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Intro (Edit)

AC/DC is an Australian hard rock band formed in Sydney in 1973 by brothers Angus and Malcolm Young.

AC/DC underwent several line-up changes before releasing their first album, High Voltage, in 1975. Membership remained stable until bassist Cliff Williams replaced Mark Evans in 1977. In 1979, the band recorded their album Highway to Hell, which was very successful. Lead singer and co-songwriter Bon Scott died on February 19th, 1980 due to acute alcohol poisoning. The group considered calling-it-quits, but Bon Scott’s mother said that he would want them to continue, so they picked Brian Johnson as a lead singer and continued. AC/DC’s next album Back In Black, turned out to be the highest selling album to date.

Their next album, For Those About To Rock (We Salute You), was also highly successful and was their first album to reach number one in the United States. The band declined popularity after the departure of drummer Phil Rudd in 1983. Poor album sales continued until the release of The Razor’s Edge in 1990. Phil Rudd returned to AC/DC in 1994 and contributed to the bands 1995 album Ballbreaker. Stiff Upper Lip was released in 2000 and was well-received by the critics. The bands newest album Black Ice was released October 20th 2008.

AC/DC ranked fourth on VH1’s list of the “100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock” and seventh on the “Greatest Heavy Metal Band of All Time” by MTV. In 2004 the band was ranked number 72 in the Rolling Stone’s list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time.”

Angus and Malcolm Young developed the idea for the bands name after seeing the acronym “AC/DC” on the back of a sewing machine. AC/DC stands for “alternating current/direct current”, which indicates that the electricity is being converted from alternating current (wall outlet) to direct current (sewing machine). The brothers felt that the name would symbolize the bands raw energy, power-driven performances, and their love for music. The band is popularly known as “Acca Dacca” in Australia.

In November of 1973, Malcolm and Angus Young formed AC/DC and recruited bassist Larry Van Kriedt, vocalist Dave Evans, and Colin Burgess as a drummer. The band played their first gig at a club called Chequers in Sydney on New Year’s Eve in 1973. They were later signed to the EMI-distributed Albert Productions label for the Australia and New Zealand regions. The early line-up of the band changed often. Colin Burgess was the first member fired, and several bassists and drummers passed through the band during the next year.

By this time, Angus Young had adopted his characteristic school uniform stage outfit. The original uniform was reputedly from his secondary school, Ashfield Boys High School in Sydney. Angus had tried other costumes such as Spiderman, Zorro, a gorilla and a parody of Superman, called Super-Ang.

The Young brothers decided that Evans was not suitable for the band, because they felt he was more of a glam rocker. On stage, Evans was occasionally replaceed by the bands first manager, Dennis Laughlin, who was the original lead singer with a band called Sherbet. Meanwhile Ronald Belford “Bon” Scott, and experienced vocalist and friend of George Young, was interested in becoming their vocalist.

In September 1974, Bon Scott replaced Dave Evans. The band recorded one single with Evans, but re-recorded it with Bon Scott. The song was called “Can I Sit Next To You Girl” which was released on the T.N.T. Australian album and the High Voltage album.

By January of 1975, the Australia only album High Voltage had been recorded. It took only ten days and was based on instrumental songs written by the Young brothers and lyrics written by Scott. The bands line-up finally stabilized with Scott at vocals, the Youngs on guitar, Mark Evans on bass and drummer Phil Rudd. Later that year they released the single “It’s A Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll), which quickly became a rock anthem.

Between 1974 and 1977, AC/DC became one of the most popular and successful acts in Australia. Their success came with the help of regular appearances on the show “Molly Meldrum’s Countdown.” Their performance on April 3rd, 1977 was the last live one for over 20 years.

In 1976, AC/DC signed an internation deal with Atlantic Records. They toured extesively over Europe and gained experience by opening for bands such as Aerosmith, Kiss, Styx and Blue Oyster Cult, and co-headlined with Cheap Trick.

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History (Edit)

The first AC/DC album to gain worldwide distribution was the 1976 compilation of songs taken from High Voltage and T.N.T. albums. This was called High Voltage too then released on the Atlantic Records label. This album sold 3 million copies worldwide. This album took only two songs from the Australian High Voltage and the rest from T.N.T. The band’s next album Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, was released in the same year. The track listings varied greatly between the Australian and American albums.

Following the 1977 recording of Let There Be Rock, bassist Mark Evan left the band due to personal differences between Angus and him. He was replaced with Cliff Williams, who also provided back ground vocals. AC/DC’s booking agent said on the leaving of Mark “You knew Mark wasn’t going to last, he was just too much of a nice guy.”

The 1978 release of Powerage marked the debut of bassist Cliff Williams, and with its harder riffs, followed the blueprint set by Let There Be Rock. Only one single was released from Powerage “Rock ‘n’ Roll Damnation” and gave AC/DC the highest mark of all time, reaching #24.

The band’s sixth album, Highway to Hell, was produced by Robert “Mutt” Lange and released in 1979. It became the first AC/DC LP to break in the US top 100, eventually reaching #17. It propelled AC/DC into the top rands of hard rock acts.

On February 19th, 1980, Bon Scott passed out in a car of a friends. His friend woke up the next day and found no pulse, so he rushed him to the hospital, where he was announced dead on the spot. There have been many rumors about how Scott died, but his death was due to acute alcohol poisoning.

Following Scott’s death, the band considered quitting, then they decided that Scott would want AC/DC to continue. So they searched and after several auditions, they decided on Brian Johnson.

For the audition Johnson sang “Whole Lotta Rosie” from Let There Be Rock and Ike & Tina Turner’s “Nutbush City Limits.” He was then hired a few days after the audition.

The following up album to Back In Black, 1981’s For Those About To Rock We Salute You, also sold well and was positively received by the critics. This album featured two of the band’s most popular singles: Let’s Get It Up and the title track, For Those About To Rock We Salute You.

The next album, Flick of the Switch, was called uninspired and directionless and wasn’t received by the critics.

Who Made Who, was the soundtrack to Stephen King’s film, Maximum Overdrive, and is the closest thing AC/DC has to a greatest hits compilation, which they refuse to do. It brought together older hits and some newer songs with two instrumentals.

In February of 1988, AC/DC was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association’s Hall of Fame.

AC/DC’s 1988 album, Blow Up Your Video was criticised for containing excessive filler tracks, but still it was a commercial success. The album sold more copies than the previous two studio albums combined. The album contained the UK top-twenty single Heatseeker and other popular songs like That’s The Way I Wanna Rock and Roll.

The Razors Edge was released in 1990 and it was a major comeback for AC/DC, including one of their biggest hits Thunderstruck. The album went on to sell multi-platinum. A year later AC/DC recorded “Big Gun” for the soundtrack of the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Last Action hero and was released as a single, reaching #1 on the US Mainstream Rock chart.

In 1994 Angus and Malcolm invited former member Rudd to several jam sessions, he was eventually rehired due to the band’s strong desire to work again with Rudd. In 1995, the group released Ballbreaker. The first single from Ballbreaker was Hard As A Rock, followed by Hail Caesar and Cover You In Oil.

In 1997, a box set named Bonfire was released. It contained four albums, a remastered version of Back In Black, Volts (a disc with alternate takes, outtakes, and stray live cuts) and two live albums, Live From The Atlantic Studios and Let There Be Rock: The Movie.

In 2000, the band released their fourteenth album, Stiff Upper Lip. This album was better released by critics than Ballbreaker. The first single Stiff Upper Lip remained #1 on the US Mainstream Rock charts for four weeks. The other single did very well too; Satellite Blues and Safe In New Your City.

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Update (Edit)

AC/DC was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2003.

On October 20th 2008, AC/DC’s sixteenth studio album Black Ice was released. This 15 track album is the band’s first studio release in eight years.

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