From Down Under: AC/DC

Welcome to Rock and Roll Flashback! I'm Bill Price, and in this edition of From Down Under, I will focus on the Australian band AC/DC. Unlike other native Australian bands, AC/DC’s founding members and subsequent vocalists hailed from Scotland and England. AC/DC would go on to worldwide success and their music described as blues rock, heavy metal and hard rock. However, the band preferred to call it simply "Rock and Roll". This is the story of AC/DC, on Rock and Roll Flashback.

All podcasts on the Rock and Roll Flashback Podcast are produced by brothers-in-law Bill Price and "Jumpin' John" McDermott. The Podcast Theme Song, "You Essay", was written by John. It was initially recorded by Bill and John on April 1, 2004 with several revisions since then.
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Transcript

In this edition of From Down Under, I will focus on the Australian band AC/DC. Unlike other native Australian bands, AC/DC’s founding members and subsequent vocalists hailed from Scotland and England. AC/DC would go on to worldwide success and their music described as blues rock, heavy metal and hard rock. However, the band preferred to call it simply "Rock and Roll". This is the story of AC/DC, on Rock and Roll Flashback.

Angus McKinnon Young was born on March 31st, 1955 in Glasgow, Scotland, where he spent the first seven years of his life. He had seven siblings that included Malcolm, who was born on January 6th, 1953 and George born in 1946. Interestingly George would later become one of the founding members of The Easybeats.

Around the age of six, Angus took up playing the guitar and received lessons from his brother Alexander. In 1963 Scotland had the worst winter on record. As a result of an offer of assisted travel in order help families immigrate to Australia, the Young family relocated to Sidney in June. However, Alexander chose to remain in the UK.

At the age of fifteen, Angus dropped out of high school and worked at several jobs. He acquired his first Gibson guitar, a second hand SG model around 1970. Later Angus and Malcolm were in a group called The Marcus Hook Roll band with George and his music colleague Harry Vanda. Before forming AC/DC, Angus played in a band called Kantuckee. After the band split it was renamed Tantrum. 

Then in 1973, eighteen-year-old Angus and his brother Malcolm formed AC/DC. The band ‘s lineup consisted of Angus on lead guitar, Malcolm on rhythm guitar, Colin Burgess on drums, Larry Van Kriedt on bass guitar and vocalist Dave Evans. The band’s name came about after their sister Margaret Young, saw the letters AC/DC on the AC power adapter of a sewing machine. The brothers felt that AC/DC reflected the band’s energy and music performance. In Australia the band was known as Acca Dacca.

For his on stage attire, Angus tried various costumes, which included Spider Man, Zorro, a gorilla and a parody of Superman. He eventually settled on the iconic school uniform, which was also suggested by his sister Margaret.

By 1974, the band had a recording contract with Albert Productions who had previously worked with The Easybeats. In January the band recorded several songs at the EMI studios in Sydney with engineer Richard Lush, who had worked with The Beatles in London during the early 1960s. Among the songs were “Can I Sit Next To You Girl”, ”Rockin’ In The Parlor”, “Show Business”, “Soul Stripper” and “Rock ‘N’ Roll Singer”. One week after the recording session, Burgess was dismissed from the band. Shortly thereafter, Van Kreidt was also fired. However their replacements Neil Smith and Noel Taylor only lasted six weeks. They were then replaced with Rob Bailey and Peter Clack.

In July 1974 the band's first single “Can I Sit Next To You Girl” with ”Rockin’ In The
Parlor” as the B-side, was released. By this time AC/DC had developed a strong live
performance status. This led to an opportunity to perform as a supporting band for the Lou Reed tour. The band was then booked to play at Michael Chugg’s club called Hard Rock. Michael was not impressed with their glam rock image and felt that Evans was not the right singer for the band, however he was impressed by the Young brothers’ guitar playing. After a second appearance at the Hard Rock, and with the co-operation of Angus’ brother George and Harry Vanda, Michael became their manager. The band then dropped the glam rock image and switched to a hard blues-rock style. They also agreed that Evans needed to be replaced as the band’s front man.

Ronald Belford Scott was born on July 9th, 1946 in Forfar, Scotland. His family relocated to Melbourne, Australia in 1952. The nickname Bon came about while attending the Sunshine Primary School. Since there was another student in the class with same first name, his classmates had fun with the phrase “Bonnie Scotland”. Then four years later, the family moved to Fremantle, Western Australia. Scott joined the Femantle Scots Pipe Band and learned to play drums. Bon’s vocal style was inspired by his Rock and Roll idol Little Richard. After working in various jobs, he formed his first band called The Spektors in 1964. He played drums and occasionally also sang as the lead vocalist. By 1966 the band merged with another group called The Winstons with the new band called The Valentines, with Bon sharing the lead vocalist position with Vince Lovegrove. The new band recorded songs written by George Young of The Easybeats. In 1970, the single titled “Juliette” managed to enter the National Top 30, however because of artistic disagreements and a drug scandal, The Valentines disbanded. Bon then relocated to Adelaide and joined a band called Fraternity. The band released two albums titled “Livestock” and “Flaming Galah”. Prior to starting a UK tour in 1973, the band’s name was changed to Fang. They performed as a supporting act for The Status Quo and Geordie. Ironically, Geordie’s front man, Brian Johnson, would later become AC/DC’s vocalist. After returning to Australia, the band took a break from performing. 

Later Bon was involved in a motorcycle accident and spent eighteen days in the hospital. After Bon’s recovery, Vince Lovegrove introduced him to the band AC/DC, who had been looking for a new lead vocalist. In the initial meeting the Young brothers thought Bon was too old to rock, while Bon believed the brothers were inexperienced and too young, not able to rock. Despite the initial reservations, they held an all night jam session, which resulted in AC/DC finding a new singer. So on October 24th, 1974, Bon Scott replaced Dave Evans as the lead vocalist.

In February 1975, AC/DC released their first album in Australia titled “High Voltage”.
At that time the band consisted of Angus, Malcolm on lead and rhythm guitars, George Young on bass guitar, Tony Currenti on drums and Bon as vocalist. A few months later, Phil Rudd replaced Currenti on drums and Mark Evans became the bass player. The next album titled “TNT” was released in Australia in December 1975. In May 1976, a compilation of tracks from the first albums also titled “High Voltage” became their first release to achieve international distribution. In September the album “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” was released, but only in Australia. Then in December the international version was released. However it was not available in the US until March 1981.

In the ensuing years, AC/DC achieved additional success with albums “Powerage” and “Let There Be Rock”. On the “Powerage” album, Cliff Williams replaced Mark Evans on bass. The only single release from that album was “Rock and Roll Damnation”, which managed to reach the number twenty-four chart position. During the Powerage tour, a performance at The Apollo, Glasgow was recorded and released as “If You Want Blood You’ve Got It”.

In 1979, “Highway to Hell” was released, becoming the first AC/DC album to break into the US top 100, climbing to the number seventeen position. The album was instrumental in propelling AC/DC into becoming one of the top hard rock bands. On February 9th, 1980, the band appeared on the Aplauso TV program in Spain, performing “Beating Around the Bush”, “Girl’s Got Rhythm” and “Highway to Hell”. Unfortunately that would be Bon Scott’s last appearance with AC/DC.

On February 15th, 1980, Bon, Angus, and Malcolm were working on a couple of songs, which would later appear on the “Back in Black” album. A few days later Bon had been in a London club for a night of drinking. On the way to the apartment of his friend Alistair Kinnear, Bon passed out in the car. Alistair stated that he was unable to move Bon so he left him in the car to sleep. The next day after finding Bon unconscious and not able to wake him, Bon was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The Scott family buried him in Fremantle, Western Australia. 

After Bon’s death, AC/DC considered disbanding, however Scott’s parents encouraged the band to continue, stating that Bon would have wanted them to carry on. The band then made the decision to embark on the task of finding a vocalist. Various candidates were considered including Brian Johnson. After the initial auditions, Brian was asked to come back for a second time. On March 29th, 1980 Malcolm offered Brian the position of vocalist and on April 1st, it was announced that Brian Johnson was the new singer of AC/DC.

Brian Francis Johnson De Luca was born on October 5th, 1947 in Durham, England.
In Brian’s early career, he was in several bands including The Gobi Desert Canoe Club, Fresh and The Jasper Hart Band. Later he formed the band Geordie and his first solo single, “I Can’t Forget You Now”, was released in January 1976.
With Brian, the band worked on finishing the songwriting that had begun earlier for the album “Back in Black”. The album was recorded at Compass Point Studios located in The Bahamas and became the biggest selling AC/DC album. The tracks included “Hells Bells”, “You Shook Me All Night Long”, “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution ” and “Back in Black”. The album was a huge hit, where it was number one in the UK and number four in the US, where it remained on the Billboard 200 album chart for 131 weeks. 

The next album released in 1981 was titled “For Those About to Rock We Salute You”. It too sold well which featured the popular singles “Let’s Get It Up” and “For Those About to Rock We Salute You”, which climbed to number fifteen in the UK. In 1983 the band released the album titled “Flick of the Switch”, however the critics were not impressed. Despite the criticism, the album reached the four position on the UK charts. The singles “Nervous Shakedown” and “Flick of the Switch” achieved minor success. Unfortunately all was not well with the band. Drummer Phil Rudd was having drug and alcohol problems, which led to a confrontation with Malcolm. Rudd was fired half way through the recording sessions of “Flick of the Switch”. Former Procol Harum drummer B J Wilson was brought in, however his drum parts were not used to replace Rudd’s parts. By the summer of 1983, Simon Wright became the new AC/DC drummer after well over 700 auditions held in the UK and US.

In 1985 the album titled “Fly on the Wall” was released. Again the critics were not
impressed, this time the album did not chart. Then in 1986 the album “Who Made Who” did manage to enter the charts. It was also the sound track for the film “Maximum Overdrive”.

In 1988 the band was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association’s Hall of Fame. The next album titled “Blow Up Your Video”, was recorded in Le Val, France and released that same year. It out sold the two previous releases, climbing to number two on the UK charts. The album contained the UK top twenty single “Heatseeker” and “That’s the Way I Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll”. The Blow Up Your Video world tour began in February 1988 in Perth, Australia. Then in April it was announced that Malcolm was taking a break from touring to address his
alcohol problem. Stevie Young a member of the Young family filled in for Malcolm.
In 1989 drummer Simon Wright left the band and was replaced by Chris Slade.

In 1990 AC/DC released the album titled “The Razors Edge” which achieved major
success. Two hit tracks were “Thunderstruck”, which reached number five and “Are You Ready” made it to the number sixteen position on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and “Moneytalks” which peaked at number twenty three on the Billboard Hot 100.

In September 1991, 1.6 million attended the “Monsters of Rock” festival held in
Moscow. In 1994, Phil Rudd was invited to participate in several jam sessions, which eventually led to Phil being rehired to replace Slade as the drummer. The next album titled “Ballbreaker” was recorded at Ocean Way Studios in Los Angeles and was released in 1995. Three singles were released from the album, “Hard as a Rock”, “Hail Caesar” and “Cover You in Oil”. 

In 1999, George Young produced the band’s fourteenth album titled “Stiff Upper Lip”. The album was released in February 2000 and received more favorable
reviews than “Ballbreaker”. It also reached the number one position in five countries, number two in three countries and in the US it climbed to number seven. The title track remained at number one in the US for four weeks. In March ACDC performed as the music guest on Saturday Night Live.

In 2003 the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On July 30th, they performed along with The Rolling Stones and Rush at Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto. The three bands performed for an audience of 500,000. The fifteenth album titled “Black Ice” was released in October 2008. On the 28th, The Black Ice World Tour began in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and ended in Bilbao, Spain on June 28th 2010, spanning more than twenty months. In December 2009 AC./DC performed in South America appearing in Brazil and Argentina. The band performed for two concerts in Argentina drawing an audience of 170,630 on the 2nd, and 191,640 on the 9th. The concert in Buenos Aires, was recorded which documented The Black Ice World Tour. A DVD titled Live at River Platt included footage from concerts performed at the venue. In February 2010 AC/DC performed in Melbourne for three concerts with 184,469 in attendance. Later that month three performances in Sydney drew an audience of 213,045. Over the course of The Back Ice World Tour, AC/DC performed in over 160 concerts
and to an audience of about 5 million.

After the Black Ice World Tour was concluded, Malcolm was diagnosed as having lung cancer. The cancer was successfully removed after surgery was performed. Additionally he was diagnosed with a heart problem and had a pacemaker implanted. In mid 2014 after finishing recording an album it was announced that due to Malcolm’s illness, his nephew Stevie Young would replace him for future recording sessions. In 2014, he was no longer able to perform, due to a serious illness. On September 2014, it was announced that Malcolm was diagnosed with dementia and that Malcolm had officially left the band. Malcolm’s final AC/DC performance was on June 28, 2010 in Bilbao, Spain. Malcolm Young died on November 18, 2017 at the age of 64. 

On September 23rd, 2014 it was announced that the sixteenth album titled “Rock or Bust” would be released in November, making it the first AC/DC release without Malcolm playing on the album. It was then announced that on the next world tour Stevie Young would be the replacement for Malcolm.

In March 2016, it was announced that the final ten performances of the Rock or Bust Tour, would be rescheduled due to Brian Johnson’s hearing loss. His doctors ordered him to discontinue touring immediately in order to avoid further hearing deterioration. For the ten concerts Axel Rose from Guns N’ Roses was brought in to fill in for Brian. On September 30, 2020, it was announced that Brian was rejoining the band along with Angus, Stevie Young, Phil Rudd and Cliff Williams. A new studio album titled “Power UP”, was released in November along with the single “Shot in the Dark”.

Throughout AC/DC’S career, there was both criticism and praise in regards to their songs. Some critics described the songs as simplistic, monotonous and sexist, while several musicians have credited AC/DC for bringing hard rock back and reasserting it’s popularity. For example Slash, the guitar player for Guns N’ Roses considered them the greatest rock n’ roll band ever, with the exception of the legendary Rolling Stones.

On March 10th, 2003 AC/DC were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where they performed “Highway to Hell” and “You Shook Me All Night Long”, with guest vocalist Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. Tyler described AC/DC’s power cords as “the thunder from down under”. On March 22nd 2000, Leganes, Spain which is located near Madrid, named a street in honor of the band as “Calle de AC/DC” –: AC/DC street. Both Angus and Malcolm attended the ceremony. On October 1st, 2004 Corporation Lane was renamed ACDC Lane in central Melbourne, Australia. In 2007 over 1.3 million CDs were sold in the US even thought no new albums had been released since 2000.

AC/DC’S discography includes 18 studio albums, two sound tack albums, three live
albums and fifty nine singles. In May 2024 the band was preparing to begin their first European tour in eight years. Then in late 2024, it was announced, that in 2025 AC/DC would be performing on the North American stadium tour.

This has been a look back at the history and career of AC/DC, certainly one of rock’s enduring bands from the early 1970s. We’ll conclude this edition of Rock and Roll Flashback with a montage highlighting some of AC/DC’s hits.