9 October will mark the 38th anniversary of the 1977 second Belgian show for AC/DC Kontich, near Antwerp (B). These days a lot of Belgian media dug up the story of "Bedlam in Belgium. But it is not the 38th anniversary as such that is making the topic trending. A lot of nostalgia disappears with the demolition earlier this month of the concert hall where the event took place: Dancing Thier Brau Hof in Kontich.
As mentioned in previous articles on this blog, the place wasn't actually meant to welcome High Voltage rock 'n roll. We learned it was home to Belgian crooner Will Tura and Kalinka (Gilberte Verschaeren) from the neighbouring village Duffel. Will Tura is a great guy, and Kalinka had her own television show, but they certainly not play the loudest rock 'n roll music of the era. And their beer and saucage evenings with the occasional Bingo were surely not organised by a motor cycle gang like that night in October 1977.
A Belgian journalist actually managed to trace down the police or "Gendarme" duo that arrived first at the concert hall. The guys are close to there retirement and were actually very surprised to hear about the story. They remembered the incident, but ignored AC/DC wrote a song about it. Asked why he threatened the audience and the band with a gun, one of them called it an act of safety to make sure his gun would not disappear after already being profaned by a concert goer who took his cap. The other called it an act of stupidity as only one gun would not be capable of taming a wild 300 to 400 crowd and an electrified Aussie hardrock band. All of this happened before reinforcement arrived at the Thier Brau Hof. Both minimalise the impact of their intervention and claim 38 years later that "the story in the song got a little blown up" but the cops do acknowledge having shut down the power as a "technique that prooved effective during previous interventions, even on one of the Will Tura nights". They must have been the most feared party crashers in the region by that time...
For the first time in history and to celebrate the 100.000 visitor to this fan blog, this blog reveals next to never seen pictures the actual setlist for the night that ended up being described in the 1983 song "Bedlam in Belgium". The 9 song setlist was typical for that period and gets quite close to that of other shows around that date. So basically, one can say they were at least able to finish the set, but they clearly rushed through it. A lot of stories mention "Let There Be Rock" being played, but that was clearly not the case. Maybe it was on the setlist, but at least they didn't get to that as the concert was finished rather abruptly. Neither did Bon start singing "I'm gonna Ride On..." to indicate to the gathered police force he would not call it quits.
1. Live Wire
2. Problem Child3. Hell Ain't a Bad Place To Be
4. Whole Lotta Rosie
5. Dog Eat Dog
6. High Voltage
7. Bad Boy Boogie
8. Rocker
9. TNT
Read a Humo reader's review and watch again the ATV interview video with police officer Mr. Liekens here rev Humo review here below:
