Oi! Oi! Oi!
The following originally appeared in the GRAND JUNCTION FREE PRESS:
They never should have made it. Their music was unfashionable — too heavy for punks, too minimalist for arena rockers. They hailed from Sydney, Australia, a city never likely to be labeled a “rock mecca.” They looked like a gang of surly, uneducated thugs, a churlish coterie of “droogs” marching onstage straight from the pages of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE.
It’s a long way to the top when you’re AC/DC.
But the Australian hard rock band, which celebrates its 36th anniversary this year (and who, in 2008, released BLACK ICE, their 19th studio album), not only made it to the peak of rock n’ roll success, but have lived there for more than a quarter of a century, soldiering on in their persistent effort to marry high-voltage electric keraang with Chuck Berry chug. In 2003, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That same year, the Recording Industry Association of America certified that their combined U.S. sales had risen to 63-million, establishing AC/DC as the fifth bestselling group in popular musical history.
The band first came together in November, 1973, when brothers Angus and Malcolm Young — whose older sibling George had already courted rock stardom during the 1960s as one-fifth of the Easybeats — strapped on their guitars and enlisted fellow Australian rockers Dave Evans (singer), Colin Burgess (drums) and American-born Larry Van Kriedt (bass). They performed their first gig on New Year’s Eve at Chequers Nightclub in Sydney, playing a setlist comprised mainly of oldies like “Shake, Rattle and Roll.” Within months, Van Kriedt was replaced by Mark Evans (no relation to Dave) and Burgess by Phil Rudd.
The final piece of the AC/DC puzzle was put into place in late 1974, when Dave Evans refused to take the stage following a spat with the Young brothers. Rather than coax their reluctant vocalist, Angus and Malcolm instead replaced him with the band’s new chauffeur, Bon Scott, who had previously sung for the Australian bubblegum band the Valentines and prog-rockers Fraternity. Although Scott was a ne’er-do-well with a criminal record, his glottis-shredding rock shriek was the perfect complement to Angus’ arpeggio-laced lead and Malcolm’s chunky rhythm guitar.
In the early days of 1980, life was looking a whole lotta rosy for the band, following the mega-success of HIGHWAY TO HELL, their sixth album and a breakthrough for AC/DC in both the U.S. and the U.K. But in February of that year, tragedy struck when Bon Scott died following an epic drinking binge in London. The surviving bandmembers briefly considered packing it in, but decided Bon would have wanted them to continue. The band ended up hiring one of the only singers in rock history who could make Scott sound like a crooner: Brian Johnson, who had previously spent seven years as part of the British glam rock outfit, Geordie.
We’ll further examine the career of AC/DC (and the Easybeats) in this space in future weeks.