AC/DC in Vancouver for the new album!

Brian Johnson and Cliff Williams reaching Vancouver for the recording of the new AC/DC album

As we kept saying through our Facebook page, rumors that spread out virally over the internet and all other media about AC/DC officially retiring due to the bad health conditions of Malcolm proved to be wrong. Although AC/DC confirmed through their Facebook page what all fans had feared about Malcolm it was officially announced that AC/DC will "continue to make music".

AC/DC official announcement

From the photos that have been circulating over the internet in the last few hours AC/DC appear to have gathered in Vancouver for the recording of the new album, as announced by Brian Johnson earlier.

Stevie Young apparently will replace Malcolm for the recording. This is what most hard core fans thought would happen, knowing the history of the band and their determination to go on despite difficulties and challenges. At the moment we don't know if Stevie will also join the band on the road like he did in the Blow Up Your Video tour...

Of course we wish Malcolm and his family all the best hoping that he can get better and come back soon.

ROCK'N'ROLL WILL NEVER DIE!

Angus Young and Stevie Young together for the recording of the new album in Vancouver

AC/DC NEW ALBUM AND NEW TOUR IN 2014!

"I think we’ll be going into the studio in May in Vancouver"

 - Brian Johnson - 14/02/2014

After all the nonsense rumors that spread around about AC/DC touring in 2014 here's some "unofficial news" for all AC/DC fans around the world directly from Brian. Brian confirmed that one of the band members was sick in the past and there will be a tour to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the band... with 40 shows!!!

Still too early to say this will happen but it's definitely some fantastic news for all AC/DC fans!

You can listen the full interview here. Brian starts talking about the band and the tour at min. 6:30.

ROCK'N'ROLL!!!

BON SCOTT STATUE IN KIRRIEMUIR, SCOTLAND

Some of the Statue Proposals (We love the one with Rosie!)

You organised a Bon Scott festival last year, what was the idea behind that?

Bon Fest actually began in 2006 when DD8 decided to have a gig to remember Bon Scott by. There was a plaque laid in 2005 and a festival was the next thing in the line to remember Bon by. Initially it went from a couple of hours on the Saturday afternoon, with local bands playing a few covers to mostly local ACDC fans. We have grown this year on year and we now hold the festival over two days and nights which has sold out well in advance from the last three years. We now pull in fans from all over the world with up to 60 German fans making the trip yearly. We now also bring in the best Bon Scott era ACDC tribute bands from all over Europe With bands coming this year from Germany and Italy.

Any other fundraising or events planned over the coming months that we should know about?

Not at the moment. The statue and Bon Fest is the main focus of attention at the minute.

How can people get involved in your campaign?

We require all the help we can get from fans from all over the world to help make this project a reality. At the moment all information is going through our Face book page and DD8 home page until the kick starter page goes live. We hope the page will go live next week then we can start taking donations from the fans. In the mean time Facebook and DD8 links are below.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bon-Scott-Statue-Kirriemuir/269001339883417

http://www.dd8music.com/bonstatue.cfm

How can we send you funds towards the statue?

We request that all funding goes through the Kick starter page when it is launched.

When do you hope the statue will be unveiled?

If the funding via Kickstarter is a success then we will unveil the statue at Bon Fest in Kirriemuir on Saturday May 4th 2013.

BON SCOTT STATUE IN KIRRIEMUIR, SCOTLAND

We heard about the project for a Bon Scott statue in Kirriemuir and we got very curious. So we asked John Crawford, who is one of the people behind it, to tell us more about it...


DD8music are a non exclusive community group, formed in 2005, dedicated to promoting involvement in musical activities to people of all ages in the local area (Kirriemuir and surround). 

The group is completely voluntary, and is going from strength to strength with thanks to the hard work from the team of volunteers, and the support of all the bands and the people who come to our events to enjoy the music. We organise several live music events throughout the year such as the sell out Bon Fest and open air event, Live in the Den.

We run a recording and rehearsal studio in Kirriemuir. It is a space where people can have the freedom to experiment with music, and be encouraged to develop their talent. 

We plan to have memorial statue erected of Bon Scott in Kirriemuir. This is important for two reasons. Firstly Bon is a recognised Rock singer throughout the world, some believing the best rock front man there has ever been. For this reason we want to honour him in his childhood home. Secondly we want to help put Kirriemuir on the global map and we can do this by having this statue erected in the town. This will also be more of a draw for tourists who will come to kirriemuir purely to see this statue. This will also help generate funds for local businesses.

We are going to fund in using a crowd funding website called KICKSTARTER. This is an American based website which has recently launched in the UK and is being very successful. It works by using a tiered funding reward approach. For example with our project we will reward you by donating money from £1 in stages up to £2500. £1.00 being a thank you on our website and £2500 allowing you to have your name engraved on the statue plinth and a 6” miniature bronze replica of the statue. 
The local people have been very supportive about this. We have the support of all three of our local councillors and we carried out a public consultation. With the consultation we had 156 replies with only 7 against the proposal. We have also received hundreds of messages of support from locals and people world wide via our facebook page. I am one of the thousands of people world wide who believe that Bon was the best rock front man of all time. He was a down to earth guy although he had his cheeky streak as well, who wouldn’t being the front man of one of the worlds best bands at the time? He deserves the statue as a tribute because he should be remembered for his Scottish roots and for being simply Bon Scott from ACDC, The cheeky Scottish/Australian with an amazing voice that rock fans through out the world knew and loved.

Bon Scott already brings the single biggest influx of people to Kirriemuir when people from all over the world decent on Kirriemuir for the annual Bon Fest.  We know by getting replies from people that when they come to Kirriemuir many are left feeling disappointed that the town doesn’t have anything apart from the memorial plaque to remember  Bon by. We also know that this statue will bring several more visitors to the town thus helping the local businesses that in turn help us during Bon fest and other events though out the year.

It’s important for the town and many local don’t know that Bon Scott’s parents were from Kirriemuir and that Bon lived here before moving to Australia. His memory and history needs to be kept alive in Kirriemuir and by having this statue as a permanent  reminder  his memory and history won’t be allowed to be forgotten.

This has generated world wide news in many fans websites, blogs and social media accounts. It has also been picked up by the media from Kentucky news, classic rock and MTV to name but only a few. We have picked up support from people such a Lemmy from Motorhead who tweeted about the statue to more private messages of support from Bons closest friends and Ex band mate from his time with ACDC. The Italian fan club have ran an article about it as has the Brazilians the Germans, Austrians and Norwegians again this is only a small selection of the support we have received.

TO BE CONTINUED

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM AC/DC ABRUZZO

BACK IN BUENOS AIRES - Live in Argentina - 2012

Jennifer and Cristian

In Buenos Aires we also met with Jennifer from Sydney. We became really good friend with her after meeting her in Rome in 2009 and again in Australia during the 2010 tour. She liked Project AC/DC Abruzzo so much that she offered to design the cover of our first photobook: Black Ice World Tour 2008-2010 2 years on the road with AC/DC. After 2010 she established herself in Buenos Aires working as freelance graphic designer, taking tango lessons and drinking delicious Malbec wine. It was a pleasure seeing Jennifer again...

Designed by Jennifer

Juan from AC/DC Noticias, one of our good Internet friends during the AC/DC tour, recommended to have a drink with another Juan, one of the greatest AC/DC fans in Argentina, who was in Buenos Aires at the moment. Juan invited us at his place and he showed us his huge rock collection (not only AC/DC) gathered during his job as a music promoter! His stories from the New York 2000 meet and greet with AC/DC were pretty entertaining. He flew with his buddy specifically to meet the boys in Manhattan for the promotional signing session of Stiff Upper Lip. Malcolm and Angus were very warm with them after hearing their stories. They allowed them to spend extra time with them and signed many items including their leather jacket... We then talked about the last tour and the next tour, about Argentina, our mutual friends and of course about food, wine and girls... We promised to meet again in Argentina or somewhere else, possible at an AC/DC show...

AC/DC Stamp

AC/DC Wine and Slash's autograph

New York 2000 meet and greet pass

With the AC/DC Abruzzo Books, also in included in Juan's collection

Before leaving Buenos Aires we decided to follow Cliff's advise (from the DVD) and go and take a look at the Recoleta's Cemetery. It is quite a unique place, we must admit, with a really peculiar atmosphere... It contains mausoleums of notable Argentinians people decorated with sculptures and statues. Tombs that tell the glorious stories and works of Argentinian generals, politicians, writers, artists, scientists as well as normal Porteños. After some philosophical reflections on life and death we focused on... cats! Lots of them all around. It reminded us of Rome a little bit, except for the fact that they really looked malnourished and some of them also sick... Before leaving the place we bumped into the tomb of a young girl with a poem in Italian written by her father on it. On the left there was the statue of the beautiful young girl with her faithful dog... Quite touching...

EVITA PERON

AC/DC Abruzzo's 2012 Argentinian adventures finally came to an end. Cristian kindly gave us a ride to the airport. One of his dreams has been to meet Angus and take a photo with him but he hasn't succeeded yet... "There must be another tour" he told me in Spanish. Si, necesitamos otra gira... I answered

Cristian and his Rock'n'Roll car

AMARCORD BUENOS AIRES Live a River Plate 2009 - 3 years ago...

From AC/DC ABRUZZO BLOG - MONDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2009

The Vice President on the phone

SETLIST

01. Rock N Roll Train

02. Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be

03. Back In Black

04. Big Jack

05. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

06. Shot Down In Flames

07. Thunderstruck

08. Black Ice

09. The Jack

10. Hells Bells

11. Shoot To Thrill

12. War Machine

13. Dog Eat Dog

14. You Shook Me All Night Long

15. T.N.T.

16. Whole Lotta Rosie

17. Let There Be Rock

18. Highway To Hell

19. For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)

Tonight we received a surprise phone call from Marcom and Andrea during the guitar intro of Highway to Hell live in Buenos Aires... It was really a pleasant surprise... Here's what they told us over the phone after the show:

Marcom: Chettaffatto! No extra cameras tonight. Don't ask me why but the DVD will be just the footage of the second night... I guess it will be enough anyway... Maybe they wìll add some audio from the other shows... We don't know... (The DVD probably won't be released before June). Anyway amazing performance of Brian tonight. He was on fire. Old school kick-ass performance of Angus. He was so happy about the response of the crowd during the LTBR solo that he took a bow in the middle of it to thank the audience. Incredible! The solo went on for some extra minutes. Possibly the longest LTBR solo of the entire tour... The audience was crazy as usual. One funny thing about Argentinian crowd is that you get to see people jumping wildly not only in the pitch but even on the second level on seats on the side in the Stadium... This time we decided to see most of the show in front of the catwalk, just in the middle. The sound there was so good that it was pure for our ears... Amazing!

One funny story for our readers. On Wednesday we were doing some grocery shopping in a local supermarket called DISCO in the centre of the city and we bumped into Ellen buying snacks ect. That was really funny! AC/DC Abruzzo and AC/DC Italia doing grocery shopping with Angus' wife in Argentina!!! AHAHAHAH. We also met Ross who was really cool with all his Facebook fans. We really loved his Ferrari jacket... Pretty nice! The band was pretty busy signing autographs with hundreds of fans. Always very cool... Another funny thing was the non authorised sellers of t-shirts outside the stadium. They mixed it up pretty well. Like you could see T-shirts with creative artwork such as Bon Scott on Razor's Edge album cover or souvenir t-shirts of the Argentinian tour with 4 dates instead of 3... AHAHAH

Andrea: Yesterday we went to the Boca Junior soccer match. Bellissimo! And today we had again 400g Argentinian steaks before the show... We love Argentina!

Argentinian Rock'n'Roll Train

In front of the Bombonera stadium

BACK IN BUENOS AIRES - Live in Argentina - 2012

In front of La Cabaña restaurant...

As you know Andrea from followed the three sold out concerts of AC/DC in Buenos Aires for AC/DC Abruzzo, while Matteo and Stefano were already in Australia preparing for the 11 Australian shows of February and March.

After three years AC/DC Abruzzo went back to Argentina. This time it was Matteo who visited this rock'n'roll country, for the first time.

We met with our good friend Christian with whom we had travelled together from Sofia to Bucharest in May 2010 (by train!). In the meantime, Christian had become worldwide famous thanks to the Live River Plate DVD documentary, "The Fan, The Roadie, The Guitar Tech and The Meat" where his crazy rock'n'roll story was told (he applied for a bank loan only to follow AC/DC on tour in Europe!).

What we heard was true. Argentina is a rock'n'roll country. And if you missed the AC/DC in 2009 just try and go see a football match and you will get an impression of what an Argentinian audience can do in a stadium. No other crowd compares to the Argentinian. No doubt.

Matteo Abruzzo and Christian at the Boca Stadium

Of course we also followed Brian and Cliff's advice and went to La Cabaña, the restaurant mentioned in the AC/DC DVD. Yes, the Kobe beef medallion will probably be the best steak you've had in your life! So juicy and tender that it melts in your mouth... Quite expensive for Argentina but still considerably cheaper than Europe. La Cabaña is in a nice new neighborhood called Puerto Madero, near the water with a few skyscrapers and modern buildings. 

Kobe beef Medallion (half - too late for the other half...)

But the most authentic places are areas such as San Telmo, the oldest "barrio"of the city, full of colonial buildings and tango parlors, with lots street artists and dancers. A bit like La Boca, created by Italian immigrants from Genoa in the 19th century. The streets of "Caminito", in the same neighborhood, will provide a nice and colorful portrait of the joyful Porteños culture, with lots of murales. Of course, we had to go and check out the "cancha" (the stadium) where we saw the football match "Boca Juniors - Independiente" (2-1). It wasn't easy to get tickets at Argentinian prices (15-20USD) but we managed anyway, using our basic Spanish and our local connections... If you don't have AC/DC Abruzzo skills in getting tickets (more than 80 AC/DC shows under our belt, remember!) just but a ticket at "Gringo price" (about 150 USD). It will be worth! Tickets for the entire seasons are sold out from day 1 (only season tickets are available)!

Satan in Caminito

God, according to Argentians

We spent most of our nights in the Palermo and Recoleta neighborhoods, which look quite European to us. Bars and clubs are packed during the weekend and you will meet a lot of interesting people who will become your friends in just a few minutes. Locals are very open and friendly, and you can easily guess that the heritage of most of the people from Buenos Aires is Italian or Spanish. Actually, we read somewhere that there were so many Italians back in the 19th century that the official language of Argentina should have been Italian. But "official" Italian language didn't exist at that time and there were only dialects so Spanish was chosen for practical reasons.

Tango culture

  

Food. STEAK! It is just impossible to describe how good the Argentinian meet is. We basically eat steaks 3-4 times a week. And steaks come with lots of tasty side dishes. In some places you can spend only 10-15 USD and eat as much 400g of "Lomo jujoso" (rare filet mignon). Of course if you order a good bottle of Malbec the price will be considerably higher. Our favorite spot was "La Cabrera" restaurant. If you don't mind eating "early" go there for the happy hour between 7pm and 8pm and you will get anything in the menu for half price. Argentinians generally have dinner after 10pm. We tasted also some fresh pasta (quite popular for the dinner lunch, like in Italy). And of course empanadas, "milanesas" and other typical recipes. We tried also MATE, the most popular hot beverage in Argentina, like coffee in Italy and Alfajores, typical sweats.

400g of limo

Girls. Yes, there are a few beautiful girls in Argentina and if you are an Italian from Italy, or from Abruzzo, you certainly have a competitive advantage. But the beauty of local women is overrated, a bit like Italy and Spain. Girls' attitude is definitely European, and this means women will make you invest a lot of energy and resources. We actually read somewhere that Argentinian guys are so much into rock'n'roll because they have to unleash the frustration they accumulate with women... Quite an interesting theory. :D So if you are looking for the South American "exotic" beauties AC/DC Abruzzo Travel guide suggests to Brazil, Colombia or Venezuela. ;D

...

TO BE CONTINUED

(Juan, Jennifer and the Recoleta Cemetery...)