Interview: Angus & Malcolm Young, AC/DC

 

ACiDiC YOUNGSTERS

This year's "Monsters of Rock" at Donington Park sees AC/DC headlining for the third time. So Mike "Jet Setter" Nicholls decided to grab a word or two with Australia's native Youngs, Angus and Malcolm, discovering that their cynicism and wit on such subjects as rock and the corporate selling-off of their heartland is as sharp as the proverbial razor...

Having entered the highest echelons of the heavy rock pecking order with the Mutt Lange produced Highway to Hell in 1979, the last decade began tragically for the high voltage rockers. Singer Bon Scott was found dead in a car following the despatch of an unspeakable quantity of vodka.

However, with Geordie, Brian Johnson, recruited to take over vocals, the next album, appropriately entitled Back in Black, became AC/DC's biggest seller to date, its 10 million sales establishing them in America once and for all. The band's profile was further raised by headlining two Doningtons - in 81 and 84 - and they are still the only group ever to have done this (aren't you forgetting WHITSNAKE? - Ed). The late-80s then saw them starting to cross over to the chart audience with "Heatseeker" making the UK top 20, and most of their videos being shown on mainstream pop TV programmes like the Chart Show.

Unlike some of their more recent LPs, AC/DC's latest album The Razor's Edge was not produced by themselves. Rather they drafted in Bruce Fairbairn, whose most recent success stories have been with the likes of AEROSMITH and BON JOVI. Since Fairbairn is Canadian, they recorded the platter in bracing Vancouver. How did AC/DC feel about swapping boozy Sydney for such civilised surroundings?

"Oh, it was very nice, I highly recommend it," Angus deadpans, "but not for rock music. No, it's great, it really is. I mean the nightlife! I enjoyed it immensely. I'll say no more... Working with Bruce was great and Mike Fraser, who mixed and engineered The Razor's Edge, turned out to be a big fan of ours. He knew what he wanted and what he could improve on so it's a bit like a lot of our early stuff - right there and in your face."

"Unlike a lot of our fans he didn't reckon Back in Black was our finest hour. He preferred the drum sound we had before then," Angus goes on, before trying to demonstrate the difference by impersonating various percussive items with his mouth. "Yeah," he resumes, "we finally admitted that trying to produce ourself was a bit like the Hollywood thing: 'I wanna write, I wanna act, I wanna direct, I wanna produce'... basically you need a good umpire to keep it taught."

Talk of drum sounds naturally leads to mention of the fact that the group now have a new drummer Chris Slade (ex-THE FIRM and GARY MOORE), who during recording replaced Simon Wright.

"Yeah, I think he got itchy feet," claims Angus (the guitarist clearly prefers questions which allow room for frivolous answers).

Where are you all living now? It used to be anywhere along the London Sydney flight path didn't it?

"That's right, we're really spaced out," he replies. "No, Brian still spends a lot of time in America, but they wouldn't have me! He's living in Florida, somewhere called Fort Myers, a place which specialises in the newlyweds and the nearlydeads. Malcolm has got a house in London as well as one in Sydney and I am also in Oz most of the time. If I get bored bored I'll rent somewhere for a while anywhere really, it changes constantly."

Over the years AC/DC have spent a great deal of time on the road. Promoting The Razor's Edge has taken up the best part of a year, and they have never really found the time or inclination to listen to what else is happening... check out the competition, as it were. 

"Yeah, well you hear about all these acts," says Angus, "but then, before you know it, they've been and gone. The UK seems to be very fashion conscious."

"There's the geography too," reckons Malcolm, who, like his brother, is boyish looking, certainly a lot younger than most guys in their late 30s look.

"With this country being smaller, the word gets round much faster. In the States you can tour for ten years on the smell of a hit single. In Britain you do Top of the Pops and you're out for good unless you have another hit."

"All this being the case, I tend to listen to old stuff," says Angus. "I like MUDDY WATERS. But we're moving up to date. I think I played something contemporary the other day, like THE ROLLING STONES! But you have to remember that it was stuff like trad jazz and swing which led to the birth of rock and roll. Not rockabilly, that was lightweight, good for people like THE SHADOWS."

Various authorities have said the origins of rock were in ragtime, I venture.

"I know a man from Glasgow who reckons it comes from Scotland." Angus replies, switching to surreal mode, "and an Irishman who thinks it comes from there. But then so did Elvis! One thing is for sure, though, ACDC started off playing rock music and stuck to it. A lot of other bands have changed direction, and maybe come back to it if the climate is right."

"Actually," Malcolm rejoins, "it's a sad fact in this business that rock is the biggest area of music happening, and, yet, if you want to hear any on the radio, you have to sit around and whistle for about an hour a week's worth. Rock generates the biggest record sales and the biggest concerts, but there was more of it out there on the airwaves back in the 60s. John Peel plays about 100 records or tapes a week by unknown artists and if one of them is a hit, then he's doing all right for himself. But if you throw enough shit at the fan, it's bound to stick. I think that's what has happened with the charts in Britain."

With the sudden flurry of indie dance records?

"Now you've got me there," Angus confesses. "Indie, that's a new one on me. Takes me a while to work it out. It's almost as bad as Gazza!"

Better him than JASON and KYLIE!

"Aha! It's Australia's revenge on the UK for sending over DES O'CONNOR. No, Kylie is not Australia's first lady. That title still belongs to DAME EDNA. Just like heavy rock remains the best music. OK, so our last few albums haven't sold as well as Back in Black. But if we stopped making records tomorrow, we could still be on the road for another 20 years."

Like the Stones - they've not sold that many records considering they played to 5 million people on a world tour last year...

"Yeah, maybe they should have got round to increasing the size of the hole in the middle a bit," returns Angus, fast as a shot.

What with INXSs, MIDNIGHT OIL, and all the other Aussie rockers, there seem to be more Australian bands visiting these shores of late. Must be the cheaper flights.

"Well, that's how we first got to America," says Angus. "The first time we went there they took one look at us and sent us back. Thought we were illegal aliens. That would have been about 76, 77, but it was nothing compared to what happened when we first came to Britain. Our arrival coincidentally occurred at the same time as punk was starting up. So our record company, the fuckers, decided to cash in on it by sticking labels on the singles declaring 'more chunder from down under' and 'antipodean punk.' I'm not very educated, you understand, so I thought it was some kind of Greek island."

"We were put in direct competition with the SEX PISTOLS," adds Malcolm for the benefit of unusual fact freaks, "playing all the same venues, like the Red Cow in Hammersmith and the Electric Circus in Manchester. And to cap it all, we didn't even know it! We thought the kids were wearing school uniforms because of Angus's stage gear. Because skinny ties had become all the rage."

"Oh, yes, I was first with all the gear," Angus affirms. "But then the annoying thing was, having had nothing to do with the way we were marketed, we were accused of jumping on the bandwagon. But then we weren't the only ones. A mellow guy like NILS LOFGREN was dubbed 'punk from New York' and even BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN got roped in. He must have been the professor of punk!

After going through all that, I guess we're lucky AC/DC even bother to come back here. Not that Sydney is perfect.

"Sure there are lots of good venues," Angus agrees, "but you should hear the racket just down the road from me every Thursday night, not to mention Fridays and Saturdays. The streets are mobbed because Australians live for the weekend."

Hmmm, here they don't have a reputation for working that hard - certainly not in comparison with the citizens of London and New York...

"Well, remember," suggests Malcolm, "we are all descendants of convicts and you know how 'they' are into all the dodges and perks. Actually, we probably get it from our prime minister who has managed to set the country back 10 years. I'm not a Tory by any means, but this Labour government has just kept borrowing. Two years ago we were on the verge of becoming a banana republic so he started selling everything to the Japanese."

"This is all absolutely true," says Angus, "during the Second World War the Japanese were trying to capture the Pacific islands. Now they just buy them, along with the best bits of Australia. They're opening a Disney World in Queensland - or should that be Sony World? Then there are the golf courses labelled 'for Japanese only.' That's a bit bad, if you ask me. I mean they did lose the war!"

Still, the Japanese do like a bit of heavy metal. That can't be bad for business. Maybe that's why there's a big rock revival right now.

"Unless they've found more minerals in the world," returns the wise-cracking antipodean.

Mike Nichols
Pix: Paul Smith
Riff Raff
August 1991

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