The Sun is Shining On AC/DC

The Sun, one of Britain's top tabloids, actually had a pretty decent article on AC/DC yesterday concerning the band's lack of celebrity trappings (despite their enormous popularity) and their upcoming album release, Black Ice. Highly worth your time and reading effort as they discuss their recent talks with Angus Young and Brian Johnson.

As an added bonus, the Sun, is also sponsoring a ticket and trip giveaway to that "secret" dress rehearsal show that AC/DC will play on October 26th. You must, of course, be 18 years or older and be a resident of the UK or ROI. Click here for all the details.

Since I'm on the subject of contests to win tickets and a trip to see AC/DC, you might also want to take note of this contest from MSN for UK residents and this announcement from the Daily Telegraph about their upcoming contest for Australian residents. Certainly sounds like the "secret" show is going to be one hell of a worldwide party, eh?

Well, if you're throwing a party, you might as well have a big salute to the guests of honor, right?

In this case, the big salute will come courtesy of VH1 Classic who are having a total AC/DC 24-hour marathon on Sunday, October 19 to celebrate the release of Black Ice. Not only that, but they'll be honoring the band all week starting October 13 with plenty of AC/DC specials on their channel. Feel free to check out all the details on those programs here if you're interested.

Of course, I'd gather some (including AC/DC's record company and Wal-Mart) might be feeling that the big party's been spoiled a bit by the release of AC/DC's Black Ice album on the internet the other day. In fact, apparently, Sony Records has been attempting frustrate free downloaders by spiking the torrent sites with tons of fake AC/DC files according to Undercover News.

If that's what they've done, they may be too late because there's already been scores of blog sites across the net that are offering the album for free download, too. Once an album has been leaked, there's not much even the biggest companies can do to slowdown it's spread, in my opinion. Interestingly enough, one fan from Amsterdam says he's already purchased the Black Ice album if you can believe this forum post.


In happier news for AC/DC and their fans, it appears European Black Ice tour dates are starting to trickle in though none have been confirmed as of yet officially. One site has posted a very official looking tour poster for the Oslo show on February 18th, though. It also appears the boys will play Stockholm on February 20 according to this website.

We'll post more dates as they firm up but, in any event, it appears AC/DC will waste no time in jetting to Europe and the UK once their N. American tour stint is over on January 31.

By the way, don't forget that many of the newly added AC/DC shows will go on sale this weekend if they haven't already done so. Check your local papers and Ticketmaster for the details on concerts in your area.


In, perhaps, the best story of the day, you should definitely check out Brian Boyd's latest post for the Irish Times called "AC/DC stopped growing musically when we were 17." In it, Angus Young discusses AC/DC's philosophy on their music and how they're approaching record sales in today's market. Angus also notes with great satisfaction that AC/DC will soon have it's very first cover on America's Rolling Stone Magazine. (They're only about 30 years late, if you ask me!)

There's also an excellent little article on AC/DC's bassist, Cliff Williams, from the Fort Meyers Press that you should not miss wherein Cliff explains exactly how he injured his left hand three years ago and what's he had to go through to get back in playing shape.


Lastly, for today, if you happen to live near Lousiana State University there's an interesting exhibit on display in one of their museum galleries called “Thirty Years of Rock & Roll: The Photography of Larry Hulst." Hulst's website is here if you'd care to check out some of his excellent work. The photo of Bon Scott and Angus Young above was taken in Oakland, CA in 1979.

Keep rockin, Jon