Since the passing of Bon Scott back in February 1980 AC/DC have largely kept out the public eye, only emerging when there’s a world tour and a new album to promote. That is of course until the last couple of years, when the rock n roll train really has started to run off the tracks.
It started when founding member Malcolm Young retired in 2014 following his diagnosis with dementia, his place in the band naturally being filled by nephew Stevie. Incidentally Stevie Young also filled in for Malcolm on the “Blow up Your Video” tour.
Things then went a bit surreal in the DC camp with long time drummer Phil Rudd arrested for procurement to murder, which was subsequently dropped to threatening to kill. Along with numerous drug charges, this resulted in him being left under home arrest… oh and among other things there was also his bizarre piggyback ride out of court.
It was however when the news broke that singer Brian Johnson had been instructed to quit touring by his doctor, or risk losing his hearing completely, that the bands future was put in serious doubt. That was until after weeks of speculation, Guns n’ Roses front-man Axl Rose was announced as stepping in as the (hopefully) temporary replacement.
While it was more than likely a business/financial decision to carry on the tour, it did however beg the question was this going to become a glorified tribute band, or would Axl Rose actually pull it off?
Time for Axl/DC
Once the intro tape had finished running the band exploded onto the stage, opening the two hour set with a fairly painful version of the tours title-track in “Rock or Bust“. Which to be fair isn’t one of my favorite DC tracks anyway, but if it weren’t for the crowd singing along then “Shoot to Thrill” wasn’t sounding particularly convincing either.
Initially this started to put into doubt that my skepticism over the appointment of Axl Rose would be proved wrong. That was however until the spirit of Bon Scott seemed to take over for a superb rendition of “Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to be” and while Axl was sounding on good form for “Back in Black” it was apparent that his voice still wasn’t going to quite replace the more gravelly vocals of Brian Johnson.
You could forgive him though for coming in too early on “Rock n Roll Thunder” from the bands last album. During which I swear Cliff Williams backing vocals were deliberately turned up, to help drown out how this particular one was really sounding, but even the best karaoke singers are aloud an off day.
Angus and Axl
The rhythm of Stevie Young however replaces his uncle perfectly and it’s great to see Chris Slade back behind the kit. As for the set-list, it focused heavily on the classic Back in Black album (the worlds’ second biggest selling album of all time, one behind Michael Jackson‘s “Thriller”). On top of which the inclusion of more Bon Scott era tracks made for a better fit to accommodate Axl Rose’s vocals. The result being a number of songs aired on this tour that haven’t been played live in years.
Lead guitarist Angus Young commands the crowd with ease and still runs around in his trademark school uniform, duck walking and covering every square inch of the stage. Axl Rose isn’t afraid to step forward to face both his fans and critics alike and with tracks such as “If You Want Blood (You’ve Got it)” sounding fantastic, he certainly won over many of the AC/DC faithful. You could tell Rose himself knew he’d absolutely nailed “Sin City” too.
Angus Young
There were the obligatory chimes of the giant Hell’s Bell, an over-sized inflatable woman bouncing aloft the wall of Marshall Amplifiers during “Whole Lotta Rosie” and breasts being exposed for the crowd pleasing “You Shook Me All Night Long“. Axl Rose may still have struggled on a couple more of the Brian Johnson numbers, but at this point the crowd didn’t seem to care, for the atmosphere by the end of the night was electric.
The main set came to a close on “Let there be Rock” complete with the extended Angus Young guitar solo, where Angus played one handed and rolled around the floor. Then as he emerged above the drum kit, had the audience hanging on every note that came from his fingertips.
It’s a rock n roll damnation…
Angus then rose from the flames for “Highway to Hell” and if it wasn’t for “Riff Raff” being covered live by Guns n’ Roses over the years, it would have become a surprise part of the tours encore. Finally as the cannons fired their 21 gun salute during “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)” all that’s left to answer was that question…
So did tonight still count as an AC/DC concert? Well despite a couple of rough patches along the way and against all my expectations, I have to admit that although not quite perfect and while we wish you well Brian and hope for your return – the Axl/DC show was in fact pretty damn good… and for that London, we salute you.
“Pick up your balls and load up your cannon… for a twenty one gun salute”
