If you can wrap your head around the concept that AC/DC actually got started as a morphing from the demise of the 60’s band The Easybeats in 1973, then it will make perfect sense that AC/DC would become the howling success they were. Largely benefiting from all the mistakes the earlier band made, and the brainchild of the team of Vanda and Young (Young being Angus and his younger brothers – Vanda taking a background role) they blazed a trail that once again put Australia on the map as a country whose musical contribution to the world was substantial.
This concert, from the BBC In Concert series issued worldwide via the ever-popular BBC Transcription Service, was originally recorded on August 7, 1976 and features the band at three years old. From what I gather (and if I’m wrong, correct me), this was their second appearance in the UK – the first being 8 days earlier on July 31st.
Hitting their stride just around the time the Punk movement was getting off the ground, they managed to hold their own as one of the more popular Hard Rock bands of the 70’s and are still alive and kicking today (with a few personnel changes here and there; some owing to tragedy).
AC/DC have sold more than 200 million records worldwide, including 75 million albums in the United States, making them the ninth highest-selling artist in the United States and the 16th best selling artist worldwide. Back in Black has sold an estimated 50 million units worldwide, making it the third highest-selling album by any artist, and the highest-selling album by any band. The album has sold 22 million units in the US, where it is the sixth-highest-selling album of all time. AC/DC ranked fourth on VH1’s list of the “100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock” and were named the seventh “Greatest Heavy Metal Band of All Time” by MTV. In 2004, AC/DC ranked No. 72 on the Rolling Stone list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”. Producer Rick Rubin, who wrote an essay on the band for the Rolling Stone list, referred to AC/DC as “the greatest rock and roll band of all time”. In 2010, VH1 ranked AC/DC number 23 in its list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”.
Needless to say, it would be crazy if you didn’t play this concert loud. Besides, it’s election day.
