I saw my first AC/DC concert in 1996, in Denmark at FORUM. The BALLBREAKER WORLD TOUR  and i hope it was not the last. It was the best i have ever seen. Thunder all night long.

AC/DC started in early 1973, Malcolm Young had been playing around Sydney, in several bands After the band he was in disbanded, he decided to form one of his own. Joining Malcolm were drummer Colin Burgess,
bassist Larry Van Knedt, vocalist Dave Evans and, Malcolm's younger brother, guitarist Angus  Young. They took the name "AC/DC" from the back of a vacuum cleaner and a name that would signify their no-holds-barred attack. On New Year's Eve of 1973, AC/DC played its first gig at Sydney's Chequers Club.

1974
By April of '74, Van Knedt and Burgess were replaced by Rob Bailey and Peter Clark. While gigging around Sydney continued, they acquired their first manager in Dennis Laughlin during that summer. They also recorded their first single,
"Can I Sit Next To You Girl"/"Rockin' In The Parlor." Though it didn't become a smash hit, the single gave point to the direction the band was headed.

Though they had been playing around Sydney for most of the year, Malcolm and Angus did not feel particularly well with Dave Evans. Finally, around September, someone else stepped into the forefront of AC/DC. He was Ronald Belford Scott-Bon to his friends.

Bon Scott shared several things with the Young brothers. They were all Scottish immigrants. They all shared an affinity for rock'n'roll. However, Bon possessed a lot more smarts about the music scene in Australia, due to his previous enrollment in two
other outfits-The Valentines and Fraternity. He had been at the top of Australia and at the bottom-recently recovering from a near-fatal motorcycle accident. He replaced Dave Evans and the band started a rocket ride to the top.

After replacing Evans with Scott, the band went into the J Alberts & Son recording studios to start recording their first album. Along the way, they replaced drummer Clark and bassist Bailey with studio drummer Tony Kerrante and producer/bassist George Young-older brother of Angus and Malcolm. It had been George and his bandmates who had given Australia its first breakthrough artist-The EasybeatsAfter their breakup, George had returned to Australia to produce for Albert Productions with his friend, and former bandmate, Harry Vanda. They shared production credits for AC/DC's first album, HIGH VOLTAGE.
After finishing the album, the band replaced Dennis Laughlin with the better-connected Michael Browning.

1975
HIGH VOLTAGE, which was released in February of '75. Before that, they had picked Phil Rudd to take over the vacant drums spot, while Malcolm actually played bass. After HIGH VOLTAGE was released, they found bassist Mark Evans, who joined the band. The new album was a smash hit all throughout Australia and the band gigged in support of it. They took a break in June to finish the single, "High Voltage Rock'n'Roll," which had been meant to go on the first album, but wasn't
finished in time. So, they placed it on the record they did in July, T.N.T

1976
T.N.T. was an even bigger hit than HIGH VOLTAGE when it was released in February of '76. While their gigging around Australia continued, Atlantic Records caught wind of all the noise and signed them to an international contract. They asked the
band to move to England. Before doing so, they recorded a third album, DIRTY DEEDS DONE DIRT CHEAP in April of '76. The album was shelved for whenever the need arose.

After moving to the U.K., the record, HIGH VOLTAGE, was released in Europe on May 14th, 1976. This was not the same HIGH VOLTAGE, but rather T.N.T. with two tracks from the original HIGH VOLTAGE. While playing around in England continued, the hunger for new AC/DC material in Australia allowed for the release of a single from DIRTY DEEDS DONE
DIRT CHEAP-"Jailbreak." The band played endlessly around Europe, headlining small gigs while opening for much bigger acts. In October, the HIGH VOLTAGE compilation was released in the U.S., but had very small success. The band finally returned to Australia to record a new album. This return was also highlighted by the release of DIRTY DEEDS DONE DIRT CHEAP on both the Europe and Australia.

1977
In February,1977, the band began a worldwide tour with Black Sabbath. And, in April, LET THERE BE ROCK-the new
album-was released in the U.K., the U.S. and Australia. Though the albums were different versions, it was a hit for the band-hitting the lower 200s in the U.S. and #75 in England. However, the fun didn't last for long. The band was kicked off the tour by Black Sabbath due to an altercation between band members and stage crews Mark Evansleft band. Though the parting was officially amicable, there were rumours of infeuding between him and Angus. The band held a small auditions for the part and British Cliff Williams emerged as the new bassist.

On that year's summer, the band touched U.S. soil for the first time. And starting with Jacksonville-their strongest foothold-the band began to build a fan base from the ground up. Opening for the likes of KISS and Rush, while headlining small clubs all over America. Finally, in December, they opened for KISS at Madison Square Garden and returned to Australia to begin
recording a new album and tour, for the first time in three years, in Australia. However, the band was not allowed visas to perform, due to their new British bassist and, mostly, British crew.

1978
In 1978, the band released POWERAGE and began to tour Europe and America. The single, "Rock'n'Roll Damnation," hit #24 in the British charts. The touring continued endlessly and allowed the band to release their first live album-IF YOU WANT
BLOOD-YOU'VE GOT IT. It broke the U.S. Top 50. The band returned to Australia in December for their annual recording sessions.

After after the success of POWERAGE and IF YOU WANT BLOOD, Atlantic it knew that the band was ready for a crackthrough on U.S. soil. However, to do so, they "asked" that the production team step aside and let a new person produce this new album. Eddie Kramer-who had worked with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, KISS and Led Zeppelin. Band and producer were moved to Miami to begin recording, but nothing was getting done. Finally, Malcolm called Browning and asked him to do something. Browning asked a friend of his, Robert John Lange, if he would work with AC/DC. "Mutt" Lange, who had never worked with a hard rock group, accepted and moved to London with the band.

1979
The band released HIGHWAY TO HELL in the summer of '79. HIGHWAY TO HELL was a smash hit for the band-breaking Top 20 in the U.S. and Top 10 in the U.K. The band began to tour in support. However, news began to leak throughout the music industry that both Atlantic and Michael Browning's office were running out of money. The massive touring all over the world had begun to take its toll on both of them. Finally, when Browning began to make moves to bring in new investors, the band fired him and hired Peter Mensch of Leber & Krebs-who managed Aerosmith and Ted Nugent. This connection allowed AC/DC to tour for the rest of the year in support of HIGHWAY TO HELL. After all the touring was done, the band took a break and began to work on ideas for the follow-up to HIGHWAY TO HELL.

1980
February 20, 1980, Bon Scott tragically died in the backseat of a friend's car. It seems he had been out in London with fellow musician, Alliston Kinnear, drank his share and passed out. Kinnear left him in the car, sure that he would sleep it off like he normally did. Unfortunately, Bon had moved in his sleep, vomited and choked on his vomit. As the shock of Bon's death ran through the band they decided that it would be of no use to split. They began to look for a new vocalist as they continued to work on the new album. In April, the band announced that the replacement would be longtime "Geordie" vocalist Brian Johnson. Johnson, who had moved away for a time from rock'n'roll, began to work with the band on the new album. The band, once again united with "Mutt" Lange, moved to the Bahamas and appeared in July 6th with BACK IN BLACK.The album hit #1 in England and #3 in the U.S. with the accompanying tour becoming one of their most succesful. The singles "You Shook Me All Night Long" and "Rock'n'Roll Ain't Noise Pollution" went up to #20 and #15 respectively in the British charts. The band
continued to tour all of 1980 and some of 1981, finally stopping to record a new album.

1981
Atlantic, seeing the rise in AC/DC's popularity, finally decided to release the U.K. version of DIRTY DEEDS DONE DIRT CHEAP in the U.S. The band, at first, was opposed-due to the low production and the fact that it was an old album. Finally, it allowed Atlantic to release it with two concessions-it was to be released at a cheaper price and would have a sticker indicating that it was recorded by the Young/Young/Scott/Evans/Rudd lineup. It was released in May of '81 and shot up the U.S. Top 10.
In November of '81, the band released the new album, FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK-WE SALUTE YOU. topping the charts in Europe and the U.S.

1982
The touring in its support took all of 1982, which also saw the release of the concert film, "Let There Be Rock"

1983
Early 1983, the band began to record again. In August of '83, the band released the Top 10 hit, FLICK OF THE SWITCH. This was the first album that the band had produced by itself. Along the way, Phil Rudd quit the band. Though the parting was officially amicable, rumours, once again, surfaced about him using drugs and a fight between him and Malcolm Young. The band put out an ad for a drummer without saying who they were and shocked 20-year old Simon Wright when he found out. However, the band liked what they saw and heard and he joined them for the FLICK tour

1984
The band took 1984 to tour year round. It stopped at the "Monsters of Rock" Festival in Castle Donnington, England and headlined for the first time. Meanwhile, an EP was released stateside. '74 JAILBREAK contained the long-neglected Jailbreak" single as well as several tracks left from the Australian HIGH VOLTAGE.

1985
They started by playing at the "Rock In Rio" festival to over 400,000 fans-a record crowd. Then, took time to record a new album, FLY ON THE WALL, which was released in June. However, FLY's sales were poor.. On August 31st, L.A.P.D. caught Richard Ramirez-"The Night Stalker." With his capture came news that he was a big fan of AC/DC-he loved their albulms, specially HIGHWAY TO HELL and had left an AC/DC cap at one of the murder sites. Combine that with
the news that HIGHWAY TO HELL possessed a song titled "Night Prowler" and what came down on AC/DC was heat from city officials, parent associations, church groups. Their concerts were delayed, canceled or banned.

1986
In the middle of all this, famed horror writer Stephen King approached the band and asked them to provide some songs for his directorial debut, "Maximum Overdrive." The band agreed and recorded three tracks for the movie, which were later placed with some other material to make the album, WHO MADE WHO. The album, was released in May of '86, and became a hit-ending their string of suparb sales. The band decided to tour in support and saw the crowds that had been scared off by the "Night Stalker" fiasco return. Also returning were producers Harry Vanda and George Young, who produced the three new tracks. This gave the band an excuse to work with them again for their new album.

1988
The band came out again in January of '88 with BLOW UP YOUR VIDEO. The upcoming tour saw Malcolm Young take a step back. He had a sick son that he wanted to tend to and asked nephew Stevie Young to take his place.
 

1989
After the tour ended in 1989, Ronnie James Dio asked Simon Wright to work with him on his new album. Though, at first, it was only as a studio dru mmer, Wright eventually became a full member of Dio and quit his spot on AC/DC. The band, which was in the process of writting new material, didn't stop him.
 

1990
In early 1990, the band began to work on their new al bum, THE RAZORS EDGE. For it, AC/DC had asked drummer Chris Slade-of The Firm and Tom Jones fame-to work with them. They also had replaced their manager with Stewart Young-another member of the Young family. And the Vanda/Young team had once again be en brushed aside and Bruce Fairbairn stepped in to produce the new album. Finally, in September, THE RAZORS EDGE was released to a #2 place in the U.S. charts.

1991
The tour that followed saw AC/DC return to the form they had during the BACK IN BLACK-FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK era. However, tragedy struck January 18th, 1991 in Salt Lake City, Utah where Curtis Child, Jimmie Boyd and Elizabeth Glausi were crushed to death by the tide of the crowd. The parents of two of the kids legally sued the band, the
promoters and the concert venues. Up to this point the group had only released one live album, which was "If You Want Blood You've Got It".

1992
In 1992 "Live" was released in both a single disc or double disc format.

1995.
It was announced that Rudd was back in the lineup as the drummer for the much anticipated album. "Ballbreaker", AC/DC's newest album, was released in September.

1996
The Ballbreaker world tour began in the States on January 12 in Greensboro, North Carolina. Two weeks after the begining of the American tour, the band was forced to cancel four dates, because of the unexpected death of Brian Johnson's father.
The American part of the Ballbreaker tour ended in Dallas on April 4. On April 20, the European tour began in Oslo and lasted until July 13 in Bordeaux, France

1997
Rumors about a releas of a AC/DC boxed set. For more informatio check out the official AC/DC Site.

 OFFICIAL AC/DC SITE
 
  COWBOYS FROM HELL
 
 OFFICIAL METALLICA SITE
 
 "A friend of mine page (for bums LFP)"

 I have been a Danish Scout since 1983, during that I have travled a lot with the scouts. In 1995 I win to USA, Michigan to work in a camp. Cole Canoe Base, that was in the summer of 1995.

 
I had a great time there, all though the camp was in the midle of no where, and I might return to work in another
camp in the USA. Maybe in the summer of 1998.

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