To paraphrase one of their most iconic songs, AC/DC is set to shake Europe all summer long on their first tour there in eight years. Longtime AC/DC band members Angus Young and Brian Johnson will be joined by guitarist Stevie Young, drummer Matt Laug, and Jane’s Addiction’s bassist Chris Chaney for the PWR/UP tour, in support of their 2020 album Power Up.
To note that audiences are excited is an understatement: When tickets went on sale earlier this year, the guys were, let’s just say, pleasantly “Thunderstruck” to find out they sold 1.5 million tickets in just one day.
“We can’t wait to see you all out there,” the AC/DC band members said in a statement, and the tour kicks off May 17 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, before hitting Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, England, Slovakia, Belgium, France and Ireland by August’s end. Matching the public’s excitement is AC/DC’s opening act, Taylor Momsen’s The Pretty Reckless. “It’s f—ing AC/DC. That’s it,” they said in a release about the no-brainer decision of joining the titans of rock on their loud and wild ride throughout the continent.
Power Up is the 18th release from the band that was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2003 thanks to its brilliant mix of rock, metal, and blues on albums such as 1977’s Let There Be Rock, 1979’s Highway to Hell, 1980’s Back in Black, 1981’s For Those About to Rock, and more. Then in 2010, the 10-time Grammy-nominated band took home their first and only trophy for Best Hard Rock Performance for “War Machine,” off of 2008’s Black Ice LP.
The legendary group was first formed in Sydney, Australia, in 1973 by brothers Angus and Malcolm Young, and it further took shape in Melbourne before the other main AC/DC band members — Bon Scott, Phil Rudd, and Mark Evans — made the leap to London in 1976, with Cliff Williams replacing Evans a year later.
Through the decades, the lineup has changed due to some tragic deaths, as well as other health and legal issues. Still, some who had stepped away couldn’t resist returning for some fun when the band played the Power Trip hard-rock festival on Oct. 7 last year in Indio, California. “I got chills when the first few notes of ‘Back in Black’ started playing, and had to turn around and look at all the people around me to soak in the once-in-a-lifetime (or at least once-in-seven-years) moment we were all sharing,” wrote a reporter for the Desert Sun about the group’s first live performance since 2016.
Next, Europe will get the pleasure of rocking out to “Hells Bells,” “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap,” “T.N.T,” and “Moneytalks” (shockingly the band’s only Top 40 single). But first, let’s take a look at how Angus and his fellow AC/DC band members have fared through the years.
The youngest of eight, this Scottish-born lead guitarist (whose family moved to Australia when he was 8) co-founded the band in 1973 with his brother Malcolm. Angus fell in love with rock thanks to “Chuck Berry’s guitar,” he told Total Guitar, adding that once he discovered music, schoolwork became a chore. “I didn’t go to school much.… I got into a lot of trouble when I was young. I wouldn’t say I was a budding bank-robber or anything, but I was a bit of a juvenile delinquent.”
“That was the most frightened I’ve ever been on stage, but thank God, I had no time to think. I just went straight out there. The crowd’s first reaction to the shorts and stuff was like a bunch of fish at feeding time — all mouths open,” he recalled. “I had just one thing on my mind: I didn’t want to be a target for blokes throwing bottles. I thought if I stand still I’m a target. So I never stopped moving. I reckoned if I stood still I’d be dead.”
Angus, who’s been married to wife Ellen Van Lochem since 1980, has kept up with his energetic duckwalking performances throughout the band’s 50-plus year career, as he’s the only remaining founding member of the band still playing. He personally surprised and mingled with fans at a High Voltage AC/DC pop-up museum at Club 5 on the eve of last year’s Power Trip festival in Indio, California.
