Black Ice Sells 5 Million Copies Worldwide

It appears AC/DC's Black Ice is off to an amazing start in global sales according to this report in The Times Online. In fact, they go on to say that Black Ice could already be the number one album in 19 countries!

The big question in my mind is will Black Ice debut at #1 in the U.S. charts? If it does, that will be another phenomenal achievement for AC/DC after 35 years of rocking and rolling.

By the way, for more info on AccaDacca's latest sales success, you should checkout AC/DC rocking the charts the old fashioned way by The Times Now.

Speaking of milestones, Arnaud Durieux of Electric Shock is estimating that AC/DC will play it's 2000th concert on December 2oth in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Incredibly, that's more concerts than even the Rolling Stones (AC/DC's idols) have played in their 46 year career.

In other news, several more favorable reviews of Black Ice have appeared in the last day or so that may make for an interesting read for you. Among the better ones are Still Young at heart from the Herald Sun and There's life in the old uniform yet by The Australian.

For completists, The Belleville Intelligencer feels AC/DC is in fine form with Black Ice and the St. Catherines Standard says the boys have 'shaken off the mothballs' to make their best record in two decades.

One interview we missed earlier in the week was Zane Lowe talking with Angus and Brian recently on BBC1. I highly recommend you give it a listen because, for once, the disc jockey doesn't try to make himself the star of the chat and he actually asks some intelligent questions of the guys. Just a note, the interview starts at approximately the 1 hour and 7 minute mark into the 2-hour broadcast and you must have Real Player installed to hear it.

Lastly, since many of you enjoyed the last AC/DC top 10 list I posted, you might like reading the Essential AC/DC Tracks as compiled by the Arizona Republic. However, I must say I strongly disagree with their opinion that AC/DC hasn't recorded any essential tracks since 1981!

PS> How do you like the new AC/DC News banner at the top of the homepage? I want to thank "bscott288" of the great bootleg forum, Let There Be Rock, for creating such an awesome banner for this site!

Keep rockin, Jon

Stormy Tuesday at AC/DC News!

There's a ton of current AC/DC related news available right now, but I'll have to post it in bits and pieces due to my hectic schedule today. Please check back later for more...

How good are the riffs in Black Ice? The Hartford Courant thinks they've got the answer though I'm not so sure.

The Scotsman says Black Ice packs a "the kind of snappy musical punch last heard on...Back In Black. Here's the link for the rest of their review.

Be sure to check out Boston's WAAF Radio for their 6-part AC/DC special that features "Angus, Malcolm, Brian and the boys" playing new songs from Black Ice which you can listen to and download here. This is a do not miss kind of thing!

RTBF of Belgium has one of the most excellent Brian Johnson interviews I've ever come across and it's on video, too, which is even better. If you miss this chat with Brian, you ought not to call yourself an AC/DC fan. By the way, in my opinion, AC/DC fans should feel damn lucky to have Brian because he's 61 and is still in prime form as evidenced by how his vocals sound on Black Ice and by the wit and wisdom he shows time and time again in person.

In other odds and ends, here's an absolutely laughable review you ought to check out. After reading it, all I can think is how can any so-called professional music writer screw up this badly, especially for such a prestigous paper as The London Times?

The Philadelphia Phillies have knocked AC/DC off of the top spot of the ticket sales heap this week, according to Ticket News.

The folks over at Idolator are still upset that AC/DC refuses to sell their songs digitally. It's an extensive piece about AC/DC's sales history that's well researched, though I don't necessarily agree with their conclusion that the band ought to sell single songs through iTunes.

Jim Farber at the New York Daily News has reached a new journalistic low in his review of Black Ice which compares the thrill that fans get from AC/DC's music formula to the excitement that a serial killer gets when repeating his modus operandi. If you ask me, Farber's drawing a thinly veiled allusion to Richard Ramirez; the sick, twisted and sadistic murderer who also happened to be an AC/DC fan.

That's all for now, folks.

- Jon

AC/DC Named "Most Trusted Aussie Music Brand"

"AC/DC live the great Australian psyche of battling. They work hard and play hard."

Simon Hammond, a brand expert (whatever that is...) has declared that AC/DC are Australia's most trusted music brand in a new study which was summarized neatly on News.com.au earlier today.


In other AC/DC News, The Daily Star has a report on the Black Ice Tour ticket mess happening in England right now. Minutes after AC/DC's shows sold out in the UK, tickets appeared for sale on Ebay and other resale outlets for upwards of 5 times their original price.

Ebay has, apparently, started taking down ticket scalper listings, but that was only after fans complained en masse. For the rest of the story, click here. (But watchout for a popup unless you've got Firefox!)

AC/DC's Rock N Roll Caravan has their own website which you'll definitely want to check out as soon as possible because they may be traveling near where you live. Apparently, the caravan is out to find people who want to go to AC/DC's secret show on October 26th so make sure you don't miss out on what they're up to...


Billboard has finally posted their review of Black Ice. There's really not much to it, unfortunately, but you can judge for yourself if it's any good by clicking here.


A Swedish merchant is offering a limited edition Black Ice Box (pictured above) which you can also view here. There's also an Black Ice review here in Swedish on AC/DC which you could always translate at Google if you so desire.


Additionally, there's three different articles on the Dutch music site BT about AC/DC which you can view here, here, and here which would probably be well worth your time reading after Google translates them for you.

Keep checking back for the latest AC/DC News!

AC/DC News In Brief

AC/DC has added more dates to the European leg of the Black Ice World Tour. See this page for all the latest official updates.

Triple M has a preview of many of the tracks off of Black Ice along with exclusive commentary on the songs by Angus Young and Brian Johnson. VH1 is offering a full preview of the Black Ice album here, if you can get their player to work (I couldn't.)

Uncut Magazine, a sister to NME, wants to know what you would ask Angus Young if you had the chance. Send your questions to uncutaudiencewith@ipcmedia.com by noon on Friday, October 17.

Reuters has more on AC/DC's battle with iTunes and why the band made their deal with Wal-Mart. CNet has also explored the iTunes story recently.

The Melbourne Herald Sun has a mini Black Ice review saying the band has done Back In Black again which is simply a ludicrous statement no matter how good the album turns out to be. The Sun is also streaming tracks from the Black Ice album here, which is, according to them, an Australian exclusive.


Crave Online also has a review of Black Ice. Spin Magazine's review is a better read, however.

AC/DC tickets are top seller for fourth straight week according to Ticket News.

The Sydney Morning Herald says AC/DC has held up their end of the bargain by staying true to their formula and making another great rock 'n' roll record. SMH also notes that it's time for Generation Y fans to find their own AC/DC. Like that is somehow even possible...

Torrent Freak confirmed our prediction that Black Ice would see a staggering number of P2P downloads. The question is how will it ultimately affect AC/DC's album sales?

PC World notes, however, that AC/DC fans everywhere are pledging to buy Black Ice despite downloading from Peer To Peer networks (P2P).



Magazine collectors in Japan may want to look for the latest issues of Guitar Magazine and Record Collectors with Angus Young on the cover. The guitar mag is available for purchase here, in case you have to have it.

Addicted to Vinyl has compiled their favorite fan-made videos for AC/DC's Rock N Roll Train contest. The claymation one is pretty cool, if you ask me.

Most of the Rock Band 2's AC/DC expansion pack achievements have been discovered and noted here, if you're into that game but haven't quite mastered it yet.

Brian Johnson received an award for his part in the writing of Back In Black from the UK's Performing Rights Society at the 2008 ASCAP Awards held in London recently. According to ASCAP, Back In Black was one of the most performed works in 2007.

That's all folks, Jon

Black Ice Album Leaked Online!

Sometime late last night or early this morning (depending on your time zone) AC/DC's Black Ice was leaked on one of the BitTorrent sites and I'm sure it will quickly become one of the most popular downloads around. A couple of hours ago, the complete album was also uploaded to YouTube.

SonyBMG/Columbia Records are probably in the midst of attempting heavy damage control right about now as their hopes to keep the album under wraps have been forever dashed nearly two weeks before the official release date of October 20th.

More details to come...

In other news of interest, Sirius XM has announced they're giving one lucky winner a free trip to AC/DC's special rehearsal show on October 26. You may enter the contest here if you're a legal resident of the contiguous United States and are at least 21 years of age.

By the way, according to Ticket News, AC/DC are continuing their dominance as the hottest act in the USA currently. This is the band's third straight week as the overall top ranking act. Not bad for a bunch of guys who've seemingly been retired the last 5 years, eh?

Lastly, for now, here's an "interview" Angus recently did for Japan's Rock City show...

The Schoolboy Is Back!

After a very brief hiatus, AC/DC News is back with tons of interesting tidbits to share with all you AccaDacca fans out there.

As we told you last week, Q Magazine has devoted their upcoming cover to AC/DC's Angus Young. Not only that, but they've got much more in store for fans of the schoolboy including this mini-site devoted to our favorite duck-walking lad. Their site's well worth your free time as they offer up a gallery of new Angus pics (in uniform) plus a classic interview with the band, among other treats.


In other big news, it seems smaller music retailers have decided to take the fight to Wal-Mart over the mega-chain's exclusive deal to sell AC/DC's new album in the USA. Our friend, Paul Cashmere, has the full story at Undercover News and I must say it's refreshing to know that AC/DC's brand new album, Black Ice, will be on sale in N. America for lower than Wal-Mart's asking price of $11.88.


With all the AC/DC Rock Band 2 hype lately it's pretty interesting to read what the online game mags and forums have to say about the Live At Donington expansion pack due out exclusively at Wal-Mart in November. One irate gamer in particular, named Jeremy, has spoken up about the shortcomings of the new game in his latest piece, AC/DC LIVE: Rock Band Track Pack is an Epic Fail. It's a classic read on how corporate greed can ruin a good thing from a band you love. More info on the game can be found Joystiq and GameCyte, if you need it.

By the way, for those interested in commentary about AC/DC's battle royale with iTunes, you might want to take a close look at Taylor Trask's piece about it from Produce You. It seems the Telegraph might not have had all their facts straight in last week's story....


Before we move on, let's take another look at AC/DC's latest tour dates, shall we? Reuters has them here in case you've missed anything.

It's really interesting that the band will be rocking hard late into December and throughout January as most veteran fans expected the boys to not resume touring until, at least, March or April of 2009 after the first round of tour dates were announced a few weeks ago. Let's hope the Winter in the USA will be a warmer place to be this year for our favorite lads, eh? Wouldn't want little Angus to freeze the family jewels off now would we?

Speaking of concerts, the Black Ice Tour is still dominating ticket news across the country as the hottest show around. Read more about it at Ticket News if you're interested.


With all the Black Ice related contests we've noted lately, it's not a surprise to see more pop up everyday. Here's two for a lucky few: If you live in the UK, you could possibly win a chance to hear AC/DC's Black Ice a week early from the ancient rockers at Kerrang Magazine. Go here to enter their contest and may the best AC/DC fan win. Furthermore, if you live near Washington, DC, you've got a chance to win tickets to AC/DC's not-so-secret show on October 26th from DC101 which is a much better prize, in my humble opinion.

Lastly, for fun today, I'd recommend taking a gander at "What's Your Most Spinal Tap Moment?" over at Guitar World. There's some pretty crazy stories included, of course, though I'm not sure I believe them all. True or false, you'll definitely get a laugh or two from them anyway.

Keep rockin, Jon

AC/DC Extend 'Black Ice World Tour' Into 2009

AC/DC extend their trek across North America by adding sixteen more shows to their Black Ice World Tour. Newly added dates begin on December 20, in Ft. Lauderdale, FL and wrap up on January 31, 2009 in Nashville, TN. The tour kicks off on October 28, 2008 in Wilkes-Barre, PA. Click here to view the full itinerary.

Tickets for the Houston, Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa, and Cleveland concerts go on sale October 4 at 10:00 a.m. Tickets for the Toronto concert go on sale October 10 at 10:00 a.m. Tickets for the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Omaha, Fargo, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Dallas, Tulsa, and Nashville concerts go on sale October 11 at 10:00 a.m. Tickets for the Little Rock and Memphis concerts go on sale October 18 at 10:00 a.m.

Source: ACDC.com

Ain't No Fun Waiting 'Round For AC/DC Tickets

Fans hoping to see AC/DC on the Fall leg of the Black Ice tour have grown increasingly frustrated over the problem of securing tickets to the shows they want to see.

Officially, each show is sold out. However, if you want to pay the extortionists who operate ticket reselling sites such as Ticketmaster's own Tickets Now, there are actually plenty of seats still available for each date on the upcoming tour.

In fact, even before Ticketmaster officially opened the sales windows on Friday morning of this past week there were already several scalpers/brokers offering AC/DC tickets online. As reported here earlier, seats to any Black Ice show could easily be had if you didn't mind paying a minimum of double their face value.

The Vancouver Sun had the most in-depth story concerning these issues in their article about angry AC/DC fans. Ticketmaster, as usual, claims they're not to blame for the problems of obtaining tickets at face value, yet they happily point you to their own scalping service so I'd bet something doesn't seem quite right if you were to ask the thousands of ticket-less AC/DC fanatics, some of whom are complaining across forums and blogs all over the web.

Well, if you can't afford AC/DC tickets, perhaps you can win them. In fact, AC/DC is offering at least two different ways to win tickets to their upcoming secret show in NYC on October 26th.


If you pre-order Black Ice through the band's website, you'll automatically be entered in a drawing for tickets to the band's special rehearsal show. The AC/DC store has 500 tickets that they will give away in pairs to winners chosen at random.

Or, you could enter the "Rock Out Your Car" contest as explained here on Sony Record's AC/DC site. The winner of that competition will score 4 tickets to the "secret" AC/DC show that isn't so secret anymore. I'd suggest you ask Mom or Dad first before you repaint their car, though.

Well, if all else fails ticket-wise, maybe someday soon you'll be lucky enough to see the guy who does the one-man-band version of AC/DC in concert. Here he is performing Back In Black as seen here on Live Leak:



His voice reminds me a lot of Jack White's actually. I wonder if he plays the guitar, too?

Keep rockin, Jon