Band History Continued
After touring most of 1982, the band took a long break. It was several
months before AC/DC started working on their next album. The recording
sessions took place at Compass Point Studios in Nassau.
Midway through the recording sessions, Phil Rudd was fired. At the time,
no reasons were given for his sudden departure. But years later, with
Phil's drug problems no longer a secret, the truth emerged. On the 'Cannon
and Bell' tour, he was hallucinating about finding strangers in his room.
To make matters worse, there were personal difficulties between Malcolm and
Phil. Their relationship progressively deteriorated, to the point where a
physical confrontation eventually took place. Two hours later Phil was
flying home; he was out.
The new record was engineered and mixed by Tony Platt and produced by the
band themselves. Released in August 1983, 'Flick Of The Switch' eventually
reached No. 4 in the UK charts. But 'Flick Of The Switch' was a relative
commercial slip. It only reached No. 15 in the US charts. In the 1984
Kerrang!'s readers' poll, AC/DC won no category, ending up as fifth top
band and were also considered eighth biggest disappointment of the year.
Returning to London, the band desperately sought a replacement for Phil
Rudd. Eventually an anonymous ad was placed in the music press: 'Heavy Rock
drummer wanted. If you don't hit hard, don't apply'. After a number of
trial runs, 20-year-old Simon Wright was given the job. By October 1983,
Simon had made his live debut in Vancouver, Canada.
During the Winter, AC/DC toured through the States and Canada. On August 19,
1984 AC/DC became the first band to return as headliners at the fourth
Monsters Of Rock festival at Castle Donington. After Donington, the band
undertook a series of dates in Europe, which included more 'Monsters Of
Rock' festivals. However the biggest festival of all came in January when
AC/DC joined in the very first Rock In Rio in Brazil. The band did two
nights at the festival.
After Rio, the band took another lenghty break...
It wasn't until the Spring of 1985 that AC/DC regrouped to work on their
new album at Mountain Studios near Montreux, in Switzerland. Happy with the
raw sound they'd achieved with 'Flick Of The Switch', Malcolm and Angus
decided again to produce by themselves.
'Fly On The Wall' was released on June 28. Despite the general critical
thumbs-down, the album did reach No. 7 in the UK charts. The first single
taken from the album, 'Danger', only made No. 48.
In addition to the album, there was a 28-minute long-form video titled
'Fly On TheWall', which featured five songs from the album. The concept
was based around the band playing a gig in a small New York club full of
shady characters.
The Fly On The Wall world tour began with another visit to the States.
In January 1986, AC/DC played 6 shows in the UK and 18 more in Europe
until mid-February.
On February 16, the band returned to London to start work on a video for
their next single. During January, 'Shake Your Foundations' had become
their most successful single since 'For Those About To Rock' when it
reached No. 24 in the UK charts.
During the 1985 American tour, AC/DC were approached by horror-writer
Stephen King, a huge AC/DC fan, who'd asked whether he could use some old
material for the soundtrack of his forthcoming movie 'Maximum Overdrive'.
He also suggested the band record some new tracks exclusively for the film.
Recording took place at Compass Point Studios in Nassau when the US Tour
had been completed. For the first time since 'If You Want Blood You've Got
It', the new material was produced by Harry Vanda and George Young. In
just two weeks they recorded three new songs: 'Who Made Who', 'D.T.' and
'Chase The Ace'. The video was filmed at the Brixton Academy in South London
at the end of February.
On May 3, 'Who Made Who' was issued, becoming the band's biggest hit in
years as it soared to No. 16 in the UK charts. A month later, the album
reached No. 11 in Britain. In America, the album only reached No. 33.
On the back of the film's appearance in the US, AC/DC again took the road
in July. Originally planned to finish in September, the demand for extra
dates prolonged the US tour until November.
At the end of the tour, the band took a two-month break before beginning the recording
sessions for their next album.
After an extensive search for the right location, the studio chosen for
recording the next album was Miraval in the South of France. Recording
officially began in August. Harry Vanda and George Young came back to act
as producers on a full album for the first time since 1978. No less than 19
songs were recorded for the new album, but when the tapes were shipped
across to New York to be mixed during the autumn, only the strongest ten
survived.
The first single from the album, entitled 'Heatseeker', was released on
January 4, 1988. It quickly rose to No. 12 in the UK charts. The album
itself, 'Blow Up Your Video', was released at the end of January and reached
No. 2 in the UK charts, the best position since 'Back In Black'. Meanwhile,
in the US it reached No. 12.
After three days of rehearsals at the Entertainment Center in Perth,
Australia, the tour finally began on February 1. It was the first show
AC/DC had done anywhere in over a year and the first show in Australia
since 1981. And to make the occasion even more special, Isa and Chick Scott,
Bon's parents, were present in the audience. The show was dominated by Bon
Scott songs because in Australia, Bon Scott IS AC/DC.
After two nights in Perth, four at the National Tennis Centre in Melbourne,
three at the Entertainment Centre in Sydney, one at the Globe Derby in
Adelaide and two at the Entertainment Centre in Brisbane, AC/DC had played
to over 130,000 fans in three weeks.
After their successful return to Australia, the band headed to the UK. But
they only played in two cities in the British Isles, Birmingham and London.
After the run at Wembley Arena in London, the band headed out to Europe,
before coming back to the UK to finish off this leg of the tour with a final
date on April 13 at Wembley Arena. But Malcolm Young would not be joining
the band for the forthcoming US tour. Malcolm felt in desperate need of a
rest from touring, principally to kick a drinking habit which escalated
during long tours. The official reason at the time of his departure was
'exhaustion'.
AC/DC called up another member of the Young family, nephew Stevie Young, and
continued as if nothing had happened. Not only did Stevie know all of the
AC/DC songs by heart, but he was Malcolm's double physically as well.
Stevie's first show with the band was at the Cumberland Civic Center in
Portland, Maine, on May 3.
The US tour proved to be an enormous success for AC/DC. The band sold out
more or less everywhere they played. Within a matter of weeks 'Blow Up Your
Video' had become AC/DC's biggest selling album since 'For Those About To
Rock'. The tour ended at the end of the year.
Meanwhile back in Sydney, Malcolm was slowly recovering from his problems.
In the first few months of 1989, he and Angus spent some time in London
(at Malcolm's house) and in Holland (at Angus' house) working on basic riffs
and melody lines for the next album.
When work began on the material for the next allbum, rumours spread that
Brian Johnson had left the band. Brian hadn't in fact left, he was simply
tied up in the States finalising his divorce and straightening out various
legal problems. This was the reason why he was unable to get involved in the
writing of the lyrics of the new songs. So Malcolm and Angus wrote the words
for the first time without the band's singer.
But there was a line-up change on the horizon. Whilst Malcolm and Angus were
busy working on material, Simon was approached by Ronnie James Dio to play
on the next Dio album 'Lock Up The Wolves'. This was meant to be merely a
session situation for Simon, to fill in time before AC/DC went back into the
studio. But a few months later it was announced that Simon had been inducted
as a full member of Dio's band.
Now without a drummer, AC/DC started rehearsals for the new album in a barn
close to Brighton. In November 1989, they brought in Chris Slade on a purely
temporary basis, at the suggestion of their management. But as work on the
album progressed Chris was asked to join.
After rehearsals in Brighton, the band headed for Windmill Road Studios in
Ireland to start work on the album proper. This time the band elected to
work with Canadian producer Bruce Fairbairn. The album was completed within
six weeks at Little Mountain Studios in Vancouver, Canada.
First release from the album was the single 'Thunderstruck', which reached
No. 13 in the UK charts. The album, entitled 'The Razors Edge', was released
through the band's new label Atco in September. The album proved to be a
huge seller, reaching No. 4 in the UK charts and getting up to No. 2 in the
US. 'The Razors Edge' took AC/DC's global album sales past 60 million copies.
In addition, they also breached the Top 40 singles chart in Britain with
'Moneytalks' and 'Are You Ready". Two long-form video collections were also
released during this period, namely 'Who Made Who', featuring footage
covering the years between 1980-1986, and 'Clipped', which included all of
the promotional videos from 'Blow Up Your Video' and 'The Razors Edge'.
With a whole new stage-show, The Razors Edge world tour began in America.
By March 20 AC/DC was starting their European tour in Helsinki. The on April
15. After Europe, AC/DC returned to the British leg of the tour began at
Wembley Arena States in May for the third leg of the world tour.
In August, the band was back to Europe for Donington and a series of 20
Monsters Of Rock festivals across the continent in 18 cities. This included
one free show at the Tushino Airfield in Moscow on September 29 that
attracted an estimated 500,000 fans.
The Moscow concert was presented as a "celebration of democracy and freedom"
staged as a gift to the Russian youth for their resistance against the
recent failed military coup. The show was televised in Russia, filmed for a
documentary by music-video director Wayne Isham and recorded for a projected live album.
The Russian concert was particularly significant in light of the fact that
most Western rock music was outlawed in the USSR until the rise of glasnost.
Although AC/DC had long been popular among Soviet youth, the band's recordings could
only be obtained on the black market.
During The Razors Edge world tour, the band had recorded several shows. Among
the shows recorded was the historic date in Moscow. And Donington was filmed
by director David Mallet using no less than 22 cameras.
The release date for the first live album featuring Brian Johnson was set
for October 29. It was simply titled 'Live'. The production was handled by
Bruce Fairbairn. The album was released in various formats, a fourteen song
single CD, a fourteen song single cassette, a specially packaged twenty-three
song double CD and a specially packaged twenty-three song double cassette.
The album was preceded by a single, 'Highway To Hell (Live), on October 5.
And in addition, the live video shot at Donington, titled 'AC/DC Live At
Donington', came out at the end of the year. The video, shot on high-quality
35-millimeter film, did a good job of capturing the atmosphere of the AC/DC
live experience, in a manner considerably more advanced than its predecessor
'Let There Be Rock'.
During the Summer of 1993, AC/DC recorded a new song, 'Big Gun', for the
soundtrack of the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie 'Last Action Hero'. The hugely
expensive film proved to be a monumental flop, but its soundtrack album
(also featuring tracks by Alice In Chains, Queensryche, Anthrax, Def Leppard,
Megadeth, Tesla, Fishbone and Cypress Hill) was considerably more successful.
'Big Gun' was produced by Rick Rubin. It was released as a single by ATCO on
June 28. The video for 'Big Gun' actually featured Schwarzenegger himself
wearing a schoolboy uniform similar to that worn by Angus.
In addition, a long-form video titled 'For Those About To Rock We Salute You'
was put out. It was an 84 minute documentation of the historic Moscow show,
featuring footage from all the bands on the bill: AC/DC, Metallica, the Black
Crowes, Pantera and E.S.T.
At the dawn of 1995, rumours spread that Phil Rudd was back in the band. At
the end of The Razors Edge tour in 1991, Phil attended an AC/DC concert in
Auckland, New Zealand and spent several hours backstage with the band after
the show. It was the first time he saw the band since his departure from
AC/DC in 1983.
In 1994, AC/DC began rehearsals for the new album in England. Around May,
Malcolm gave Phil a call asking him to sit down on the drums for the
recording of the new record and the world tour that would follow. Phil had
to think about it seriously with his wife but eventually decided that his
place was in AC/DC.
AC/DC began recording the new album in New York, but, unhappy with the sound
they were getting, decided to move to Los Angeles in Ocean Way Studios where
they found the kind of sound they were looking for. After the success of
'Big Gun', the band chose Rick Rubin to produce the new album.
In the first days of September 1995, the first single from the new album was
released, called 'Hard As A Rock'. The album itself, 'Ballbreaker', was
released on September 22. To accompany Ballbreaker's first single, the band
shot another video, their seventh collaboration with director David Mallet.
For the occasion, four hundred London-area AC/DC fans were driven by bus to
a soundstage at Bray Studios in Windsor. Angus spent much of the shoot
hanging in mid air on a giant demolition ball, on which he eventually came
crashing through a window amidst a hail of candy-glass shrapnel and exploding
fireworks.
The rehearsals for the world tour took place in London from November 20 to
December 20, 1995 and in St. Petersburg from January 4 to January 10, 1996.
The Ballbreaker tour began in the United States on January 12 in Greensboro,
North Carolina, in front of 14,000 fans with The Poor as support act.
Beginning with 'Back In Black', the set list was completely renewed including
songs originally recorded with Bon Scott like 'Shot Down In Flames', 'Girls
Got Rhythm', 'Dog Eat Dog', 'Down Payment Blues' as well as new songs from
the Ballbreaker album. At each venue the band spent more than two hours on
stage.
Only two weeks after the beginning of the American tour, the band was forced
to cancel four dates, because of the death of Brian Johnson's father. Brian
left the tour in San Antonio on January 28 and immediately flew home to
Britain to attend funeral services. Brian's father had been sick for quite a
long time, so it did not come as a shock that he passed away. After a few
days with his family, Brian flew back to the United States in time for the
Oakland show on February 3. The American part of the Ballbreaker tour ended
in Dallas on April 4 after fourty-nine concerts around the United States,
Canada and Mexico.
On April 20, the European tour began in Oslo with the British band The
Wildhearts opening for them. In July, the band played three nights in the
Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas in Madrid, Spain. The second show was filmed
for a video project. Three days before the first concert in Madrid the band
used the big inflatable Rosie in Lisbon, Portugal, for the first time on
stage since 1991. It was to be used on the remaining open air European gigs
in Spain and France. The European part of the Ballbreaker tour ended after
almost three months and 46 concerts on July 13 in Bordeaux, France, with a
small open air festival with the French band Silmarils, The Wildhearts and
Brazilian trashers Sepultura.
Two weeks after the end of the European leg of the Ballbreaker tour, AC/DC
were back in the United States to perform some songs on stage for a Howard
Stern movie project called 'Private Parts'.
The second leg of the American Ballbreaker tour started in Wantagh, NY on
August 1, 1996 for 30 dates across the North American continent. In October,
AC/DC played two concerts in a Brazilian football stadium in Curitiba and
Sao Paulo in front of 65,000 fans and left the South American continent
after three more dates in Argentina and Chile.
As a tradition established during most of their latest world tours, the
Ballbreaker tour was to end in Australia. The band played 13 concerts around
Australia supported by a huge promotion. The last concerts of the tour took
place in New Zealand at the end of November where they played two open air
shows in Auckland and Christchurch.
After the Ballbreaker tour, all the members of AC/DC were exhausted.
European promoters asked the band to come back to Europe to play in major
Summer festivals but they had to decline the offer. So they took some
holidays before beginning to work on a long awaited tribute box set project.
During the 1996 Ballbreaker European tour, AC/DC did not only play concerts.
They indeed took part in three different projects, namely a long-form video
tape, a television broadcast and an American movie.
In the beginning of July AC/DC played two nights at the Palau San Jordi in
Barcelona, Spain. The day after the second show the band took the plane and
flew to London for a single day. They were asked by the British commercial
television channel VH-1 to record some songs live in the studio for a special
TV broadcast.
For the occasion the band listened to old material they hadn't played for a
very long time. As Brian had never sung some of the songs originally recorded
with Bon Scott, he had to read the lyrics while he was singing. But they also
recorded other songs during the breaks just for fun. In total 14 songs were
recorded during the session. In addition to the songs played on stage during
the Ballbreaker tour, the band recorded two songs they hadn't played since
1978, namely 'Riff Raff' and 'Gone Shootin', a song they never played on
stage neither with Bon Scott nor with Brian Johnson, 'Go Down', and two cover
songs, namely 'Mary Superstitious' from Stevie Wonder and 'I Feel Good' from
James Brown.
The first 30 minute broadcast, 'Take It To The Bridge', took place on August
4, 1996 in an 'AC/DC Special' program. The set included four songs, namely
'Riff Raff', 'Down Payment Blues', 'Gone Shootin' and 'Go Down' and some
short interviews with Malcolm and Angus Young.
On September 21 & 22, VH-1 broadcasted the "AC/DC Uncut" show. The set list
of the show was made of 'Riff Raff', 'Go Down', 'You Shook Me All Night Long',
'Shoot To Thrill', 'Rock And Roll Ain't Noise Pollution', 'Down Payment Blues',
'The Jack' and 'Whole Lotta Rosie'. The show ended with the 'For Those About
To Rock' video clip.
After the recording at VH-1 Studios, AC/DC flew back to Portugal in order to
perform in Lisbon on July 6. The next shows were to take place in Madrid,
Spain. When the tickets were first put on sale, only one show was planed on
July 4. Only two weeks after, no tickets were to be found on the market; this
first Madrid show was then postponed to July 9 and a second show was added on
July 10. Some weeks later tickets for a third show were put on sale.
Being in the same town for three concerts, AC/DC decided to record the second
show at the Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas in Madrid for a long-form video
tape. During the first concert on July 9, recorded by a Manor Mobile studio,
director David Mallet came to see the show and to make lightning checks. The
video was shot the day after using 14 cameras.
The video tape, entitled 'No Bull', was released through Warner Home Video on
November 18, 1996. It features the 20 songs played during the concert. A
limited edition single CD was joined to the first copies of the video tape
including three songs recorded on July 9, namely 'Hard As A Rock', 'Hail
Caesar' and 'Dog Eat Dog'.
After the end of the European leg of the Ballbreaker tour, AC/DC went to New
York to meet Howard Stern. On July 27, AC/DC filmed three songs onstage for
the movie, 'You Shook Me All Night Long', 'Highway To Hell' and 'The Jack'.
The shooting took place in Bryant Park in New York in front of thousands of
Stern fans.
The movie is based on Stern's first book, called "Private Parts", which
describes how Howard Stern became a radio personality and worked for many
different stations before he made it big. It follows his whole career from
meeting his wife to finding his radio partner, Robin Quivers.
On July 29, Brian Johnson came on Howard Stern's radio show. He said that the
whole band had a lot of fun there on the movie set. The movie was released in
the United States in 1997. AC/DC only appears very quickly at the end of the
movie playing 'You Shook Me All Night Long' on stage.
Around the middle of the 1996 Ballbreaker World Tour, rumours started
circulating about a new AC/DC box set. In fact, the band owed the record
company a box set as part of their record deal, but nobody knew what was to
be included in it. The rumours told about a re-release of all of the singles
B-sides, previously unreleased studio tracks and live concerts with Bon Scott
and Brian Johnson, re-recordings of old material, radio and TV shows, etc...
When the Ballbreaker tour ended in New Zealand in November 1996, the band
took some holidays. In March 1997, the band began to think seriously about
the making of the box set. Initially, the record company planned to release
a 4 CD box set with the best songs taken from the band's whole career.
However, during the last tour many fans asked the band to officially release
some of the old live tapes recorded with Bon Scott. The idea seduced the band
and they eventually decided to make a tribute to Bon Scott through this long
awaited box set.
While work began on the content of the box set, the band didn't have any
unreleased songs with Bon Scott, only demos recorded in the studio before the
final take. The making of the box set was mainly a research project in order
to find the master tapes of old studio recordings and live shows. Malcolm and
Angus Young spent a lot of time in the studio listening to the tapes and
selecting the songs where Bon was at the top of his condition. They were
helped in this by their older brother George who participated in the
production of the band's first albums with Harry Vanda in the seventies.
Finished in September 1997, the box set, entitled 'Bonfire', was released
on November 14, 1997 in Europe and four days later in the United States.
'Bonfire' was a title that Bon Scott used to joke about when he dreamt of
being famous one day and make a solo album. The box set is made of 5 CD's
including a live radio show recorded in 1977, one of last live performances
with Bon Scott in 1979 on a double CD, a collection of unreleased demos and
live songs with Bon Scott from 1977 to 1979 and the mutli-platinum album,
Back In Black.
'Live From The Atlantic Studios' was recorded at the end of the 1977 American
tour in New York. At that time their record company - Atlantic Records - used
to organise live radio performances for the bands signed on their label in
their famous recording studios in New York. The concert was released in 1978
as a very limited edition promotional record in order to be broadcasted by a
few associate American radio stations. But this show was also to be released
as the first AC/DC bootleg record entitled '110/220' and later on various
other bootleg vinyl records and CD's. The sound quality of the original tapes
was enhanced thanks to a new production made by George Young from the master
tapes.
'Let There Be Rock - The Movie - Live In Paris' is the full soundtrack from
the film 'Let There Be Rock' released in 1980. This recording includes the
complete concert recorded in Paris on December 9, 1979. It features the full
version of the song 'Walk All Over You' and the missing track 'T.N.T.' that
was dropped from the movie. The record even includes the movie introduction
solo recorded by Angus Young during a soundcheck in Metz on December 6, 1979.
'Volts' presents 5 studio songs with Bon Scott that nobody had ever heard
before. These songs, taken from the original studio tapes and produced by
George Young, are in fact the first demo versions of songs published later
on the 'Let There Be Rock' and 'Highway To Hell' albums. 'Volts' also
includes rare live recordings and ends with songs released on the first
three AC/DC Australian albums.
'Back In Black' is the last record of the Bonfire box set, depending on the
country where it is released (not all countries have this last CD included).
As the band declared during the promotional interviews they gave all around
the world, 'Back In Black' was included in the box set because it was made as
the band's tribute to Bon Scott at the time of its release. Released in a
double carton embossed sleeve with all the original components of the vinyl
release, this edition of 'Back In Black' is exclusive to Bonfire.
Bonfire also includes a 48-page booklet, a two sided-poster, AC/DC sticker,
removable tattoo, guitar pick and a key chain/bottle opener. The booklet
includes rare black & white and color photos of the band, a brief AC/DC
history by Australian journalist Murray Engleheart, various quotes from AC/DC
band members and Bon Scott hand written lyrics.
As Malcolm and Angus Young declared during the promotional interviews
following the release of Bonfire, a new album should see the light during
the second half of 1998. The next World Tour should begin at the dawn of 1999.
To be continued...
