photos by ron vermeulen
By Steve Newton
AC/DC recently announced that it will tour North America in 2025, with its sole Canadian date being a show in Vancouver on April 22.
That got me thinking of some of the times I’d seen AC/DC in Vancouver.
Like when they played to a rowdy, riotous crowd at BC Place Stadium in 1988 on the Blow Up Your Video Tour. Or that time three years later when they did two nights at the Pacific Coliseum, showcasing tunes from the new album The Razors Edge--the one with “Thunderstruck”–which they’d recorded here with famed local producer Bruce Fairbairn.
Then there was that time I attended an AC/DC concert in Vancouver but didn’t actually see the band perform.
Regrets, I’ve had a few. But that was a biggie.
It happened on July 25, 1978, exactly two months after the North American release of Powerage, which is arguably AC/DC’s best album ever. The Aussie earbusters were opening for Aerosmith, one of my favourite bands at the time.
Two years earlier I’d made the trek with some high-school buddies from my hometown of Chilliwack, B.C. to Seattle, Washington to see the Bad Boys from Boston play the Kingdome on the Rocks Tour. This time around they were touring behind their Draw the Line LP, which I was equally crazy about.
I’m not sure why–maybe the openers hit the stage right at the advertised time of 7 pm–but we got there just when AC/DC had finished. I vividly remember running into a friend-of-a-friend in the concourse who was soaked with sweat and raving wildly about this stunning rock show he’d just witnessed. It made me think of that time I’d arrived late to the same venue in 1975 to see the Edgar Winter Group and got there just as UFO was finishing its encore of “Rock Bottom”.
I’ve paid a bitter price for my tardiness at shows.
Anyway, not only did I miss seeing AC/DC in its prime with Bon Scott, but much to my chagrin, Aerosmith was godawful. That gig would go down in Vancouver concert history for how drugged up the Toxic Twins were, and for how fan-freakin-tastic AC/DC were.
The good news is that B.C.-based audio-industry veteran Ron Vermeulen, aka Ron Obvious, took a bunch of photos of the killer gig I tragically missed and gave me permission to post them here.
Thanks, Ron. Glad you got to see this show, you lucky so-and-so.
To read reviews of the more than 300 other Vancouver concerts that I actually made it to on time go here.