High Voltage Turns 40 + More AC/DC News!

First AC/DC Album, High Voltage, Turns 40

AC/DC Tickets Averaging Over $250 For Rock Or Bust World Tour On Secondary Market

AC/DC stand-in drummer Bob Richards got just an hour to learn songs before video shoot

40 Years Ago: AC/DC Unveil Their Debut Album in Australia

Get It Hot!

AC/DC concert tickets are red hot right now. In fact, every show on the upcoming Black Ice Tour is already sold out, as far as I can tell. Tickets for Vancouver date sold out in 4 minutes while Columbus and Boston's lasted a mere fifteen. Toronto sold out in a half-hour, as well.

Vancouver sold out so fast a group of nearly 20 fans who had hoped to charter a private jet to the show from the remote town of Prince George, BC had to cancel their flight plans. They were not happy campers, as you might suspect.

But don't fret, AC/DC fans, because the band has already added extra dates to the Fall tour and are expected to announce even more stops sometime this week. Not only that, but it's a good idea to keep checking back with Ticketmaster to see if any seats have become available due to returns or canceled orders. If all else fails, of course, there's always ticket scalpers and auctions on Ebay.

One has to wonder, however, how even before Black Ice tour tickets were officially being sold that they were up for grabs on Ticketmaster's own site, TicketsNow?

Not at face value, either! In fact, AC/DC tickets somewhere on the floor were listed at as much as $700 at some of the upcoming venues. As it stands at this moment, Tickets Now is offering "949 tickets available from $124 to $2140 each" for the October 30th show in Chicago! Other venue offerings are much the same so something is really rotten here and it isn't AC/DC's fault.

The problem is that large blocks of great seats are routinely held back from the public sale by Ticketmaster in order to "re-sell" them at much greater profit on their own network of sites. It's a scam as old as the sun in the ticket broker business and, unfortunately, AC/DC fans are being victimized all over the country right now.

Ironically, the only band to ever try to fight back against Ticketmaster was Pearl Jam in the nineties who charged that the retailer was taking advantage of their monopoly to sell tickets at more than 30% over face value. I say ironically because Pearl Jam's longtime producer, Brendan O'Brien, has just produced Black Ice for AC/DC.

Are You Ready To Rock?

AC/DC fans everywhere are more excited than a cheerleader on speed right now as the band has just revealed the opening leg of the Black Ice World Tour. As previously posted, the boys have decided to start out in North America and are saying they'll return to the U.S. next year for stadium dates in the summer. That should be pretty exciting, eh?

First reports indicate that concert tickets will run at least $90, not counting, of course, added handling (bullsh*t) charges but scalpers are already offering lower arena seats for upwards of $500 at many venues. I haven't checked Ebay yet but I'm sure there'll be loads of high price tickets offered for "auction" there, too.

A couple of different newspapers marked the occasion of the big tour announcement by looking back at AC/DC's last concert appearances in their city. Well worth the read is this preview of the band's 2001 stop in Denver and, also, this review of AC/DC's show in Raleigh, NC. If reading about AC/DC's last concert circuit doesn't get you excited, I'd suggest you put on your Stiff Upper Lip Live DVD and rock out the rest of this weekend.

Speaking of reviews, there's a pretty funny one posted at Coke Machine Glow about AC/DC's new single, Rock N Roll Train, calling it the best track since Thunderstruck. I don't know if I'd go that far but, after listening to it a thousand times now (at least), I'd say RNRT's a definite winner in my book. It certainly grows more on me everyday, I have to say. There's also a briefer piece on the song here if you feel like you need more convincing it's an excellent song, worthy of NFL stadiums everywhere.


Angus Young, Eddie Trunk and Brian Johnson
In other news, Angus and Brian have started hitting the radio station circuit to hype the new album and say hello to the their fans again. Very recently, they guested on both the Howard Stern and Eddie Trunk shows. Unfortunately, I don't have audio clips of either show but, if you look around on the net a bit, I'm certain they're available somewhere. Angus and Brian certainly look rested, fit and ready to rock, if you ask me. Incidentally, I found a revealing bit about Brian Johnson on Euro Like Me the other day that's worth checking out.



Finally, Triple M Radio out of Sydney, Australia sent one of their people all the way to New York City to talk with Brian and Angus about Black Ice recently. You'll definitely want to check out Myf Finally Meets AC/DC for some of the details on her 20 minutes with the boys. She promises there's more to come soon, by the way, including pictures.

While you're on Triple M's site, I urge you to also check out their mini-preview of Black Ice and their Look Back At AC/DC In Pictures. You will be glad you clicked the links, I promise.

Keep rockin, Jon