In the early 70s, the Australian music scene limped along like a lame dingo. Sophisticated pop groups selling three-part harmonies have clogged the charts and the pub scene. But Glasgow-born, Sydney-raised guitarist Malcolm Young wasn’t going to let such trivialities get in the way of his musical dreams.
The headstrong 20-year-old enlisted vocalist Dave Evans, bassist Larry Van Kriedt, drummer Colin Burgess and his own 15-year-old brother Angus into a new band named after a sticker on a vacuum cleaner. On the last day of 1973, AC/DC made their live debut at Checkers, a dilapidated cabaret bar in Sydney, taking their first step towards stardom.
Malcolm Young: I got together with some guys interested in jamming and I thought, “If I can get a rock’n’roll song out of them, we’ll get some shows and some extra money.”
Young Angus: Malcolm was playing the club circuit and said the only thing he was missing was a good band, one hundred percent hard rock.
Colin Burgess (drummer): I was in a very successful Australian band in the 60s called The Masters Apprentices, but we broke up in 1972, so I was lost. A guy named Alan Kissack, who was involved in forming bands, called me and said that Malcolm Young wanted to form a band.
Malcolm was the younger brother of George Young, who was in The Easybeats, the most successful Australian band of the 60s, so I said, “Sure, let’s give it a try.” Even so, Malcolm was very ambitious. He was a tough businessman, he didn’t take no for an answer. We formed the band with Malcolm, myself and Larry Van Kriedt, just a threesome. From the beginning it was quite heavy.
Larry Van Kriedt (bass): I was part of both Mal and Angus’ circle of friends. Our main interest and common point was playing guitar and music. In 1973, I had recently bought a bass and they heard this and wanted me to play. So I went and continued every night after that. We rehearsed a bunch of Mal’s songs and some covers.
Colin Burgess: We rehearsed on top of an office building on the corner of Erskineville Road and Wilson Street in Newtown, Sydney. We used to do a Beatles track – Return. I threw that in just so we could say we did a Beatles track.
Larry Van Kriedt: We had the same room every week on the first floor. Good rehearsals, bad rehearsals, creative moments, sometimes arguments and even fights. It was basically Malcolm’s vision and he was the driving force behind it.
Colin Burgess: Dave Evans appeared a little later, and then Angus.
Dave Evans (vocalist): I was with an Australian band called The Velvet Underground, which I have to say was not the New York band of the same name. Then I saw this ad on Sydney Morning Herald, a band that was looking for a singer in the Free and Rolling Stones style, which I was, and when I called I found myself talking to Malcolm Young. We never met, but we knew each other. He invited me that afternoon to a jam, so I went to an empty office building; was being renovated.
Angus wasn’t in the band yet, so I joined and introduced myself to Malcolm and Colin. It was hot, it was already summer, and we played a bunch of songs that we all knew. We only played about five or six songs, we were all smiling, and Malcolm just looked at the other guys and said, “Well, I’m happy if you are.” Colin and Larry said “Yes” and I said, “Wow!” We shook hands and that was it. That night we all went out to celebrate that we had a band.
About a week later, Malcolm informed us that his younger brother Angus had a band called Kentuckee that was breaking up, so could Angus come and audition for us? At that point, we felt like we were a band, so we just said, “Sure.”
Colin Burgess: Actually, Malcolm was a very good lead guitarist, so it seemed strange for him to want to bring in another guitarist, like Angus.
Malcolm Young: Everything was fine, but I felt like I needed another instrument – a keyboard maybe, or another guitar.
Young Angus: I was totally shocked when he asked me to play with his band. I didn’t expect it and I was very scared.
Malcolm Young: Angus was the player, to be honest. He was always the showman for both of us when we were kids.
Young Angus: I walked in the door and there was a drummer, and Malcolm said, “Alright, let’s get started!” And I say, “Wait, shouldn’t someone count on us?” He says, “What? This is a rock band. Go!” And that’s how it all started.
David Evans: At this point, we become five instead of four. We had been rehearsing for a few months when Malcolm told us that Alan Kissack had got us our first gig, at Checkers nightclub. This was Sydney’s first club. I’ve done a lot of shows, but never Checkers, so it was great.
Gene Pierson (Entertainment Manager, Checkers): Checkers, traditionally, was a restaurant theater in the 60s, where they featured artists like Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Dusty Springfield, Dionne Warwick, and I was hired at the end of that time. My job was to get in there and change the format, turn it into a rock’n’roll venue, but the old school was still in charge.
The two guys who really convinced me to put the band in Checkers were their first manager, Alan Kissack, and their roadie, Ray Arnold, both of whom are now deceased. Alan was a humble little man with glasses, but he lived and breathed AC/DC. He was convinced they would be the biggest band in the world. He and Ray were great gentlemen, too good to work in the music industry. It was Alan’s perseverance that convinced me to put on a show for them.
David Evans: The show was on New Year’s Eve, prime time, and there was a lot of interest in the band because Colin Burgess was in it, and the two younger brothers of the famous George Young of The Easybeats. So there was a lot of expectation, but we didn’t even have a name yet.
Colin Burgess: I had been in the business for years, so I had a lot of friends. A lot of people knew me, so they assumed the band would be good because they knew I wouldn’t play with any old trash.
David Evans: The only problem was that we were expected to do two sets, but we didn’t have enough songs. We had a few originals, but it was mostly Rolling Stones, Free, Eric Clapton, so to get enough songs Malcolm said he would start a riff, I would announce a name for it and then we would do that. as we progressed. That pleased me a lot, because when I was eleven, my sister and I used to make up songs on the spot. We had a game called Hit Parade where we played imaginary song titles at each other and then made them up. So I knew how to do it. Now, however, we had to find a name quickly.
In the next essay, Malcolm said that his sister had suggested AC/DC, and I really liked it because it was easy to remember and gave us free advertising on every electrical appliance in the world. At that time we didn’t know it had a sexual connotation. I used to date a few gay men and had never heard them use that term. For us, it was just electric current.
Paul Close (audience member): At the time of that show, I was doing sound and staging for artists on the East Coast. I remember there was a huge vibe building before they even arrived for soundcheck that day. Word was spreading about them. Their manager got them a Greyhound tour bus to travel on. The equipment, band and crew traveled together in it. It was a sight to see that big, long bus stop in the back lane, behind Checkers, to unload.
David Evans: It was very glamorous in the 50s and 60s, but when we played there, it was past its prime. It was a small place, with a small stage, no dressing room. You got dressed in the kitchen or in a small alcove next to the stage. The decor was still very 50s. There were tables with white tablecloths, a dance floor and crescent-shaped booths where you could sit. You could say it must have been pretty cool once and it was still the place to be.
Larry Van Kriedt: It was a show that started late. They would normally have three bands in one night. We were the first band to play when we played there. I didn’t have a bass amp and we asked one of the other bands if we could use theirs.
Paulo Close: The buzz in the air that night was palpable – a full house and the bar was doing brisk business as everyone from the industry came to see this new band.
Gene Pierson: I’ll never forget, the first song they made was Baby, please don’t go, which was a hit for Van Morrison’s first band, Them. When I stood out front, it was the first time I felt the bass and drums vibrating in my chest. They were deeper and louder than anything else I had ever heard.
Colin Burgess: No one was dancing at first. Then my brother Paul, who was driving us in the car, was the first to get up and start dancing. After that everyone started and from then on I knew the band would be a success, without a doubt.
Angus Young: We had to stand up and explode. From the moment ‘Go!’ it was amazing. Everyone thought we were a bunch of crazy people. You know…’ “Who’s feeding the kids bananas?”
David Evans: Angus didn’t have a school uniform back then. We were just wearing jeans, shirts and stuff. What we had was absolute energy and a belief in ourselves. Even though we were very young, we were all already professionals. Our attitude was that we were going to be the best band in the world.
Paulo Close: They grabbed people by the throat with the high-level energy that has since become their trademark. They were a tight-knit band that played hard and certainly shook the bubblegum pop crowd out of their placid existence.
David Evans: Our two sets that night were basically a mix of songs we knew, plus some originals, including The old bay roadwritten by Malcolm Young and Midnight Rock, and the songs we were making up. Nobody knew the difference.
Gene Pierson: Peter Casey, the club manager, was an old Greek gentleman who ran the club in the days of its cabaret-style performances. He pulled the plugs in the middle of a track because he thought they were too loud. They would turn the power back on and twenty minutes later Casey would take it out again.
David Evans: I told the people about the New Year. Everyone was in a great mood because it was New Year’s Eve and the crowd just went crazy. It was an incredible, fantastic first show that I will never forget. How could I? It was amazing.
Young Angus: This show was really wild. It’s crazy on New Year’s Eve anyway, but putting what we were doing on top of all the seasonal stuff just made it even wilder.
Gene Pierson: After that gig I got them gigs at another big venue, Bondi Lifesavers, and more gigs at Checkers and elsewhere. They developed a large following very quickly. After Angus got his school uniform, he was like a man in a trance, and he climbed the bars, the tables, and played all the time. He was unbelievable. They were like nothing anyone had seen before
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