Category: Listening

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?

AC/DC Aussie Tour Dates Finally Announced: Feb/March 2010

News just in from Doug at the WA Bon Scott Fanclub: AC/DC have finally announced their Aussie Tour Dates.

Thu 11 February – Melbourne – Etihad Stadium (formerly Telstra Dome)
Thursday 18 February – ANZ Stadium, Sydney
Thursday 25 February – QSAC, Brisbane
Tuesday 2 March – Adelaide Oval
Sat 6 March – Perth – Subicao Oval

Tickets can be obtained from
Ticketek
and
ticketmaster

(depending on which gig you want to go to, you have to get your ticket from one or the other of the above links)

Monday 25 May is the day they go on sale. Yikes.

Latest Gossip…

Paul with Bon

Thanks to Cate from Warwick in Queensland, who sent this email a few days back, giving a glimmer of hope to fans who were worried that Bon’s bronze statue would end up gathering a layer of chip-fat and dust in the corner of the fish and chip shop:

Hi Lucas – I thought you might like to see our photos “In search of Bon Scott” taken last week in Fremantle. My husband Paul is a HUGE fan of AC/DC so we spend quite a while in search if Bon’s grave and Statue. Enjoy! Cate

Continue reading “Latest Gossip…”

Crabsody in Blue

The Bon Scott Project is almost “officially” over. The exhibition will come down at the Fremantle Arts Centre after this weekend, and my stint as the Bon Scott Blogger will be finished.

But the funny thing is, although I’ve been working on the Bon Scott Blog for six months, there’s still heaps to discover. For instance, a while back, Terese, from the Hamilton Hill Clan, was raving on to me about Bon’s song “Crabsody in Blue”, which I had never heard. And for good reason – the song was excluded from the international editions of the album “Let there be Rock” – and it’s not easy to find the original Aussie edition. I had to hunt the track down, ahem, “on the net”…

And it was well worth the search. It’s been stuck in my head for days now! A great little blues number with Bon’s cheeky and somewhat puerile lyrics. Who else writes songs about pubic lice?

I was listening to this song, turned up loud, in the kitchen last night with my girlfriend. “It’s really catchy,” she observed. And that’s just it. Bon’s songs about sexually transmitted infections are, themselves, “catchy”. Genius – form and content gloriously interwoven.

In other news, stuff keeps coming through from the fans!

Bill, for instance, sent me through this email:

hi Lucas,

Not sure if you would mind/be willing to help us spread the word for this poll/contest, but my AC/DC Tribute band (LIVE WIRE from New York) has the opportunity to return to South America again this coming August for a big festival/concert there. We’re currently in 2nd place, and need dedicated AC/DC Fanatics votes help to push us to the top.

The site is in Spanish, but the voting is right over to the right hand side of the website. please vote for LIVE WIRE AC/DC tribute here: www.paulgillman.com

Cheers,
Bill

Happy to oblige, Bill. Readers, get over there and vote. You don’t want an Iron Maiden tribute band beating an acca dacca tribute, do ya??

And finally: early next week I’ll be announcing a limited edition piece of merchandise for you to acquire! I’m just trying to set up a paypal account to deal with the inevitable onslaught of online purchasing which will no doubt ensue…

Mix Tape Revival

sumu and bon

Hey fans, remember this? A while back, before the Bon Scott Project exhibition opened at the Fremantle Arts Centre, some very lucky fans among you received a limited edition cassette cover as an invitation to the show. The cover came complete with brittle plastic case, and it was impressive enough, but several people emailed me, disappointed that there was no cassette inside. So I decided to make one.

The conditions are that you have to send me a picture of yourself with your cassette cover in order to receive a custom dubbed Bon Scott Blog mix tape to go inside! Priority will be given to photos which show where you are in the world.

Well, entries have been trickling in, and here are a few more.

Above, Sumu shoots himself with his cassette cover on the ferry in the Sydney harbour. Top marks for location and imagination, Sumu! Accompanying Sumu’s photo were these few lines:

Killa Filla? If there are indeed any mixtapes still about – my boom
box is moist with anticipation….

Also, more Bon inspired madness here…

Check out that link, great little TNT mashup…

Danae

Our second entry is from Danae, a DJ from RTRFM. She invited Katie Dyer (the curator of the Bon Scott Letters exhibition) and me to do an interview a while back. Actually, it was on the morning of the launch of the Bon Scott Exhibition in Freo.

Danae REALLY wanted one of those mix tapes, so she brought in her LESBIAN MUD WRESTLING T-shirt to be digitally immortalised. Great stuff, Danae: a tape is on the way to you!

By the way, if you like, you can listen online to the interview Danae did with Katie and I. It’s here (MP3, 7MB, 16min) and it includes a rendition of “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” by Hayseed Dixie.

Fireside yarns from a laid-back Fan

Just don’t call me a “die-hard”, OK!

Cos I’ll take you to task live on radio (albeit in my own rather gentle way) as I did in this roooooolly laaaaaid baaaaack interview with Shamin from 2ser Radio Programme “The Fourth Estate”.

Sheesh, it sounds like we’re yarning over the first cup of coffee of the day – or rather, mine hasn’t quite arrived yet, I’m on half-speed but still trying to sound intelligent.

Have I become so confident in my new-found fandom that I’ve hit a plateau of complacency?

If you haven’t already seen the artworks in the Bon Scott Project Exhibition at Fremantle Arts Centre, the ones I refer to in this interview are Nat Paton’s self portrait, Stuart Bailey’s Merchandise Stall, and Cecilia Fogelberg’s little soft sculpture of Bon.

Listen to the interview here [mp3 file, 6mb, 6 min]

Phew, I think that’s nearly all the media coverage so far. There are a few more trickling through, notably a TV interview Katie Dyer and I did on Channel V. I’ll keep youse posted, when I next get outta bed…

Geraldine Spins Some Bawdy Bon

mr squiggle in the abc

Besides the amusing experience of being grilled by Richard Stubbs, my favourite radio interview about the Bon Scott Blog was on Geraldine Mellet’s show on ABC Perth.

(The above photo is not me – prematurely aged by too much ear-blistering rock – but Norman Hetherington, creator of the legendary children’s TV show Mr Squiggle, having a chat with Geraldine. It’s just that I forgot to take a photo of myself in the studio, so this picture I found on the ABC’s website is the next-best-thing. Imagine! I got to sit in the same chair as Mr Squiggle!)

On Friday afternoons Geraldine does a programme called “The Vault” which is a concentrated half-hour focussing on one particular musician or group. So, in keeping with the Bon Scott frenzy, she decided to spent some time talkin’ AC/DC.
Continue reading “Geraldine Spins Some Bawdy Bon”

Facca Dacca Rocks Out!

facca dacca

Apparently when the Bon Scott Project was announced, tribute bands from all around the world contacted the Fremantle Arts Centre (F.A.C.), offering to make their way to Freo at their own expense, and perform for free!

But the arts centre decided to form its own supergroup, called FAC/DC (or facca dacca), consisting of prominent members of Western Australian musicians. Here’s the lineup:

Bon – Clair French (Sure-Fire Midnights)
Angus – Dom Mariani (The Stems)
Malcolm – Steve Joines (The Kill Devil Hills)
Cliff – Vanessa Thornton (Jebediah)
Phil – Warren Hall (The M-16s)

See a classic “band photo” here.

Last night Jim picked me up and we drove down to a freezing warehouse in the meat processing district on the outskirts of Fremantle to see FAC/DC rehearse.

They’ll be performing at the launch on Friday night, and they’re still getting the song progressions together. I took a few little videos, but I can’t manage to upload em to youtube (sorry!) so you’ll have to be content with this photo above.

Facca Dacca was having a great time, especially Warren the drummer, who was grinning like an idiot as he bashed out the rhythm to “Jailbreak”. On his way to the fridge for another beer, Warren took a moment to declare: “I feel like a fourteen year old again!”

“Jailbreak”, it seems, is easier than “Whole Lotta Rosie”. Nobody was entirely sure how long Angus’ guitar solos were supposed to go for. So Claire pulled out her little ipod with speakers attached and they sat around listening to “the real thing”. And wow, if the song wasn’t just as damn powerful coming out of the tinny little speakers. Here’s a shot of Claire and Vanessa paying close attention to the ipod:

ipod whole lotta rosie

For the record, the guitar solos in “Whole Lotta Rosie” go for a REALLY long time.

A Bon Scott Blog Giveaway!

bon scott project cassette tape

This is the Bon Scott Project “cassette cover”. It’s basically a jazzed-up exhibition invitation card.

Here are a few pictures of the insert once you fold it out (click on ’em to see bigger):

bon scott project cassette insert black side

bon scott project cassette insert white side
[Kudos to James and Robyn from the Fremantle Arts Centre for the design work…]

If you’re lucky, you might have received one of these handsome fellows in the post courtesy of the Fremantle Arts Centre (if not, it might still be wending it’s way through your country’s undoubtedly ancient mail distribution system).

Sad to say, these collectable little beauties have run out now, so there’s not really any point emailing me to ask for more. Sorry ’bout that folks!

However, if you HAVE received one, here’s your chance to get a bonus limited edition CUSTOM DUBBED CASSETTE TAPE to whack inside your case! (For there is nothing more tragic than a case without a tape).

Yes, that’s right, I’m producing a small run of Bon-Scott-Blog Old-Skool-Mix-Tapes™!

The tape features songs which either :

(a). inspired Bon; or
(b). were inspired by Bon.

And the song selection is based on some not very thorough research I’ve done in the last few months… In mix-tape tradition, the contents will remain a mystery until it arrives in the post!

(The dubbing process takes a while – and believe me, it aint easy to find blank tapes in the shops any more. So while the tapes are laboriously spooling away, I’m still open to suggestions – any particular songs you reckon should be included on my Bon Scott Influences/Influenced Mix Tape?)

Here’s the deal:

I’ll send you a mix-tape, in exchange for a photo YOU take of YOURSELF with the Bon Scott Project cassette case you just received in the mail!

(Or if you were unfortunate enough to miss out on getting one of these cassette cases, don’t despair! Be inventive… take some equivalent shot. I dunno, something which shows that its really you, that you dig Bon, and which also includes some reference to the place where you come from. Preference will be given to pictures which are amusing/saucy/poignant etc…)

How does that all sound?

Email me your entries (jpg or whatever) together with your postal address, and I’ll get a tape out to ya!

lucas[at]bonscottblog[dot]com

Or – if you don’t have a digital camera, you can post your old-skool photo (or better still, a mix-tape of your design!) to –

The Bon Scott Blogger’s Mix Tape Extravaganza
c/- Fremantle Arts Centre
PO Box 891
Fremantle
Western Australia 6959

Remember there won’t be many of these issued, get in quick!

ABC Jailbreak

Alex SloanAlex Sloan (this fine lady with a GSOH to my left) interviewed me this morning on ABC Radio Canberra.

Somehow she’d gotten the idea that I was a “die-hard fan”. I had to let her down lightly. Not that I’m not a fan of Bon and AC/DC (I AM!) but I think you have to earn your “die-hard” status.

It takes years and years of dedication, not just six months at the tiller of a leaky blog…

Anyway, I had fun chatting with Alex. Before I came on air, she played Jailbreak. I was sitting in a sound-proof booth in the Perth studio, and WOW! It was like I’d never heard that song before.

Maybe it was the hi-fidelity ABC headphones, or the ungodly early hour of the morning, but Jailbreak brought tears to my eyes.

Jailbreak tells the story of a fella who’s been chucked in the slammer after shooting a man who was “fooling with his lady”:

Bullets started flying everywhere
And people started to scream
Big man lying on the ground
With a hole in his body
Where his life had been

Towards the end of Jailbreak, our anti-hero, the unfortunate victim of injustice, manages to escape from prison. Against the odds, and despite the spotlights and sirens, he makes it out…

At this point, there is a break in the song itself. All goes quiet. It seems like this unbearable silence will never end. One breath, two breaths, three breaths… (Has the song finished? Is the record stuck?)

And then, just when you think it’ll never come back, Bon’s voice bitterly spits out these words:

“…WITH A BULLET IN HIS BACK!.”

Ah, brilliant stuff… As I mentioned to Alex on air, I reckon Johnny Cash himself would have been proud to have written Jailbreak.

Anyhow, if you’d like to listen to the interview, here it is!

(It’s about 15 minutes long, and the file is a 4MB Mp3. For some reason, the volume is a bit low, please let me know if it’s too quiet to hear properly…)