So, in 1963, William and Margaret Young immigrated to Australia with eight of their nine children. They settled in Sydney, New South Wales.

When the Young family moved to Sydney, George formed The Easybeats with Johannes Jacob Hendrickus Vandenberg, better known as Harry Vanda. The quintet quickly made their mark on the Sydney scene and were to become Australia's biggest pop act during the mid-'60s. In 1966, the band headed to the UK and quickly established themselves in Britain. However, in 1970, The Easybeats disbanded; Vanda and Young returned to Sydney to work for Ted Albert in his newly formed Albert Productions organisation. But the success of The Easybeats was to have an enormous impact on George Young's brothers Malcolm and Angus.

Malcolm picked up the guitar first, graduating quickly from acoustic to electric. With ad hoc advice along the way from George he made rapid progress. Angus messed around with his older brother's guitars before his mother finally bought him his own.

Malcolm left school at 15 and found gainful employment as a machine maintenance engineer for a bra company (Berlei Bras). In 1971, he joined up with a band called Velvet Underground (no relation to the Lou Reed band). Ironically, the original singer in the band was called Brian Johnson.

In 1972, George invited Malcolm and Angus to join with his new band, the Marcus Hook Roll Band, for the recording sessions of his album 'Tales Of Old Granddaddy'. In fact, George and Harry didn't take the project very seriously so they thought it would be a good idea to include George's brothers to give them an idea of what recording was all about. That was the first thing Malcolm and Angus did before AC/DC.

At fourteen and nine months (the legal age you could leave school), Angus left and went to work for a soft porn magazine called Ribald as a printer. Meanwhile, Angus had already formed his own band, Tantrum, and had become proficient as a musician through playing along to any records he could find.

When the Velvet Underground fell apart in 1973, Malcolm determinded to put together a new one-guitar band with a keyboard player. But Malcolm changed his mind and decided he needed a second guitar player to fill out the sound and turned to Angus for help.

Malcolm's vision for his new band was a hard-edged boogie sound married to the in-vogue image of long hair and stack-heeled boots. For experience, Malcolm called on the services of drummer Colin Burgess, who had experience in several bands, bassist Larry Van Kriedt and singer Dave Evans. Their name, AC/DC, came from the back of a vacuum cleaner. "AC/DC, it has something to do with electricity", Malcolm's sister Margaret said.

The abbreviation stands for Alternating Current/Direct Current in electrical parlance. However, in their naďvety the Young brothers were ignorant of the term's bisexual connotations, and the band were to spend the next few years vehemently insisting on their heterosexuality.

Their first performance was on New Year's Eve, 1973, in a small Sydney club called Chequers. They played a covers set of the Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry and the Beatles. AC/DC was born!

In June 1974, AC/DC recorded their first single in Albert Studios, Sydney. The current line-up was then Malcolm Young, Angus Young, Dave Evans, Larry Van Kriedt and Colin Burgess. Two songs were recorded, 'Can I Sit Next To You Girl' and 'Rockin' In The Parlour', produced by Harry Vanda and George Young. The single was released in Australia during July on Albert Records and in New Zealand on Polydor. It became a minor regional hit in Perth and Adelaide.

In the next six months following their first single, the AC/DC line-up changed a lot. Drummer Colin Burgess was successively replaced by Ron Carpenter, Russell Coleman and Peter Clack whilst Rob Bailey replaced Larry Van Kriedt on bass.

Following the release of their first single began a heavy club tour across Australia. In Melbourne, they played at the Hard Rock Café which was owned by Michael Browning who became AC/DC's manager. Browning proved to be a shrewd choice as manager and was to make some vital decisions for the band during the next few years. His first and most important decision was the hiring of a driver to ferry the band around, a guy called Ronald Belford Scott, known to all as 'Bon'. Bon Scott persuaded the Young brothers to give him a chance as drummer and then as singer. After they tried him out, Bon took Dave Evans' place as AC/DC's frontman.

In January 1975, AC/DC recorded their debut album called 'High Voltage' with the line-up Malcolm Young, Angus Young, Bon Scott, George Young (on bass) and Tony Currenti (on drums). The record was cut in 10 days and came out in February 1975.

The story goes that the band already had a number of instrumental backing tracks arranged, so Bon simply dipped into his notebooks full of rude poetry to find lyrics to fit. 'High Voltage' was an immediate success in Australia. The first single lifted off the album of the Joe Williams blues standard 'Baby Please Don't Go', a song that had been in AC/DC's set since just about day one. The album and its first single entered the Australian charts in March.

In June 1975, the band released a non-LP single, 'High Voltage' (originally written for the 'High Voltage' album but not completed in time). The single coincided with a show at Melbourne's Festival Hall. AC/DC's set was shot by a four-camera film crew, for the purpose of producing a promotional video clip to be used by management in its attempts to raise overseas record company interest in the band.

Finally, AC/DC found a stable line-up when Phil Rudd and Mark Evans came in on drums and bass. Their second album called 'T.N.T.' was released at the end on 1975. It was a huge success, selling more than 100,000 copies and AC/DC became by the way the biggest rock'n'roll band in Australia. But what does it mean on a worldwide level.

The next step in AC/DC's conquest of the world was the conquest of the United States. Meanwhile, the British version of 'High Voltage' had been released in America during October 1976. 'Let There Be Rock' was to be released in the US in June, four months before Europe and three months after Australia.

AC/DC's first US tour started in the Southern part of the country during the Summer and ended in the Winter, taking them from Texas to Florida. In Florida, they played their first major US gig in front of 13,000 people at the outdoor Hollywood Spartatorium.

AC/DC's first trek across the States was a case of small clubs at one end and huge arenas, opening for REO Speedwagon, in the other. The US tour reached a peak at the Palladium and the CBGB's club in New York. At New York's Palladium, Angus used a cordless guitar for the first time.

On October 14, 'Let There Be Rock', recorded in January/February 1977, finally saw the light in Britain after lengthy delays. In November, the album reached No. 17 in the British charts. The US tour was broken in the Fall by a third tour of Europe and Britain in order to promote their new album. As expected, this time they toured Europe as headliners.

In November/December 1977, back in the States, AC/DC opened for Rush and Kiss. In New York, the band performed a show for radio broadcast at Atlantic's own recording studios on Broadway, on December 7. The set was sent out to radio DJ's as a 'For Promotional Use Only' LP titled 'Live From The Atlantic Studios'. These days very few copies of that limited edition record exist, but it has been released as different bootleg albums since then and was part of the 'Bonfire' box set released in 1997.

Body of 33 year old Bon Scott was found dead last night in a parked car in Dulwich, South London" (BBC Radio London, February 21, 1980)

On Tuesday, February 19, Bon Scott went to tour manager Ian Jeffrey's house for dinner, leaving at about 6.30 pm to go to the Music Machine in London. When the club closed up its bar at 3 am, Bon left with an old friend, Alisdair Kinnear. Kinnear drove Bon back to his flat at Ashley Court but upon arrival, he couldn't move Bon. He was then left with the one alternative of driving Bon back to his own pad in Dulwich. On arriving home, however, he still couldn't wake Bon. He tried to lift him out of the car, but was unable to. He eventually decided to leave him in the car for the night and went to bed.

Kinnear awoke early in the evening on the 20th, checked on Bon, and found him unconscious in the car. He rushed him to King's College Hospital in South London, but by then it was too late to save Bon's life. Bon was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

The first member of AC/DC to hear what had happened was Angus Young, who was phoned by the girlfriend of Alisdair Kinnear. Angus immediately phoned Malcolm and they phoned Ian Jeffrey, Peter Mensch and the hospital but they couldn't get any confirmation. Peter Mensch, who went to the hospital in person, managed to learn that Bon was in fact dead. The details of Bon's death gradually became clear to the band. Malcolm phoned Bon's parents in perth and broke the heartbreaking news.

The autopsy was held on Friday, February 22. The verdict was 'Death by Misadventure - Acute Alcoholic Poisoning'. The coroner reported that Bon's stomach had been found to contain the equivalent of half a bottle of whiskey at the moment of death. Sometime during the night Bon, who had been lying in an awkward position with his neck twisted, had vomited and choked to death.

After the autopsy, Bon's body was flown out to Australia to be cremated by his family. Bon was cremated in Fremantle, on Friday, February 29, his ashes buried the following day in the Fremantle Cemetery's Memorial Garden.

During the first weeks after Bon's death, the members of AC/DC didn't know what to do: whether to continue without Bon or split up. Of course, AC/DC could never be the same without Bon; when he died, something of AC/DC died with him. But Malcolm and Angus decided Bon would have wanted AC/DC to continue. So they pulled themselves together, and got down to the task of finding a new singer.

There were many speculations about the replacement singer's identity. By the beginning of March, the media had lined up a number of likely candidates: former Easybeats vocalist Stevie Wright, an Australian called Alan Fryer (who was found too similar to Bon and actually ended up in Heaven with Mark Evans), and Londoner Gary Holton (who failed to show up for the audition three days on the trot because of alcohol problems). Eventually a shortlist of two was drawn up: Terry Schlesher and Brian Johnson.

At the time, Brian Johnson was busy trying to get Geordie back together. But he took time out to audition, running through just two numbers with the band, namely 'Whole Lotta Rosie' and the Ike & Tina Turner 'Nutbush City Limits'. The following Saturday night, Malcolm called him and told him he had the job.

Before the band could commence touring they had to complete work on their new album. They had to work fast, to make up for lost time, with Brian virtually writing the songs straight on to the music. After they finished composing they began a schedule of rigorous rehearsals at E'Zee Hire Studios in North London, working for seven hours each day until mid-April, when they were ready to record.

The recording sessions of AC/DC's eigth album took place at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas, under the production guidance of Robert John 'Mutt' Lange. It was recorded during April and throughout May, over a period of six weeks. The album was completed by the end of May. On July 1, Brian Johnson made his debut appearance onstage with AC/DC at Namur in Belgium.

'Back In Black' was released on July 31. Within a couple of weeks, it was top of the UK charts and it stayed No. 1 for two weeks. In November, it reached No. 4 in the US charts and lingered in the top ten for over five months. In Australia, it went to No. 2. By now, Back In Black has sold over ten million copies worldwide, making it the biggest selling 'Heavy Metal' album of all times.

AC/DC hit the road for the first time with Brian Johnson on July 30 at the County Fieldhouse, Erie, Pennsylvania, USA. They toured in America for two months, then Britain through into November, and then in December finally returned to Australia. They toured in their home country for the first time since 'Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap'. The year 1981 began with some more dates in Japan and Australia.

For the first time the show included spectacle, in the form of a one and a half ton bronze bell embossed with the AC/DC logo. It was lowered by a giant crane above the lighting rig for Brian to strike with a hammer at the start of each show. Even if it was against their policy not to include spectacle of any kind in their sets, the band thought it was better to include the real thing than have to play a tape of the bell chimes.

In February 1981, 'Back In Black' was polled second in the album section of Sound's Heavy Metal Reader's Poll (Motörhead's 'Ace Of Spades' was voted top). Angus Young was voted third best guitarist behind Ritchie Blackmore and Michael Schenker. AC/DC were beaten to 'Top Band' by Motörhead.

Demand for AC/DC grew to such a point in America that Atlantic finally released the initially rejected 'Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap' album in May 1981. It went No. 3 in the US charts where it sat for four weeks (from May 23 to June 20) and even topped 'Back In Black'.

In June 1981, in the very first issue of Kerrang!, AC/DC were officially credited as having recorded the greatest Metal song of all times, when 'Whole Lotta Rosie' was voted top 'Heavy Metal' song. 'Back In Black' reached number four in its 'All Time Top 100 Albums'.

On August 22, 1981, while they had started to record their new album, AC/DC received the final confirmation that they were now one of the very biggest rock bands in the world. They were offered the chance to headline the second annual Castle Donington Monsters Of Rock festival. But AC/DC suffered badly from sounds problems. Part of the problems the band experienced stemmed from the large crowd. The band took along equipment for a crowd of only 50,000 when more like 80,000 turned up. But AC/DC did not realize the full extent of the sound loss until long afterward, and for them, ironically the performance was an enjoyable and very welcome break from recording.