AC/DC ABRUZZO's HOLIDAY

Roseto Degli Abruzzi

Last week was holiday week for AC/DC Abruzzo's team ...  

The Secretary General Stefano spent his summer holiday in London working in his luxury Italian restaurant to make enough money to fund Project Japan 2010 (dates TBC).  The President Matteo applied for a couple of Visas in different countries around the world while trying to resuscitate his career and taking care of his suntan on the wonderful Abruzzo's sandy beaches. The Vice President Andrea also spent his holidays working hard in the City of St. Angel, in Abruzzo. His conflict of interest became even more clear since he's been holding secret daily meetings with a member of AC/DC Italia's staff who also chose Abruzzo as the destination of his summer holidays. Orangus touched base with us yesterday after two weeks into hiding in the US. We'll post the last episode of his adventures soon.

Last but not least, Happy Birthday to the President who turned 30 today!

ONE YEAR ON THE ROCK'N'ROLL TRAIN!!!

The most hard core fans around the world will surely remember what happened exactly one year ago in London...

Only a few hundred fans were granted the privilege to attend the shoot of the first AC/DC video since 2001. The long journey around the world of the ROCK'N'ROLL TRAIN had started... 

Although there was no official announcement by Sony or the band on the album release that was a clear sign that AC/DC were finally back after 5 long years!

THE STAGE

Contract

AC/DC ABRUZZO Secretary General (Old School Rebel) in the video 

THE ADVENTURES OF ORANGUS IN AMERICA III

Albany August 2, 2009 Times Union Center

Hi guys, I’m really sad you missed this. I now you’re not jealous people so I’ll tell you that probably this was the best AC/DC concert of my life (as you know I saw more than 40 shows. Maybe the Circus Crowne's 2003 setlist was slightly better).

Late in the afternoon I bought a ground floor ticket at the box office. I specifically asked that the seat was near the aisle (sector 5, row a, seat 14). When I entered the venue, by my surprise, I found out that it was a very small section, almost half of the forum of Assago in Milan. My spot was just one seat away from the catwalk. Once the concert started Brian came straight to me and shook my hand! (I'm sure he remembers me from our meeting in Paris when we tried to convince him to play Ride On again). The sound was just perfect. Really, I couldn’t get a better seat than this.

The audience was great this time (even if they didn't sing Rosie at all). After the show everybody was cheering and screaming like crazy. I actually thought there was some special event or aftershow party outside. In fact people were just amazingly happy because of the show.

I also managed to meet and talk to some guys who attended the legendary Roseland Ballroom show in 2003 in NYC. Great stories. Although they really loved tonight's show obviously that concert was just in another league…

THE ADVENTURES OF ORANGUS IN AMERICA II

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ Giants Stadium July 31, 2009

Ciao guys,

Yesterday I arrived in my the hotel at 4am and didn’t have the time to write anything, so sorry about that. I almost met Francesca (one of AC/DC Abruzzo's groupie LOL) but there was a last minute problem. By the way, I saw and talked to a Mariah Carey lookalike in the NYC metro today.

I arrived to the Giants Stadium at the very last minute, just like I did for most of the 30 shows I did in Europe. No Ground floor tickets were available so I had to buy a seated ticket for 11$ from a nice guy who actually wanted to give it to me for free. I tried to get to the floor area by using my Italian charm and other AC/DC Abruzzo fieldtested techniques but they didn't work.

Basically, I ended up on the most central spot of the first level of seats. I really felt like Nero the Emperor in the Coliseum. Really a nice feeling although there was no Gladiators show or Hail Caesar added to the setlist. The audience was much colder than the one in Boston but the concert was just great. Excellent acoustics in the stadium, I would say that the sound was one of the best of the entire open air tour. The boys were on fire. I'm sorry you guys were not there. I’m sure some of you might have had something to say about the audience, maybe a bit cold. Before Thunderstruck Brian said something like “Here’s a song from the last album” and then “oops, a little mistake”.

For the record, I heard rumours saying that Rudolf Giuliani and Arnold Schwartznegger are working on a bill in building an AC/DC Memorial in Washington, DC and replace Statue of Liberty with the Angus Statue.

Today I went to eat in Little Italy. There, I met Phil who told me that Italy didn't deserve to win the World Cup in 2006, So a fight broke out. Thanks to the help of some local “wiseguys” and “friends of ours” and we beat him up for good. Just kidding...

TECHNICAL PROBLEMS

AC/DC Abruzzo experienced undefined-not to be revealed technical problems in the last few days, (similarly to AC/DC in Zurich last March). For this reason the blog updates were temporarily discontinued. We apologize for the inconvenient.. We will be back very soon with the next chapters of the Orangus' journal.

THE ADVENTURES OF ORANGUS IN AMERICA

From Orangus' Journal - My first trip in the USA

AC/DC Abruzzo declines all responsabilities for any politically incorrect statement, comment or action made by Orangus. 

FIRST SHOW - Gillette Stadium July 28, 2009

Boston July 29, 2009

(...)

So I solved the ticket problem very easily and found a floor ticket at the box office of the Gillette Stadium. The crowd was not too bad and I easily adapted myself to the reserved seating policy they have here in the States... Yes, they really have chairs in the front of stage section!! Incredible! I managed to move and stand in the corridor anyways... 

Great show and great performance. Especially the Let There Be Rock solo... The funniest thing of the show was Brian hanging from the Hell's Bell with the bell oscillating without making any noise... So he kept hanging waiting for something to happen but after a few extra seconds of silence he came down and waited for the beginning of the song. As far as the setlist is concerned, as you already know, the boys played all the classic hits we love such as Touch too Much, If you want Blood, RnR Dannation, Ride on, Down payment Blues etc... 

Unfortunately, I  didn't manage to meet the band but I talked to a guy who told me that the previous day Phil had said a nice "vafangool" to a fan asking for an autograph... We love Phil! 

The public transportation to and from the Stadium seemed to be of a third world country. There was no shuttle bus, special train from Boston so I went by train to a small village not far from the Stadium. There was no taxi there so I, an Irish guy and 3 Americans paid another American guy for a ride (10$ each). There were 6 people in the car. A nightmare. And the parking lot cost 40$!! I even saw a person getting arrested by the Police for jumping over a barrier. 

After the show nobody, neither the Police nor the security personnel, could give me any accurate information about public transportation to go back to Boston. No taxis at all. So after waiting enough time to miss all the trains and busses I decided to hitchhike. After 30 seconds a woman stops:

-Where do you have to go?
-Boston
-Are you crazy?
- Yes
-Ok I get you, where are you from?
-Italian

At this point she started to hug me and kiss me. She wasn't that bad... Maybe a bit mature but she actually looked like Rosie... Her friend, on the contrary, was really ugly. But who cares? Then she told me she helped because she liked my legs (I love jogging and cycling!)... She was hitting on me so intensely that we actually got lost in the parking lot...

TO BE CONTINUED.

BOUGHT MYSELF A CADILLAC...

So here's Brian speaking about his real passion: race cars. And, as you can see, he can actually drive pretty fast!

The story about him pissing on the Sputnik in Russia was told to us in Stockholm by Brian in person. Hilarious. He also told us a couple of other cool stories about rock'n'roll and race cars. One, very interesting, was about Cliff and Brian driving on a circuit and having some unexpected problems... You'll find the details on Brian's forthcoming book.

AC/DC Abruzzo's correspondant Orangus touched base with us a few hours ago. Despite a few problems at the US customs office he managed to get to America safe and sound. If he doesn't get lost or kidnapped again he will be attending the Massachussets show tomorrow...

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

Even if the meeting took place not too far from Hollywood last year it's not a casting for a remake of one of the best movies by Sergio Leone (although these faces would be perfect for a Spaghetti Western! AH AH AH). Thanks to Kosp for sending this cool picture.

For the record, we just learned that AC/DC Abruzzo's correspondant Orangus, aka Belfagor, is currently on an ALITALIA flight heading to New York JFK...  Good luck for this new adventure!