O2 Arena, London April 16, 2009

ANGUS "ON FIRE"!

O2 Arena, London April 16, 2009

SETLIST

1. Rock'n'roll Train
2. Hell ain't a bad place to be
3. Back in Black
4. Big Jack
5. Dirty Deeds
6. Shot Down in Flames
7. Thunderstruck
8. Black Ice
9. The Jack
10. Hell's Bells
11. Shoot to Thrill
12. War Machine
13. Anything Goes
14. You Shook Me All Night Long
15. TNT
16. Whole Lotta Rosie
17. Let there be Rock
18. Highway to Hell

19. For Those About to Rock

AC/DC ABRUZZO OFFICIAL REPORT

Another show under the belt for AC/DC Abruzzo. 17 shows so far. Not bad at all. But we still want more!

SCHOOL DAYS

However, London left us with mixed feelings. Someone once said AC/DC represented "the ultimate middle finger aimed at the establishment..."! AC/DC Abruzzo fully understood the strong aversion to all sort of imposed codes of conduct and stupid etiquette in the London O2 arena when facing all sorts of ridiculous warnings, public announcements, semantically empty sentences and weird pseudo-nazi behaviours by the staff and security guys all of which are totally inappropriate for a rock'n'roll show. Especially after seeing AC/DC play in 10 different countries. Maybe they are good for Michael Jackson, but definetely ot for AC/DC.

We will skip the details. The O2 arena in London was just the polished and refined version of what we saw in Prague (O2 arena too) where they actually used airport scanners for each single bag and person. No kidding. And dozens of security managers everywhere wearing a suit and headphones, a beautidul mixture of Star Trek and James Bond movies...

Ok, times have changed and we know that even rock'n'roll is now a victim of this corporate bullshit and anti-terrorism crap mixed with UK anti-hooligan policies but hey, we're talking about an AC/DC show here, the same AC/DC show we saw in Paris, Milan or Barcelona where everybody seemed to have a fucking great time without being hurt.

When in Rome do as the Roman do

Actually no. We did as the Abruzzeses do. And it worked pretty well! We rocked the way we wanted and we showed our flag during The Jack and Let There Be Rock, as usual. Even if they had told us not to show our flag inside the venue ('Ngulammamet!).

We had a great time! We were just disappointed about seeing how calm and quiet was the London crowd. Even during TNT. People in the seats actually looked bored!! We must confess we had high expectations for this show, especially after being at the Hammersmith gig in 2003. Maybe too high. Something in the same league as Paris, Milan or Barcelona. Probably it was just the consequence of the ball breaking security policies we mentioned above.

Apart from that we got another excellent performance by the band. Ok, Brian fucked up during the Jack (we are sure it was because of the headphones problem he has as he told us in Stockholm) but he was just great for the whole show. We just loved how Angus immediately took control of the situation, stepped in and gave a cue to Brian to come out of the empasse. What a professional!!

We have to admit that the British crowd does love Whole Lotta Rosie (just the first part, at least) during which they screamed very loud. Brian made us sing "when it comes to lovin'" both nights. They also seem to like Let There Be Rock a lot too, when there was some serious jumping and some crowd surfing in our section (2 brave surfers).

R'n'R (Tube) Train

As we wrote in the previous post we seriously ran the risk not to go to the show this time! When we were supposed to take the metro to go to the O2 arena the Jubilee line stopped working and we got stuck at Canada Water, more than 2 hours walking from the venue. All the buses were full and no chance of finding an empty cab... So, after a few minutes of panic, we made the decision to improvise some old-school hitchhicking showing our inseparable Italian flag and guess what? IT DID WORK! A guy (Andy) made his cab driver stop and took us and another guy, Mark, onboard. During the ride to the O2 arena Andy told us about his first AC/DC concert in Donnington in 1984 while Mark told us about his passion for lasagne and PERONI beer!!! Peroni, Peroni, Peroni!!! Ah ah ah.

We salute you.

MIXED FEELINGS

BRAIANNO!

WITH PATRICK WHO WAS WITH US IN HAMMERSMITH IN 2003

HIGHWAY TO HELL by Vince (friend of ours AKA The French painter AKA Dirty shoes)

TUBE TRAIN (Running right off the track)

AC/DC Abruzzo has just come back from the O2 arena. Great performance. Disappointing crowd. But we got our dose of rock'n'roll for today and we will sleep well tonight.

But it was quite a difficult task to reach the O2 arena. The Jubilee Line went down at around 7pm (apparently for a Train that ran off the track!!!). No buses and all the cabs were taken. We spent about an hour trying to work out something.  When everything seemed to be lost we were saved by the Gods of Rock'n'roll (and by our stubborn Abruzzese attitude as well as by our flag!)! We arrived at 8.30, just 15 minutes before the beginning of the show. The rest is history! FREKET NGUL!

Pics, videos and report coming soon. In the meantime here's an exclusive 2-cam mix video from London first night. Thanks to the Vice President Andrea who took care of the editing in our General Headquarters in Città Sant'Angelo, the City of Angels of Abruzzo.

PS FREKET 'NGUL means "it's alright, 'ngul" 

AH AH AH AH

HELL IN THE O2 ARENA!

LONDON AIN'T A BAD PLACE TO BE

O2 Arena, London April 14, 2009 

SETLIST

1. Rock'n'roll Train
2. Hell ain't a bad place to be
3. Back in Black
4. Big Jack
5. Dirty Deeds
6. Shot Down in Flames
7. Thunderstruck
8. Black Ice
9. The Jack
10. Hell's Bells
11. Shoot to Thrill
12. War Machine
13. Anything Goes
14. You Shook Me All Night Long
15. TNT
16. Whole Lotta Rosie
17. Let there be Rock
18. Highway to Hell

19. For Those About to Rock

AC/DC ABRUZZO OFFICIAL REPORT

London! This is the place where AC/DC Abruzzo's President and Secretary General had their first AC/DC epiphany. It was 20th October 2003, the day we heard Gone Shootin' live for the first time. We were in the Hammersmith Theatre attending the AC/DC soundcheck. A second epiphany took place the day after, during If You Want Blood (You've Got It). We will never forget that song and the way it was performed in that legendary theatre. Since that day our AC/DC madness began!

This time it was the turn of the O2 Arena. We were positively impressed by this venue. Despite it is very big it still has a certain amount of intimacy which is good for rock shows, especially in the front of stage section and the first level of seats. The highest level, on the contrary, it looks like the San Siro Stadium in Milan. Acoustics seem pretty good though.



We had reserved seats on Malcolm's side. Excellent seats, but you already know what we think about reserved seats at an AC/DC show. They just go against the entire idea of rock’n’roll! Actually, a suitable metaphor came out today during a discussion with some other fans (Vince and Owen) who share our view. Being forced to stay seated in your seat during an AC/DC concert or it's like being forced to have sex in a position that you hate without having the permission to come... A real nightmare…

But this time we had to cope with the situation and took it with philosophy. We felt like watching a live DVD or videobootleg with 20,000 people and a very good PA system… So we took advantage of our position to contemplate this wonderful rock’n'roll show from a different angle. Also, we had the opportunity to admire Malcolm from a closer position…

We skipped again The Answer. Not our type of rock'n'roll, that's official. We arrived at 8.20. Ten minutes before the start and half of the seats were still empty. During the intro video we still have goose bumps, especially when the R'n’R train comes out of the tunnel.

We were a bit disappointed with the reaction of the London crowd. Just some quite jumping in the front rows during R'n'R Train. And most people standing still in most of the GA section… Things got a bit better later during the last part of the show (WLR and LTBR) but the English definitely cannot be ranked among the best crowds of this tour.

Angus was in amazing shape. Hey, even physically it looked like he had been working out recently!! We spent several songs observing him in all his moves! What a rocker!! By the way he wore a new black and white tie never seen before (sold with the official merchandise too). Brian looked a bit slow during the first 3-4 songs. Then he got back in action, full throttle. His voice is not as melodic as at the beginning of the tour, but hey, try to sing the way he sings 4 nights a week for 2 hours!!!



Malcolm in action is just pure Rock’n’roll bliss. We love his back ground vocals, especially in Thunderstruck and Dirty Deeds. He moves back and forth with the accuracy of a Swiss clockwork. We really would kill to hear If you Want Blood's riff from Malcolm’s guitar before the end of this tour… Cliff and Phil, impeccable as usual.



Best songs of the show: Dirty Deeds, Shoot To Thrill, Let There be Rock and Highway to Hell (video coming soon).
Interestengly, at the entrance they asked us not to show our flag… It must be some sort of O2 strange policy (remember Prague?). Tomorrow, however, we’ll be back in our spot in the standing section and the AC/DC Abruzzo flag will fly high again!!!

SALUTE

AC/DC THUNDERSTRUCK IN LONDON - ANGUS CAM!!!!

Here's a little "antipasto" for you... An exclusive video of THUNDERSTRUCK live in London April 14 2009 (Angus cam!) from our YOUTUBE Channel. Angus at his best!!!
See you in Camden Town!!!

AC/DC ARE BACK IN LONDON!!!!

AC/DC are finally back in London for a full concert after almost 6 years from the legendary Hammersmith gig! AC/DC Abruzzo was at O2 arena for this historic comeback!!!! Full report with pics and videos soon!!

THE SATANIC MAJESTY OF ANGUS' SHADOW

FROM THE AC/DC ABRUZZO HEADQUARTERS in LONDON

YES WE'RE BACK!!!!

Tonight a meeting of the AC/DC Abruzzo Stirring Committee took place in the London Headquarters in order to set out the agenda for the next week on tour starting from tomorrow at the o2 arena. There are lots of surprises for our fans and supporters on the way!!!!

AUTOPISTA HACIA EL ENFIERNO. Last Exit: Bilbao!

FROM AC/DC ABRUZZO SECRETARY GENERAL'S PRIVATE JOURNAL:

SETLIST

1. Rock'n'roll Train
2. Hell ain't a bad place to be
3. Back in Black
4. Big Jack
5. Dirty Deeds
6. Shot Down in Flames
7. Thunderstruck
8. Black Ice
9. The Jack
10. Hell's Bells
11. Shoot to Thrill
12. War Machine
13. Anything Goes
14. You Shook Me All Night Long
15. TNT
16. Whole Lotta Rosie
17. Let there be Rock
18. Highway to Hell

19. For Those About to Rock

Today's show was unusually scheduled for 10pm, not because of “technical problems” or delay. It was just the official kick-off time. We made the healthy decision to skip the “Answer” by  proudly flying our flag outside the venue more than usual for the pleasure of the Basque, who seemed to appreciate it a lot. Many asked to take a photo with us amazed by our dedication which took us from Italy to Bilbao “only” for the concert.

Brian was in excellent shape. He sang several songs with a red bandana, which was thrown by someone in the audience, on his shoulders.

Angus was fantastic tonight. Black uniform. You could see he really enjoys having all those fans having such a great time. When the lights went down at the end of Dirty Deeds he kicked his cap, which he had lost during the solo, in such a professional but natural way that I felt the black sensations of rock’n’roll down my spine again. It's the first time we see him doing it. We have become particularly fond of these little details…

Malcom and Cliff were impeccable as usual and Phil was beating the drums with his “prehensile” left arm like nobody else can do.

NOVITA'!! During Whole Lotta Rosie another Rosie appeared on stage. Very similar to the Donington’s one, lying between Phil and the Rock'n'Roll Train. Instead of licking her tits the way she did in a couple of shows before Bilbao tonight she was touching herself somewhere else with her left hand, full of shiny baroque rings. Although the air pressure used might be the real cause of these funny moves we still like to believe that Rosie gets particularly horny in certain occasions. And in Bilbao it was the horniest Rosie of the entire tour! WLR was the song of the night. The crowd went totally crazy! (soon we’ll post a video!)

The BEC (Bilbao Exhibition Centre) is a huge complex, designed for conferences more than rock shows. I was sitting to the right, Cliff's side.... in the same area where we were supposed to sit in Stockholm, before making our way to the standing section.

The Basque smoked a lot. The security staff was not strict at all, like in Madrid. The standing area was really crowded, maybe too much. The people there seemed to enjoy more jumping vertically than doing some “pogo pushing” like in Italy or France. No crowd surfing at all. There were several flags. Unfortunately, due to forces beyond our control, our flag could not fly in the same spot as usual and was showed from the seats where we were.

We met other fans who become our companions on this long journey such Alano, Remyno, Indylo and others…

We also met two lads from a Spanish magazine called "this is rock". They recognised us thanks to our dirty-stinky rock'n'roll flag. The expressed their admiration for what we are doing and at the end of the concert they asked for AC/DC Abruzzo's official opinion on the show. It looks like we have become probably the most authoritative source of comparative opinions on this European tour, considering the number of shows we have attended so far (15).  

BILBAO (TOURIST INFO)

Bilbao is a small city.. But there’s a river that flows into the ocean.

I got there from Madrid after 5 hours on an rather uncomfortable bus. While I was on a taxi to the hotel I saw a few people in a sort of Ku Klux Klan uniform. Pretty creepy. The taxi driver, a huge Pink Floyd fan told me (in Spanish) that they were there for the Easter festivity. Freeek't

The Basque people really don’t like speaking English. I had some pretty serious communication problems during the day. Well, at least until I made the wise decision to use our Abruzzese dialect. But they are all very kind and they often underline the fact that they are not Spanish.

The Guggenheim Museum looks amazing from outside. It has something which reminds me of Futurism. I can’t tell you much about what’s inside because due to the tight schedule I only had time to take a piss in their comfortable (and futuristic) bathrooms.

And now off to London.

PAUA'