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Biography
Angus McKinnon Young born on March 31 1955 in Glasgow Scotland the young family a little later in life moved to Australia .
Angus was first introduced to the rock and roll world via eldest brother George Young who became a big Australian Star with his band the Easy beats in mid 1960 anyway that's enough about him onto the real legend.
Angus's first guitar was some old acoustic he shall we say borrowed from older brother Malcolm and when his brother George achieved success Angus was you could say inspired by his brother and whenever his brother George came off from tour he would give Angus and Malcolm some pointers . After some helpful pointers it wasn't long until Angus and brother Malcolm went off to do their own thing .
Malcolm started a few bands nothing too exciting Angus was doing ok he had started a band called Tantrum the only gigs being played were school dances most of the time Angus would just jam with friends and it wasn't until 1973 that he joined forces with Brother Malcolm and formed Ac/dc .
Ac/Dc played their debut gig at a party in Sydney's chequers nightclub . The bands first line-up was the following Angus on lead guitar, Malcolm on rhythm, Colin Burgees on drums, Larry Van Knedt on bass and Dave Evans on vocals . This line-up was of course not final and after a while Ron Carpenter replaced Colin Burgees on drums ,Larry Van Knedt was replaced by Rob Bailey . Ron Carpenter didn't last long and was soon replaced by Russell Coleman who was then replaced by Peter Clark! So not a lot of change then .
The Young-Young-Evans-Bailey-Clark was the line-up that gave Ac/Dc their first single "Can I Sit
Next to You Girl"/"Rockin' In the Parlour". The next changes in the line-up proved to be most significant . The bands bus driver at the time Bon Scott informed them that he could play drums and was soon in the drumming seat replacing Peter Clark . Bon also recommended a bass player Bruce Houwe who used to play with Bon and Houwe was soon brought in to replace Bailey . Angus And Malcolm began to grow tired of the singer Dave Evans because Evans started to turn into a bit of a glam rocker which wasn't what the band were all about so it wasn't long before Evans was out and then Bon got the job as Front man for the band . Before long Houwe was asked to leave Ac/Dc and George Young took over bass duties to help record Ac/Dc's debut album "High Voltage" .
The debut album "High Voltage" (which featured Malcolm on some leads) was recorded in just 10 days and the album was soon released in Australia in February 1975 . Soon after Ac/Dc got settles in with a line-up and they hired Phil Rudd on drums and Mark Evans on bass to fill in the vacancies . The Young-Young-Scott-Evans-Rudd line-up went on to record three more albums in the next couple of years. "T.N.T." was recorded in 1975. "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" in 1976, and finally "Let There be Rock" in 1977. A personality clash arose in 1977 between Angus and Mark, and Mark finally decided to leave the band before they had a chance to fire him.
They had little trouble finding a new bass player . They quickly hired Cliff Williams who has been with the band ever since . This line-up of Young-Young-Scott-Rudd-Williams went on to record some of the best Ac/Dc albums ever "Powerage" in 1978 . Then the live album "If You Want Blood You've Got It" which was recorded from live concerts during 1978 . Finally this line-up recorded what is regarded as the best Bon Scott album "Highway To Hell" in 1979 and now this brings us into a new chapter .
Ac/Dc were getting worldwide popularity when tragedy struck on February 19 1980 when Ac/Dc's front man Bon Scott was found dead in the backseat of a friends car . Ac/Dc issued a statement saying that Bon had dies from Natural causes but Bon had actually dies from choking on his own vomit after a heavy night drinking . Angus took it pretty hard as did his brother Malcolm and they were contemplating whether to go on and after asking Bon's family what they though they should do they were told to keep on going as that was what Bon would have wanted . They started looking for a singer mid March and there were many applicants for the job but no one seemed right . Finally a 14 year old fan from Chicago sent a letter to Ac/Dc telling them about a singer called Brian Johnson from the band Geordie . Malcolm recalled seeing Geordie play and remembered how Bon had remarked that Brian was one of the best singers he had ever seen, so the band got hold of Johnson auditioned him and hired him on the spot .
Ac/Dc's next album "Back In Black" was a work of art as put by many people . the album which featured some of Angus's most recognized riffs was released in 1980 with an all black cover as a tribute to Bon Scott . The album has become one of the most highest selling Rock albums of all time with over 40 million sales worldwide .
AC/DC was definitely at its peak around 1981. "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" was finally released in the U.S. in May of that year, and quickly became a success, even outselling "Back in Black" or a long stretch of time. They had finally hit superstardom so to speak .
The line-up of Young-Young-Johnson-Rudd-Williams that recorded "Back In Black" went on to record two more albums . In late 81 they finished recording "For Those About To Rock We Salute You" which is the only Ac/Dc album to go to number one on the billboard charts . After a lengthy tour Ac/Dc recorded "Flick Of The Switch" in 1983 This album was not done completely with Phil Rudd as drummer. Phil was heavily involved in drugs. It got to the point where he was hallucinating so badly that he was admitted to the hospital on more than one occasion. The straw that broke the camels back, however, was a fist fight between him and another band member that has never been revealed to the public, though it was probably Malcolm, since it was known that Phil had been involved with a female relation of Malcolm's. The album was finished with a studio drummer .
Ac/Dc got their next drummer after putting an ad in a heavy metal magazine but the did not disclose the name of the band . So when Simon Wright (20 years at the time) showed up for the audition he was surprised to find out he was auditioning for Ac/Dc . Nevertheless they liked what the saw/heard and hired him for their upcoming tour . After that they recorded "fly On The Wall" in 1985 .
1986 saw the release of the "Who Made Who" record which is regarded by many as a kind of greatest hits album . The album was actually the soundtrack to the Stephen King movie "Maximum Overdrive" . The song were picked out by Stephen King who i a big Ac/Dc fan . Then in 1988 the Young-Young-Johnson-Williams-Wright released "Blow Up Your Video" after this album another drummer change came about .
This time the drummer left voluntarily . Simon Wright had always been a huge fan of Dio and when the found themselves without a drummer Ronnie Dio asked Simon if he wanted to join them . It didn't take him long to make a decision . The replacement for Simon was Chris Slade a veteran drummer who had previously played for Tom Jones and more recently The Firm . The next album recorded was "The Razors Edge" Featuring one of Angus's most well known licks "Thunderstruck" the song released as a single became a stadium Anthem . A string of other albums followed (which are mentioned in the discography below) and after the release of "Stiff Upper Lip" In 2000 Ac/Dc proved they aint going no where and Angus Proved he could still Rock all night long :grin: .
Discography
High Voltage(oz)[1975]
T.N.T.[1975]
High Voltage[1976]
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap(oz)[1976]
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap[1976]
Let There be Rock[1977]
Powerage[1978]
If You Want Blood[1978]
Highway To Hell[1979]
Back In Black[1980]
For Those About To Rock[1981]
Flick Of The Switch[1983]
'74 Jailbreak[1984]
Fly On The Wall[1985]
Who Made Who[1986]
Blow Up Your Video[1986]
The Razors Edge[1990]
Live(Special Collectors Edition)[1992]
Live[1992]
Ballbreaker[1995]
Bonfire[1997]
Stiff Upper Lip[2000]
When Ac/Dc first hit the rock and roll scene in the 70's there were already plenty of great rock n roll bands already so what was the point in having them ? Well Ac/Dc brought something else to the rock and roll world hard blues rock crunching guitars and bluesy singing and unlike their contemporaries not one single slow song just hard rocking blues rock some people of course will say they brought nothing because pentatonics and blues rock were already at hand but it's the way that Angus executed them especially in songs such as Heat seeker dirty deeds whole Lotta Rosie . The reason Ac/Dc are still as big as they were back in the 70's etc is not because because they have changed their sound but because they haven't changed what they have been playing they haven't changed with the times they have still kept pumping out continues rock records and the band still play with the same passion and energy that they could when they were 20 so I say look forward to another 20 years of rock and roll from one of the best rock bands in the world today and look forward to more blistering solos and riffs from the unintentional front man Angus Young :grin:
P.S I must apologize for the mega large pictures and mega small pics but those were the only ones I could find/use in some cases .
Z :smile:
MultiQuote
It's on my to buy list but it shouldn't be too difficult since Angus' has a very recognisable soloing style all you should have to do is listen for diofferent soundihn solos .
Posted 18 February 2004 - 09:07 PM
Posted 18 February 2004 - 09:09 PM