November Ice Arrives

AC/DC is in Chicago tonight at the Allstate Arena. Irish rockers, The Answer, will be opening the show and they had this to say about their first night with AccaDacca in Wilkes-Barre, PA.

By the way, an old friend of mine, the Night Prowler, has uploaded photos from AC/DC's first show in Chicago on October 30 to his PhotoBucket page. Hope you enjoy them as much as I have.


In other news, it appears AC/DC has added a third Spanish date in Bilbao on April 4th, if this report is to be believed. The rumor hasn't been confirmed yet at AC/DC's official site, however, AC/DC is listed for that date at the Bilbao Exhibition Centre's (BEC) website.


In other AC/DC related news, there's a pretty interesting article from Undercover News about how Sony Records has been playing games with independent music stores in the USA lately.

It seems independents were originally quoted the wholesale price of $8.53 apiece for the vinyl version of Black Ice, but Sony ended up charging them $11.59 per unit instead. Independents are claiming Sony's trying to recoup some of the $7.5 million they've spent on the promotional campaign for AC/DC's new album by unfairly bumping the price up of Black Ice. For the full story and all it's ramifications for the band, click here.

Lastly, many fans have been wondering how the paperless ticket system has been working out so far on the tour as some folks feared it might cause massive delays at arena entrances. From what I've heard so far, though, getting into each show has been a relatively smooth process as long as you have the credit card you purchased the tickets with ready to go when you enter the venue.

Keep rockin, Jon

Friday AC/DC Update #1

More reviews and pics are in from AC/DC's last stop on the Black Ice Tour...

The Southtown Star says "Age means nothing when AC/DC rides the 'Rock 'n' Roll' train" in their engrossing review of last night's AC/DC concert in Chicago.

Additionally, The Toronto Sun has some excellent photos of yesterday evening's show at Allstate Arena.

By the way, if you're interested in checking out AC/DC on the first North American leg of their Black Ice World Tour, you may want to start here to see which shows still have tickets available.

If you had paperless tickets for the Chicago and/or the Wilkes-Barre show, how did that work out for you? Any problems or long lines getting into the arenas or was it speedier than normal?

Keep rockin, Jon

Latest AC/DC News

Brian Johnson, Angus Young and Malcolm Young at the Peninsula Hotel in Manhattan

Hey folks,

I'm in no mood to write today so I'm just going to lay out all the recent news and AC/DC related articles I've found lately.

To begin with, AC/DC has confirmed the following dates for the European leg Black Ice World Tour. They are as follows:

Feb 18 Oslo, NO Telenor Arena
Feb 20 Stockholm, SE The Globe
Mar 5 Leipzig, DE Halle 1
Mar 7 Dusseldorf, DE ISS Dome
Mar 9 Oberhausen, DE KoPi Arena
Mar 11 Bremen, DE AWD Dome
Mar 15 Dortmund, DE Westfallenhalle
Mar 17 Prague, CZ O2 Arena
Mar 19 Milan, IT Datch Forum
Mar 23 Budapest, HU Papp László Budapest Sportarena
Mar 25 Frankfurt, DE Festhalle
Mar 27 Munich, DE Olympiahalle

Many of the shows above have already sold out in record times, though a couple of the dates haven't gone on sale yet. Expect many more venues to be added soon. Look for them to be announced here when they're official.


*This just in: The London Times is offering AC/DC fans an exclusive chance to listen to Black Ice online. See their page here for all the details...

The New York Times has a great piece on the band called "Ageless and Defiant, AC/DC Stays on Top Without Going Digital." If the NY Times link doesn't work for you, the same article has been posted at the International Herald Tribune, also.

Sweden's TV4 has an exclusive interview with Angus Young which is one of the most laid-back, yet interesting, interviews of the man I've ever seen. Check it out here. Incidentally, Angus hints in it that the Black Ice World Tour may go longer than 18 months!


The Age has posted an excellent article called "Solid Rock" about the staying power of AC/DC. Malcolm Young fans should particularly love this one, by the way.


More Black Ice reviews from the major news organizations are coming in every day now. The Guardian is calling the album "nearly Back In Black II." The BBC's lauds Malcolm Young in their's, calling him "As dependable as a Swiss watch and every inch as magnificent a rhythm player as Keith Richards."

It's been announced through emails to contestants that AC/DC's secret show will be held somewhere in Eastern Pennsylvania on Oct 26. Meanwhile, Sony Records is offering fans yet another contest to win tickets to the show. All the details have been posted here on their site.

Not essential reading, but you may want to check out this piece at Sky News called "AC/DC Back 35 Years After Start."

Lastly, The Washington Post has an article about famous bands who've tried to stay successful after losing their lead singer. It's not particularly about AC/DC, but the rock fans who read this blog might really enjoy it.

Well, that's all for now. Love all your comments and news tips. Please keep them coming.

Keep rockin, Jon

The iWay To Hell

Fallout from Angus Young's recent comments about the band's stance against iTunes is still hot and heavy around the world wide web. In the last few days, I must have read posts from a hundred different forums discussing the issue with most of the posters siding with Apple against AC/DC's revolt. That's okay, though, most people said the United States would never win the Revolutionary War against the English, either.

What with AC/DC's exclusive deal with Wal-Mart and now their very vocal iTunes snub, the band is, in many ways, more controversial than ever. By the way, before I continue, I must give credit for the title of this post to a recent article from the Scotsman.

Speaking of Wal-Mart, it has come to light that the same management team who helped set up AC/DC's deal with that corporate devil is also responsible for Guns N Roses upcoming exclusive "Chinese Democracy" deal with Best Buy. Their name is Azoff Management and you can read more about what they've been up to with Axl Rose and AccaDacca here.

If this trend of major acts releasing their albums exclusively continues in the USA, I guess you can expect to be doing a lot of driving around to different stores to buy all the CD's you want in the near future. Unless, of course, you just download the music you want from the net for free like a lot of folks do these days.


In more exciting news for AC/DC, Billboard has just revealed that Rock N Roll Train is "AC/DC's highest-charting song since "Stiff Upper Lip" spent four weeks at No. 1 in March-April 2000."

The Back In Black album is doing pretty great, as well. It's at "No. 1 on the Top Pop Catalog chart for the second consecutive week and the third week overall." For the entire story continue reading here.


Of course, Black Ice Tour tickets have probably been on the minds of most AC/DC fans in the last couple of weeks so AC/DC News ought to have a story about that too, right? Well, we do and you'll find it at the Vancouver Sun. I must warn you, though, if you really hate ticket scalpers you might not want to read it right now.

In other AC/DC tidbits, you might want to take a gander at Confession of a Fanboy's recent discovery of the Highway to Hell album. Kind of reminds me of my bud, Lucas, and the education in great music he received as he wrote the Bon Scott Blog.

Lastly, if you're interested in learning a bit more about Australian rock music history and it's connections to AC/DC, you might want to check out Some Magic From Oz by the Star Online. There's also this story from The Australian about the history of The Easybeats which is well worth your time. Incidentally, Stevie Wright, their lead singer, was once rumored to be the man who would replace Bon Scott in AC/DC after Bon's tragic passing.

Before I go, keep an eye on this space as I will soon be posting a never before publicly seen photo of Bon Scott carrying a frenzied Angus Young through a crowd at a Canadian concert back in the 70's.

Keep rockin', Jon