AC/DC: Rocking out since 1973. AC/DC: High-Voltage Rock'N' Roll: The Ultimate Illustrated History,
by Phil Sutcliffe, Voyager Press, $69.99
Every AC/DC fan will have their own story to tell about how they came to like the band.
Whether it was listening to their big brother's record collection, hearing the ear-splitting roar and decibel-defying
noise for the first time on radio - or seeing Angus Young creating finger-splitting chords at superspeed dressed in his now-famous schoolboy uniform.
For UK journalist Phil Sutcliffe, it was London's infamous Marquee Club in Wardour St in 1976 and that started his life-long love affair with the hard rocking, hard-living (then all) Aussies.
For me, it was seeing them at London's Hammersmith Odeon in 1979. I was a young punk rocker visiting the big smoke for a punk festival, but went along with a few mates and was blown away by the power.
Now, 30-odd years later, AC/DC is still cranking out its incendiary rock to millions around the globe, with last tour Black Ice packing out 20,000 to 40,000 seat venues everywhere it went (including a few nights in New Zealand). And you'd think that after all that time (they formed in 1973) pretty much everything that could be written about the band had been.
Sutcliffe's 223-page epic isn't going to give you too much that you probably already don't know if you are a big fan, but what it does do is give you plenty of great images, some neat anecdotes and lots and lots of great reading. It's a sort of coffee-table book for heavy rockers.
There's some great photographs (and a spinning Angus on the front cover to keep the kid in you entertained), some terrific quotes from other artists about their own AC/DC thoughts (including Jimmy Page, Meatloaf, Steve Vai, Rob Zombie and Jack Johnson), plus every AC/DC fact you've always wanted to know but couldn't be bothered asking.
And the only thing that would make this book any better would be a CD or DVD of rare and unreleased AC/DC tracks. This could be the ideal Christmas present for the rocker in your life.
