Blue My Socks Out of My DBs!

acdc melbourne concert

The above is from the Melbourne concert, which I attended with my friend Texta a few weeks ago.
More photos from the gig (which was absolutely phenomenal) here.

The following email comes from my old mate Simmo, who was always good for a hot tip during the secretive construction period of the Bon Scott Bronze statue. Here you can see me and Simmo at the Statue celebration concert in Perth back in Feb 2008:

simmo and me

Hi Lucas
Hope a fan like you caught the greattest gig in the world ? The Black Ice AC /DC tour , Well let me say it blue my socks out of my DBs !!! Sat ,Night in Perth and the guys turned it on and they played High Voltage as a tribute to Bon and his finnal resting place Freo.I believe that it has not been played for over 30 years live, but I am here to be corrected .There where pictures of Bon Flashing across the screens and more fists held up in salute than any other song played that night ! Yes I was looking and I was sober and straight as I lost all my money , it fell out of my pocket.
I scanned the top of the stadiums later on the night looking for a soul piper to belt out Its along way to the top , but as i right this nowI believe it will be played to night by a 36 piece Pipe band that Bon used to play with , Perth being there last Aussie, gig and the guys being who they are , will entertain and remember and surprise . and it sucks that I am not their again
Rock In Peace
Simmo

Onya Simmo!! …anyone else have concert reports or pictures they wanna share from the Aussie tour?

Best Roadie Ever

darcy and gabby
[Darcy and Gabby at home in Warburton, Victoria…]

Our last port of call in Victoria was Warburton, out in the Yarra Valley. Katie and I hired a car. We hacked our way through a lot of seriously un-picturesque suburbs before bursting into the lush valley. It was a great relief after the heat and the endless din of the Melbourne Grand Prix to feel a light breeze, to hear cicadas in the trees.

But we didn’t really hear any cicadas til after we arrived. For the drive, I’d brought a few AC/DC albums to get us in the mood. I put on “Let There Be Rock” and we drummed on the dashboard (Katie) and the steering wheel (me) all the way to Warburton. We were going to meet a real rock-n-roll roadie…
Continue reading “Best Roadie Ever”

Doodles on Envelopes

mary with stained shirt
[Mary, one of Bon’s closest friends, shows us a shirt he posted her in the late 1970s, complete with perfectly preserved stain running down the front…]

It was forty degrees in Melbourne and the Grand Prix was on. The Formula One racing cars sounded like angry flies. I guess they were “warming up” for the big race on Sunday. We couldn’t see them, but the noise cut through the thick air. Katie and I hopped off the tram at the wrong stop. In this heat, the prospect of walking four blocks to Mary’s house in St Kilda seemed a bit much. We were still dragging our suitcases behind us. Why didn’t we just take a cab?

Mary is one of Bon’s oldest and most loyal friends. They first met when he was still playing with The Valentines, in the late 1960s. Apparently, at one Valentines gig, Bon invented some pretext to speak with her. (I am coming to understand he was good at inventing pretexts to speak with girls.)
Continue reading “Doodles on Envelopes”

Let There Be Cherry Rock

cherry rock sign
[Sign displayed on the wall at Cherry Rock…]

Have I mentioned how amazing this job of mine is? The people I get to meet!!

On the weekend Katie and I went to Melbourne to chase down some of Bon’s old old friends. And, in a way, to meet Bon himself.

Katie is curating an exhibition of letters written by Bon Scott, which will be displayed in Fremantle in May. The rest of the Bon Scott Project will contain interpretations of the life and work and culture and mythology surrounding Bon. It’ll be interpretations by artists, who (like me) you can pretty much rely on to put their own spin on things.

But this letters exhibition is important. When you enter the room filled with his letters, it will no longer be Bon “as seen by others”. It won’t even be pictures of Bon, taken by others. It will be Bon himself, speaking to you in his own words.

We jumped off the plane and took a cab straight to Cherry Rock. Cherry is a marketing, branding, PR and rockband management company run by a fellow called James Young (no relation to Malcolm and Angus). James’ claim to fame (at least from our point of view) was that he bought a whole swag of Bon’s letters when they went to auction two years ago. These things are pretty valuable, so we weren’t sure if James would be willing to part with them.
Continue reading “Let There Be Cherry Rock”

LED Sign is GO!

LED sign
[Click on the photo to see it larger…]

I’m happy to report that the LED sign is all systems go!

Marisa from Fremantle Arts Centre went down to the spot where the old bridge comes into Freo and took this snap for me. (Thanks to Pic Lee and John from the Fremantle Chamber of Commerce for punching the message into the system.)

Right now I am in Melbourne with Katie, the curator of the Bon Scott Letters exhibition. We’ve been meeting some amazing old friends of Bon’s from the 1960s and 1970s. Some of them have kindly agreed to let her display some of Bon’s letters, postcards and Christmas cards in the exhibition in May.

The letters are funny, insightful, cheeky and sometimes a bit sad. Stay tuned for the full story.