Jane Albert - House Of Hits: The Great Untold Story Of Australias First Family Of Music

HOUSE
OF HITS

JANE ALBERT

hardiegrant books
MELBOURNE LONDON

Published in Australia in 2010
by Hardie Grant Books
85 High Street
Prahran, Victoria 3181, Australia
www.hardiegrant.com.au

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders.

The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

Copyright Jane Albert 2010

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Albert, Jane.
House of hits / Jane Albert.
ISBN 9781740668811 (hbk.)
J. Albert and Son. Music publishersAustralia. Music publishingAustralia. Music tradeAustralia.
070.50994

Jacket design by Design by Committee
Text design by Design by Committee and Jay Ryves
Typeset by Megan Ellis
Cover photography by Philip Morris and Alberts
Printed and bound in Australia by Ligare

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To my husband and dearest friend Andrew, for your endless support and for believing in me so wholeheartedly, as only you can. And to my dear dad, Robert: without you none of this would have been possible. Thank you for entrusting me with such a precious gift, our familys story. Its been an interesting ride but we got there in the end.

Its not every day you find yourself travelling through the streets of Chicago on AC/DCs personal tour bus, shooting the breeze with Malcolm and Angus Young, the brothers who formed the band in 1973 and who have been the creative core ever since. Then again, the past twenty-four hours had been a pretty surreal experience.

It was 30 October 2008, and Barack Obamas home city of Chicago was consumed with the man many hoped would become the first African-American president of the United States. The presidential election was only five days away so it was no surprise that every news medium, all spare poster space and even the guy selling trinkets on the corner should be turned over to Obama-mania. The enthusiasm was well founded, for Obama won the election, becoming the eighth US president to hold office since AC/DC were formed.

But just forty-five minutes out of town the vibe was entirely different. The Chicago Allstate Arena was the site of the second show in AC/DCs three-year world tour, their first in seven years. Anticipation was running at fever pitch. It had been a long wait for the return of Australias most successful rock act, and fans were impatient to get the show under way. The unmistakable gothic lettering of the AC/DC logo was visible wherever you turned mostly plastered across the black T-shirt-clad chests of burly blokes, but there was also a fair spread of feminine pink and yellow low-cut tees, tattoos, leather jackets, caps, even custom-made Doc Martens boots. And this wasnt your typical forty-something rocker crowd; in some cases, three generations had come together to live the experience that is an AC/DC concert. Boys as young as four tore around the arena, their grey-haired grandfathers struggling to chase after them. Ticket prices had been capped at $US90, in line with the bands recognition that most of their fans are working class and/or young, making this a concert many could afford to enjoy.

The excitement and impatience began to grow as the support act took the stage. Irish rockers and AC/DC label mates The Answer had been handpicked for the tour. Acknowledging most of the crowd were there for the main event, the band punched out a short set. The reception was encouraging, but the hysteria levels rose as the Irish lads took their bows and cleared the stage.

The arena was plunged into darkness and a screen descended from the ceiling. A cheeky, high-energy animation appeared on the screen, featuring Angus as a devil attempting to stop a runaway train that had been hijacked by zealous (and busty) she-devils. Too late: a life-sized steam train suddenly burst through the screen and crashed onto the stage. The smoke cleared to reveal the band: lead guitarist Angus, Malcolm on rhythm guitar, singer Brian Johnson, bass guitarist Cliff Williams and drummer Phil Rudd. The crowd went berserk.

Despite the bands combined ages heading towards 300 years, they performed with all the explosive energy for which they are renowned. They kicked off with a raucous rendition of Rock N Roll Train, the opening track from their latest album, Black Ice , while the set list featured perennial favourites Back in Black, Thunderstruck, TNT and You Shook Me All Night Long. Angus, clad in his trademark school uniform, was soon ripping out riffs with startling force. He treated the audience to all his tricks, beginning with a tongue-in-cheek striptease during The Jack, and ending up spinning maniacally on stage, playing frantically all the while. Impressive for a man in his fifties whose only recreational drugs are nicotine and tea.

The multimillion-dollar Black Ice tour had opened on the back of the albums release, in the blue-collar town of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on 28 October, before moving to Chicago. Black Ice , the bands first studio album in eight years, is broadly acknowledged to be more of the same guitar-based rock wrapped around sex, booze and rocknroll-soaked lyrics. It went triple platinum in Australia in the first two weeks and was the first of their albums to debut at No 1 on the influential US Billboard chart. It sold more than 1 million copies in the US in the first few weeks, despite the bands standard refusal to make the album available in digital format. Instead, it was sold exclusively through Wal-Mart stores, the largest supermarket chain in the US.

AC/DC still have the ability to pack stadiums in Australia too. When tickets for their 2010 concert dates went on sale in May 2009, the tour became the fastest selling in Australias history. More than half a million tickets, worth about $50 million, were sold within hours. In Melbourne alone, 110,000 tickets to the bands two scheduled shows at Etihad Stadium were snapped up in the first forty-five minutes. This compares with a total 36,000 tickets bought for the bands previous three Melbourne concerts at the Rod Laver Arena in 2001. Demand was so great for the 2010 tour that additional shows were scheduled.

The album sales, the fans, the hype, the hysteria were a far cry from the early days of AC/DC. Back then, it took seven long years and no less than eight albums for the band to turn a profit and begin their world domination of rocknroll. But while the popular music establishment of the time often dismissed the band and their dated music, one man refused to give up, steadfastly believing they were on the cusp of something huge and backing up this belief with a steady stream of funding. Hed already tasted success with The Easybeats and was adamant AC/DC were destined for even greater things. That man was Ted Albert.

Alberts was founded in the late nineteenth century by Swiss immigrant, watchmaker, violinist and author Jacques Albert. The business was soon expanded by his son, Frank, who proved to be a visionary entrepreneur who would have a profound influence on music in Australia during the first half of the twentieth century. Frank Albert developed the Boomerang range of mouth organs and the indispensable Boomerang Songsters but the companys main staple was, and still is, music publishing, and today Alberts stands as Australias oldest independent music publishing house.