AC/DC: Past and Present

The band known as AC/DC started in early 1973, in the mind of a young guitarist named Malcolm Young. Malcolm had been playing gigs around Sydney, in several bands, for some time while working at a factory during the days. After the band he was in disbanded, he decided to form one closer to his heart. One that would not take itself too seriously, too formal and that, in essence, would epitomize rock'n'roll.

Joining Malcolm were drummer Colin Burgess, bassist Larry Van Knedt, vocalist Dave Evans and, Malcolm's younger brother, guitarist Angus Young. They took the name "AC/DC" from the back of a vacuum cleaner and a name that would signify their no-holds-barred attack. On New Year's Eve of 1973, AC/DC played its first gig at Sydney's Chequers Club--receiving rave reviews for their capabilities.

This lineup would not last. By April of '74, Van Knedt and Burgess were replaced by Rob Bailey and Peter Clark. While gigging around Sydney continued, they acquired their first manager in Dennis Laughlin during that summer. They also recorded their first single, "Can I Sit Next To You Girl"/"Rockin' In The Parlour." Though it didn't become a smash hit, the single gave point to the direction the band was headed. However, problems soon arose.

Though they had been playing around Sydney for most of the year, Malcolm and Angus did not feel particularly well with Dave Evans. His persona and style went against everything that the Young brothers envisioned for the band. Also, many was the time when Evans would miss gigs, refuse to go onstage or be kicked offstage by the band. Finally, around September, someone else stepped into the forefront of AC/DC. He was Ronald Belford Scott--Bon to his friends.

Bon Scott shared several things with the Young brothers. They were all Scottish immigrants. They all shared an affinity for rock'n'roll. All three had quit school at age fifteen. However, Bon possessed a lot more smarts about the music scene in Australia, due to his previous enrollment in two other outfits--The Valentines and Fraternity. He had been at the top of Australia and at the bottom--recently recovering from a near-fatal motorcycle accident. He admitted that AC/DC was the tonic he needed to cure himself and proved it to everyone. He replaced Dave Evans and the band started a rocket ride to the top.

After replacing Evans with Scott, the band went into the J Alberts & Son recording studios to start recording their first album. Along the way, they replaced drummer Clark and bassist Bailey with studio drummer Tony Kerrante and producer/bassist George Young--older brother of Angus and Malcolm. It had been George and his bandmates who had given Australia its first breakthrough artist--The Easybeats. They were a big influence on the music scene in Australia and, particularly, on the youngest Young brothers. After their breakup, George had returned to Australia to produce for Albert Productions with his friend, and former bandmate, Harry Vanda. They shared production credits for AC/DC's first album, HIGH VOLTAGE.

After finishing the album, the band replaced Dennis Laughlin with the better-connected Michael Browning. Browning shared George Young's vision of the band and quickly began to set tour dates to support HIGH VOLTAGE, which was released in February of '75. Before that, they had picked Phil Rudd to take over the vacant drums spot, while Malcolm actually played bass. After HIGH VOLTAGE was released, they found bassist Mark Evans, who gadly joined the band. The new album was a smash hit all throughout Australia and the band gigged endlessly in support of it. They took a break in June to finish the single, "High Voltage Rock'n'Roll," which had been meant to go on the first album, but wasn't finished in time. So, they placed it on the record they did in July, T.N.T.

T.N.T. was an even bigger hit than HIGH VOLTAGE when it was released in February of '76--selling 11,000 copies during its first week. While their gigging around Australia continued, Atlantic Records caught wind of all the noise and signed them to an international contract. They asked the band to move to England. Before doing so, they recorded a third album, DIRTY DEEDS DONE DIRT CHEAP in April of '76. The album was shelved for whenever the need arose.

After moving to the U.K., the record, HIGH VOLTAGE, was released in Europe on May 14th, 1976. This was not the same HIGH VOLTAGE, but rather T.N.T. with two tracks from the original HIGH VOLTAGE. While playing around in England continued, the hunger for new AC/DC material in Australia allowed for the release of a single from DIRTY DEEDS DONE DIRT CHEAP--"Jailbreak." The band played endlessly around Europe, headlining small gigs while opening for much bigger acts. In October, the HIGH VOLTAGE compilation was released in the U.S., but had very small success. The band finally returned to Australia to record a new album. This return was also highlighted by the release of DIRTY DEEDS DONE DIRT CHEAP on both the Europe and Australia. However, these two albums were different versions--the European containing the single, "Love At First Feel," which wouldn't be released in Australia till January of '77.

The band began '77 with a bang. In February, the band began a worldwide tour with Black Sabbath. And, in April, LET THERE BE ROCK--the new album--was released in the U.K., the U.S. and Australia. Though the albums were different versions, it was a hit for the band--hitting the lower 200s in the U.S. and #75 in England. However, the fun didn't last for long. The band was kicked off the tour by Black Sabbath due to an altercation between band members and stage crews--it seems Black Sabbath wasn't too keen on AC/DC stealing the show from them. And Mark Evans--held to be the best behaved member of the band--left. Though the parting was officially amicable, there were rumours of infeuding between him and Angus. The band held a small auditions for the part and British Cliff Williams emerged as the new bassist.

On that year's summer, the band touched U.S. soil for the first time. And starting with Jacksonville--their strongest foothold--the band began to build a fan base from the ground up. Opening for the likes of KISS and Rush, while headlining small clubs all over America, the band played endlessly for the rest of the year. Finally, in December, they opened for KISS at Madison Square Garden and returned to Australia to begin recording a new album and tour, for the first time in three years, in Australia. However, the band was not allowed visas to perform, due to their new British bassist and, mostly, British crew. The band played at one of their old places, The Lifesaver, as The Seedies and began to record a new album.

In 1978, the band released POWERAGE and began to tour Europe and America. The single, "Rock'n'Roll Damnation," hit #24 in the British charts--the highest charting single, so far. The touring continued endlessly and allowed the band to release their first live album--IF YOU WANT BLOOD-YOU'VE GOT IT. For a band that had built its reputation on its live work, this album was a new height. It broke the U.S. Top 50, while setting at a shocking #13 in the U.K. The band returned to Australia in December for their annual recording sessions. However, Atlantic had other ideas.

Atlantic had always been in disagreement with the low-fi production levels of the Vanda/Young combo. Now, after the success of POWERAGE and IF YOU WANT BLOOD, it knew that the band was ready for a breakthrough on U.S. soil. However, to do so, they "asked" that the production team step aside and let a new person produce this new album. That new person was Eddie Kramer--who had worked with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, KISS and Led Zeppelin. Band and producer were moved to Miami to begin recording, but nothing was getting done. Finally, Malcolm called Browning and asked him to do something. Browning asked a friend of his, Robert John Lange, if he would work with AC/DC. "Mutt" Lange, who had never worked with a hard rock group, accepted and moved to London with the band. After two months of working, the band released HIGHWAY TO HELL in the summer of '79.

Exactly as predicted, HIGHWAY TO HELL was a smash hit for the band--breaking Top 20 in the U.S. and Top 10 in the U.K. The band began to tour in support. However, news began to leak throughout the music industry that both Atlantic and Michael Browning's office were running out of money. The massive touring all over the world had begun to take its toll on both of them. Finally, when Browning began to make moves to bring in new investors, the band fired him and hired Peter Mensch of Leber & Krebs--who managed Aerosmith and Ted Nugent. This connection allowed AC/DC to tour for the rest of the year in support of HIGHWAY TO HELL. In particular, one show in Paris was taped. This show would later turn up in the concert film, "Let There Be Rock." The band wanted to tour in Australia, where HIGHWAY TO HELL was the first album to chart since T.N.T., but the accompanying dates to Japan weren't lined up and the band didn't play in Australia.

After all the touring was done, the band took a break and began to work on ideas for the follow-up to HIGHWAY TO HELL. However, on February 20, 1980, Bon Scott tragically died in the backseat of a friend's car. It seems he had been out in London with fellow musician, Alliston Kinnear, drank his share and passed out. Kinnear left him in the car, sure that he would sleep it off like he normally did. Unfortunately, Bon had moved in his sleep, vomited and choked on his vomit. He would have been 34.

As the shock of Bon's death ran through the fan base, the rest of the band decided that it would be of no use to split. They began to look for a new vocalist as they continued to work on the new album. The word was that Allen Fryar--of Australia's "Heaven"--was going to be the new vocalist. However, on April, the band announced that the replacement would be longtime "Geordie" vocalist Brian Johnson. Johnson, who had moved away for a time from rock'n'roll, began to work with the band on the new album. The band, once again united with "Mutt" Lange, moved to the Bahamas and appeared in July 6th with BACK IN BLACK.

If any doubt existed of AC/DC's continuing power, it was silenced by BACK IN BLACK. The album hit #1 in England and #3 in the U.S. with the accompanying tour becoming one of their most succesful. The singles "You Shook Me All Night Long" and "Rock'n'Roll Ain't Noise Pollution" went up to #20 and #15 respectively in the British charts. The band continued to tour all of 1980 and some of 1981, finally stopping to record a new album.

Atlantic, seeing the rise in AC/DC's popularity, finally decided to release the U.K. version of DIRTY DEEDS DONE DIRT CHEAP in the U.S. The band, at first, was opposed--due to the low production and the fact that it was an old album. Finally, it allowed Atlantic to release it with two concessions--it was to be released at a cheaper price and would have a sticker indicating that it was recorded by the Young/Young/Scott/Evans/Rudd lineup. It was released in May of '81 and surprised everyone by shooting up to the U.S. Top 10.

In November of '81, the band released the new album, FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK-WE SALUTE YOU. It became an instant smash, blasting to the top of the charts in Europe and the U.S. The touring in its support took all of 1982, which also saw the release of the concert film, "Let There Be Rock." It, however, was not a great success due to its low quality. Finally, by early 1983, the band began to record again.

In August of '83, the band released the Top 10 hit, FLICK OF THE SWITCH. This was the first album that the band had produced by itself. However, the album was not as big a success as its predecesors. Along the way, Phil Rudd quit the band. Though the parting was officially amicable, rumours, once again, surfaced about him using drugs and a fight between him and Malcolm Young. The band put out an ad for a drummer without saying who they were and shocked 20-year old Simon Wright when he found out. However, the band liked what they saw and heard and he joined them for the FLICK tour.

The band took 1984 to tour year round. It stopped at the "Monsters of Rock" Festival in Castle Donnington, England and headlined for the first time. Meanwhile, an EP was released stateside. '74 JAILBREAK contained the long-neglected "Jailbreak" single as well as several tracks left from the Australian HIGH VOLTAGE. However, the EP didn't sell well either.

Though 1985 started well for the band, it was probably one of the worst years that it had to face. They started by playing at the "Rock In Rio" festival to over 400,000 fans--a record crowd. Then, took time to record a new album, FLY ON THE WALL, which was released in June. However, FLY's sales were poor--rather disastruous for a band of AC/DC's caliber. The worst was yet to come. On August 31st, L.A.P.D. caught Richard Ramirez--"The Night Stalker." With his capture came news that he was a big fan of AC/DC--he loved their albulms, specially HIGHWAY TO HELL and had left an AC/DC cap at one of the murder sites. Combine that with the news that HIGHWAY TO HELL possessed a song titled "Night Prowler" and what came down on AC/DC was the conservative Christian right.

The band took heat from city officials, parent associations, church groups. Their concerts were delayed, canceled or banned. Those that weren't canceled were in such disarray of confusion that they often drew small crowds. Through this all, the media and the press--one of AC/DC's former enemies--came to their rescue and defended them from these attacks.

In the middle of all this, famed horror writer Stephen King approached the band and asked them to provide some songs for his directorial debut, "Maximum Overdrive." The band agreed and recorded three tracks for the movie, which were later placed with some other material to make the album, WHO MADE WHO. The album, was released in May of '86, and became a hit--ending their string of suparb sales. The band decided to tour in support and saw the crowds that had been scared off by the "Night Stalker" fiasco return. Also returning were producers Harry Vanda and George Young, who produced the three new tracks. This gave the band an excuse to work with them again for their new album.

The band came out again in January of '88 with BLOW UP YOUR VIDEO. Though the album presented stronger sales than FLY ON THE WALL, it wasn't the hit that the band wanted. The upcoming tour saw Malcolm Young take a step back. He had a sick son that he wanted to tend to and asked nephew Stevie Young to take his place. Once again, rumours surfaced that it was, in fact, his drinking that was getting out of hand and that he had stepped out to take care of it.

After the tour ended in 1989, Ronnie James Dio asked Simon Wright to work with him on his new album. Though, at first, it was only as a studio drummer, Wright eventually became a full member of Dio and quit his spot on AC/DC. The band, which was in the process of writting new material, didn't stop him.

In early 1990, the band began to work on their new album, THE RAZORS EDGE. For it, AC/DC had asked drummer Chris Slade--of The Firm and Tom Jones fame--to work with them. They also had replaced their manager with Stewart Young--another member of the Young family. And the Vanda/Young team had once again been brushed aside and Bruce Fairbairn stepped in to produce the new album. Finally, in September, THE RAZORS EDGE was released to a #2 place in the U.S. charts. It marked the first time that the Youngs had written all the lyrics for an album--Brian was in the middle of a divorce.

The tour that followed saw AC/DC return to the form they had during the BACK IN BLACK-FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK era. However, tragedy struck January 18th, 1991 in Salt Lake City, Utah where Curtis Child, Jimmie Boyd and Elizabeth Glausi were crushed to death by the tide of the crowd. The parents of two of the kids legally sued the band, the promoters and the concert venues. Once again, it was the media and the press who came to the defense of AC/DC.

On the bright side, September 15th saw AC/DC headlining the Castle Donnington festival for a record third time. Later, on September 28th, the "Monsters Of Rock" tag was added to a concert in Moscow. The concert, which feature Metallica, Black Crowes, Pantera, AC/DC and a Russian band, was staged by the new government as a thanks to the youth of Russia, who had recently helped in bringing down the attempted coup of several former generals.

All of the hard work put into THE RAZORS EDGE paid off when it was nominated for a Best-Hard Rock Grammy in 1992. Later in the year, the band finally released a second live album--entitled AC/DC LIVE. The album signified the return of Angus & Co. to prime form and "Highway To Hell" was nominated for a Best Hard Rock Performance Grammy in 1993.

Also in 1993, Arnold Schwarzennegger asked the band to contribute a track for his upcoming movie, "The Last Action Hero." The band obliged and came out with "Big Gun." The video featured Arnold in the Schoolboy Suit, trying to imitate Angus' footwork. Unfortunately, the movie bombed at the theaters. However, "Big Gun" was the first work that the band would do with mega-producer Rick Rubin--of Beastie Boys and Nine Inch Nails fame. A very big AC/DC fan, he asked that they remember him when they started work on their next album.

The band spent all of 1994 working on the album that would become BALLBREAKER. Along the way, Chris Slade was replaced by Phil Rudd, who once again stepped into the drums seat. After several tries, the album was put out on August of 1995--debuting at #4 on the U.S. charts. The tour that followed was one of their more elaborates yet. Following the 1996 tour, the band recorded several old tracks for the movie version of DJ Howard Stern's movie, "Private Parts."

So now, where does that leave AC/DC? Their place in rock history is, without a doubt, settled. They possess a fan base that reaches all around the world. They have sold over 80 million records worldwide and that number keeps increasing. For a band of "short, micro people," they've sured stood tall and proven that rock'n'roll is not about looks, but heart.

"We ain't no legends...ain't no course"
"We're just living for today"
FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK, WE SALUTE YOU!"


Email: whitewahl@kih.net

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