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

You Can't Stop AC/DC

In today's AC/DC News we begin with a brief article from New Zealand about the positive reviews that Rock N Roll Train has been receiving lately from the music press. If you feel so inclined, you can also leave your review of AC/DC's first single from Black Ice on Stuff's site or, at least, read what other fans are saying about the record.

But not all of the music press is so enamored of AC/DC. Just ask Neil McCormick of the Daily Telegraph, for example.

In writing his review of a recent Columbia Records listening party, intended to preview their album releases for the Fall and beyond, this village idiot didn't have much good to say about the AC/DC portion of the show:

"Rock and roll will never die and all that.

A fact which was emphasised by a preview of AC/DC's 200^th album, which sounded exactly like every other AC/DC album, and is expected to sell sqaudrillions of copies. Apparently AC/DC are the biggest back catalogue artists in the world ... including the Beatles. Who'd have thought? Angus is still wearing a schoolboys outfit and (ever more decrepit with age) is really starting to look sinister. Bon Scott looks like he just staggered out of a retired working men's drinking club in the north of England in time to deliver his vocals. It is, of course, loud, leery, immensely effective and utterly ridiculous. I am beginning to worry that they are never going to get around to that experimental album."

Don't you love it when some fool who's trying to be so hip and so cool makes such a boneheaded mistake as to refer to Brian Johnson as Bon Scott? If you ask me, McCormick's slip shows just how out of touch with reality a supposed professional music critic can be.

In other news, AC/DC's snub of iTunes has, apparently, pissed the pants off of Apple fanboys far and wide. I first picked up their indignation from this piece in Macworld but the real shining star among AC/DC's recent critics is Bob Lefsetz.

You might remember Bob Lefsetz as the music writer who basically said Black Ice will be next best thing since sliced bread in his August review of the album. Now, on the other hand, Lefseftz has gone out of his way to tear AC/DC a new asshole in his latest diatribe.

Here's a few excerpts for you to get the picture...

"They’re (AC/DC) the second biggest catalog seller. Behind the Beatles. WHY? Because kids have traded their songs and found out how great their classics are. But now they want to fuck these same kids in the ass and make them buy their new album at Wal-Mart. So they can make fuckloads of money. The whole world is listening to files, shuffling their tracks, but these ignorant musicians from Down Under don’t seem to have gotten the message. Why don’t they tell everybody to give up their computers and use typewriters while they’re at it. The joke is illegal acquisition will dwarf CD sales. Whatever is sold legitimately will be distributed online INSTANTLY! Which is great for the band ultimately. Breeding new fans. But, like the rest of the industry, the band wants to ignore this. Even though without the aforementioned trading of the past decade their tour would not instantly sell out.

At least throw kids a bone. Let them buy tracks legitimately. But just like the inane industry they’re part of, AC/DC doesn’t want fans to have it their way. They must have never been to a Burger King…"

The rest of his rant is much rougher on the boys but I certainly can't fault Bob for not liking AC/DC's deal with the devil, er um, Wal-Mart.

Anyway, whatever your personal opinion, Lefsetz's latest AC/DC column is well worth the read. Click here for the article in its entirety.



Lastly, in nicer news, it appears Angus Young will grace the next cover of Q Magazine, Europe's biggest music monthly. From this article in the business section of The Times Online, it appears that magazine is going through an extreme makeover and will start off their revised publication with the man who's putting his famous schoolsuit back on after many long years away from his army of fans.

According to Q's editors, "AC/DC legend Angus Young is the first cover star of the new look Q. In a global exclusive for Q, Angus Young has agreed for the first time in decades to be studio photographed in his iconic schoolboy uniform. It is the first major interview the band has given in eight years. Subscribers receive their own ‘collector’s edition’ of the issue, which will feature a cover designed exclusively for them."

Sounds like this will definitely be a keeper for all those fans who love to collect magazines with AC/DC interviews and pictures in them. By the way, if you never been before, you should check out my friend Fanch's site called AC/DC Archives. He has one of the largest collections of scanned AC/DC articles around and they're all indexed by country of origin.

Keep rockin, Jon