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

Back In Black Named as Most Influential Australian Album

Gentleman's Quarterly Magazine of Australia has named AC/DC's Back In Black as their number one pick on their list of the Top 50 Most Influential Australian Albums.

Back In Black, which propelled AC/DC to international stardom shortly after the tragic death of Bon Scott, has sold over 42 million copies worldwide.

Strangely, no other AC/DC album made the GQ Top 50. For the full story and complete Top 50 list, click here and here. Below, you'll see their Top 10.

1. ACDC - Back in Black
2. The Bee Gees - Saturday Night Fever
3. Saints - I'm Stranded
4. The Birthday Party - Junkyard
5. Easybeats - Absolute Anthology
6. The Avalanches - Since I Left You
7. Cold Chisel - East
8. Scientists - Blood Red River
9. Crowded House - Crowded House
10. Silverchair - Young Modern

GQ's 2008 Music Issue hits news-stands on Wednesday for those about to add it to their AC/DC related magazine collection.

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

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

Win Signed Guitars from AC/DC!

AC/DC has just announced a new contest with a couple of really sweet grand prizes.

That's right, the band is giving away an Angus Young signature model Gibson SG and a Malcolm Young signature model Gretsch G6131MY signed by AC/DC to two Grand Prize winners.

All you've got to do is make your own version of the Rock N Roll Train video, upload it to YouTube with a special tag on it, and the band's representatives will choose the winning entries.

For further details, click here. For the complete contest rules, go here.

Rock 'N' Roll Will Never Die But iTunes Might

Anti iTunes evangelists: Brian Johnson and Angus Young of AC/DC
Like Rock 'n' Roll, iTunes will probably never die. However, it may suffer from a big kick in it's cyber balls very soon from several major bands, especially AC/DC. Indeed, the success of Black Ice, might push iTunes further down a very slippery financial slope.

In today's London Telegraph, Brian Boyd follows up on last week's article from the Irish Times about AC/DC taking on Apple's billion dollar baby with a report on how other bands may soon be persuaded to join AC/DC on the other side of the digital divide against iTunes.

Angus Young certainly has a lot to say on the importance of selling albums vs. selling singles, the staple of Apple's iTunes money diet.

"We don't make singles, we make albums," says guitarist Angus Young. "Way back in the Seventies, we drew these figures on the back of an envelope for our record company.

"We showed them how much they earned from us if we sold one million singles and how much they earned if we sold one million albums. The difference was staggering.

"That was to get them off our back because we only very grudgingly release singles. Our real reason is that we honestly believe the songs on any of our albums belong together.

So, for AC/DC, art and money go hand in hand and who can blame the band for that stance?

After all, how many great musicians have ended up penniless in their old age after being screwed by the big record companies that made tons of money off their backs?

In a larger sense, iTunes is just another record company interested only in its profitability, not the welfare of individual artists who work for them. For much more on this developing story, please continue reading here.

Sony Offers Aussies Trip To Secret AC/DC Show

SonyBMG's Australian division recently announced that they're holding a contest where one lucky fan (and a friend) can win tickets and a trip to see AC/DC's secret show in NYC on October 26th.

The only catch is you must pre-order the Black Ice CD through Sony and answer this question:

In 25 words or less, tell us Why do you want to travel to New York to see AC/DC perform live?

SonyBMG will choose the winning entry based on their opinion of who best answers the question above. To view the contest entry form, click here.

Good luck and may the greatest AC/DC fan win!

Up To My Neck In AC/DC News!

Bon Scott & The Heathen Girls
Well, lots of stories to get to today so let's get it on, as Mills Lane would say...

For starters, Bon Scott fans will definitely want to check out the latest post by Lucas over at the Bon Scott Blog. It's all about Rennie Ellis's photographic work with the AC/DC in the 70's. You'll find some amazing shots there, including the one posted above.


Fans of Brian Johnson will not want to miss this article from the Herald Tribune about where the elite meet in Sarasota, FL. We don't get to hear much about Brian very often, unfortunately, so this is a real treat if you ask me.

Check out the No Bull trailer in Windows Media or QuickTime.
Next on the agenda is Blog Critic Magazine's latest review of the No Bull Director's Cut DVD. If you haven't bought the reissued package yet, you may want to read their opinion on it before you plunk down your hard earned cash.

Of course, with all the excitement about AC/DC's upcoming tour, there have been several stories published lately about how ticket sales have been going so far. Two of the best pieces were by Ticket News.

In their first article, it's revealed that AC/DC was the top selling event in the United States for the week ending 9/21/08. That's a pretty big achievement for the boys considering all the other entertainers on the road this fall, not to mention all the regularly huge sellers like NFL Football games and the other seasonal sports here in the U.S.

Their other piece worth a read is a rehash of all the latest concert dates that have been added for the Black Ice tour plus the details on which arenas were sold out through the AC/DC Fan Club.

By the way, if you were lucky enough to get tickets to see the band this Fall, you might want to celebrate by wearing your favorite AC/DC T-shirts for the next month like the guy at Our Quirky Life has pledged to do. Now that's a dedicated fan!


Are you into collecting AC/DC on vinyl? If so, check out Brave Word's latest post on What Record's offering of a limited edition Black Ice album on heavyweight vinyl.

Lastly, for fun, you might want to check out this humorous satire on AC/DC's Wal-Mart deal over at Swinging For The Downs. Good for a few chuckles anyway...

Oh, and if you still want to read even more today, you can always have a glance at the Irish Times take on AC/DC's opposition to ITunes and/or look over In The Mix's short story on how the band Soulwax somehow made AC/DC cool again. One hundred bonus points for you if you know who in the hell Soulwax is, by the way.

Keep rockin, Jon

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

Dude, Where's My Black Ice Tourdate?

So AC/DC finally announced their Black Ice Tour dates but your city was left out, huh? Well, take heart because you are not alone. They haven't announced any dates in Florida yet, either, and Brian Johnson and Cliff Williams live here!

Also, we all need to remember that this Fall schedule of shows is only the first leg of AC/DC's 18-month long world tour. So let's be patient and see what the boys have in store for the rest of the best fans in the world, eh?

Australian fans can take some comfort, though, as almost unnoticed in the recent news was a small item written by Paul Cashmere about AC/DC's plans for a trip back home to Australia:

"AC/DC will perform in Australia in 2009 at Telstra Dome in Melbourne and ANZ Stadium in Sydney."

No doubt AccaDacca will hit several more cities down under as well as visit all their great fans in New Zealand in the coming year, too.

Of course, some longtime fans have never seen the band perform live in person. Such is the case of Mike Grant, who writes about his AC/DC story in "That's The Way I Want My Rock N Roll!"

If you still want to read more about fans and AC/DC today, I suggest you check out "She's Got Balls" at The Soundtrack Of My Life. It's a brief, but poignant story about how one guy got introduced to AC/DC music.

Speaking of AC/DC's music, it would be remiss of me not to mention Rolling Stone's Fall preview of the Black Ice album. Though there's not that much to it, there is some good background information about how the new music was made from producer, Brendan O'Brien.



Of course, Black Ice has been compared to Back In Black a thousand times already and it hasn't even been released yet so, one has to wonder if it will really be that good? I guess time will tell...

By the way, what's your take on War Machine versus Rock N Roll Train? Do you favor one track over the other now that you've heard them both more than a few times? I hope you'll leave your opinions in the comments section below. I'd also be interested to know what other fans think the song War Machine is all about. Does it have anything to do with the war in Iraq? Has AC/DC made another political track like Burnin' Alive from the Ballbreaker album?

George Young and Harry Vanda
Lastly, for today, Easy Fever provides another history lesson for AC/DC fans who want to know more about the roots of our favorite band. For those that don't know already, The Easybeats were Australia's answer to The Beatles and two of their leading members were George Young and Harry Vanda, who later went on to produce most of the classic AC/DC albums of the 70's.

Keep rockin, Jon

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.

Win AC/DC Tickets from VH1 Classic!

VH1 classic is giving away two tickets to see AC/DC live at their special Black Ice Tour rehearsal show at a secret location in New York City on October 26th.

One Grand Prize Winner will receive a pair of tickets to the show, free round trip airfare for two, and a two night hotel stay in NYC. (Probably somewhere pretty swank, I'd imagine!)

Of course, there's always that bit you have to read called the "official rules", but I can tell you that the contest is only open to persons 21 years or older who live somewhere in the contiguous 48 states. (You're shit out luck, Alaska and Hawaii.)

To enter the contest, click here.

PS>
You might notice they say they'll have a full preview of the Black Ice album on October 13th!

Low Voltage Lives

Angus Young's home in Aalten

Low-voltage lives

Malcolm Young is a familiar face to the shopkeepers of East Balmain, especially at Christmas time. Locals describe him as a down-to-earth sort of a bloke with more than just a passing interest in rock'n'roll.

Yet not many of Young's neighbours could boast a fortune estimated at $125 million, nor could they claim to be a co-founder of one of the most successful rock bands: AC/DC. But Young would rather not talk about his private life. He and his bandmates including his brother Angus like to fly below the fame radar. Unlike Australia's other great cultural exports, the Youngs live out of the spotlight, slipping in and out of Sydney with little fanfare - although their Sydney homes are a giveaway.

When in Sydney, Malcolm and his wife, O'Linda, with their son and daughter, live in a handsome sandstone mansion named Oncaparinga, which sits elegantly behind an impressive stone wall and overlooks its tennis court and swimming pool. The property is one of the largest in Balmain, taking up most of the block it sits on. Estate agents estimate it would be worth up to $15 million.

Angus Young, who has no children and his own $125 million fortune, has an impressive home at Kangaroo Point, although it pales next to his much larger pile in the Dutch town of Aalten, which was completed last year and has been the talk of the town because of its enormous scale. Aalten is the home town of Young's wife of 26 years, Ellen.

Continue reading at SMH.com.


PS>
War Machine has been posted on AC/DC's MySpace page.

Vote for Rock N Roll Train on the BBC

Rock N Roll Train - Full Video!

Black Ice Tour Tickets On Sale Saturday!

Tickets for the Fall 2008 leg of the Black Ice World Tour go on sale this Saturday morning at Ticketmaster and ACDC.com at 10AM.

For fans not familiar with Ticketmaster's paperless ticket technology, I strongly suggest you read this article at Ticket News because all of the AC/DC Fan Club seats will be sold that way and many of the other seats available for each venue will be paperless, also.

AC/DC, of course, are busy making preparations for their first live show since the group's appearance at SarsFest in July of 2003.

In fact, on October 26, two days before the Black Ice tour officially kicks off in Wilkes Barre, PA, the band will perform a special dress rehearsal show at a mystery location in New York City. There's no word on how to get a ticket for that private show, but you can possibly win one for you and a friend by entering this contest sponsored by Telus, the mobile phone service provider.



Speaking of Black Ice, there's been another review of the album posted online calling it "back in blacker." I've no idea what that's supposed to mean except, I guess, it's a good thing. Anyway, you can read the whole thing for yourself at Music Radar but you may come away from it a bit unsatisfied.

After all, what good is it to repeat what's previously been said about the album when what fans really want is to hear some sound clips? By the way, how is this review a "world exclusive" if the album has already been reviewed on several other sites?

A much more interesting option for AC/DC fans would be to listen to Matt Pinfield's interview of Brian Johnson the other day on NY's 101.9 FM radio station. As usual, Brian's got plenty of great stories to tell, heavily dosed with his salty brand of humor.



In other newsworthy items, it appears that Rock Band 2 will soon offer an "AC/DC Live at Donington Expansion Pack for Rock Band 2" if you believe this rumor from Destructoid. If true, this would be a pretty cool addition to the game.



According to a posting from Paul Cashmere at Undercover News, AC/DC just received a special plaque from Columbia Records commemorating their sales of "shitloads of DVD's" over the last several years. Live At Donington went 6x platinum, Family Jewels (10x), and Plug Me In (5x). For more about that story click here.

Furthermore, the new Director's Cut of No Bull as scored big in it's first week of release debuting as the #1 top selling DVD in no less than eleven countries including the United States! Full details are at Blabbermouth.



Last, but certainly not least, I invite you to step back in time a moment by checking out a couple of items posted online recently. First, head on over to our good friend at the Bon Scott Blog and watch a cool video about Phillip Morris, a photographer who hung out with AC/DC in the 1970s. Morris recently had an exhibition of his work in Sydney, Australia and this video highlights some of his best work with the band.



Second, if you're into collecting everything related to AC/DC, you might want to visit the Psychedelic Rock Blog and download a collection of tunes by an obscure sixties band called Grapefruit. How is that band related to AC/DC you might ask? Well, it seems an older brother of Malcolm and Angus named George Alexander (Young) who did not emigrate to Australia with the Young family played the bass and sang vocals for that group.

Beatles fan might be interested to know that John Lennon and Paul McCartney were co-producers on a Grapefruit song called "Lullabye for a Lazy Day," a tune that was initially called "Circus Sgt. Pepper."

Keep rockin, Jon

AC/DC - Rock N Roll Train Video Teaser

Here's a quick preview of the AC/DC's first promotional video from the Black Ice album. Rock N Roll Train was filmed in London on August 15th. The full video's not due out until September 19, 2008 and will likely play first on VH1.


AC/DC Spanks Miley Cyrus's Butt!
In other tidbits of note, Undercover News reports that AC/DC is more popular than Miley Cyrus in Australia right now. Last week, fans purchased a total of 1025 more AC/DC albums in retail stores than the teen queen sold, even though she actually has the number one CD.

In fact, no less than six AC/DC albums reside in the ARIA Top 50 currently including TNT, Dirty Deeds, Highway To Hell, Who Made Who, The Razors Edge and Stiff Upper Lip. For full details, check out Paul Cashmere's latest post here.

Speaking of money, Business Review Weekly's annual list of the Top 50 Australian Entertainers was released Saturday and AC/DC was, once again, among the top artists with an estimated $12.0 Million (AU) in gross earnings last fiscal year. That was good enough for eight place on this year's list, but BRW went on to predict that AC/DC will be the top grossing act for 2009 due to the upcoming release of Black Ice and the band's subsequent world tour.

Lastly, for today, here's a video of some kid playing Let There Be Rock on Rock Band2.



Keep rockin, Jon

Download the Angus & Brian Interview on Stern

Here's a great interview of Angus Young and Brian Johnson from the Howard Stern Show on September 9, 2008 for download. Even if you can't stand Stern's tired act it's well worth the listen for Angus' and Brian's great sense of humor.

Thanks to Graham Farrell of the Bon Scott Group at Google for the show!

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

AC/DC's Black Ice Tour Dates Revealed!

SONY BMG MUSIC PRESS RELEASE

AC/DC Announces Black Ice World Tour

Tour Kicks Off on October 28, 2008 in Wilkes-Barre, PA.

NEW YORK, Sept. 11 /CNW/ - AC/DC's widely-anticipated Black Ice
World Tour will open on October 28th at the Wachovia Arena in
Wilkes-Barre, PA. The show kicks off a series of arena shows, to
be followed by a round of stadium dates next summer.

Tickets for upcoming dates will go on sale the weekend of September
20th at Ticketmaster. Additional appearances throughout North and
South America, Europe, and Asia, will be announced shortly. For
further information, please visit the band's website, www.acdc.com.

The worldwide tour - the band's first since 2001 - promotes AC/DC's
latest studio album: Black Ice which will be released on October
21st. The album's first single, "Rock 'N' Roll Train" was released
to radio on August 28 and immediately went to No. 1 at Rock Radio.
The video will debut on September 19th.

AC/DC's North American tour dates:

Oct. 28: Wilkes-Barre, Pa. (Wachovia Arena)
Oct. 30: Chicago (Allstate Arena)
Nov. 3: Indianapolis (Conseco Fieldhouse)
Nov. 5: Auburn Hills, Mich. (Palace of Auburn Hills)
Nov. 7: Toronto (Rogers Centre)
Nov. 9: Boston (TD Banknorth Garden)
Nov. 12-13: New York (Madison Square Garden)
Nov. 15: Washington, D.C. (Verizon Center)
Nov. 17: Philadelphia (Wachovia Center)
Nov. 19: East Rutherford, N.J. (IZOD Center)
Nov. 21: Columbus, Ohio (Schottenstein Center)
Nov. 23: Minneapolis (Xcel Energy Center)
Nov. 25: Denver (Pepsi Center)
Nov. 28: Vancouver (General Motors Place)
Nov. 29: Seattle (KeyArena)
Nov. 30: Tacoma, Wash. (Tacoma Dome)
Dec. 2: Oakland, Calif. (Oracle Arena)
Dec. 6: Los Angeles (The Forum)
Dec. 10: Phoenix (US Airways Center)
Dec. 12: San Antonio (AT&T Center)
Dec. 14: Houston (Toyota Center)
Dec. 16: Atlanta (Philips Arena)
Dec. 18: Charlotte, N.C. (Time Warner Cable Arena)

For slightly more info, see this morning's story at Billboard.


In other developments, Sirius Radio and AC/DC have brokered a deal to have AC/DC host their own special satellite radio station beginning September 15th.

Here's the press release with all the juicy details:

AC/DC Band Members Will Host 'AC/DC Radio' on XM channel 53 and Will Broadcast Non-Stop AC/DC Music From Their Three-Decade Career

'AC/DC Radio' Will Premiere in Advance of the Band's Upcoming Studio Album 'Black Ice'

NEW YORK, SIRIUS XM Radio announced that legendary rock band AC/DC will host their own music channel on XM Radio. The channel will celebrate AC/DC's iconic career and the upcoming release of Black Ice, the band's first studio album in eight years. AC/DC Radio will be broadcast on XM channel 53 and will debut on Monday, September 15, 2008 at 6 pm ET through January 15, 2009.

AC/DC Radio will air AC/DC music 24/7, including classic rock
recordings such as "For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)," "You Shook Me All Night Long," and "Back in Black" as well as new songs from their Brendan O'Brien produced album, Black Ice (Columbia). The channel will also feature AC/DC band members Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Cliff Williams, Brian Johnson and Phil Rudd describing their singular rock & roll career spanning more than 30 years and sharing their personal insights into their music. The band will also guide XM listeners through an exclusive preview of every track on Black Ice, which will be sold in the U.S. exclusively at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club beginning Monday, October 20, 2008, and on the band's web site http://www.acdc.com.

"AC/DC is an unparalleled and enduring force in rock music," said Scott Greenstein, President and Chief Content Officer, SIRIUS XM Radio. "We are thrilled to begin broadcasting AC/DC Radio and give AC/DC fans a channel on XM where they can hear the band's distinctive music, uninterrupted and non-stop rock 'n roll the way the band always envisioned their radio airplay."

AC/DC Radio will offer fans exclusive access to the band and their
music. AC/DC Radio listeners will also have the opportunity to choose their favorite AC/DC songs, with votes to be tallied and played back during the "Ultimate AC/DC Countdown."

Australian rock band AC/DC has sold more than 200 million albums worldwide. Back in Black has sold an estimated 42 million units worldwide and 22 million in the U.S. alone, making it the fifth highest-selling album of all time. AC/DC was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in March 2003.

For more information, please visit http://www.xmradio.com.

Go here for more details and learn how to sign up for a free three day internet preview! (Hint: Wait until Monday, the 15th, to begin your free trial.)



Lastly, for today, ACDC.com is inviting fans to sign up for the AC/DC Fan Club. Yes, folks, for a mere $40 you can join today and get all these goodies for the next year.

Access to new, members-only areas of ACDC.com, including message boards, members-only contests and more.
Special access to concert tickets in ACDC.com's Fan Club on-sales.
An exclusive AC/DC gift available nowhere else.
A discount in the AC/DC North America & Rest Of World store.

Personally, $40 a year is way more than I'd ever spend on an online fan club for any band; even my favorite one. However, I'm sure there will be thousands of fans that'll plunk down their Angus dollars to get exclusive access to AC/DC's website and discounts on merchandise, etc.. Will the new fan club be worth the money? I guess time will tell.

By the way, if you're interested in joining a free AC/DC Fan Club, I hear this one is pretty good.

Keep rockin, Jon

AC/DC's Train Is A Rolling

Plenty of AC/DC news to get to today so I guess I better get off my lazy ass and post it...

For starters, Brave Words let me know a few days ago that they'd scored an exclusive interview with Mike Fraser, a veteran producer who's list of credits reads like a Who's Who in Rock 'n' Roll.

Mike's done plenty of work for AC/DC over the years including the mixing on albums like Stiff Upper Lip, Razors Edge, and Ballbreaker not to mention remastering their entire back catalog since 2003. He was also instrumental in preparing the Plug Me In and No Bull DVD's for release so you bet your bottom dollar that this guy knows what AC/DC is supposed to sound like.

Here's one of the highlights from their chat with him:


BW&BK: How much pressure is there knowing that Black Ice is easily one of the most anticipated rock/hard rock records over the past few years? Do you guys fee