About Bon

It’s hard to know exactly who will be reading this blog… Some of you will be ultra-fans already and all of this stuff will seem ridiculously simple. Others will be new to the subject (as I was when I started it) and for these people, a small introduction is in order. The following was written on January 28th, 2008, less than one week after I began thinking about the Bon Scott Blog. It’s cobbled together from sources on the internet, Clinton Walker’s biography of Bon, and general hearsay. I expect those of you who know better to send me additions and corrections to this brief account (and that goes for the whole blog)…

Bon Scott was the singer and songwriter for the Australian rock band AC/DC between the years 1974 and 1980. AC/DC is perhaps best known for rock anthems like “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock and Roll)”, “Dirty Deeds, Done Dirt Cheap” and “T-N-T”. It’s aggressive, dirty, simple rock and roll, heavy on the guitars and the screaming. You might also be aware that the band’s guitarist, Angus Young, is always seen performing in his trademark schoolboy uniform.

Bon Scott was born in Scotland, but his family migrated to Australia and he grew up in Fremantle, Western Australia. He died on February 17th, 1980, in London after an evennig of particularly heavy drinking. He had been left to sleep it off in a friend’s car on a sub-zero winter’s night. When his friend returned to check on him the next day, Bon was already dead. He is buried in Fremantle cemetary.

Although Bon fronted AC/DC for just five years, during this time the band put out half a dozen records which many fans argue were the best they ever produced. There seems to be a general feeling that Bon’s replacement in the band, Brian Johnson, while a competent and energetic performer, could never match up to the dynamism and humour that Bon brought to the group. Bon, somehow, became an iconic figure in the history of rock music, which he remains to this day. You can still find the graffiti “Bon Lives” scrawled in public toilets all over the world. Although AC/DC continue to tour and record albums (although at a much slower rate than during “the Bon era”), the band is still, to a great extent, associated with Bon.

The extent of Bon’s notoriety is such that the Western Australian Bon Scott Fanclub has organised a massive tribute concert, to take place on 24th February 2008, where a bronze statue of the rocker will be unveiled. The fan club have been raising money for the statue for some time, and its placement in the city of Fremantle is supported by the local council, which, despite his wayward lifestyle, holds Bon in high regard. Bon’s grave is the most heavily frequented in the Fremantle cemetary.