A Short History of AC/DC

It's 1973. The last great Rolling Stones album is a year old, Led Zeppelin are experimenting with reggae and soul, there's trouble in the camp of the dark lords, Free call it a day and Ozzy hits and misses. Classic rock was doing itself in, and punk was still at least two years away. If it was going to survive the onslaught, it needed new life and that was exactly what it got. At the same time the garage punks like the Saints and Radio Birdman were setting up shop, AC/DC, working from a similar agenda that included the Stooges but placed the emphasis firmly on the classic rockers of yore, began a career that is as faultless as it is reiterative. Such is the focus and strength of their sound, they have managed to replace one of the greatest rock vocalists of the last thirty or so years without missing a riff. AC/DC have learned from the occasional mistakes of their heroes that progression doesn't necessarily mean messing with the content. You don't have to invent a new language every time you want to say something to someone; it's being listened to and being believed that's paramount. AC/DC will probably go on forever because of precisely this fact.

AC/DC were already a band on the cusp of something new when they played their debut New Year's Eve gig at the Hard Rock Cafe in Sydney in 1973. Malcolm Young had effectively trained his band to play rock-punk; straight and loose. He had spent a lot of time with his brother George Young in the studio helping him produce a variety of artists and had learned that he didn't like things to complicated. Malcolm was no prog-rocker, he preferred the deed done live with the minimum of multi-tracking. Early line-ups centered around the twin guitar attack of the Young brothers. Angus in particular using the early gigs as an opportunity to pin down his musical and performance technique. His school uniform, worn as a one-off joke in an earlier band became indicative of AC/DC's lack of pretension in a time when bands took themselves very seriously.

Bon Scott was brought in as vocalist in 1974. He was a mate of their brother George who knew him from his days in the Easybeats. While George and Harry Vanda were having an international hit with 'Friday On My Mind', Scott had been in a pop band called the Valentines. That wasn't what got him into AC/DC though. Malcolm and Angus had initial reservations about his age but their attitude changed when they discovered that he had spent the early seventies drinking and doing stir. The fact that the 29 year-old was a fellow Australian import from Scotland sealed it.After a night of karaoke Chuck Berry, Free and the Stones, Bon was in and Dave Evans, the original AC/DC vocalist, was out. It was a key decision.

Scott gave the band definition. His vocals were scrawled like graffiti over the top of a solid rock backing. The subject matter was lewd and funny, topical and personal - songs about being a rock'n'roll singer most of the time, with a tendency to draw on the running motif of the male genital region and its functions.'She Got Balls', (she's got) The Jack' and of course, the considered treatise of Freudian identification theory, 'She Got Balls'. OK so there's nothing advocating the twin punk concerns of anarchy or nihilism but 'Problem Child' - 'what I want I stash, what I don't I smash' - offers a similar sentiment. When AC/DC visited the UK for the first time in 1976 they were supported by Richard Hell's band the Heartbreakers and appeared on Tony Wilson's TV show 'So It Goes', and it seemed that the punk sensibility existing just below the band's surface was clearly apparent to those in the know.It happened in the US as well, where they played several dates with glam-punks the Dictators and, most bizarre of all, in Holland where AC/DC were even included in a series of bubblegum cards collecting together 'Punk, the New Wave'. The band themselves have never claimed to be anything other than a rock band but then how many punkers said that.

There were six studio albums between 1975 and 1980. 'High Voltage' and 'Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap' were big in Oz and had a boogie and blues feel that sounded great in the sunshine, but it's with 'Let There Be Rock' and live one, 'If You Want Blood You've Got It', that they really manage to capture the raw and heavy spirit of AC/DC. Like other hard rock bands Motorhead and Iron Maiden, the live album is always an essential purchase. The threat of being dropped by their label meant they were forced to slick it up for the next one, and 'Highway To Hell' was produced by the present Mr Shania Twain, Mutt Lange. Still, he did a good job. With the exception of 'Back In Black' which followed it, there has never been a more satisfactory mix of raw power and FM sensibility. Radio stations loved it. Not that the subject matter was toned down though. Scott's still at it. 'Touch Too Much' is out and out porn. The title track with its big riff, insistent drumming and rhytmic vocals is prototype Beastie Boys, and maybe it's stating the obvious but 'If You Want Blood (You've Got It)'... rocks.

'Highway To Hell' was released in the summer of 1979 by which point the line-up of the band had tragically changed. On February 20th, Bon Scott was checked into King's College Hospital London. DOA. He had drunk too much. The band carried on with new front-man, geordie Brian Johnson, a vocalist who Scott had often praised as an influence, and a new album, 'Back In Black', a tribute to their friend which opened with the sombre tolling of 'Hell's Bells'. 'You Shook Me All Night Long' was an international hit and the title track remains a staple of rock, goth and indie club nights the world over.

AC/DC have recently released a new album called 'Black Ice' that has been well received by fans and critics alike.