band, formed in 1973 in Australia by the Young brothers (Angus and Malcolm), does one thing only but it does it exceptionally well: AC/DC plays hard, blues-based rock. It has never recorded a ballad, never tarnished its image with ill-advised forays into disco, techno, hip-hop or any of the other trends it has outlived. Aside from the alcohol related death in 1980 of original vocalist Bon Scott, we've never had to endure tiresome tales in the tabloids of interband squabbles or egos run amok from these guys. If all of this sounds like an AC/DC concert is rote, these clever lads find new ways to keep its delivery fresh. The band's opening alone might well have been the most visually impressive entrance any rock band has conceived of yet. The 105-minute concert opened with a train wreck, but that's not a critical summation of the show to follow. A video on high-definition screens flashed cartoon images of the band amid lusty women who performed suggestive acts with relish. All the while, a locomotive screeches its brakes and chug-chug-chugs down the track. The sexy images and roaring train merge and ultimately climax in an explosion of pyrotechnics. When the smoke cleared, a life-sized replica of a locomotive appeared, precariously tilted off the tracks, at the back of the stage above the band. The familiar crashing chords of the current hit, Rock N Roll Train, kicked off the set and that same train would later belch fire during TNT and serve as transportation for a gigantic, buxom inflatable doll who straddled it during Whole Lotta Rosie, an ode to a portly groupie immortalized in song by the late Scott more than 30 years ago. Songs from the new Black Ice would be the only post-1990 music (save Thunderstruck) AC/DC would offer on this tour and these new songs Rock N Roll Train, War Machine, Big Jack fit seamlessly with the Back in Black favorites they resemble. For a band who refuses to sell its tracks digitally as singles and steadfastly forbids its labels from releasing greatest hits compilations, the contradiction is that its concerts are greatest hits packages, especially since the group purposefully steered away from material from its commercially overlooked albums like the underrated Flick of the Switch (1983) or the Black Ice predecessor, Stiff Upper Lip (2000), for instance. Other subtle changes reigned, too. While the '80s hard rock style has come back exemplified by the look and sound of opening act, Belfast's The Answer that decade's penchant for Lead Singer Potty Mouth Syndrome has not yet returned. This was a show you could take the kids to well, except for the train sex visuals at the start. Sure, AC/DC's lyrics are locker room naughty but you can't make them out in the cavernous acoustics of the arena when the music is cranked this loud. AC/DC as family entertainment? It happened to all the once lascivious rock icons the Stones, Kiss, Aerosmith. Long may AC/DC as good as any of these acts, rock. Let there be rock plaques: AC/DC's former frontman
PERTH has the Bon Scott statue and Melbourne has AC/DC Lane. Dave Evans, the original lead singer of AC/DC, who was dumped before the band hit the big time, is spearheading a campaign to have Sydney recognised as the birthplace of the rock'n'roll group. As with Pete Best, the drummer booted from the Beatles weeks before their first single hit the charts, Evans was sacked by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young after a year and replaced by Bon Scott, who took AC/DC to fame and fortune. Evans joined the Newcastle glam-rock band Rabbit and now lives in Texas, where he performs under the moniker The King of All Badasses. This week Evans was in Sydney, petitioning City of Sydney Council to place plaques at four AC/DC landmarks, including a rehearsal space on the corner of Erskineville Road and Wilson Street in Newtown, where the original line-up of band first met - after Evans answered an ad placed by Malcolm Young in the Herald, calling for a lead singer. Other sites include the now-defunct Chequers Nightclub on Goulburn Street, where they performed their first gig on New Year's Eve, 1973; Victoria Park pool, where the group first performed in costume, including Angus's first turn in his now-famous school uniform; and the old EMI 301 studios, where they recorded their first and only single with Evans, Can I Sit Next To You Girl. "I have nothing against Melbourne but when I heard about AC/DC Lane, I thought, 'Why?"' Evans said. "There is this huge misconception that the band got together in Melbourne." At the first concert at Chequers, the band played half a set of Chuck Berry and Rolling Stones covers, and half a set of "songs we made up on the spot". By October Evans had left, and the group was reinvented with Scott as their frontman. Evans hasn't spoken to "the Young boys" since the mid-70s and is hopeful they will support his bid for the plaques. He rejects claims made by the author Clinton Walker in the AC/DC "bible" Highway To Hell: The Life And Times Of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott, which described Angus Young throwing Evans off stage for embarrassing drunken antics - "no one throws me off a stage" - and says he holds no grudges against his former bandmates. "I am lucky to be part of such a wonderful history … I have had a wonderful career of 30 years and I am still rocking hard." Evans performs tonight at the Gaelic Club with his band, the Apprentices. ACDC Black Ice world tour set for Punchestown in June 2009
PUNCHESTOWN will be Thunder Struck when AC/DC perform their Irish Tour there on Sunday, June 28, 2009 as part of their Black Ice World Tour. AC/DC kicked off their hugely successful Black Ice World Tour in late October to rave reviews in the United States. The Chicago Tribune called their live show "a celebration of all that is great about Rock N Roll," while The Boston Globe exclaimed "AC/DC is the greatest band ever." The tour is currently making it's way across the United States before heading to Europe. Released globally on October 20, 2008, Black Ice was AC/DC's first new album in over eight years. 'Rock N Roll Train,' the first single from Black Ice has been nominated for a Grammy Award. MSPs set to salute rockers AC/DC
AC/DC are about to be paid a glowing tribute at Holyrood in recognition of the rock band's Scottish roots. South of Scotland MSP Christine Grahame has lodged a parliamentary motion calling for the achievements of the group to be acknowledged. Founding members Angus and Malcolm Young were born in Glasgow before the family moved to Australia in 1963. And former frontman Bon Scott was born in Kirriemuir, where there is a memorial plaque in his honour. AC/DC were formed in 1973 and have sold more than 150 million records worldwide, with songs such as Highway to Hell, Back in Black and For Those About to Rock (We Salute You). In 2003, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Glasgow gig They recently released a new album called Black Ice and will play Hampden Park in Glasgow next year as part of a world tour. Ms Grahame's motion - entitled AC/DC, We Salute You - calls on the Scottish Parliament to recognise the band's Scottish roots; note that their popularity continues to grow and welcome their forthcoming performance in Scotland; and to acknowledge the musical inspiration the band has provided to thousands of Scottish musicians. Ms Grahame said: "It is clear Scott had a strong sense of his identity, from the 'Scotland forever' tattoo he had on his arm to his playing the bagpipes on the AC/DC track It's a long way to the top. "When they played Glasgow in 1978 the whole band wore the Scotland national football strip as their concert took place just ahead of the World Cup finals and it would be fitting if they were to do the same when the band play Hampden national football stadium next June. "After 35 years AC/DC are still contributing to music and giving fans enjoyment worldwide. "I think they have long deserved official recognition from their homeland for that major musical contribution and my parliamentary motion will go some way towards recognising that." Angus and Malcolm Young are guitarists and songwriters in AC/DC. Bon Scott died of alcohol poisoning in 1980, aged 33. AC/DC concert sells out in minutes
Tickets for a concert by Aussie rock legends AC/DC in Vienna sold out within minutes overnight, a spokesman for the group said. The concert is set for May 24 at the 50,000-capacity Ernst Happel stadium where the final of the Euro 2008 football tournament was held in June, and promoters are said to be considering a second concert in the Austrian capital. In October, the group released its first album in eight years to rave reviews, massive sales and a nomination for the Grammy music awards. Formed in Australia in 1973, AC/DC is famed for rock anthems Let There Be Rock, Whole Lotta Rosie and Highway to Hell. Their theatrical stage show features the piercing vocals of Brian Johnson and the distinctive riffs of lead guitarist Angus Young, who habitually plays dressed in a schoolboy's uniform. They have sold more than 150 million albums worldwide, with the best-selling 1980 Back in Black album selling 22 million in the United States alone - surpassed only by Michael Jackson's Thriller. Hospital Names Therapy Room After AC/DC's Brian Johnson
A hospital in Florida has named its new music therapy room after AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson. The Sarasota Memorial Hospital is a beneficiary of a foundation supported by the singer, which provides music education for children. The John Entwhistle foundation, which was named after the late Who bassist, equips facilities, including hospitals, with musical instruments. Johnson is scheduled to attend the hospital next week to officially open the Brian Johnson Music Therapy Room. AC/DC are currently on a US tour. You can see highlights from the trip on Gigwise below. European Stadium Dates
Black Ice World Tour AC/DC have added stadium shows to their Black Ice World Tour. The recently announced shows kick off in Leipzig, Germany May 13, 2009 and continue through to June 30, 2009 in Glasgow, Scotland. * Zentral Stadium * Olympic Stadium * Veltins Arena * Stadion * Forumula 1 Racing Track * Ernst-Happel Stadium * Stadt de France * Valle Hovin * Olympic Stadium * Parken * Ullevi Stadium * Amsterdam Arena * Wembley Stadium * Punchestown Racetrack * Hampden Park Anything Goes
Number One We are proud to announce that AC/DC's 'Anything Goes' is the number 1 most added song at Australian radio this week (source The Music Network). Stay tuned for the new video in early 2009. Anything Goes
At radio now Following the runaway success of ‘Rock n Roll Train' the second track to be released in Australia from AC/DC's multi platinum Black Ice album will be ‘Anything Goes'. Already infecting radio right now, look out for the new video in early 2009. AC/DC movie in the making
THE life of legendary AC/DC frontman Bon Scott is being made into a movie. He plans to meet current AC/DC members in January to get the final tick of approval. Martin said early word was the band (Brian Johnson, Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Cliff Williams and Phil Rudd) supported the biopic. He has already received some funding from Film Victoria, and is beginning to hunt out actors. He hopes to cast Tom Budge (Australian Rules, The Night We Called It a Day) as Angus Young, but is throwing his net worldwide in his search for Scott. "I hate to say who an ideal candidate might be, but I think (Scottish actor) James McAvoy could be interesting,'' Martin said. Martin received acclaim for his recent documentary on boxer Lionel Rose. Pink, AC/DC lead dramatic increase in album sales
THERE is no sign of a recession in retail music with album sales rising by up to 60 per cent on last year's figures. Music fans have been flocking to record stores with the release of blockbuster albums from artists such as AC/DC, Kings of Leon and Pink. Australian Record Industry Association chairman Ed St John said: "For the past six weeks we've seen a dramatic increase in album sales. Given the economic climate consumers appear to be reprioritising their spending and music suddenly looks like a really attractively priced gift." Sales are up more than 20 per cent since October 27, compared with the same period last year. Sales of the top five albums are double those last year. The week of AC/DC's Black Ice release showed a 47 per cent increase in physical sales over the same week in 2007. The following week, Pink's Funhouse album pushed CD sales 57 per cent higher than the same period last year. Warwick Vere, owner of Brisbane's largest independent record store, Rocking Horse Records, said: "You constantly read these stories that downloading is the end for the record shop but we've never noticed any downturn in sales in CDs or in vinyl and niche market stuff. "There has always been the adage that entertainment does well in a recession and albums like Kings of Leon's Only By the Night have been enormous for us. So has the Australian blues singer C. W. Stoneking." Man who helped turned AC/DC on
NO ONE deserves a spot in the Adelaide Guitar Festival’s AC/DC tribute concert more than Vince Lovegrove. He was, after all, the man who introduced Bon Scott to Angus and Malcolm Young. The singer and music business all-rounder leads his new band, Mongrels of Passion, to the Guitar Festival and a separate gig at the Gov next week, returning to the city that both boosted and stalled his career. Lovegrove shared lead singer duties with Bon Scott in Perth band The Valentines and ended up in Adelaide when they split in 1970. He took a detour into journalism (working for Messenger, Go-Set and The News), television, running a booking agency and band management. ``I was heading back to Perth to form another band but I was asked to go to Adelaide as Go-Set’s representative,’’ Lovegrove says. ``I never got to Perth because I ended up staying in Adelaide for seven years. I always felt frustrated because I didn’t really want to stop singing.’’ He did, however, play a major part in Aussie rock history. He was the one who hatched a plan to team an out-of-work Bon Scott, who had split with Adelaide ``Bon had a motorcyle accident and was recuperating at my place, sleeping on the lounge, going through a divorce. He was nearly 28, which was old is those days. ``They (AC/DC) were about to sack their latest singer and he was the first person to come to mind. I thought that even though he was on crutches he could ``We went out to the Pooraka Hotel to see them and he loved them. They were all poking fun at each other, they used to call him the old man. They went and While Lovegrove also managed Cold Chisel and Divinyls to success, he never gave up on the dream that he put on hold for more than 30 years. ``When I came back from London two years ago I thought if I don’t do get back to music now I’m going to die frustrated, wishing that I had. Even though 30 He started writing songs with guitarist Tim Gaze (Taman Shud, Ariel) and the band is launching its second five-track EP this week, with plans to release a full- ``It’s fun going back to where I started from. It’s full circle, this is where I began, as an artist and performer. I’m more enthusiastic and loving it more now than I ``I won’t change, this is what I’ll do for the rest of my life.’’ Mongrels of Passion AC/DC: We Salute You (Adelaide Guitar Festival), Elder Park, Sunday, December 7, from 5pm, and Governor Hindmarsh Hotel, AC/DC back with ‘Black Ice’
AC/DC fans, it’s time to rock again after eight years. Angus Young and company are back with the new album “Black Ice,” released last October in the United States. You can find a sample of one of their songs, titled “Rock ‘N Roll Train” here. Their last release, “Stiff Upper Lip” was in 2000, and was met with their usual commercial success. In between then and now, the band was quite inactive with the exception of jamming onstage with the Rolling Stones in 2003, and releasing several box sets. “Rock N’ Roll Train,” the lead single off the album, is typical AC/DC: it lifts the hairs off your arm and immediately hypnotizes you with that 4/4 signature rock groove they’ve perfected since their inception in 1973. “Spoiling For A Fight” sounds a bit like “Moneytalks” off 1990’s Razor’s Edge, but less radio friendly and more ballsy. Indeed the whole album sounds like they’ve abandoned the commercial path they started taking with producer Bruce Fairbarn (rest in peace) in the 1990’s, in favor of the 1970’s-80s sound perfected by producer Robert “Mutt” Lange (also producer of Def Leppard, Bryan Adams, Shania Twain, to name a few). “Stormy MayDay” has Angus Young playing slide guitar, and “Rockin’ All The Way” is a mid-tempo 3-chord rocker reminiscent of all of their mid-tempo 3-chord rockers, except that somehow the magic of the band is that it always makes it sounds fresh and new. Lead vocalist Brian Johnson is in fine form throughout the album, and, according to a press release, cites Black Ice as “the best they’ve ever done, even better than Back On Black (1980).” I will probably agree on that momentarily. The band never sounds sluggish and the guitars are ruthless. The Internet is truly wonderful. Hard copy is not yet available in Manila (as of last week), but you can already find them somewhere in the ether. Wolfgang and Razorback, including the plethora of AC/DC fans in Manila have something to rejoice in, and for those who are tired of contemporary pneumatic avant garde hip rock and alt rock, and want a taste of the real thing, download or buy this as soon as you can. I’m calling the stores everyday. AC/DC catalogue sales
Biggest selling catalogue artist in USA AC/DC continue to dominate sales charts around the world as Black Ice remains the #1 selling album in the USA, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Argentina, Canada and Spain. Released globally in October, 2008, Black Ice topped sales charts in 29 Countries. First week USA sales of 784,288 gave the band it's first ever #1 debut on the USA album charts). Second week sales have taken the total over 1 million copies and Black Ice is poised to be the biggest selling rock record of 2008. 2008 is shaping up to be a year of firsts for AC/DC. With over 5.3 million copies of Black Ice shipped worldwide, combined with over 5.1 million in USA catalogue sold this year alone, AC/DC have surpassed The Beatles as the #1 selling catalogue artist in the USA for 2008. AC/DC kicked off their Black Ice World Tour on October 28 in Wilkes-Barre, PA. AC/DC blamed for financial crisis
As the global financial crisis continues to make headlines around the world, talk is inevitably turning to who is to blame. The usual suspects have been wheeled out greedy investment bankers, greedy investors, greedy politicians and so on but it seems a group of Aussie legends could be inadvertantly to blame. According the UK Guardian's music critic, Alexis Petridis, Aussie rockers AC/DC's ascension to the top of the UK charts amid the current crisis may be no coincidence. Every time the iconic rockers have topped the charts, financial catastrophe has shortly followed, particularly in the UK. Shortly after the band formed in Sydney in 1973, the world was hit by the global oil crisis, which saw prices quadruple. In 1980, meanwhile, as the UK struggled with inflation at 20 percent and unemployment hit 2 million, AC/DC released Back in Black. As Australia was gripped by "the recession we had to have" in 1990 and interest rates soared towards 20 percent, AC/DC scored a remarkable comeback with The Razor's Edge. Fast forward to 2008 as the world is gripped by the biggest financial crisis since the great depression and guess who's comback album is number one in the UK? That's right, AC/DC's Black Ice. As the Guardian's Petridis said, the world economy may be in tatters and uncertainty may be the watchword, but one thing remains constant. "Western capitalism might collapse but at least [Angus] Young can be relied on to perform a song about either rock and roll or testicles while wearing shorts, blazer and cap," he wrote. AC/DC proves it's a rock steady crew
PRESIDENTS come and go, revolutions rise, species become extinct, wars are lost, civilisations fall. But, like the monolith in 2001, AC/DC are still here, immutable. They've been around so long that the first time I spied them on stage there was a previous Labor PM in power. Gough Whitlam. Since then, you know the story. The world changes, AC/DC do not, or at least not since the death of Bon Scott. There must be something reassuring in this, explaining the resurgence in sales for the past two albums. (The gigs, of course, always sell out, because that's truly their element). And here is the Great Wall of AC/DC again. Same drumbeat, same four-to-the-bar bass throb, same Brian Johnson sounding like he's gargling whisky and broken glass, same Malcolm Young power-chord chug, same stinging lead guitar (plus Chuck Berry bits) from Angus Young on the Gibson SG, same call-and-response vocal thing. Same logo. Only three mentions of "rock 'n' roll" (and one "rocking") in song titles, though. As ever, there is no sense of having anything to prove or anywhere to go, no country songs, no epics, not even a blues boogie. Changes of producer (Brendan O'Brien is at the boards this time) make no difference whatsoever. They know their sound exactly, never get bored with it (or let on that they are). It's the anti-Neil Young! The AC/DC records I prefer are the looser, greasier, Bon-era classics like Highway to Hell, with the band that flourished out there in the beer barns with Rose Tattoo and Chisel. You don't sense the danger, smell the beer, the sweat, like you did back then. On the later records, you don't feel like there's going to be a mistake, or that Bon might fall over at any second, or lose his voice, or go off for a ciggie and something, or someone, illegal in the dressing room. Still, Black Ice is fun to have around. It's too long – nine tracks feels right for an AC/DC record, like Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap – not 14. But Black Ice doesn't have that horrible too-much-compression sound of a lot of modern rock, and that makes them almost sound like a breath of fresh air, which is a strange paradox. AC/DC have always known that making rock 'n' roll sound mammoth is about spaces, not how much you can cram into the cracks. And Black Ice sounds mammoth. There are the occasional tweaks: Anything Goes is almost jaunty; Stormy May Day has some blistering Angus slide that makes it a little Led Zep, a whole lotta Rose Tatts; Rock'n'Roll Dream has a soulful verse that might have fitted on a Free album. Before it turns into AC/DC again. Black Ice comes with scorched-earth PR campaign, which always makes rock music harder to like, I reckon. But grab a beer and check tracks like Rock N Roll Train. Inexorable. AC/DC new album Black Ice is revealed
IT HAS been eight years in the making but sounds vintage: AC/DC have blasted back into action with new single Rock 'N' Roll Train. AC/DC - Rock 'N' Roll Train A few hundred lucky fans have had the song reverberating in their heads for almost two weeks after winning the chance to star in the video clip filmed in London on August 15. Since then many have attempted to recreate the song from memory with hilarious results, posting their efforts on YouTube. But the tens of millions of people who have remained loyal to the Australian rock band get their first official preview of Rock 'N' Roll Train today. It is the lead single from the upcoming album Black Ice - the band's first since 2000's Stiff Upper Lip - which is released on October 18. AC/DC recorded the 15 tracks for the much-anticipated album in Vancouver earlier this year with producer Brendan O'Brien, who has worked with Pearl Jam, Rage Against The Machine and Bruce Springsteen. The CD will be available in three different colour versions with their logo in red, gold or platinum. AC/DC are expected to embark on an 18-month world tour in October but there has been no indication yet when they will bring it back home. Australia's God of Rock is paid tribute
The Fremantle Arts Centre (FAC) will be paying tribute to Australia’s most iconic and influential rock and roller by presenting the Bon Scott Project from May 17 to June 29. Curated by Jasmin Stephens and featuring 19 Australian and internationally based artists, the Bon Scott Project will celebrate and critique Scott’s life by sharing stories of fans and friends through their paintings and drawings, a letter display and a fashion forum dedicated to Scott’s intriguing fashion sense. Born in Scotland, Bon Scott was the lead singer and co-lyricist for rock band AC/DC from 1974 to 1980. He grew up in North Fremantle before catapulting to international success with AC/DC. Scott died of acute alcohol poisoning in England on February 19, 1980. Scott’s grave is in Fremantle, and has become a cultural landmark and the most visited grave in Australia. In a recent media release, Stephens described her selection of artists and explained that she wanted people interested in Scott's work, but not necessarily fans. "Scott's fans have shared codes and vocabularies. We wanted artists who were not necessarily fans to break open some of these conventions with a range of responses." One of the artists is West Australian Rebecca Dagnall, whose work includes photographs of Scott’s fans alongside their shrines to him and AC/DC. Another interesting inclusion in the Bon Scott Project is Katie Dyer’s exhibition of letters that contains over 20 documents. In a media release, Dyer noted that Scott was a prolific writer, often trying out lyrics composed on the road in his letters. Another important aspect of the Bon Scott Project is the Bon Scott Blog, created by Sydney-based artist Lucas Ihlein. The blog includes vast amounts of information documenting Scott’s colourful life. FAC Communications Assistant Marisa Aveling told 3rd Degree that the blog receives a couple hundred hits daily from around the world. The exhibition will also include a fashion forum entitled; The Ugly/Sexy Factor: Bon and Fashion, which will include discussions on Scott’s tight jeans as well as trying to answer the question of how a man who has been described to be ‘conventionally unattractive’ had such sex appeal? The forum will be held on Thursday June 12, and will include a performance by FAC/DC, an AC/DC tribute band. Tickets will be on sale at the Fremantle Arts Centre for $10. Besides the fashion forum, entry into the Bon Scott Project will be free. “While we would love for the Bon Scott Project to be an annual event, it is only being held this year – so you better get in to see it quick!,” said Ms Aveling. Bon Scott statue to be unveiled in Perth
Don Coleman, Canada’s Premiere AC/DC Vocalist has recorded a song to celebrate the life and spirit of Bon Scott former frontman for AC/DC. The song “Women, Whiskey & Rock’n'Roll” has been airing daily in Australia on the Rebel FM Network (40 stations is Queensland / NSW ) plus two stations near Fremantle, Western Australia where there is a concert to unveil a statue of Bon Scott this week - PERTH 107.3 FM and 89.7 FM on weekly shows. Each day there are more Australian, Canadian and American FM Stations coming onboard to air the song. Gonna be a rock 'n' roll star ...
As part of the WAMi Awards there are several people inducted to honour their contributions to and achievements in the West Australian music industry. The West Australian Music Hall of Fame inductees were formally recognised on Tuesday February 22nd This years inductees include Bon Scott. A former member of the Valentines, and frontman of ACDC, Bon Scott’s place in the WAM Hall of Fame was acknowledged just days after the 25th anniversary of his death. Combined with Bon's unique vocals and the bands mammoth power chord roar AC/DC became the most influential hard rock bands spawning countless imitators. The WAMi Awards were hosted by Australian Youth Network radio station triple j’s Robbie Buck Angus and
Malcolm Young in Who's Who In Australia 2005
16 Remastered
Classic Albums available for the first time as downloads on Ninemsn!
For the first time ever in Australia, AC/DC fans can download the entire remastered catalogue in a month-long AC/DC legends-of-rock fest on ninemsn! Riff beats all comers
IT is the one riff that every guitar novice learns to play - and consequently it is banned from many stores selling musical instruments. More than 300 professional and amateur musicians have voted Smoke On The Water by Deep Purple the best rock'n'roll riff ever played. The Australian Musician magazine poll to celebrate its 10th anniversary also
named AC/DC the best Australian band - whose album Back In Black - also took out
its category. Editor Greg Phillips said Smoke On The Water was a surprising winner against
Metallica's Enter Sandman, Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit and Guns 'N' Roses'
Sweet Child O' Mine. "It's one of the most recognised riffs in rock music and people generally laugh
it off," he said. Phillips said all categories, with the exception of best overseas band (Red Hot
Chili Peppers) and best bass player (Flea) were dominated by the '70s rock gods,
including Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. "It seems everyone has been listening to their parents' albums," he said. "But then you take into account bands like The Darkness and Jet making the Top 10, they are influenced by Led Zeppelin and AC/DC. Quality music by quality musicians stands the test of time." AC/DC Get Lane
IT seemed the
plan to name a central Melbourne lane after Australian rock band AC/DC had
headed down the Highway to Hell.NCE AC/DC Gets Highway to Hell Lane
Australia hard
rock band AC/DC may have angrily sang they were on the Highway to Hell, but now
a winding, cobblestone lane in Melbourne has been named after the band that
boasts more than 140 million album sales. "Welcome to the Highway to Hell, said AC/DC guitarist Angus Young in a statement
issued on Friday to commemorate Corporation Lane changing its name to AC/DC
Lane. In their famous song Highway to Hell,AC/DC sang: "No stop signs, speed limit.
Nobody's gonna slow me down...Hey Satan, payin' my dues. Playin' in a rocking
band". But you'd be hard pressed to break the speed limit driving down AC/DC Lane or
meeting Satan or hard rockers like the late lead singer Bon Scott, who died in
1980 after a drinking binge. The AC/DC Lane is a short, cobblestone lane which winds gently down to a
nightclub called the "Cherry Bar", a retro dance club more suited to Nick Cave
tunes and some old Johnny Cash. The tiny lane eventually branches off a busy
retail sector. But it was in Melbourne, just around the corner from AC/DC Lane, that the band
filmed their breakthrough rock anthem It's A Long Way To The Top, which started
their journey to become one of the world's biggest rock bands. Formed in Sydney in 1973 by Scotland-born brothers Angus and Malcolm Young,
AC/DC later enlisted Scotland-born lead singer Bon Scott. Two band members were
born in Melbourne. On Friday, Melbourne Lord Mayor John So unveiled AC/DC Lane before a crowd of
about 100 fans, including teenagers and forty-somethings who sipped beer and
wore faded black T-shirts. The city council decided on the name change last month despite fears of
"undesirable behaviour" in the lane. "As the song says, this is a highway to hell, but I say this is a lane to heaven
- let us rock," declared So in officiially opening AC/DC Lane. AC/DC can boast fan websites in more than 20 countries including Japan, Brazil, Italy and Scotland. Delay in dedicating AC/DC street
A council
decision on renaming a Melbourne CBD laneway in honour of legendary band AC/DC
has been deferred until later in the year. Melbourne City Council said last month it was considering changing the name of
Corporation Lane, a narrow alley which runs off Flinders Lane, to AC/DC Lane as
a tribute to the band. A decision had been expected last night. He said the council had received 30 submissions in favour of the proposed
renaming and four against it. "Some of the businesses in the area believe the bars around Corporation Lane,
Flinders Lane and Duckboard Place do not reflect AC/DC music and any renaming
should acknowledge the area's other characteristics," he said. "Tonight's council meeting decided to defer the issue until September's planning committee meeting when all the submissions can be considered." Corporation Lane ACDC Lane
A LANEWAY
tribute to rock band AC/DC has detoured down a highway to hell. Merv Williams, secretary of the Melbourne RSL sub-branch, will oppose a
Melbourne City Council recommendation to rename Corporation Lane ACDC Lane. The
council has asked Mr Williams to float the proposed street name change with RSL
members. Mr Williams said Corporation Lane was an extension of Duckboard Place, where the
RSL's Melbourne sub-branch set up offices in 1939. He will suggest the lane become part of Duckboard Place at an RSL meeting
tonight. "The RSL has been around since 1916 so I think we are entitled to a bit
of a say," Mr Williams said. World War I Diggers used "duckboards" to cross French battlefields. "We are the old boys on the block and we should have a say." The owner of Rosati restaurant has also joined the fight AC/DC may claim
Melbourne lane
They have been revered for their rock anthem Highway to Hell, but legendary band AC/DC could soon lay claim to their own Melbourne lane. Melbourne City Council is considering renaming Corporation Lane, a narrow alley which runs off Flinders Lane, AC/DC Lane as a tribute to the band. Council city services committee chairwoman Kimberly Kitching said the lane was close to Swanson Street where the band filmed its legendary film clip to It's a Long Way to the Top. "They are probably the most successful Australian band ever and they really do have a connection to Melbourne," she said. "I don't think there would be many who wouldn't know that film clip where they are playing on the back of flatbed truck along Swanson Street." She said it all started because Melbourne's rock and roll community was looking for a fitting tribute to the band. "The area around the lane is full of rock and roll bars and I think it would be a fitting place for the tribute." Ms Kitching said the naming of the lane would be an alternative to giving the band keys to the city. "We have recently tightened up our keys to the city program, but in the past we have given them to New Kids on the Block and Dolly Parton." She said the council would make a decision on the name change within the next month, but it had already received broad community support. AC/DC already have a street named after them in Madrid called "Calle de AC/DC in Madrid". Former AC/DC Bass Guitarist To Play For Primary School
Mark Evans, former bass player for AC/DC during their classic Bon Scott era, and former Buffalo frontman Dave Tice will perform a fund raiser for a Sydney school later this month. Tice and Evans will perform their acoustic blues set on July 25 to raise money for the Annandale North Public School at The Empire Hotel in Annandale. "It's great to be able to support the local community" says Evans. "Both Dave and I are residents of the inner west and find it rewarding to be able to help the local community". A $10 cover charge will go to the school to help raise much needed funds for the school programs to be determined by the P & C Committee. Why Annandale Primary? "Our daughter goes there" Mark's wife Bille tells Undercover News. "Dave's kids go to another school so Mark and Dave both help each other out with their school fundraisers". "It should be a good night and it's a great excuse for parents to a 'guilt-free' night out after surviving the school holidays" Mark says. Mark Evans was bass guitarist for AC/DC on the album 'High Voltage' though to 'Let There Be Rock'. He featured on the Acca Dacca classics "It's A Long Way To The Top', 'Jailbreak', 'Whole Lotta Rosie', 'TNT' and 'Baby Please Don't Go' to name a few. The Tice and Evans fundraiser starts at the Empire Hotel, Annandale from 8pm July 25. Tice and Evans hit the stage at 9pm. Former AC/DC Bass Player In Car Accident
Former AC/DC bass guitarist Mark Evans spent a day in hospital this week after a taxi he was being driven in was rear-ended. Evans was on his way to perform at the Bridge Hotel at Rozelle in Sydney with Dave Tice early Tuesday evening when the prang occurred. He was taken to hospital and treated for neck injures following the crash. Tice and Evans have had a residency at The Bridge for six years now and plan on capturing the moment with a live DVD due to be filmed in coming weeks. Mark expects to be back working for the shows on May 4 and 11 when the DVD is planned to be filmed. The Tuesday night gigs are in addition to their usual Thursday night shows. Evans was the bass guitarist for AC/DC up until 'Let There Be Rock'. He played on some of their biggest hits during the Bon Scott era including 'High Voltage', 'Long Way To The Top' and 'Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap'. Tice is formerly of Sydney hard rock band Buffalo. In the early 70's, Buffalo were described as the closet thing Australia had to Black Sabbath. Tice and Evans are a blues band. "Mark says we can't really be a Blues act because we're too happy; but why not when it's this much fun" Dave says in a post at his website. Together they perform R'n'B classics by Wilson Pickett and Sam Cooke, through to Swamp influenced John Fogerty, Chuck Berry Rock and Roll and Elvis Presley's Mystery Train, laced with original cuts from Dave's latest CD. Hells bells, a grave
gig
PRODUCERS of new
Australian movie Thunderstruck have done some fierce negotiating to shoot
key scenes of the AC/DC fan flick. The movie is about five hardcore AC/DC fans who pledge to bury their best friend next to Bon Scott's grave. We're told the producers had to "buy out" burials for the day of shooting, but as there were still people being cremated, the entire cast and crew (including 2000 AC/DC fans who were extras) stopped and bowed their head when processions went by. Scott's mother and brother also had to approve shooting at the singer's grave. Huge numbers of AC/DC fans visit the grave each year so many that the cemetery has a special map. Filming took a day and a half, with the WA Police Pipe Band pitching in on the concert's final song, It's a Long Way to the Top. Thunderstruck, which stars Stephen Curry and Kestie Morassi, will be released on May 20. CORRECTION TO AC/DC ANNOUNCEMENT
The news item
titled 'BACK IN BLACK BECOMES 2ND-HIGHEST SELLING ALBUM EVER' contained
inaccuracies. After being contacted by the RIAA Whammo investigated and the
band's Australian label issued this response yesterday:
BACK IN BLACK BECOME 2ND-HIGHEST
SELLING ALBUM EVE
We're
celebrating today at Whammo. Why? Well, in news just in, AC/DC's management have
announced that Back In Black has sold over 40 million albums worldwide! This
achievement makes Back In Black one the highest selling rock albums of all time.
Does that make AC/DC the greatest rock act ever? AC/DC single voted Australia's best
Heavy rockers
AC/DC have romped home in a British contest to find the best Australian single. Dirty deeds
Thirty years ago this New Year's Eve AC/DC played their first gig and a rock legend was born. Album sales of 100 million - including 70 million in the US - have made AC/DC Australia's biggest rock export. As an Australian I am happy to beat the drum of a group that was formed by three Scottish blokes and which now includes no Australian-born personnel, if only because Australia is where they came together. As for the anniversary, when one notices that the Moody Blues are still a going concert attraction, it must be conceded that a rock band notching up 30 years is now an unremarkable event - the Stones having now entered their fifth decade. And AC/DC long ago entered the rarified state of leisurely activity - intermittent touring; two albums of new material since 1990 - that is standard stuff for rock's idle idols whose creativity has long run on fumes. For someone who first saw AC/DC on Countdown in 1975, however, the 30th is not just a reminder of lost youth but a reminder of how long lost are AC/DC to a particular consciousness - when pop music was at the centre of youth culture and radio its conductor. The enormously popular AC/DC that lingers down the decades, playing bone-crunching hard rock in stadiums all over the world, getting a street named after them in Spain, are a long way from the first incarnation heard first in Aussie dives and then over tinny AM radios. For this was once a pop group, a rival to the Sweet, Bay City Rollers and near forgotten Aussie acts like Sherbet. I went out recently and got myself the first four AC/DC albums: High Voltage, TNT, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap and Let There Be Rock. Listening to them I could almost smell the sweaty muscle-shirts, overflowing ashtrays, upended bongs and beer empties from the Saturday nights of Australian suburbia in the 1970s. Jostling beside my purchases on the racks were an array of newly minted CDs bearing the Epic records imprint, which more than anything is prompting this little tirade. The originals - little pieces of Australiana that are as much a part of our heritage as Iced Vovos, Hills Hoists and Vegemite, are quietly fading before our eyes in favour of a marketing regime that does no favours to the band or its fans. The albums I bought are the ones that conform to the band's intentions, not the "modified" versions that you will find in shops today. Those ones miss vital tracks, butcher others and repeat still more. How did this little bit of cultural desecration come to pass? Flash back to early 1975, when after a year of high-octane performing, High Voltage was released in Australia and New Zealand in early 1975 by EMI Records under licence from Albert Productions, owned by the legendary Australian music industry figure Ted Albert. Propelled by a Top 10 single, a cover of the Joe Williams/Them classic Baby Please Don't Go, it reached No. 7 on the Australian album charts and remained in the listings for 25 weeks. A second album, TNT, followed at the end of the year, by which time such songs as It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll), TNT and High Voltage had made the band stars in Australia and alerted international talents potters. But when AC/DC signed with Atlantic Records for all territories outside Australia and New Zealand in 1976, their early catalogue was rejigged (if you're feeling charitable) - or utterly botched (if you're not). Nothing unusual there - in the 1960s the same thing had happened with everyone from the Beatles and Rolling Stones down when their albums were released in the US. Atlantic cherry-picked from the first two AC/DC albums to make one album for the foreign market. Confusingly that album was named High Voltage, even though it contained only two of the eight songs from the Australian release of that name. The picture blurs even more here. By the time the foreign version of High Voltage came out, AC/DC had recorded their third Australian album, Dirty Deeds Done Cheap. But Atlantic, not wanting to "confuse" the market (yes such a concept exists), sat on it. Instead the fourth AC/DC effort Let There Be Rock in 1977 became their second international album. One of its tracks, Crabsody in Blue (Bon Scott singing about venereal disease), was yanked from the international release, just possibly on the grounds of taste, and replaced by Problem Child, from Dirty Deeds. That album, meanwhile, came out with a different sleeve and altered track listing in the rest of the world in 1981. By then Scott was dead from alcohol abuse, and AC/DC had broken through as an international act with the colossal international hit album Back in Black, recorded with replacement singer Brian Johnson. In 1984 Atlantic issued 74 Jailbreak featuring four of the six missing songs from the Australian version of High Voltage. And that is where AC/DC's catalogue became set in stone. Fans outside Australasia had the dubious privilege of getting Problem Child on two albums and Crabsody in Blue on none. Conversely, while Aussie fans got a batch of exclusive tracks spread through the early albums, they had to buy an imported version of Dirty Deeds to get the 1977 single Love at First Feel on album. These anomalies remained in the transfer of the AC/DC catalogue from record to CD, long after similar mistakes were redeemed with the Beatles. In 2003 AC/DC's albums were reissued by the Epic. Buy one of the new editions and you get a lot of "exclusive" computer link-ups. Such gadgetry is a long way from hearing AC/DC on tinny AM radios, and while the computer extras do offer some fascinating archival material, the work involved accessing it is a long way from picking up the record player arm and taking the needle back for another listen to the bagpipe solo on Long Way to the Top. And if internet fan sites are any guide, the diehards would rather get some of the old tracks that have never been released on CD. It would be a poignant irony if they got them from illegal computer downloads. For a band whose Long Way to the Top reads like a mission statement that they are here for the long haul, and the only major band to not sanction a greatest hits album because it would feel like their obituary, the spruced up catalogue feels incongruous - a premature burial of sorts. For diehards like me the new album configurations are the worst of all worlds, based as they are on 21st century globalised technology rather that the original Australian sweat and spit spirit of AC/DC. I'd rather remember those larrikin antecedents - tragic though this is in the case of Bon Scott. I'll raise him a toast while listening to a true Aussie artefact, High Voltage. AC/DC's early works, and their Australian sources:
* High Voltage: Contains two songs from the Australian High Voltage, seven songs from TNT. Has a shortened version of It's a Long Way to the Top. * Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap: Contains seven songs from original album of same name, Love at First Feel (1977 Australian single), and Rocker from TNT. Has a shortened version of title track. * Let There Be Rock: Seven songs from original album of the same name, plus Problem Child from Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (the same version, despite what many US fans believe). Missing Crabsody in Blue. * Jailbreak '74: Four songs from High Voltage, one from Dirty Deeds. A farcical release containing just five tracks, despite the wealth of unreleased material. Album price despite its brevity. Early AC/DC songs never released on CD include Carry Me Home, Fling Thing and Cold Hearted Man. Non-Australian buyers miss out on RIP (Rock in Peace) and Crabsody in Blue but get Problem Child twice over. (Counting AC/DC's entire catalogue, we all get Ride On three times over.)
Tice and Evans Take On Chris Wilson In Blues Showdown
Sydney powerhouse blues act Tice and Evans will double up with Melbourne's own Bluesman Chris Wilson and his band The Spidermen for a one off gig in Sydney's Inner West on September 26. Evans, the former guitarist for AC/DC, has christened the event 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, but he won't say who fits which tag. "Well, we'll let the punters decide who's who ..but on some nights I reckon all three of us can wear either of the three caps. Just look at us" he says. Both acts will perform their own sets on the night but the highlight at the end of the show will be the culmination of Evans, Tice and Wilson performing together. It will be a rare treat. Mark tells Undercover News the show will run like this. "First up it will be Tice and Evans, then Chris joins us, then it melts into Spidermen. Later Dave will The Spidermen then I'll come back on before we bang some pots" he says." Tice, Evans and Wilson have performed together before but never formerly or officially. "When we've been in Melbourne we've got up on stage with Chris but this is the first time it is formal". The
setlist is still being worked out. "It will be ad hock" says Mark "but Dave will
do 'Bring It On Home' with Chris and possibly 'Rolling' from Buffalo. We might
revisit AC/DC towards the end. We could do 'Baby Please Don't Go' and we've done
(Van Morrison's 'Gloria' before and that morphs into 'Jailbreak'. Chris and I have been mates for a long time and have a huge respect for each others' music." said Mark. "Whenever Dave and I are in Melbourne we'll catch Chris at a gig and vice versa when he comes to Sydney. It's a lay down misere that we'll end up joining each other on stage, so why not do it officially for once." The combination will be a showcase of more than 30 years of Australian rock. Mark was the bass player with AC/DC for their first five (and classic) albums. Dave fronted Buffalo in the 70s and of course Chris is well known in the Melbourne live circuit having recorded over the years with Diesel, James Reyne, Hunters and Collectors and Renee Geyer. Evans promises to start the show early and finish it late. Be there at 9pm "...and where we go from there" he says. " It will be at the beck and call of the audience but one thing is certain, the music lovers are guaranteed a night of good blues rock where they will see both acts perform separately and jointly a night that will be full of surprises, a night of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly". The show is at The Bridge Hotel is on Victoria Rd, Rozelle, September 26. Tickets at the door on the night are $15.
Original AC/DC Singer To Tour Europe
Dave Evans, AC/DC's original singer, is about to go out on a three month tour of Europe. Evans was the first singer, before Bon Scott, when the band formed in Sydney in 1973 and was the signer on their debut single 'Can I Sit Next To You Girl'. The song was later re-recorded with Bon's vocal for the TNT album. Dave's
days with AC/DC were numbered due to internal friction including punch-ups with
the tour manager, so he was soon out and Bon Scott was in. History writes that
Dave refused to go on stage one night and was replaced by Bon Scott but his son
Mark tells a different story. "Well the Young brothers have been spreading that
story for years" he tells Undercover News. "The real reason he left was after
doing the national tour the management said they had no money to pay him for all
the gigging he had done. Three concerts a day etc etc. He has still has not been
paid to this day." After AC/DC, Dave joined Rabbit and released the 'Too Much Rock and Roll' album on CNS in 1976. He will play the title track as well as a few other Rabbit gems on this tour. Evans starts his European tour on July 30 in Munich. Dates are: Jul 30
The Loft - Munich Footnote : Mark Evans quoted here is the son of Dave Evans, not the Mark Evans who was the bass player in AC/DC. Dave
Evans German Tour
Former AC/DC Singer Gets A Thumbs Up From Germany
Former AC/DC singer Dave Evans has finished a lap of Europe with some great reviews coming out of Germany. The Munchner Merker called the show "loud, wild and bloody good". The Süddeutsche Zeitung said it was "all the way to boiling point". Evans has been in Germany since late July and continues the tour this weekend in Osnabruck and Munster before finishing up at an AC/DC convention in Thuringen September 27. The show features many AC/DC hits including 'Ride On', 'Highway To Hell', 'Overdose', 'Whole Lotta Rosie' and 'TNT', although Evans was only the voice on their very first single 'Can I Sit Next To You Girl'. Evans was a founding member of AC/DC in 1973 but left the band after finishing a national tour and no getting paid. He claims to this pay he has still not been paid for the tour. He was replaced by Bon Scott in 1974 who died in 1980 and was in turn replace by Brian Johnson who holds down the job to this day. Remaining dates for Dave Evans in Europe are: Aug 22
Works - Osnabrück The AC/DC Re-masters
USA Elektra Records was first to re-issued the complete catalogue AC/DC re-masters on Australian market in 2000. On back of each CD it readied Elektra / Albert Production. Australia already haded a tastes of re-masters. If you have Bonfire box set, you will find that they just transfer all information on these releases. Epic Records just re-issued Elektra original album covers with Albert Production. I personally prefer AC/DC re-masters with Albert Production. Malcolm Thanks Bon For AC/DC Award
AC/DC member Malcolm Young thanked Bon Scott when he collected the band's APRA Award last night. Malcolm accepted the award from the UK where the band is gearing up for their German dates with The Rolling Stones next month and told the audience "On behalf of AC / DC and Bon Scott, especially Bon as he¹s a big part of this, we¹re proud of the honour of receiving this award." AC/DC were awarded the Ted Albert Award For Outstanding Service To Australian Music. It was an appropriate award for the band as to this day they are still signed to the label that Ted founded, Albert Records. AC/DC released their first album 'High Voltage' on Alberts and over the next 5 years released 7 albums including 'TNT', 'Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap', 'Let There Be Rock', 'Powerage', 'If You Want Blood You Got It' and 'Highway to Hell' all featuring the vocals of Bon Scott. Although Bon is often credited as the original lead singer of AC/DC, he was not. Dave Evans was the original singer but was fired from the band after the release of their debut single 'Can I Sit Next To You Girl'. AC/DC later re-recorded the song for their second album 'TNT' with Bon's vocal. As the APRA Awards are for songwriters, last nights award to AC/DC was awarded to both Angus and Malcolm Young. Ted Albert Award For Outstanding Service To Australian
Music
AC/DC brothers Angus and Malcolm Young and the late Bon Scott. Speaking from the U.K, Malcolm Young paid special tribute to Bon Scott saying, "On behalf of AC/DC and Bon Scott, especially Bon as he's a big part of this, we're proud of the honour of receiving this award." The heart of one of the most important Australian bands of all time, the brothers Young have been musical co-conspirators for 30 years. Their Ted Albert award follows on from their recent induction into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.
Gwen, Steven Tyler Sing With Police; AC/DC Shake The Waldorf: Kurt Loder Reports From The Rock Hall Induction
NEW YORK — As Elton John said at one point, it was a very good night to be British. The 18th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on Monday night, brought some nonpareil musicians into the pantheon. Among them were the Righteous Brothers, the '60s blue-eyed-soul duo; and such celebrated studio stars as Steve Douglas (a tenor-sax honkmaster who played with everybody from the Beach Boys to Bob Dylan), the influential Nashville pianist Floyd Cramer (who backed Hank Williams and Elvis Presley and scored instrumental pop hits of his own), and groove-king drummer Benny Benjamin, who powered some of the greatest Motown classics of that great label's golden age. But, maybe because most of them also performed, the night belonged in large part to the English punk and New Wave class of 1977: the Clash, and Elvis Costello and his band, the Attractions (whose first albums were released that year), and the Police (who got together in '77, and released their debut LP in 1978). Costello and the Attractions came out and tore into "Pump It Up" with all the angry-young-men aggression they'd poured into it 25 years earlier. It was pretty thrilling — and, as always, a little strange to see people in tuxedoes boogying down at their expensively reserved tables. Elvis and company were inducted into the Hall of Fame by big-time fan Elton John — wearing an especially sassy wig — who saluted Costello's ambitious work over the years in a wide range of musical styles, from country to neo-classical. "He's never chosen the commercial route," Elton noted. "Which is more than can be said of me. But hey, somebody's got to pay for this hair." Costello also led the Attractions through a long and clearly heartfelt rendition of "You've Really Got a Hold on Me," the 1962 Motown hit by the Miracles (later covered by the Beatles). And he signed off with "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding," a reverberant song off his 1979 Armed Forces album. It may have been the first anti-war statement of the evening, and it wasn't the last. ("We're havin' a good time tonight," Neil Young said, a little later. "But we're gonna kill a lotta people next week.") Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello inducted the Clash. He said the band's pugnacious idealism lived on "wherever people take to the streets to protest an unjust war." The Clash didn't perform, of course — their iconic frontman, Joe Strummer, died last December (see "The Clash: Ducking Bottles, Asking Questions, By Kurt Loder"). But most of the surviving members were on hand. (Drummer Topper Headon, who was fired from the group because of his heavy drug problem, was supposed to fly in, but in the end didn't show.) Guitarist Mick Jones made quick mention of a friend "who's in Baghdad at the moment as a human shield," then gave a shout-out to the Sex Pistols, who he hopes will be inducted into the Hall next year. And then, all of a sudden, like a truck bomb in a brickyard, AC/DC happened. There they were, with guitarist Angus Young duck-walking across the stage, ripping out the chords to "Highway to Hell," while singer Brian Johnson launched his power-drill shriek up toward the (relatively) cheap seats. Having formed in 1973, AC/DC aren't technically punks, I guess. But any band that still features a guitar player in a short-pants schoolboy suit qualifies in my book. There's a tiresome sense of decorum that's built into most award shows, and it tends to mute all things rude and unruly. AC/DC are apparently unaware of this. They may be unaware of anything apart from what Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, who inducted them, called "the majesty of the power chord." Tyler ran out to join the unstoppable Aussies for a wall-shuddering run-through of "You Shook Me All Night Long," and you could almost hear brains hemorrhaging around the room. We need to hear this sound more often. Gwen Stefani inducted the Police into the Hall of Fame — dunno why, exactly, but hey, why not? Grumpy pop scholars sometimes denigrate the Police as a non-stop, money-Hoovering hit machine — "Message in a Bottle," "Don't Stand So Close to Me," "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic." This is true but unfair, not to mention stupid. These guys are electrifying musicians. It would be enough that Sting, with his distinctive, sinuous delivery, is a great singer; or that he is one of the most harmonically sophisticated of all post-Paul McCartney bassists. The fact that he is both of these things at once remains something of a marvel. Guitarist Andy Summers' gorgeous phrasing and inventive use of electronic effects place him pretty much in an instrumental category of his own, at least in a pop context. And Stewart Copeland — I mean, what a drummer. The man plays with unrelenting power and snap, but with deep rhythmic complexity, too. He finds beats in places most other percussionists wouldn't think to look, and he does it about every 30 seconds. The Police broke up 18 years ago — they apparently didn't like each other all that much — but they immediately re-gelled for this occasion. You might think that "Roxanne," their 1979 hit, could never be brought back from the Valley of Overplayed Singles. But they kicked it to life as if they'd just thought it up the week before. And their 1983 über-smash, "Every Breath You Take" — later a big hit with Puffy Combs' name somehow attached to it — was an equally neat feat of exhumation. The Police really were — still are — a uniquely impressive band. Toward the end of "Every Breath You Take," Steven Tyler and Gwen Stefani jumped up and joined in. So did, uh, John Mayer. Then, before Dick Cheney and the L.A. Lakers could prance out to take part, the song crested and came to an end. Word had it that the show was supposed to conclude with an "all-star jam" on the Clash's 1979 cover of the old Bobby Fuller Four hit, "I Fought the Law." This didn't happen, and probably just as well. These "jams" — intended as a display of heart-warming pop-star commonality — are most often a mess. Spared such a sodden wrap-up, this Hall of Fame show — spirited in its performances, generally sleek in its pacing — seemed otherwise unimprovable. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: AC/DC
AC/DC Phil Rudd (drums; born May 19, 1954), Brian Johnson (vocals; born October 5, 1947), Bon Scott (vocals; born July 6, 1946, died February 19, 1980), Cliff Williams (bass; born December 14, 1949), Angus Young (lead guitar; born March 31, 1955), Malcolm Young (rhythm guitar; born January 6, 1953) For three decades AC/DC has reigned as one of the best-loved and hardest-rocking bands in the world. Featuring guitarist Angus Young as their visual symbol and musical firebrand, they grew from humble origins in Australia to become an arena-filling phenomenon with worldwide popularity. They did so without gimmickry, except for Angus’s schoolboy uniform, which became mandatory stage attire. From the beginning they have been a straight-ahead, no-frills rock and roll band that aimed for the gut. “We’ve never pulled any punches,” vocalist Brian Johnson has said. “We just play music that’s fun and simple--the way our audience likes it.” “Cliched as it might be, we’ve always been a good, hard rock ‘n’ roll band,” Angus Young has said of AC/DC. This uncomplicated approach has given AC/DC a single-minded sense of mission. They’ve never recorded power ballads or gone soft to enhance their commercial appeal. Their unwavering devotion to no-frills hard rock with plenty of bawdy wit has made for a consistency that’s won them the loyalty of millions of fans, who range from working stiffs to the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards. Another famous fan, author Stephen King, tapped AC/DC to assemble Who Made Who, the 1986 soundtrack album to the film version of his novel Maximum Overdrive. Angus Young was born into a family of musical siblings. His oldest brother, George Young, belonged to the Easybeats, an Aussie beat group that had a worldwide hit in 1965 with “Friday on My Mind.” Another guitar-playing sibling, Malcolm Young, had the original idea for a no-nonsense rock band built around energetic Angus, who was the brood’s most talented musician. The Young brothers chose the name AC/DC, which implied electricity and a hint of danger. The nascent AC/DC played their first gig at a club in Sydney on New Year’s Eve 1973. The group’s lineup solidified in 1974 when vocalist Bon Scott, drummer Phil Rudd and bassist Mark Evans replaced early members Dave Evans, Rob Bailey and Peter Clack. Hungry and tirelessly hard-working, AC/DC toured and recorded constantly in the 1970s. Their first four studio albums - High Voltage (1975), T.N.T. (1975), Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (1976), Let There Be Rock (1977) and Powerage (1978) - were produced by George Young and his Easybeats partner, Henry Vanda. The Vanda-Young tandem captured the band’s raw energy in the studio. At the same time, AC/DC’s songs had a straightforward appeal that made them more of a hard rock than a heavy metal band. The group signed a worldwide contract with Atlantic Records in 1976; as a result, the American reissues of AC/DC’s early work differ significantly from the Australian originals. Let There Be Rock (1977) was the first AC/DC album to be released simultaneously around the world. After its recording, tour-weary bassist Evans left, replaced by Cliff Williams. A live album, If You’ve Want Blood You’ve Got It, came at the end of 1978. AC/DC’s studio mastery took a giant leap with Highway to Hell (1979), recorded over a six-month period in London instead of Australia. At George Young’s suggestion, they tried a new producer: John Robert “Mutt” Lange (who’d later work with Def Leppard and Shania Twain). Angus sported a pair of devil’s horns on the jacket, which contributed to disapproval of AC/DC in some fundamentalist quarters. The band headlined its first European tour as Highway to Hell hit the British Top Ten and reached #17 in America. These triumphs were followed by tragedy when singer Bon Scott died of asphyxiation following a drinking binge on February 19, 1980. Though devastated, Malcolm and Angus quickly began working up new material as a form of therapy. “I just rang up Angus and said, ‘Do you wanna come back and rehearse?’” Malcolm Young told Rolling Stone. “This was about two days afterward.” After auditioning new vocalists, they settled on Brian Johnson, a native of Newcastle, England, whose gruff, aggressive vocals helped AC/DC successfully enter a dramatic new phase of its career. The group rebounded with Back in Black, whose title and all-black cover paid silent tribute to Scott. The music rocked with a determined authority that catapulted AC/DC into a class with Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and the Rolling Stones. Because they were younger than those bands, AC/DC bonded with a youthful audience that kept them on top throughout the 1980s. Back in Black was an instant classic that ranks as the sixth best-selling rock album of all time, having sold 19 million copies in the U.S. and 41 million worldwide. The album gave AC/DC a series of anthems that have formed the backbone of their live show: “You Shook Me All Night Long,” “Back in Black” and “Hells Bells,” which began with the tolling of a two-ton bell. Building on their momentum, AC/DC followed Back in Black with For Those About to Rock (We Salute You), whose title track is performed live as cannons detonate. A decade of hard work was rewarded when For Those About to Rock (We Salute You) became AC/DC’s first #1 album in America, selling a million copies in its first week of release. Having ascended to the top of the hard-rock realm, AC/DC headlined 1984’s Monsters of Rock in Donnington, England and 1985’s Rock in Rio in Brazil, where they performed for an audience numbering nearly half a million. More albums followed on a dependable schedule - Flick of the Switch (1983), Fly on the Wall (1985), Who Made Who (1986) and Blow Up Your Video (1988) - each of which yielded a few new AC/DC classics to the expanding canon. The Razor’s Edge (1990) even contained an uncharacteristic hit single, “Moneytalks.” In 1991 came The Razor’s Edge, whose opening track, “Thunderstruck,” was one of AC/DC’s strongest in years. It was based on a real-life experience: a lightning bolt struck the small plane in which Angus Young was flying, which nearly crashed as a result. A live recording, prosaically entitled Live, appeared in 1992 and was made available as a double disc and an abridged single disc. While not as prolific in the studio or omnipresent on the road in the 1990s, AC/DC continued to deliver when they did tour and record: in 1995 with Ballbreaker and in 2000 with Stiff Upper Lip. In 1997, during the five years between studio albums, the box set Bonfire was released. Though their choruses were as infectious as anything on radio, AC/DC were fundamentally the antithesis of a Top Forty band. Thus, they’ve cracked the U.S. singles charts only three times: “You Shook Me All Night Long” (#35), “Back in Black” (“#37) and “Moneytalks” (#23). Their albums, on the other hand, have been all gone gold or platinum. In the America, AC/DC’s best-sellers are Back in Black (19 million copies sold), Highway to Hell (6 million), Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (6 million), Who Made Who (5 million), Live (whose single and double-disc configurations have sold a combined 5 million), For Those About to Rock We Salute You (4 million), and The Razor’s Edge (4 million). AC/DC moved from Atlantic to Sony in late 2002, and 2003 began with a major reissue program and the promise of a new studio album. Thirty years on, AC/DC continues to give the fans what they want. Through it all, they’ve never lost the common touch - the sense that the band and their audience were interchangeable, and that both were celebrating the joyful jolt of electricity provided by good, hard, uncompromising rock and roll. July 6, 1946: AC/DC vocalist Bon Scott is born. October 5, 1947: AC/DC vocalist Brian Johnson is born. January 6, 1953: Malcolm Young, rhythm guitarist for AC/DC, is born. March 31, 1959: Angus Young, lead guitarist for AC/DC, is born. December 31, 1973: Scottish-born brothers Angus and Malcolm Young perform their first show together at a Sydney, Australia, nightclub. They will select the name AC/DC for their band. February 1975: AC/DC releases its first album, High Voltage, in its Australian homeland. The group’s second Aussie album, T.N.T., will be released before the year is out. April 1976: AC/DC play their first live shows in England. The outing is dubbed the Lock Up Your Daughters Tour and includes an appearance at the Reading Rock festival. October 1976: Having signed a worldwide contract with Atlantic Records, AC/DC’s first American album - High Voltage, a compendium of their first two Australian albums - is released. November 1976: AC/DC’s third album, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, is released everywhere but the United States, where it will not see the light of day until 1981. June 1977: AC/DC begins a marathon summer tour, opening for Black Sabbath in Europe, as a new album, Let There Be Rock, is released. Cliff Williams replaces Mark Evans on bass. May 1978: AC/DC’s unleashes its fifth album, Powerage, followed less than half a year later by the group’s first live album, If You Want Blood You’ve Got It. June 10, 1978: “Rock ‘n’ Roll Damnation” becomes AC/DC’s first British hit single, reaching #24. July 1979: AC/DC issues its breakthrough album, Highway to Hell, which becomes their first to sell over a million copies. February 19, 1980: Bon Scott, original vocalist for AC/DC, dies in London of asphyxiation after an all-night drinking binge. He is replaced in April by Brian Johnson. August 23, 1980: AC/DC’s Back in Black enters the Billboard chart for what will be a 131-week run. To date, the album has sold 19 million copies in the U.S. September 6, 1980: AC/DC cracks the U.S. Top Forty with “You Shook Me All Night Long.” August 1981: AC/DC headlines the Monsters of Rock Festival in Donnington, England. November 1981: For Those About to Rock (We Salute You), featuring the anthemic title track, is released. It will be the first and only AC/DC album to top the U.S. chart - which it does for three weeks. October 1984: AC/DC’s tenth anniversary is celebrated with the release of ’74 Jailbreak, a five-track mini-album that collects archival early songs unreleased in the U.S. May 1986: AC/DC’s Who Made Who - a compendium of new and classic tracks, and the official soundtrack for the Stephen King film Maximum Overdrive - is released. February 1988: Blow Up Your Video, which reunites AC/DC with producers Harry Vanda and George Young, is released. “Heatseeker” becomes a sizable British hit, reaching #12. December 8, 1990: “Moneytalks,” AC/DC’s biggest American hit, enters the Top Forty, where it will peak at #23. It’s from the album The Razors Edge, released in September. August 1995: AC/DC releases Ballbreaker, their first studio album in five years. It marks the return of drummer Phil Rudd, who’d last played with them on 1983’s Flick of the Switch. November 1997: The box set Bonfire, by AC/DC, appears. Containing live and unreleased material, it pays tribute to AC/DC’s early years, when the late Bon Scott was their singer. February 29, 2000: Stiff Upper Lip is released. The album, their first in five years, is among the strongest albums of their career. December 2002: AC/DC signed a new deal with Sony Music, which commences with a comprehensive reissue series. March 10, 2003: AC/DC is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the eighteenth annual induction dinner. Steven Tyler of Aerosmith is their presenter. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2003: AC/DC
During every Grammy season there is a squabble over the meaning of the term "hard rock." For the exact definition, see AC/DC. Australian rockers AC/DC formed in 1973 with the goal of combining the screaming of Little Richard with the swagger of the Rolling Stones, but, well, harder. In fact, never succumbing to that pesky need to evolve musically, lead guitarist Angus Young -- the man who, in his trademark schoolboy uniform, invented head-banging -- and his mates make it their mission to make sure every AC/DC song rocks, all the way through. It wasn't always easy. In 1980, just as AC/DC were breaking through in the U.S. on the strength of their Highway to Hell album, singer Bon Scott choked on his own vomit and died after a drinking binge. As Angus reflects below, he and big brother and rhythm guitarist Malcolm faced a big decision . . . and they chose rock. How did you hear about your election into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? A buddy of mine called up and said, "You've been inducted." And I said, "What, they're taking the little guys in the army now?" Of course, this was early in the morning, so my first thought was that they were taking us to war, and I thought it wasn't such a bad idea -- you can get more little guys into a tank. When you started this band, could you have imagined that there would be a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and that you would be in it? I never thought we'd be put into any sort of historical thing. When we started as a band it was a day-to-day thing. You sort of played a gig, you got your money and thought, "OK, where's tomorrow's gig?" You never thought you'd get past a summer. What do you think is the key to you guys still being around twenty-five-plus years later? I think it's mainly the fans. They probably get more of a buzz out of it than us, so that's kept us going. And they always seem happy -- seeing us is like putting on old shoes for them. What do you think Bon's reaction to this whole thing would have been? He would have had a giggle . . . and a drink. He'd have said, "Hey, I'll do anything for a free beer." How were you able to carry on after his death? Well, Bon was a frontman, and a very exciting frontman. Plus, offstage he was just a character you knew and loved. We knew we could never replace that. My brother got me together to finish off the tracks we were working on at the time of his death. He said, "We'll lock the doors, take the phone off the hook, and we can at least finish what we started." And it was after that that the guy who was managing us at the time contacted us and said, "Have you any interest in hearing anyone?" And we thought about it, and that made us even more depressed. But then we thought, "Well, we're gonna need someone to sing the songs." How did you find Brian Johnson? Years before Bon had died, he and Malcolm and I had been listening to a couple of rock & roll records in Australia. Bon was a great fan of Little Richard, and he always said that for someone singing rock & roll, Little Richard was the icon. He told us a story about how he'd seen Brian in a club in London really belting out a Little Richard tune, and he said it always stuck with him. So we thought, "Well, we gotta look up that guy first." And when we met Brian, he told us, "Yeah, I remember that show. I had appendicitis" [laughs]. If I had never heard AC/DC, how would you describe them? Like Florida's worst hurricane [laughs]. How many times have you seen people imitate your head-shaking? Oh, jeez. It would be hard to count now. Nowadays when you turn on the TV and flip through the umpteen music channels you see a lot of head-shaking. You even see the girls doing it now, and they're probably better to look at. [laughs] What are some AC/DC tracks that when you hear now you still think you wouldn't change a note? "Back in Black." It was a riff that Malcolm played. We had been touring on Highway to Hell, and he put the riff on a cassette and played it for me. It was just on a little acoustic guitar that Mal used to trail around with him. He said, "What do you think of that? Is it rubbish? Should I trash it?" So I said, "No, don't trash it. If you're gonna trash it, give it to me and I'll say I wrote it" [laughs]. And "Highway to Hell" also. We were in Miami and we were flat broke. Malcolm and I were playing guitars in a rehearsal studio, and I said, "I think I have a good idea for an intro," which was the beginning of "Highway to Hell." And he hopped on a drum kit and he banged out the beat for me. There was a guy in there working with us and he took the cassette we had it on home and gave it to his kid, and his kid unraveled it [laughs]. Bon was good at fixing broken cassettes, and he pasted it back together. So at least we didn't lose the tune. Talk about your relationship with Malcolm. I think when we were kids we fought like cats and dogs, and then when we started playing guitar it was even worse. He wouldn't let me in his bedroom because he'd say, "Angus has got a photographic memory: Play a lick and he steals it." Whenever I'd walk in the room, he'd say, "Get out!" Nowadays, for AC/DC, we're always there on form. It's the thing that keeps us from killing each other. How did you come to be the lead guitarist and he rhythm? We used to both play lead, but one day, Malcolm said, "You do it -- it gets in the way of my drinking" [laughs]. He used to always push me out in front of the stage, saying, "People want to see a show, and that's what you do so well." And it's probably due to when we were young, I kind of started playing in reverse; I was playing solos before I could play guitar chords. He started on rhythm and worked his way into guitar solos. But he's also very competent at knocking out guitar licks. Some of the great licks, like that little flicky one at the beginning of "Back in Black," I played, but it was mainly me copying what he had from that cassette. He always says, "The two of us together, we play as one." What can you tell us about the songs you've been writing for the new album? Well, needless to say, they'll be toe-tappers. Not a lot of ballads this time? No ballads [laughs]. I think we're just one of those bands that we know what we do best. When I was young and I would see bands playing, I would dig the rock & roll and get excited, but when they would start to take the pace down, my attention span would start going. Do you plan to do AC/DC until you drop? Well, not until we drop. I don't want to get up there with a colostomy bag. + Win Tix To
AC/DC's Only US Performance!
AC/DC will perform a free show for their fans at NYC's Roseland Ballroom on Tuesday, March 11. This show will be the band's ONLY US performance for 2003, and the only way to get tickets is to win them from select retail & radio promotions or FROM ACDCROCKS.COM! 175 PAIRS are up for grabs, so if you'll be in the NY area on 3/11, sign up now for your chance to win: http://www.acdcrocks.com/?ee0221 AC/DC Reissues
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will be offered with purchase of 2 or more CD's. AC/DC in Hall of Fame
Australia's heavy-metal rockers AC/DC have been inducted into the 2003 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. New inductees also included three British groups - Elvis Costello and the Attractions, The Police and The Clash. They were joined by The Righteous Brothers, Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield, whose 1965 chart-topping hit You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling helped define what came to be called "blue-eyed soul" during that decade. "These inductees represent many influential genres of rock, including 60s soul, heavy metal and 1970s English punk," executive director Suzan Evans said in a statement. The Hall of Fame's 18th annual induction ceremony will be held in New York on March 10 and as in recent years, will likely reunite bands that parted ways several years ago, sometimes acrimoniously. The hard-charging guitars of Angus and Malcom Young combined with the growl of AC/DC lead singer Brian Johnson to power the band's aggressive sound with anthems such as "You Shook Me All Night Long" in 1980. The anti-establishment Clash rose to prominence at the dawn of the punk era, lashing out against war, racism and the sorry state of the British economy to gain global fame with hits like "Rock the Casbah" before splitting in 1982. It's (almost) official - Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are engaged to be married, according to Entertainment Tonight. Though reps for the Hollywood couple would not confirm the news, a source close to the pair has told "ET" the pair plan to wed. And the buzz is that Lopez will discuss the engagement with ABC's Diane Sawyer next week on "Primetime". But it's not as if Lopez hasn't dropped some hints already. Wearing the pink diamond ring that Affleck gave her, she said on MTV's Total Request Live : "I think everybody will know soon enough." People magazine, quoting friends and sources, reports that they plan to tie the knot on Valentine's Day. The marriage would be the third for Lopez, 32, and the first for Affleck, 30. Lopez has released her new video, Jenny From the Block, which features her and Affleck engaging in some steamy scenes: kissing in a pool, lying out on a yacht, and cozying up on a couch. She also said that there's a song on her current CD called Dear Ben . He may still be in high school, but Prince Harry has been named Britain's most eligible bachelor by the London society magazine Tatler . The 18-year-old prince, third in line to the throne, is in his final year at Eton. "He has just arrived on the London scene, and the girls are going absolutely berserk over him," the magazine's editor, Geordie Greig, said. In second place on the idiosyncratic list was 79-year-old artist Lucian Freud, for his "youthful genius". Gwyneth Paltrow, who is frequently in London, topped the women's list, followed by 21-year-old royal Lady Gabriella Windsor and model Sophie Dahl. Wacky comedian Steve Martin will be the host of the 75th annual Oscar awards to be held March 23 in Hollywood, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has announced. It will be the second time the star of the movies Parenthood, Father of the Bride and The Jerk has hosted the prestigious film awards after he filled the role two years ago. Last year, fellow comedian and actress Whoopi Goldberg hosted the show in a performance that critics generally regarded as mediocre. "I'm very pleased to be hosting the Oscars again because fear and nausea always make me lose weight," Martin said, reflecting on the challenge of one of the biggest jobs in the television world. Gil Cates, producer of the Academy Awards, had little doubt that Martin was up to the task. "The 75th anniversary show is a meaningful one for the academy, and it is wonderful to work with a host who's done it before," he said. "A host who's witty, clever, sharp, intelligent, quick on his feet and always on top of the unfolding action. Wait, I've forgotten something. Oh yeah, and outrageously funny." Molly Ringwald - yes, the redhead of Sixteen Candles fame and the princess of '80s teen angst - is finding grown-up relationships aren't easy, either. While her professional life is good, her personal life has turned sour. She's filing for divorce, the New York Post reported. She has been married to French filmmaker Marcel Valery Lameignere since 1999. The couple lived in France, but she filed for divorce in New York where she is now starring in Cabaret . Robert Evans, the charismatic producer whose playboy lifestyle and numerous failures and comebacks have made him a Hollywood legend, has married for the sixth time. The 72-year-old former head of Paramount Pictures wed former Versace model Leslie Ann Woodward, 34, in Mexico, spokeswoman Gina Lang said. The ceremony took place on a beach in Zihuatanejo, with guests such as Red Dragon director Brett Ratner, lawyer Robert Shapiro and Peter Bart, editor of the trade newspaper Variety. Evans was the head of Paramount Pictures from 1966-74 when the studio produced such classics as Rosemary's Baby, The Godfather and Chinatown. He recently narrated The Kid Stays in the Picture , a documentary based on his 1994 autobiography of the same name. Evans previously was married to Love Story star Ali MacGraw, former Miss America Phyllis George, Swedish actress Camilla Sparv, Dynasty co-star Catherine Oxenberg and actress Sharon Hugueny. Liza Minnelli has hit back at the US channel that axed her reality TV show amid claims its camera crew did not get enough access to the star's home life. The Cabaret actress said she and her husband David Gest had allowed the VH1 channel to film nearly 60 hours of their lives, including many private moments. "I even let them follow me to my AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) meeting," she told the National Enquirer . "We didn't hide anything." She also accused technicians from the show of damaging their apartment. The programme planned to follow the entertainer and Gest as they hosted intimate weekly dinner parties with celebrity friends in their plush Manhattan penthouse. The Liza and David Show was due to be broadcast in December, but producers at VH1 said last month it had been cancelled because "we were not given the co-operation we were promised". Reports at the time suggested Gest cancelled agreed filming slots and had a bodyguard stand outside their home to keep the camera crew out. Meanwhile, a Superior Court judge will appoint a mediator in an attempt to resolve a lawsuit filed by a couple who claim Minnelli tried to renege on a deal to sell her Beverly Hills house. Judge Rodney Nelson granted a mediation request by Minnelli's lawyer, Arthur Barens. The co-plaintiffs, Mehrdad Saghian and Stephanie Jarin, did not oppose the motion, said their attorney, James E Nelson. In the lawsuit filed in August, the plaintiffs contend they agreed to Minnelli's asking price of $US2.75 million ($A4.87 million) and in February paid an $US82,500 ($A146,147) deposit on the home. The couple alleged that Minnelli, 56, tried to cancel the deal, claiming that her 94-year-old stepmother, Lee Anderson Minnelli, widow of director Vincente Minnelli, refused to consent to the sale. Saghian and Jarin contend that Minnelli has leased a condominium for her stepmother. The plaintiffs are seeking a court order to open escrow on the house or to have Minnelli pay compensatory damages and legal fees. Minnelli's stepmother, who claimed she was guaranteed housing in the will of her late husband, had sued Liza Minnelli over the sale of the house, but dropped the lawsuit in May. Roman Polanski's comeback epic The Pianist and Gurinder Chadha's British sleeper hit Bend It Like Beckham topped the list of eight nominees for the Felix award unveiled by the European Film Academy. Also in the running for Europe's equivalent to Hollywood's Academy Awards are Francois Ozon's 8 Femmes, The Magdalene Sisters by Britain's Peter Mullan and Bloody Sunday by Irish director Paul Greengrass. In addition, there is Pedro Almodovar's Spanish comedy Hable Con Ella (Talk to Her), Swedish film Lilja 4-Ever (Lilya 4-ever) by Lukas Moodysson and Mies Vailla Menneisyytta (The Man Without a Past) by Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki. Asked to name the greatest films in the past 25 years, 50 British critics and film writers have chosen Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam classic Apocalypse Now as No 1, and put two movies by Martin Scorsese in the top five. Scorsese's Raging Bull was runner-up in the poll organiSed by the British Film Institute's Sight & Sound magazine. Ingmar Bergman's "Fanny And Alexander" came third, and Scorsese's GoodFellas fourth. The fifth position honoured David Lynch, the famously quirky director of Blue Velvet. The highest ranking British film was Terence Davies' Distant Voices, Still Lives at No 9. Films dating from January 1978 to this year were eligible. Apocalypse Now, based on Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness, includes Robert Duvall's famous declaration "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" before his gunships destroy a Vietnamese village, while a loud recording of Ride of the Valkyries blasts from speakers. Nick James, editor of Sight & Sound , said that movie won because it's a richly complex, madcap experiment in war film-making that "never falls from the tightrope it walks between extravagance and profundity." In August, another Sight & Sound poll chose Citizen Kane as the best film of all time. In the latest poll, the top 10 are - 1 Apocalypse Now, (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979); 2 Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980); 3 Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, 1982); 4 GoodFellas; (Martin Scorsese, 1990), 5 Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986), 6 Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989); 7 Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982); 8 Chungking Express (Wong Kar-Wai, 1994); 9 Distant Voices Still Lives Terence Davies, 1988); 10 Once upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1983); 10 A One and a Two... (Edward Yang, 1999). MTV VJ Brian McFayden is being called a violent deadbeat dad by the model who had his baby, the New York Post reported. Heather Knese, 21, Escada fragrance ads model, broke up with McFayden a year ago, four months after the birth of their son, Dane. She has since obtained a restraining order against him and says he is a deadbeat dad, and she wants full custody of their son. "He hasn't paid child support since July, and he's only seen our son once in the past year," Knese said. Knese says McFayden - who is now dating hotel heiress Nicky Hilton - skipped an earlier court date because he claimed he'd broken his foot, but he's due to face his irate ex in Manhattan Family Court on Nov 15. "There hasn't yet been a DNA finding proving that Brian is the father," McFayden's lawyer, Mike Heller, says. "There's a lot of open issues." Chrysler has signed a three-year advertising deal with singer Celine Dion. Financial terms weren't disclosed, but the New York Times reported that Chrysler will pay the singer "tens of millions of dollars." The automaker said the print, broadcast and Internet campaign will launch early next year and will include a song created specifically for the campaign. |
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