Scotscub56 yrsHow AC / DC conquered the UK
conquered the UK
AC/DC has sold more than 200 million albums and produced the second highest-selling album of all time. Paul Elliott, author of AC/DC: For Those About to Rock, talks about the band’s first UK tour where the numbers were somewhat less impressive
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In the early weeks of 1976, AC/DC were inside Albert Studios in Sydney, cutting tracks for their third album. As the band worked on this new material, both the High Voltage and T.N.T. albums had been certified triple gold in Australia.
That April, the band was to perform its first live dates in Europe – beginning with a UK tour as the opening act for Back Street Crawler, the group led by former Free guitarist, Paul Kossoff. But on 19 March, during a flight from Los Angeles to New York, Kossoff, one of the great guitar players of his generation, died as a result of a pulmonary embolism, caused by intravenous drug use.
With that tour cancelled, AC/DC would head to London uncertain of when the first gig would come. Despite this, they had the album finished – its title, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap – and spirits were high as they bid farewell to their home crowd with a show at the Bondi Lifesaver club in Sydney on 27 March. Reportedly, it was during this show that Angus first performed a party piece that would become a regular occurrence at AC/DC gigs – the guitarist pulling down his shorts and baring his ass to the audience during ‘The Jack’.
Within days of the band’s arrival in London there was trouble. One evening, Bon Scott [lead singer] returned to a pub in Finchley where he had once served behind the bar during the time he spent in London with the band Fraternity. He became embroiled in a fracas and was knocked out cold after one local man smashed a pint glass over his head. On the following day, during a band photo shoot, the singer wore sunglasses to conceal two black eyes. On a darker note, it was also rumoured that during those first days in the city, Bon was hospitalised following a drugs overdose. If there was a warning in what had happened to Paul Kossoff, it was lost on Bon.
There was also tension within the band as they kicked their heels in London, itching to get on with the business of playing live, but soon they had a venue and a date locked in. AC/DC would make their UK debut at The Red Cow, a pub in Hammersmith, on 23 April. One of the few people who witnessed this event was Malcolm Dome, who was at the time a student, and later went on to become a rock journalist who interviewed Bon several times in the late 1970s. What he saw that night in AC/DC and their singer was unforgettable.
When we first came to England in 1976, the record company wanted to market us as a punk band. We told them to fuck off!
“I knew a little about the band before the gig,” Dome says. “I had heard the Aussie albums, and I’d read a small story about them in Sounds. There was a bit of a buzz about them – this new Australian band that suddenly appeared. What I was expecting was a pub rock band – an energetic, fun rock’n’roll band.
“The Red Cow was an old-school boozer. It was very bare inside, with the venue room at the back, which could hold maybe 100 people. AC/DC played two sets that night. For the first set there were about 30 people in the audience, but the band didn’t seem to care about that. They really went for it. It was an electrifying performance. Their whole attitude was: we’re going to entertain every goddamn one of you; we’ll make sure you never forget us; and you’ll bring your mates next time. And the reaction from everyone there was just, bloody hell!
part 2 follows .