UPDATE FROM FINLAND...

Finnish fish and chips

After the Tampere show AC/DC Abruzzo managed to reach Turku, pretty early in the morning but we missed the boat to Stockholm due to unexpected technical difficulties. Now we'll be forced to take the night boat to Sweden, also known as "Party Boat" (in Italian "Trombonave" which interestingly sounds like "Sex Boat") in order to get there in time for tomorrow's show.

For the record, yesterday's gig in Tampere was just great with an amazing performance of Brian, once again. The "old good" setlist is back. The Ratina stadium was one of the smallest of the tour and we just loved it. Again, we got to see the entire show with daylight which was pretty cool. The Finnish people were probably among the kindest and most friendly people we've met so far during the tour. And special thanks to Pekko and his friends for helping out with the tickets.

Soon report and photos from the Finland show. Ciao!

Exclusive Video from Tampere

AC/DC fan before the show (from Uncle Michel's Archives)

Oslo NO, Valle Hovin Stadion 30 May 2010

Oslo, Norway, Valle Hovin
May, 30 2010

Setlist:
Rock'n'Roll Train
Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be
Back in Black
Big Jack
Dirty Deeds
Thunderstruck
The Jack (incl Angus strip)
Hells Bells
Shoot to Thrill
High Voltage
You Shook Me All Night Long
TNT
Whole Lotta Rosie
Let There Be Rock
Highway to Hell

AC/DC ABRUZZO OFFICIAL REPORT

Only a few AC/DC fans had the privilege to attend an AC/DC show that didn't end with For Those About To Rock. After Velle Hovin 2010 we are are in this small group too. :)

We got to the venue around 7.30 and it was already packed. This small stadium (used as a Ice Rink) was full of fans. After a few minutes inside we bumped into the 3 fans who were with us outside the Telenor Arena in February 2009 for the soundcheck. Lots of nice memories, including the freezing cold. This proves Looy's theory about entropy and AC/DC fans meeting each other again at AC/DC shows.

Anyway the show didn't start as scheduled at 9pm. We understood it wasn't a "normal" delay when the blues cd they put before the RnR Train intro started over... At 9.45 we thought there could have been some problems. The Norwegian fans didn't seem to care too much as long as they had their beers and their big pink ball to play with (see below).

The show finally started. A small mistake at the beginning of Rock'n'Roll Train then everything went back to normality. Brian said that they tried to get there as fast as they could and put on an amazing rock show, with incredibly intensity. You could tell Brian is in fantastic shape in this leg of the tour. Anyway, we felt something was wrong when Shot Down In Flames was dropped. Strange feelings for us. Then we got a "fast" version of The Jack" (no catwalk intro) and for a moment we feared that Angus wasn't going to strip!!! Black Ice and War Machine were dropped too, to our big surprise. An then we got the "fast forward" version of Let There Be Rock, which was very funny. Angus was doing all his moves but at a faster pace: catwalk, guitar on the head, solo on the right, solo on the left, elevator down, left, right, elevator up, on the floor, elevator down, confetti, run to the main stage, on top platform etc etc. AHAHAAH

After the encore we got Highway to Hell. Brian wanted to rock for more but the curfew limitation forced to leave the stage as quick as possible. You could tell from our video that the fireworks started immediately.

The reason for the delay was an alert signal in the Berlin Airport that forced them to leave with some delay with their private jet. The short setlist was mandatory to avoid troubles for the promoter/agent who could have his license suspended (actually a promoter in Italy was about to be jailed for 1 month because Bruce Springsteen ended his show in San Siro, Milan by 22 minutes). And then no more shows for Oslo. So guys stop complaining and welcome to the small club of those who saw and AC/DC show ending with Highway to Hell!

Now we gotta go and get on the train to Tampere. And try to digest the half kilo of Scandinavian salmon that we had for brunch...

One of the light guys stressing out because of the setlist change

The magic Pink ball that kept the crowd calm

Norwegian fan falling asleep before the show

The man is back in town!

Brian at his best

"Fast forward" version of Let There Be Rock

DIRTY DEEDS

After the concert we were invited at a cool aftershow part at the Smuget club in the Oslo city centre organized by the local cover band Dirty Deeds. After the Australian Dirty Deeds we also get to see the Norwegian one. And it was a hell of a show. You can tell they've been playing for 13 years together. They rocked the small club, like AC/DC used to do back in the 70's with Angus going several times inside the audience. The band is more orientated towards the Brian Johnson era repertoire but when the singer decided to sing the first verses of Touch Too Much Bon Scott's style we were really impressed. Excellent version of If You Want Blood too. Keep on Rocking guys and see you soon on the road!

SETLIST CHANGE!!

Yes! The rumours are true! The setlist was changed yesterday in Oslo! In fact there a curfew problem due to the fact that the concert started 50 minutes later than scheduled. Apparently the band arrived late to the venue.

So in end, the Norwegian crowd didn't get to listen to Shot Down In Flames (2nd time they drop this song in Oslo on this tour), Black Ice, War Machine and For Those About to Rock.

Here's the exclusive video of Highway to Hell as last song. Soon the official report.

See you in Finland!


Midnight curfew: Highway to Hell in daylight but no time for cannons...

AC/DC ABRUZZO INVADES POLAND!!!!

Warsaw, Poland, Bemowo Airport,
May, 27 2010

Setlist:
Rock'n'Roll Train
Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be
Back in Black
Big Jack
Dirty Deeds
Shot Down In Flames
Thunderstruck
Black Ice
The Jack (incl Angus strip)
Hells Bells
Shoot to Thrill
War Machine
High Voltage
You Shook Me All Night Long
TNT
Whole Lotta Rosie
Let There Be Rock
Highway to Hell
For Those About To Rock

MORE PHOTOS HERE

AC/DC ABRUZZO OFFICIAL REPORT

Another incredible night of rock'n'roll in Europe! AC/DC rocked Warsaw and around 100 thousand crazy Polish fans! The concert took place at the Bemowo airport, pretty far from the city centre. Interestingly, the promoter decided to leave a very small Front of Stage Section and an disproportionately large GA section behind where it was possible to access for less than half the price (around 40 euros). Technically, "only" 65,000 tickets were sold, but considering that beyond the barriers there was still a lot of room for a few more dozens of thousand people we are that sure many more people were there to listen to the the concert for free, even at a couple of km from the stage...

The ocean of fans was really impressive! We couldn't see the end of the crowd from the elevated seats on the right of stage. A massive audience like in Wels or Hannover… Nonno Alan who was with us told us that it reminded him of Donington (the 1981 one!) whereas Uncle Michel said that it looked a bit like Donington 1991 but there definitely more people in England. And again, being with these 2 fans, we got a lot of exclusive "on the road stories" from the Razor's Edge and the legendary Ballbreaker tour that according to most historic fans was the best of the Brian Johnson's era. (Curiously, we noticed that most hardcore fans, including us, have the tendency to complain about the present tour as opposed to the "the good old times". Actually we do this when we compare the last two legs with the 2008-2009 indoor tour while these historic legendary fans talk about the soundchecks in the late 1970's in Scotland or Brian's voice during Black In Back tour etc. etc.…) And all the days where internet didn't exist or when fans slept in airport and train stations to save money for the following shows...

Anyway, going back to the Warsaw concert this was probably the best performance of the 2010 European tour. Especially Angus! He looked like he enjoyed so much his LTBR on the catwalk solo that he even grabbed a baseball cap thrown from the audience and wore it for a while. Definitely something pretty rare and cool!

The Polish audience was pretty calm. We noticed that no alcohol was admitted on the premises (the first time on the tour!). There was just a small "alcohol zone" and security was very strict on this. We guess that it was done to prevent any accident from alcohol abuse (the Polish are quite famous for bending the elbow quite a lot-see the pic below).

At the end of the show two local girls approached us after seeing the flag and told us they had lived in Abruzzo for a year. Of course they told us they now miss the excellent food and the golden sandy beaches of the Adriatic coast. Ciao Patrizia!

That's it from from Oslo where the Eurovision Contest, probably the most anti-rock'n'roll music event we could bump into, is taking place right now...

Nonno Alan, N'Goulash, The President and Uncle Michel (totaling approx. 500 AC/DC shows altogether)

A drunk Polish fan 3 hours before the show about 1.5 km from the stage in the second standing area

Highway to Hell

Angus on fire

WARSAW PHOTO GALLERY

Best performance of the band in the 2010 European leg tour yesterday. Impressive endless "biblical" crowd...

Here's some exclusive photos. Soon full official report and more exclusive material on the Warsaw gig by AC/DC Abruzzo.

Angus wearing a baseball cap!!!!!!!!

UPDATE from Warsaw + WORLD CHAMPIONS

AC/DC Abruzzo is in Warsaw and in a couple of hours we will head to the Bemovo airport for the gig... The weather seems to be ok at the moment. But later on it will probably another "Stormy May day" like in Wels...

BRIAN AND THE ITALIAN NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM SHIRT

AC/DC Abruzzo and AC/DC Italia offered a set of official football shirts of the Italian team (2006 World Champions) to the band in occasion of their Italian concert in Udine. As you already know Brian wore the shirt on stage during Highway to Hell and For Those About to Rock.

Here's a couple of exclusive pictures of this succesful initiative promoted by AC/DC Italia and AC/DC Abruzzo.

BRIAN BACKSTAGE IN UDINE

BEHIND THE SCENES: DRESS REHEARSALS WITH AC/DC ITALIA

Marco of AC/DC Italia

Matteo testing Brian's shirt

AC/DC Italia and AC/DC Abruzzo looking forward

FORZA ITALIA!!

Unfortunately AC/DC Abruzzo had to skip the Hannover show. But we'll be tomorrow on a plane to Warsaw. So stay tuned! In the meantime some more photos AC/DC Abruzzo in Udine...

The AC/DC Abruzzo Bat-Mobile

The Vice President and Secretary General

ThundersTruck

KOSP ITALIAN SEDUCTION SCHOOL

Techniques that proved very effective in Australia unfortunately don't seem to work in Europe as we expected. We had a brief meeting with the Kosp himself in Udine and a phone call with K.K. to discuss the problem. They explained the new work environment and guaranteed that things will improve dramatically in Poland and Scandinavia... So we just have to wait a few more days...

With Giorgia

Wels, Austria Air Field (Flugplatz Wels), May 22, 2010

Wels, Austria, Air Field,
May, 22 2010

Setlist:
Rock'n'Roll Train
Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be
Back in Black
Big Jack
Dirty Deeds
Shot Down In Flames
Thunderstruck
Black Ice
The Jack (incl Angus strip)
Hells Bells
Shoot to Thrill
War Machine
High Voltage
You Shook Me All Night Long
TNT
Whole Lotta Rosie
Let There Be Rock
Highway to Hell
For Those About To Rock

AC/DC Abruzzo Secretary General at work

From the Secretary General Private Journal

The President and VicePresident had to go back to Abruzzo to honour work commitments so I had to reach Udine from Brescia by train on my own. In Udine I had a meeting with Orangus. Without caring too much about unexploded World War 2 bombs or endangered species of anti-rock'n'roll birds we left Udine for Wels, Austria late in the morning by car...
After a 5-hour drive from Udine during which Orangus made me listen to all sort of music, from vocalist Lisa Gerrard to Sabaton's epic heavy metal (with almost unbearable high volume-but Orangus is almost deaf after so many concerts) we finally arrived in Wels at around 6 pm. The city was empty. A ghost city. Nobody around. It looked like everybody was at the show.
We followed the signs to the venue which we knew it was a huge airfield. Most of the people were already inside. They told us they had sold 95,000 tickets (sold out). However they were still selling tickets at the box office so it was a "technical sellout" as we call it in AC/DC Abruzzo's jargon (the sellout is officially announced but you'll find tickets at the venue on the day of the show).
We met with Roberto that we had last seen in Madrid last year for the indoor tour (he was ticket hunting like us-in retrospect the 2009 indoor tour we did without tickets was pretty hardcore stuff).
Inside the venue, the ocean of fans was impressive. A biblical sight. Probably the largest crowd of the tour. And it was pretty hard to move almost anywhere, even at hundreds of metres from the stage. It was packed. The 1-liter AC/DC personalised beer jug was back in action for the delight of the Austrian and German fans. Once again, after Brisbane, we got heavy rain. And a lot of mud everywhere.
The band on stage seemed to be in much better shape than the previous 3 euroshows. And the crescendo was evident during the concert, especially after High Voltage. The first three songs were played under heavy rain, and we even had some thunders during Thunderstruck, which was pretty cool. Brian's voice at the beginning sounded a bit low but then he warmed up and delivered a kick ass performance like in Sofia. Angus looked like he enjoyed rain (but we've known that since Munich 2009). This time, no mistakes like in Udine or Bucharest. The band seemed to be back full throttle. Great audience, at least according to my impression and my area. Just consider that the front of stage area (with barriers that were as high as prison gates) was as large as the entire standing section in Udine. During the show the boobs parade was back on the big screens. Last time was in Perth... Long time ago...
Of course, during the show we lost Orangus. He just disappeared, Orangus' style. But we found him again later on. He had no girls with him and didn't provide any reasonable excuse for his absence. I guess this is part of his irrational rock'n'roll attitude...
After this unexpected AC/DC Mudstock and another show under our belt we hit the road again to go back to Italy. I saw Orangus pretty tired so I offered to drive. But I fell asleep before even starting. We made a couple of stops to sleep a little bit... Early in the morning I took a train from Udine to Abruzzo.

TEXT MESSAGE FROM ORANGUS TO THE PRESIDENT
"Stormy night. Pandemonium. Technical audio problems.
Cold weather. Wind. Rain. Mud. Quicksands.
I got lost. Can't find my shoes.
Too bad: the 5 dwarfs were in killer shape tonight..."

Orangus in Wels