Overdose #4

A testimony of the birth of AC/DC – In 1978, when I was 16 years old, I started my concert picture shipment, with live pictures of concerts at the “Zürcher Volkshaus”. The first bands I was allowed to photograph were Blondie, Runaways and of course the nearly private concert with Bon Scott and AC/DC in front of 1.000 Fans, in October 1978

Making of It’s A Long Way To The Top – The musicvideo for ”It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock ’n’ Roll)” was filmed on 23 February 1976 for the Australian music television program Countdown. It featured the band’s then-current lineup, along with members of the Rats Of Tobruk Pipe Band, on the back of a flat-bed truck traveling on Swanston Street in Melbourne, Australia. Pipe Band member Les Kenfield recalls his memories from the shoot.

Countdown to the top – Paul Drane was producer and director for Australia´s immensely popular tv-show Countdown, a show aired on Sundays and was like an early version of MTV. Back in 1976 Paul got to direct the video for AC/DC´s ”It´s a long way to the top (If you wanna rock and roll)” and ”Jailbreak”. Here he tells the story behind those videos as well as why there was a second version shot of ”It´s a long way to the top (If you wanna rock and roll)”.

Sin City: A guide through the streets of London – AC/DC had spent the last two years playing seemingly every club and bar across Australia, winning new friends everywhere they went. By late 1975, with few fans left to recruit back home in Oz, the band and their management team’s thoughts turned towards breaking into the UK and Europe, the next step in their march towards global domination. This article tells the tale of how AC/DC spent their first ever month outside of Australia, in and around London, April 1976

Bon Scott: A fans best friend – Tracey Rayfield tells his story of a roadtrip from St. Louis to Springfield in 1979, a soldout gig, meeting the band and getting to hear “Highway To Hell” on a cassette deck in the bands tourbus long before it was released in America.

Shaking the earth with AC/DC – In the summer of 1978 a then relatively new band called Yesterday & Today, who had just released their second album “Struck down”, got the chance to open three shows for AC/DC in Texas. Y&T´s singer Dave Meniketti recalls those crazy shows and also the European tour they later did with them in 1982.

On the road with Dazgoulash – Follow Darren Goulden also known as “Dazgoulash” and his stories from being on the road, exclusivly for Overdose.

The unknown chapter – Over the years there has been many a rumour about AC/DC, they’ve been accused of everything from devil worshipping to inciting Bedlam in Belgium, but there are one rumour in particular that refuse to go away within the AC/DC fan community, despite never having been addressed by the band. And it’s the rumour about an existing AC/DC recording of “I’m a Rebel”.

Malcolm on AC/DC’s back catalogue – In autumn 1992 I interviewed Malcolm Young for a now long extinct music magazine called Metal CD. AC/DC were always a formidable live act, but studio-wise they’d been in the doldrums for most of the 1980s (Fly On The Wall, anyone?). Then came 1990’s platinum ‘comeback’ album, The Razors Edge. AC/DC were on the upswing again, but were as notoriously press-shy as ever.

The reborn of AC/DC – After the tragic death of Bon Scott, AC/DC annouced a new lead singer, some Geordie bloke in a cap. AC/DC were reborn and all we wanted to do is to see them live again. For John Arnold, it would be the beginning of a lifelong addiction. This is the story of when he got to see AC/DC live for the first time.

If you want shirts… You’ve got it – We asked Baptiste Berlet, the owner of acdc-shirts.com, to display t-shirt merchandise that has been available thought all these years. In this article he presents the birth of t-shirt merchandise.

Collectors items – Bill Voccia presents the first AC/DC singles released in Australian in the 1970’s

The sixth member of AC/DC

Meet the fans: Doug Thorncroft – He is not only President of the Bon Scott Fan Club, but he’s also responsible for building the first Bon Scott website, organizing AC/DC related events, but most proudly instrumental in erecting the first ever Bon Scott statue in Fremantle, Australia. 

Tom Bombo’s adventures