me ‘n angus and some memorabilia
By Steve Newton
I’m a lucky guy, ’cause I’ve seen AC/DC in concert a buncha times.
The first time was at Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum back in 1983, at the start of the Flick of the Switch tour, right after interviewing a couple of the band members at their fancy hotel.
Then I saw them in 1988 at BC Place Stadium when they were touring behind the Blow Up Your Video LP. That time I managed to weasel my way backstage and get them to autograph my pass. (Wish I’d had a Sharpie instead of a Bic.)
Three years later they were back at the Coliseum, playing two shows on the Razors Edge Tour. I went both nights, living up to my self-imposed Media Slut from Hell label.
And I distinctly remember seeing them in 2001 at the Coliseum on the Stiff Upper Lip tour, because I met Malcolm Young again backstage after the show and he signed my CD copy of Powerage while claiming that it was his personal favourite AC/DC album.
The last time I saw AC/DC in concert was back in 2008 at Vancouver’s GM Place on the Black Ice tour. I remember some fanatical fan prowling the box office offered me $900 bucks for my two complimentary reviewer tickets, but I turned him down. My wife really wanted to see AC/DC for the first time, for starters. They were so brutally loud, though, that she had a raging headache the entire night and all next day.
My enthusiasm for seeing AC/DC in concert started to wane after Mal stopped performing live with them two years later due to health problems. And I had zero interest in seeing them when Axl Rose took over on vocals from the hearing-impaired Brian Johnson in 2016. (If Jimmy Barnes had been recruited instead I might have cared.)
But if you’re one of those rare rock ‘n’ roll fans who’ve always wanted to see AC/DC live but never have, there’s still hope, as today the band announced a Vancouver show at BC Place on August 13, 2026.
It’s not the same AC/DC you may recall from the Back in Black glory days, but it is the same lineup that played the stadium last April. While founding lead guitarist Angus Young is still in the band, along with longtime vocalist Johnson–who took over from Bon Scott in 1980–the “classic” rhythm section of drummer Phil Rudd and bassist Cliff Williams is now composed of Matt Laug and Chris Chaney, respectively. Malcolm Young’s nephew Stevie Young has been delivering his late uncle’s precise rhythm riffs in concert since 2014.
Whether or not 78-year-old Johnson will be able to sing alright by the time AC/DC hits BC Place for the second time in two years is anybody’s guess. But judging by the footage I saw of the band’s 2024 Power Up European tour, Angus can still rip up the frets on his trusty Gibson SG while duckwalking across the stage.
And if you’ve never seen him do that live, maybe it’ll be worth paying whatever ridiculous sum Live Nation is charging when tickets go on sale this Friday (November 7) at 10 a.m.
Or you could just stay home with a Pilsner in hand and blast your red-vinyl copy of Powerage on the stereo instead.
To hear the full 23-minute audio of my 1983 interview with AC/DC’s Malcolm Young and Brian Johnson subscribe to my Patreon page, where you can eavesdrop on over 600 of my uncut, one-on-one conversations with the legends of rock since 1982.