To celebrate the return of the world's greatest rock'n'roll band to their home town this month, Angus Fontaine borrows Angus Young's school uniform to rewrite the alphabet.
A is for Angus ‘A Bomb’ Young, pocket rocket lead guitarist and the eye of AC/DC’s sonic storm. Youngest child of William and Margaret Young, Angus bought his first SG Gibson guitar second-hand near the family home in Burwood and sweated Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf into it until the instrument died of wood rot. He’s been virtuosically thrashing an SG ever since, almost always in a school uniform based on that of his Sydney alma mater, Ashfield Boys High.
B is for Bon Scott, AC/DC’s singer from 1974 until 19 February 1980 when he died of “death by misadventure” (read: acute alcoholic poisoning) in London. Bon was replaced by Brian Johnson, whom Bon had once seen writhing and screaming on stage with UK band Geordie and been impressed by (Brian had appendicitis on the night and was screeching in agonising pain until he collapsed and had to be carried off). Brian’s first album with AC/DC was 1980’s Back in Black (which, with 45 million sales, is the second highest-selling album ever behind Michael Jackson’s Thriller) and his latest is 2008’s Black Ice, AC/DC’s eighteenth opus and their first since 2001.
C is for Chequers on Goulburn Street in Sydney’s CBD, where AC/DC played their first ever gig on New Year's Eve 1973. Angus Young recalled it thus: “We’d been together about two weeks. We got up and blasted away. From the word go it was great. Everyone thought we were a pack of loonies – who’s been feeding those kids bananas?”
D is for Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, the 1976 album American record executives hated so much they refused to release it until 1980. D is also for Devil who, according to Brian, speaks through Angus Young’s fingertips. Certain wowsers claim AC/DC stands for Anti-Christ Devil’s Children, a mistruth Angus mocks by waggling his fingers as ‘horns’ before unleashing the deliciously sacreligious ‘Hell ‘Aint a Bad Place to Be’.
E is for Evans. There have been two Evans in AC/DC: Dave, a Newcastle-born space cowboy singer sacked from the band for shameless exhibitionism in early 1974; and Mark, bassist on the band’s early albums, High Voltage, TNT, Dirty Deeds Done Cheap and Let There Be Rock who now runs The Bassplayer on Parramatta Road, Annandale. E is also for Easybeats, the band founded by George Young, older brother of Angus and Malcolm, and AC/DC’s direct antecedents as Australia’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band.
F is for Flick of the Switch (1983) and Fly On the Wall (1987), fucked albums which today mark AC/DC’s lowest ebb, artistically, personally and commercially. Around this time original drummer Phil Rudd left the band suffering a form of tour-induced “white-line fever” which culminated in fisticuffs with AC/DC’s unspoken leader Malcolm. F is also for fellatio, which Bon received on stage at the infamous Bondi Lifesaver in 1975.
G is for Greatest Hits collection… which, despite almost four decades together and over 200 million album sales, AC/DC have never released. In 2007, despite no new album since 2001, AC/DC still sold 1.3 million CDs in the US alone.
H is for Highway to Hell, AC/DC’s sixth album and their breakthrough release in the US but also the harbinger of their most unwanted publicity when, in 1985, serial killer Richard Ramirez left an AC/DC cap at one of the crime scenes and cited the album’s closing track ‘Night Prowler’ as inspiration. The final words spoken on Highway to Hell come in the fade-out to that song: “Shazbot, na-nu, na-nu” – Robin William’s sign-off in the sitcom Mork and Mindy and, eerily, Bon Scott’s final words as frontman of AC/DC.
I is for Influence, of which AC/DC’s is immense on Australian music and hard rock worldwide. "I′ll go on record as saying AC/DC are the greatest rock & roll band of all time,” says producer Rick Rubin. “They didn′t write emotional lyrics. They didn′t play emotional songs. The emotion is all in that groove. And that groove is timeless."
J is for “The Jack”, a euphemism for sexually-transmitted disease, of which AC/DC were not immune in the days Bon flatted on Jersey Road in Paddington and the band enjoyed a residency at the groupie-magnet that was Hampton Court Hotel in Kings Cross. Bon knew the, ahem, inflammatory potential of this song when he wrote it in 1975, quipping to a girlfriend that it “may get us castrated by Women’s Lib”. ‘The Jack’ remains an AC/DC live staple to this day, often stretching beyond 11 minutes.
K is for “Kangaroo House” at 139 King Street in Sydney’s CBD. It was here, at Albert Records HQ near Martin Place, that AC/DC recorded all their early albums under the mentorship of producers George Young and Harry Vanda. Most of these classic albums were cut in under a fortnight, with Bon scribbling lyrics on-the-run from his little black book of gutter poetry and toilet wall prophecy, to preserve a ‘first-take’ energy.
L is for Phil “Left Hook” Rudd, the only Australian-born member of AC/DC. Rudd joined AC/DC in 1974, quit in 1983 and then rejoined in 1994, after a retirement in New Zealand that found him flying helicopters down sheer ravines in pursuit of wild deer. Rudd acquired the moniker “Left Hook” after a brawl with a Sharpie gang at Hornsby Police Boys Club on the ‘Lock Up Your Daughters’ tour in 1976.
M is for Mantovani… whose arrangements producer George Young used to test AC/DC songs. “If it was passed, the structure was proven, then we took it away and dirtied it up,” says Angus. M is also for… Margaret Young, elder sister to Malcolm and Angus, who reckoned the alternating AC and DC currents on her sewing machine would make a good band name for her kid brothers’ fledgling rock outfit.
N is for Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain who taught himself guitar to Back in Black.
O is for O’Brien Street in Bondi where Bon Scott bought a flat in the summer of 1979.
P is for Powerage, the 1978 album Keith Richards cites as his favourite AC/DC record and the impetus for inviting Angus and Malcolm Young on stage to jam with the Rolling Stones on ‘Rock Me Baby’ before 2000 people at the Enmore Theatre on Feb 18, 2003 – exactly seven years to the day before AC/DC’s first 'Black Ice' show in Sydney.
Q is for Queer, which AC/DC are not, but in some circles, their moniker infers bisexuality. Malcolm: “If people want to think we’re five camp guys, that’s okay by us.”
R is for Rosie, heroine of AC/DC’s ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’, Bon Scott’s paen to a “Tasmanian devil… 305 pounds… the biggest, fattest woman who ever fornicated”) celebrated lyrically on the closing track of 1977’s Let There Be Rock as “ain't exactly pretty, ain't exactly small, 42-39-56… you could say she’s got it all”. The song, with its deified opening riff, is still an AC/DC live favourite, which on the 'Black Ice World Tour' will again come accompanied by a massive inflatable “Rosie”.
S is for the Strata Inn in Cremorne, site of Bon Scott’s last performance on Australian soil on 5 February 1979. “They gatecrashed a Ferrets gig after an Alberts party and went bezerk on Highway to Hell demos in front of 100 people,” photographer Philip Morris recalled to Time Out. Bon would be dead just over a year later.
T is for TNT, the name of AC/DC’s second album which bore the immortal anthem ‘It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll)’, a song long conspicuous by its absence in AC/DC set-lists. One rumour suggests that John Farnham’s performance of the track at an Australian music awards kyboshed it forever, not least his explanation for singing it: “Classic song? Legend band? Nah, I just thought it suited my voice.”
U is for Underdog. Never a critical darling, AC/DC have always kicked against the pricks and defied the odds by making three chords in killer rhythm work like a charm. "The last story (Rolling Stone) did on AC/DC of any size was in 1980,” admitted their executive editor Jason Fine in 2008. “AC/DC were always kind of looked down on."
V is for Villawood, the site of the Sydney migrant hostel Angus and Malcolm Young called home after first arriving in Sydney from Glasgow in 1963… and also for Victoria Park in Glebe, the site of Bon Scott’s first gig with AC/DC in 1975. “Jaws dropped, Bon climbed amps, Angus leapt into the crowd,” remembered photographer Philip Morris. “From the start AC/DC were confident… a band that stood out.”
W is for The Wiggles, the Sydney band who most rival AC/DC for influence and sales. AC/DC recently reclaimed from the fab four of kid rock their No.1 slot at the top of the BRW Rich list for Aussie entertainers, with 2009 takings of $45 million.
X is for Xmas cards, which friends and family of Bon Scott received from him three weeks after his death on 19 February 1980. The beloved frontman hadn’t put enough postage on the envelopes but, true to his legend as lovable rogue, made the effort.
Y is for Young, the name of AC/DC’s twin axis – lead guitarist Angus and rhythm guitarist older brother Malcolm, founders of the band and the songwriting credit on all AC/DC songs. Raised in Burwood (in a house that’s now a bordello, according to Angus), their on-stage telepathy is legendary. Both brothers still own homes in Sydney.
Z is for Zorro, one of several costumes Angus Young experimented with before settling on his old school uniform from Ashfield Boys High (today cut from velvet). Other outfits included a Gorilla suit (worn in a Countdown performance) and a “Super-Ang” get-up replete with cape.
Tickets still available - call 1300 4 SHOWS or buy tickets online
Read Angus Fontaine's review of AC/DC's first Sydney show and see Dan Boud's slideshow of images from the gig.
PLUS you can win one of three exclusive limited-edition USA-edition AC/DC: Backtracks t-shirts and a Black Ice CD.
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