AC/DC brand new cool Interview

Probably from the day before the screening of Live at the River Plate,
Excellent interview from Absolute Radio, in which Angus and Brian discuss touring, live on the road and the passion they still have for it.

AC/DC Live at River Plate OUT NOW !

The Hammersmith Apollo 6 May.
The same old venue (constructed in 1932 as a Cinema complex), now under the HMV flag, in 2003 exploited as a concert hall by the British beer brand Carling, before that a by other brewers. One single constant factor remained: the connection to the legacy of AC/DC. The band played the Apollo 16 times in 35 years, for the last time in 2003 (see pictures previous posts).

On 6 May, Sony Music rolled out the red carpet for the worldwide premiere of the new DVD Live at River Plate. Actually, the band walked a black carpet with red band logo lettering, and posed for the gathered press in front of a typical heavily logoed banawall and all of this in a style only AC/DC gets away with: casual but rock and roll. Also present: 2 real size canons the Hells Bell, and -as in 2003- lots of AC/DC fans. They came in from all over the world: Canada, Italy, Chile, France, Sweden, Ireland, Germany, you name it.

AC/DC Belgium could also witness the screening of the new DVD, on -according to acdc.com- "UK's largest movie screen (the equivalent of 4 double decker buses stacked)". Next to your reporter, the Studio Brussel contest winners Leen and Jonathan from Kortrijk Rock City, who were treated on a splendid stay in London (it only rained once....) with 2 tix for the premiere.

After being introduced by no other than ant snorting (and other dirty deeds) Ozzy Osbourne, the band (without drummer Phil - taking care of his tornado challenged belongings back in NZ) took the stage for a 2 minute speech in which they expressed their gratitude to the people who made the movie possible and to the "best rock fans in the world". Even though they already saw the movie, the band took place among the fans to watch a big deal of it.

That for the scene setting. Now to the DVD, which can be called a genuine masterpiece. The 32 HD cameras paid off: never were we treated with such a high quality images of an AC/DC concert. Forget VHS copies of the Donnington shows, bootleg Let there Be Rock DVD's: this is thé band's ultimate Live video. Mix these images with those of the bloodhot and steaming Argentina crowd and you get a wonderful idea of what AC/DC shows look like. You will be able to smell the sweat from your screen off all those Argentinean fans pogoing and jumping up and down for the entire length of the show. Excellent choice! You can order the DVD (with or without special T-shirt package) here: SONY AC/DC shop.

Big Avant Première in London in presence of the big 5!

Yez, indeed the Big are 5, not four. And all of them will be present on the worldwide première in London of the Live at Riverplate DVD (see articles below). Dreaming to be present again in this legendary room at the Hammersmith Carling Apollo, or at least in what is left after our last passage in 2003.... But I will need some help... Suggestions more than welcome ]:o)

At least now we know where to send our pictures to..... (see previous post)

Riverplate Trailer new link

Brian talks cars and new album/DVD

Hell Yeah! The new live DVD, accompanied by a live CD from the Argentina shows during the Black Ice tour are due for in about six weeks (early April). That's what Brian confirms in this clip. Watch it to take a glimpse of the sweet Porsche he bought his missus for Christmas. Smart move Brian! Enjoy!



The LTBR The Movie DVD will be a WARNER home video release. No exact release date known (yet). :o)

Remember Bon Scott (Rock in Peace).

Let there be rock - the movie - finally on DVD?

From Blabbermouth: "Let There Be Rock", the AC/DC concert documentary that was filmed December 1979 at the Pavillion De Paris, will finally receive its long-awaited DVD release in June (postponed from the previously announced January). Eddie Trunk, the co-host of the VH1 Classic television program "That Metal Show", was interviewed about the band's impact for one of the DVD's bonus features. He wrote last year on his blog, "[The company which is releasing the DVD is] doing some cleanups to the audio and video and making it as high-def as the source will allow." He added, "I can tell you I have an advance and it looks and sounds great, but they are making it even better!"

According to the All Music Guide, "Let There Be Rock" was released in France a year after it was filmed, though American release was delayed until well after the band had established themselves in the States with new vocalist Brian Johnson and the multi-platinum success of the "Back In Black" album.

YES YES YES.... the original masters of this recording were long time rumoured to have been lost/destroyed. I wonder what the result will look like. This we will know, of course, if we have more certainty about the rumour being true.... to be continued.

What about Cliff?

After we had some news on how Brian copes with the aftermath of the Black Ice Tour, we now have some video footage of Cliff. He explains how much he's into fishing lately. Check out this video from Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp:



In this interview from Bass Frontiers, Cliff talks about how he joined AC/DC:


That's it for now. Remember Cliff's advice: keep banging the door!

Brian back on stage (new footage)

Alright y'all out there. It's about time I crept back out of my hole and post something new on your favorite AC/DC Bedlam in Belgium Blog. Last Saturday, Brian Johnson joined the Greg Billing Band on stage for a concert at the Irish Rover Pub in Sarasota, Florida. It's not the first time that Brian shakes a leg in Florida with his friend Greg Billing. About 3 years ago, in December 2007, he and Cliff Williams performed Back in Black (first video). Brian has also been singing a Beatles song with them.

As we were showing serious signs of AC/DC cold turkey after the Berlin show, we always wondered how the boys would deal with an abrupt end of a long tour. In the video below, Brian sings an 'intimate' version of DDDC. Attentive viewers will find out that the Black Ice tour left its marks as Brian clearly got impregnated with the big stadium choreography (and the bind texts - "we've got something special"). The band plays a good tune and Brian sang his heart out. Enjoy! Update: YSMANL (thanks Boogie!) / WLR (thanks Boogie bis!).

AC/DC Berlin Report!

UPDATE:
Pretty decent concert weather in the historical city of Berlin. I had a very smooth connection from Schönenfeld airport to the city center. Public transport is pretty well organised there, so you can fairly easy get around (you do need a map!!). Where are the days that we still could fly into Berlin via the great Tempelhof airport, through which the allies supplied the troops during WWII. They give concerts now in the old Tempelhof airport building and I was told that AC/DC was asked to do a show over there, but that it didn't fit the tour format of open air/stadium shows. Place of fanclub meeting was the (typically for Germany) Bier Garten at the Olympic stadium, built in the thirties by an infamous architect for another infamous historical person in German history. The (classified) building is pretty impressive though and has been refurbished a couple of years ago.

Queuing instructions echoed from speakers in the huge twin towers before the stadium, like in the thirties. After a VERY long wait (and a very slow ticket controller - who in tradition of German grundlichkeit took 5 minutes to neatly tear of the control strip of the ticket), we were finally allowed to enter the gates and to our surprise, we had to cross the entire length of the stadium to reach to front of stage area. That was an olympic discipline in itself. Halfway of the parcours, the boys got seperated from the men....

The band BOON opened up, and were pretty much enjoying themselves, and VOLBEAT opened in their known and very much straightforward style! Not loud or hyperactive enough for a great part of the crowd, but good fun.

AC/DC 's show took off with a BANG and kicked the 78000 crowd right in its face. Some (minor) signs of tour fatigue could be remarked by the attentive fan, but what else 'd you expect after 20 months of touring, doing 170 gigs in a highway to hell speed? I think the boys deserve a good rest and a nice time off after tomorrows show (Bilbao). The German crowd did seem to appreciate and went through the roof. Fans came in from all over the world, and gathered in Berlin for what was a long time announced to be the last show of the Black Ice tour, and maybe the last show ever. Brian screamed "Hell, I love this job!" which shows that we probably haven't seen the band taking its last breath. Much to the relief of the fans.

What's next to the moon? It's 15 million fingers picking! Idyllic images with the moon peaking into the stadium (upper left corner).

Great Scandinavian-Canadian-German rock steady crew.

PARIS - Stade de France - Report

Same place, same wonderful crowd, but then exactly 1 year later. The Stade de France has become a real homebase for the band and fans from all over the world. It's always fun to attend shows in this modern location with great facilities. At a preparty at Clichy, AC/DC coverband RiffRaff warmed up part of the crowd before heading to the stadium and see Slash ("Rock N Fucking Roll") and his new band heat things up. I always appreciated the early Guns 'n Roses music, when everything was still real and rough. Since the split, however, the remains of the Guns 'n Roses continued on different projects. Axl, solo, surrounded by the weirdest guitar creatures ever (from Buckethead to Jesus like Bumblefoot) has been working on a 'new' record for more than 10 years, and it still sounds unfinished.

Slash on the other hand, has been staying more true to Rock&Roll and performed Friday night the best opening act for AC/DC since the start of the tour. New songs (new album!) were swiftly alterned with GNR (Paradise City - Civil War - Sweet Child O'Mine) and solid Velvet Revolver (Slither - Sucker Train Blues) material. Singer Miles Kenedy (lead singer from Alter Bridge) has been doing a great job. I heard the guy suffers heavily from tinitus. But what a great voice!

The weather was just perfect. Not that same heat of last year. And luckily no rain either. An excellent atmosphere to roll in the R&R Train! Great crowd (red horn lights blinging all over) and band in good shape with a great (same) setlist made the evening a big success.After the show there was a nice afterparty at an Irish pub near Chatelet Les Halles with another excellent AC/DC cover band (forgot their name, so let me know if you remember - they rocked until the morning hour!!) and friends from all over the world (Italy, Vancouver, NYC). Exclusive guest to this party was an inflatable Rosie. Sure she got what she came for as she was passed on through the venue. See you in Berlin!

(all pictures -except for playlist- courtesy and copyright 2010 of Mad Max from Tours, thanks man for letting me using them since I was so stupid to forget my photo camera....)