The Easybeats to AC/DC: The Story of Aussie Rock

-Roll sound!

-MUSIC STARTS, SCREAMING

This programme contains some strong language.

SOFT GUITAR MUSIC A long time ago...

ROCK MUSIC ..and a long way from Europe,

came a wild, colonial sound.

IMITATING FAST BEATS

CROWD SHOUTS, SWEARING IS BLEEPED

That is nothing short of an obscenity!

It was a sound of rebellion and good times.

And soon, the whole world was listening.

This is going to be our next big band!

You just feel it.

They were a machine!

-# Love is in the air! #

-The music of a generation.

And it all came from the one small Australian studio...

-Albert's.

-Albert's.

-Albert's again.

..which would create the uncompromising sound of AC/DC...

Will you change your style much?

We ain't going to change for nobody!

SONG SNIPPETS, SCREAMING AND SHOUTING

-# Thunderstruck! #

-It was a bond of blood.

The sound of thunder.

The Albert sound.

Behind one of the most powerful sounds in rock and roll is

an unlikely partnership between two very different European families,

who forged a bond after emigrating to Australia.

The well-to-do Alberts, and the working class Youngs,

who would become the driving force behind AC/DC.

Together, they would create The Easybeats, Rose Tattoo,

The Angels and AC/DC, to name a few.

And the prolific songwriting and producing team

Harry Vanda and George Young.

This is their story.

And, God forbid, it starts in Switzerland.

The Alberts hailed from the tidy little town of Fribourg.

Jacques Albert emigrated with his family

to Sydney, Australia, in 1884.

With a passion for music and a flair for business,

he and successive Albert generations built a lucrative musical empire.

All the boys were passionate about music. They all loved it,

they talked music, they had a language of their own.

Great-grandson Ted Albert had a dream -

to create a new sound in rock and roll.

For Teddy, I think it was what made him get up in the morning, really.

You know, he really loved it.

Music was just a very big part of his life.

From his first board meeting, at age 25,

he took the company into a radical new direction.

"Board minutes - Mr Ted Albert said

"he would like the company to begin to sign original artists and

"produce records aimed at capturing a new rock-and-roll audience."

What he didn't know was that another musical family had just

landed in Sydney and their stories were about to intertwine.

They came from the streets of Cranhill,

a hard outer suburb of Glasgow.

Three of the greatest guitarists and songwriters in rock

from the one family.

George, Malcolm and Angus Young.

It was a tough place to grow up,

but the Youngs never forgot where they came from.

You've got to remember, at this time, Glasgow has the coal industry,

has the shipyards,

the air is thick and black.

And it's into this, er, that atmosphere that the young family

kind of thrives, in many ways,

because they're tough and there's a lot of them.

You know, there really is that clan mentality. Blood is everything.

William and Margaret Young put eight children onto those mean streets.

Music ran in their blood.

Each brother I had,

kind of, would show you little bits of, you know, music,

or what they liked.

Even my oldest brother Stevie was trying to put me behind the piano,

trying to show me, "No, you do it like this,

"with these fingers, you play this way," you know.

Britain was in the grip of a youth revolution.

But Mr and Mrs Young had other things on their minds.

The Big Freeze of 1963 was the worst winter on record.

The snow was 8ft deep.

At the same time, an ad appeared on the telly,

offering a different life.

-NARRATOR:

-Come over to the sunny side now.

Australia - a great place for families.

You could be on your way to a sunnier future in the New Year.

The ad tipped the balance.

The Youngs opted for Australia.

The Cranhill school yearbook records the day they left.

15 of the Youngs left Scotland, bound for Botany Bay.

For kids that were tuned into rock and roll, it would

feel like they had been dropped onto a different planet.

Seven-year-old Angus promptly vomited on arrival.

So, we get off the plane in Sydney, I looked around and said to my wife,

"There's not a soul in this country knows me. It's a weird feeling.

"No friends, no-one."

Drummer "Snowy" Fleet arrived from Liverpool

with his wife and daughter around the same time.

I got on a bus and my missus is going,

"Oh, look at the Palm trees! Aren't they nice?"

You know, it was all beautiful, but as we drove out of the city...

-ANIMALS CALL

-..and started to get in the Bush,

we didn't know where we were, and, er, all I could hear were

all these things making noises - crickets and God knows what -

I thought, "We're in the jungle!" It was that bad.

In the sweltering heat of Villawood migrant hostel,

the fifth son - 16-year-old George Young - took to jamming

with the other musical refugees,

his heart set on forming a rock-and-roll band.

He met a brilliant lead guitarist from Holland, called Harry Vanda,

and they started writing songs together.

It was the beginning of a lifelong partnership.

The Australia they had landed in was ripe for rebellion.

A third of the country was under 20.

Kids everywhere were ready to explode.

# I can't get no satisfaction! #

-All they needed was a soundtrack.

-Take one!

Albert's was the last company you'd expect

to deliver the music of this new generation.

Fifa Riccobono was just 16 when she started as a secretary.

One day, she would run the company.

All of this was so alien to me.

And they had all these beautiful old paintings of, like, er,

Frank Albert and his father, Jacques, the founder.

And they used to just be behind you in the accounts department

and they'd be just staring at you

and it was this really eerie feeling that you were being looked at.

FAST SINGING, AUDIENCE SCREAMS

The first Albert's-produced rock-and-roll single,

by Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, went to number one.

It was a cover version and now, Ted began looking for original music.

Out at the migrant hostel,

that new sound Ted was searching for was coming together.

George and Harry found other 16-year-old urchins from Europe,

including the cheeky singer Stevie Wright.

Now all they needed was a drummer.

He put a note under my door.

It said, "You're from Liverpool, I believe you play the drums."

They played me the music that they were used to.

I said, "How about some of the stuff I was listening to in Liverpool?"

And I brought all my records out, played them, and George went, "Yes!"

He loved the beat, George.

They called themselves The Easybeats and, within months,

they were playing big gigs, like Surf City in Kings Cross.

-Telephone for you.

-Thank you.

-Hello? That's our manager!

-Oh, yes...

They hired a real estate agent for a manager in 1964.

Mike Vaughan had one priceless connection...

We've just made ourselves a good deal.

..he knew Ted Albert.

The Easybeats were invited down to Radio 2UW Theatre

to audition for Mr Albert.

We were told to be on our best behaviour,

because this was a gentleman that was coming to see us.

Not the sort of bloke that you swear in front of, you know what I mean?

Well not, at least, the first meeting, you know!

And, for us, it was like a proper performance in front of Ted.

I mean, everything hung on it, as far as we were concerned, you know.

It was a meeting of two clans - for the Youngs and the Alberts.

Ted was down on his hands and knees tinkering with microphones

and just doing all sorts of things,

playing with the music, and George really clocked that.

There was a special chemistry at work.

A band who could ignite the fire,

teamed with a producer who could fan the flames.

Ted Albert was convinced popular music sounded too soft

and he produced The Easybeats loud.

He said, "I want to play you something.

"Can you tell me honestly what you think about it?"

And this song came out, through these huge speakers.

MUSIC: Sorry by The Easybeats

CROCKERY RATTLES

The whole office shook!

And he said, "What do you think?"

I said, "Ted...

"You and I both know that we've just listened to an absolute

certain number one hit record.

And this big smile came out of his face.

And it was Sorry by The Easybeats.

# ..with a girl named Fleur

# Then I just remembered

# Had a date with her

# Sorry, sorry

# Sorry... #

Sorry was the first Australian single recorded with feedback,

before the Beatles or the Stones.

FEEDBACK WHINES

George Young and Harry Vanda

had hit on a raw R&B sound with The Easybeats,

that would reach its zenith in AC/DC.

SONG ENDS, CHEERING

They had a very good sound, they had a kind of unique singing,

between him and Harry, you know, and Harry was probably doing

a bit like what I do, the same as Malcolm, you know.

You know, George had that very hard rhythm and, you know,

Harry provided, you know, the highlights, the kind of colour.

One!

Two!

It set the standard of Albert's music.

It was the soundtrack young Australia had been waiting for.

Easyfever began.

We done a show in Perth.

We had 8,000 kids at the airport,

and it was like that no matter where we want in Austria. Hotels!

You'd go into your hotel after a show and you'd open a cupboard door

and six chicks'd fall out, and it was all of that.

Stephen had... Someone posted herself to Stephen in a box.

# Yeah, she's so fine! #

A magazine published where the Young family lived,

causing a house invasion.

-SCREAMING

-# Give you lovin' all the time! #

For ten-year-old Angus,

it was his first encounter with rock-and-roll stardom.

I just saw all these people.

I saw police, cos they kind of barricaded it off.

And, er, I was trying to explain to a policeman, I'm saying, you know,

"I live there. Can I get in my house?"

And the policeman says, "Yeah, they're all saying that, fella!"

MUSIC: Good Times by The Easybeats

The Easybeats were ready to take on the world.

Ted agreed to back them.

# Everybody shake

# Everybody groove... #

He scored them a contract with United Artists

to record at the legendary Abbey Road studios in London.

The boys had a ticket to ride.

They were poised on the edge of greatness.

In the pop business, particularly in the '60s,

the Holy Grail was to make it in the swinging London

and, of course, George being as he is, the leader of the group,

and his incredible desire to always go further,

that's where we're going to go.

# ..I'm gonna put a call to you... #

The music revolution George Young

had been plucked from two years earlier was still in full swing.

I mean, it must have been hard for them to come into that

and to sort of suddenly be on the scene,

because we had grown up in the London scene,

grown up very quickly.

You know, I could literally fall out of my door

and go and see Ike and Tina Turner.

I think I was sweated on by Tina Turner.

We were there in the capital of, you know, the swinging '60s,

where all the big stars were, etc,

and we were competing with these people.

-GEORGE:

-'We were expected to write a hit song.'

So, Harry and I, we locked ourselves in this room

for three, four months, to write a hit song.

The sessions began with hotshot producer Shel Talmy,

who had worked with The Kinks and The Who.

George took his gear down and played all the tapes

and the guy going only, "Nah, nah. Have you got anything else?"

So George said, "I've got this little riff I'm working on."

Three, four...

HE PLAYS THE OPENING RIFF TO Friday On My Mind by The Easybeats

Just a riff, nothing else.

No lyrics, just the riff and he went, "I like that.

"Go away and finish it and bring it back and let me hear it finished."

George and Harry were struggling to nail it,

so they went to the pictures. The pre-feature was a short

about an a cappella group called The Swingle Singers.

# Doo-doo, doo-ba-doo Doo-doo, ba-doo-ba-doo-doo!

# Doo-doo, doo-ba-doo Doo-doo, ba-doo-ba-doo-doo! #

# Doo-doo, doo-doo! Doo-doo, doo-doo! #

All this stuff! And George went, "Wow!" We went back

and that's where the "doo-doos" come from. George had nailed it.

MUSIC: Friday On My Mind by The Easybeats

# Monday morning feels so bad

-# Everybody seems to nag me... #

-'Went back to see this guy'

And said, "What do you think of this?"

He went, "Beautiful. Let's record it."

# ..even my old man looks good

# Doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo Doo-doo, doo-doo, doo!

# Wednesday just don't go

# Thursday goes too slow

# I've got Friday on my mind! #

The killer guitar riff, the working class lyrics

and a singer discharging a casual air of rebellion

would become staples of the Albert sound.

-# She looks fine tonight

-Doo-doo, doo, doo!

# She is out of sight to me... #

Friday On My Mind became a favourite song

for young David Bowie and Bruce Springsteen.

It gave The Easybeats a round-the-world ticket to fame.

# ..Gonna have fun in my city! #

On the jukebox at Max's Kansas City in New York,

Lou Reed played The Easybeats every night.

# She looks fine tonight... #

It just fell together like... like a dream, you know.

That doesn't happen every day.

-# Tonight

-I'll spend my bread

-# Tonight

-I'll lose my head... #

News of the band's success was music to Ted Albert's ears.

He was already laying plans

for George's younger brothers Angus and Malcolm.

When he visited the family home one day,

he heard something that caught his attention.

My father would say, "Ooh, the head of their record company's coming.

"You'd better all behave," you know, so you'd be very kind of quiet

and, you know, and Ted was quite a tall man and we're all very small,

so we were all kind of looking at him like this, you know.

And, er, he said, "I heard some guitar playing," and my father said,

"Aye, that's the two boys who'll be playing away," you know, so...

And Ted said to my dad, "If they ever want to do something,

"send them to me."

Back in London,

The Easybeats set their minds to what comes after Friday.

-JAMMING

-Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa!

Listen.

Try and get... Try and get a more jangly effect.

Very Heaven-ish. It doesn't sound like Heaven.

But as they struggled to find a new popular sound,

the band lost its way.

# Heaven

# Is in your eyes

-# The moment... #

-HE LAUGHS

-HE DRONES:

-Not singing like that!

Try and make it... You know, try and make it sound beautiful, you know.

'Their heart was in writing simple'

rock-and-roll R&B-based songs.

And the... the kind of classic mistake

that most bands make, er, is, as the rest of the world changes,

you change your music. I mean, The Beatles were obviously

becoming more complex and so, everyone, I guess, thought,

"Well, maybe we should show that we can do the same thing."

MUSIC: Hello, How Are You by The Easybeats

We gave them "Hello, How Are You" which was, like, you know, was...

a soggy bloody ballad!

By this time, nobody knew who the damned Easybeats were, you know!

And then, there was Jimi Hendrix, doing his thing and all this,

so, you know, we were toast.

# Hello! How are you? #

The Easybeats disbanded as a new decade began.

The '70s would be about the next generation.

Harry made sure they would continue what he and George had started,

handing down his beloved Gretsch Firebird

to George's younger brother, Malcolm.

He was such a hot little player, so I thought,

"Well, he deserves a good guitar," so here it is.

Best investment I ever made!

What can I say?

If I'd known it, I would've given him more than one.

George and Harry kicked on in London,

trying their hand at being songwriters for hire.

It was the beginning of a legendary songwriting producing partnership.

We were getting a lot of experience as writers by being

the all-rounders that it did make us.

We got to a point where, you know,

"Oh, you want a jazz song? Sure. Here's your jazz song."

"Oh, you want a really gooey ballad? Sure, here's..." You know.

"Oh, you want a rock song?" Bang! You know.

We got really good at that.

They were sending the songs back to Ted Albert,

who was matching them with singers and bands.

# Some men are groovy Some are a drag... #

Perth band The Valentines

had a hit with Vanda & Young's My Old Man's A Groovy Old Man.

# ..Hip, hip, hip, yeah!

# My old man's a groovy old man... #

Look closely and you may recognise

future AC/DC frontman Bon Scott on backing vocals.

# Aa-a-a-a-a-a-ah!

# My old man's a groovy old man

# Gets himself in a hell of a jam

# My old man's a groovy old man Chooga, chooga, chooga... #

The next talent that Ted found was

a young sheet metal worker called John Paul Young,

who would become the voice of many Vanda & Young's pop hits.

-His first song was a demo called Pasadena.

-He gave me the demo

and he said, "I don't want to hear that other guy singing,"

which happened to be George Young, so I had to put the vocal

exactly on top and, right at the end actually, George is there singing,

so, in actual fact, my first single was a duet.

# And there ain't no time at all... #

Vanda & Young became so good at churning out hits

that Ted Albert realised he needed them back.

He actually wanted to go in business with us.

So, he was thinking, "So can I get these guys back to Australia?"

Well, he made us an offer we couldn't refuse!

HE LAUGHS

It was a handshake deal.

No lawyers, no signatures, just a shared understanding.

George and Harry returned to Sydney in 1973

with their studio tans and the production nous to match.

# 12 o'clock You climb your stairs... #

They would run the new Albert Studio, find and produce talent

and split the profits equally with Ted.

They would later say it was like falling into a gold mine.

You work during the night, don't you?

LAUGHTER

Well, um...

-Not through choice.

-Not through choice.

What time do you usually start?

Midnight.

'Harry and George had seen it all.'

They knew the highest of the highs and lowest of the lows

and they set about doing it in a different way.

They'd learned from some of their mistakes

and they developed this model, with Ted Albert and Albert's.

As a continuation of what The Easybeats could've been,

they were going to produce something that really was something

and, ultimately, of course, that was Acca Dacca!

Australia had changed a lot in their absence.

The hippy wave had rolled in and then out.

All that was left was an endless recession

and a lot of young people who were over the bullshit.

A tough new generation was hungry for its sound.

SHOUTING

Albert's would lead the charge.

CHEERING

It all started in the grotty, sticky pubs of the suburbs.

We played at the White Horse Inn,

in Victoria, and there was guys bashing their head on the...

on the edge of the stage.

I saw one guy bite the corner out of a jug.

GLASS CRUNCHES

The only language this crowd understood was volume.

LOUD GUITAR PLAYING

George and Harry sensed an opportunity.

When we first heard the rock bands in Australia,

I heard some stuff on the radio and I thought,

"That's not very good, is it?" It all sounded

squashed and horrible, you know what I mean? Like no life in it!

Then we went around to clubs and the pub and, all of a sudden,

"That's not the same bands that's on record," you know!

I mean, these guys were great, rocking their arses off!

And I said, "Well, that's how you've got to record these guys!"

It became their mission to capture that raw guitar sound on record.

MUSIC: Black Eyed Bruiser by Stevie Wright

CHEERING, RAW GUITAR RIFF

They found their legendary guitar sound on a song produced

for former Easybeats frontman, Little Stevie Wright,

called Black Eyed Bruiser.

It was like George's guitar from The Easybeats, but harder, tougher.

It now had a primal urgency, goading the listener to take it on!

GUITAR RIFF CONTINUES

It was George's younger brother Malcolm

who stepped up to play rhythm on the recording.

He was the raw sound of things to come.

Malcolm was very gifted.

He was just a confident, solid, solid player of guitar.

SCREAMING

-# They call me

-The black-eyed! Black-eyed!

-Yeah!

-# Black-eyed!

-They call me the black-eyed bruiser... #

George Young knew his little brothers Malcolm and Angus

had something special that Albert's could nurture.

Still just teenagers, they'd already cut their teeth on the pub circuit,

with their new band AC/DC.

George always talked to me and Mal, we were his kid brothers...

Still does, you know! He still talks to you like you're...

Well, he says it himself. He goes, "Jeez, I...

"I always think of you as 15."

-So...

-LAUGHTER

"Aw, thanks!"

Ted Albert had been watching the boys, too, and signed AC/DC in 1974.

In the next year, they went through two drummers,

three bass players and three managers.

But it was the new singer, wild man Bon Scott,

that really got the motor running.

Hello, this is Bon from AC/DC.

At 28, Bon was working as a roadie in Adelaide

when AC/DC rolled into town.

They just find him hugely entertaining,

cos he didn't give a shit, but REALLY didn't give!

And they invite Bon to come on and kind of audition

and, famously, Bon did a gram of coke, drank a bottle of whisky,

put his wife's knickers on his head,

and just ran around the stage like a lunatic

and entertained the hell out of the audience!

George Young described Bon as a toilet wall poet.

His bawdy lyrics would become the perfect foil

for the fierce guitar sound of the Youngs.

He was filthy, but he was funny.

With Bon onboard, George and Harry took AC/DC

straight from their pub performances to the studio

to capture that live pub energy.

But you just had to give them a chance to perform, you know,

give them a chance to do it, instead of, you know, saying,

"The needle must not go into the red."

So, that's how this so-called "pub sound" came about.

Because that's what it sounded like in the pub.

It helped that George was their older brother.

Malcolm and Angus would have to run their songs by him.

The rule was, if he could play the riff on the piano,

and it could be memorably simple, then they could record it.

Working with George and Harry, you know,

everything seems to be in his head for a lot of the times, you know.

And, er, of course, he'll take something you've got, he'll go,

"Well, let's hear what you've got," and you play him your song

and he'll go, "Well, let's try this that way."

You know, and he's already crafting away in his head,

then he'll go, "No, let's change it."

and I'll go, "Wait a minute, sounds good, sounds great,"

and he'll go, "No, we'll just try this."

So, he seemed to just create things in his head.

Between them, they hit on a landmark sound

that would one day take on the world.

MUSIC: High Voltage by AC/DC

# Well, you ask me 'bout the clothes I wear... #

Wow, Bon's cheeky

and he's trouble and I want to be his mate.

# ..Ask me why I grow my hair... #

It's organic rock and roll.

You don't think about it.

You just feel it.

# ..I dig doin' one-night stands and you wanna see me... #

That was the first thing I know, I know - put on the school suit

and, if I keep moving, you know,

maybe no-one will notice me!

# High voltage

# Rock and roll! #

For an audience sick of hard times, here was the cure.

Suburban young Australia at full roar.

The Albert sound would speak for them.

One of the things that's notable about the whole Albert stable,

in those days, was we all had what they call

the Australian pub rock sound -

that big, fat robust guitar sound.

And it was very, very difficult to get

the intensity of that onto tape.

George and Harry were magicians at that.

# Bang bang

# Shot full of love

# Bang bang, bang bang

# Bang bang... #

When rock-and-roll sister act Cheetah signed with Albert's,

it was straight to work.

There was no ceremony when we actually signed the deal with Ted.

And then we were scuttled

straight downstairs to where George was waiting

with a little keyboard in a pretty small room.

And we just got straight into it.

He said, "Sing this," and we went straight into a few tunes.

So, I think he was probably sort of testing our guns, vocally,

to see what we had there.

# I had the feeling he was trying to find

# Something, someone some peace of mind

# But when the morning came

# It didn't matter how he played the game

# Bang bang... #

Looking after them was Fifa Riccobono,

by the mid-'70s, head of the Albert stable of artists,

the toughest woman in rock.

She could be ruthless and a piranha when she needed to be.

And yet, she'd be standing there behind one of these,

holding a brush and a comb and lip-gloss, you know,

sticking it down her boot.

We were all really protective of each other,

that was the whole family atmosphere.

Outside was the rest of the world, but we were family.

At the head of the family was Ted Albert,

whose leadership the troops believed in 100%.

Ted was instrumental in a lot of areas.

And being a very solid character...

..he didn't seem to be a person

who crumbled under cannon fire, you know what I mean.

There was a siege mentality about the band, certainly.

I think that was...

coming down the line from Angus and Malcolm.

And, indirectly, George.

You had to be on the team 250%

or you wouldn't be in the team at all.

AC/DC toured relentlessly,

playing any place that would have them.

From town halls to tin sheds,

they battled the hard-drinking Australian audiences

with sheer sonic assault.

People would be throwing bottles or they'd be winking at the girls

and the girls' boyfriends would get all pissed off.

There were car chases. It was the Wild West.

They had a rock-solid conviction

that every gig was leading them to greatness.

It inspired an anthem which became their call to arms.

# Ridin' down the highway

# Goin' to a show

# Stop in all the byways

# Playin' rock and roll

# Gettin' robbed, gettin' stoned

# Gettin' beat up, broken bones

# Gettin' had, gettin' took

# I tell you, folks It's harder than it looks

# It's a long way to the top if you wanna rock-and-roll

# It's a long way to the top if you wanna rock-and-roll... #

Soon they'd conquered every beer barn in the country.

Just like the Easybeats a decade before,

it was time to take on London.

Here we are at the airport to say farewell to AC/DC.

Are you going over confident that you can take on an English market?

Yeah, we are confident.

We're not overconfident, but we are very confident.

Ted Albert was confident, too.

He had to be.

He was digging deep to bankroll the campaign.

# It's a long way to the top if you wanna rock-and-roll... #

It can only happen on Countdown.

Come home with me.

With AC/DC taking Oz Rock to London,

Ted Albert decided to change gears.

It was time to dust off George and Harry as pop stars.

# The morning was cold and lonely

# City lights, old and grey... #

The song was called Hey, St Peter.

And immediately Ted was already like,

"Hey, baby, you know, get on to this.

"What are you going to do with it?"

And he said, "We don't know, we can't find anybody to do this.

He said, "Why don't you do it yourself?"

# I said, hey, hey, hey, St Peter

# I got a tale to tell... #

Hey, St Peter unexpectedly shot to the top of the charts around Europe.

# ..It really feels like Hell

# It really feels like Hell... #

The Hey St Peter single was pretty big in Europe, too,

-in Germany or somewhere?

-Yeah, it did quite well over there.

I think it's still knocking around the charts in some countries.

Holland, Belgium, France all those places.

The B-side, Walking In The Rain,

became an even bigger worldwide hit for Grace Jones.

So, there were two number ones straightaway,

which probably would never have seen the light of day

if it hadn't been for Ted again, you know.

They were more than just a flash in the pan.

Because next it was time to create the new music genre.

George and Harry's love of drum loops

was taking them in a new direction.

The studio at Albert's, you'd look on the wall and there'd be

three or four nails with all these lengths of tape hanging off.

They'd be all the different drummers they had.

# Oh, babe

# You left me standing in the rain

# While you were sitting down to dinner... #

George would often play the drums

and Harry recorded him, creating a tape loop.

Drummers were a big frustration for George and Harry.

Because, in those days, it was very hard to get a drummer to play

a straight beat, you know, no fills.

It was like trying to get blood out of a stone,

asking a drummer to sit there - just play that beat for four minutes.

They'd go...

"No, no, no. Not duh-duh-duh."

"But I feel like going... duh-duh-duh." Yeah.

# While he was getting close... #

They were making tailor-made hits for the Albert's artists.

It wasn't unusual to walk in and see George and Harry

with tape hanging around their neck

that they'd cut pieces, cos they used to splice everything, take something out,

but they'd never throw anything out till they were sure they didn't need it any more.

So, you'd have little bits of China pencil on something

and they'd be looking at pieces to stick back on.

And you'd end up with tape all over the place,

but they knew exactly what they were doing.

# Oh, babe... #

The world hadn't been expecting disco from Australia.

# Oh, babe

# You left me standing in the rain... #

It took Europe by surprise.

In 1978, John Paul Young

climbed the charts in Belgium, France, Holland and Germany

with Standing In The Rain.

# Standing in the rain... #

On the other side of the Channel,

the war cry of the Albert's rock sound

was now engaged in the battle for Britain.

# Now they want anarchy... #

By the time AC/DC arrived in London,

the whole landscape of the music business

has already begun to change.

Punk rockers come in, it's the new sensation in London.

-# This is the sound

-This is the sound of the suburbs

# This is the sound... #

As critics fawned over the Sex Pistols and The Clash,

AC/DC were mocked as wallaby rockers.

But the lesson of the Easybeats have been -

hold your nerve and don't change for anyone.

A lot of bands start to change

because they think the world's changing around them

and so they should try and keep up cos people are going to stop

liking who they are, so they've got to try and follow the trends.

Big, big, big mistake... as shown by AC/DC.

Their brand compass is rock solid in one direction,

does not deviate by a centimetre.

The people that come to see us,

we just give them the show we give the Australian people.

And they took on to us without publicity.

The publicity caught up to us, not us to them.

Are you rich though, are you making the bread?

Yes. Sure are.

I just bought Big Ben.

They started out in a tiny dive in Hammersmith called the Red Cow.

And the first set, the usual two men and a dog were there.

But by the second set, the place was packed.

In the height of the punk movement, it was such an unlikely thing,

and Angus was incredible.

And I think Malcolm will go down as one of the great rhythm players

of any band of any era.

They were a machine, they were...

Even back then, they were machine.

And Bon Scott had a magic to him

that you can't put your finger on it, he was just natural.

I hate the use the phrase the X factor, but he had it.

He had just charisma just oozing out of him.

Every band has got a rider.

The rider is the promoter, supplies the backstage with

whisky, wine, beer, sandwiches, whatever.

So, when you have your guests, nobody has to pay for anything.

So, there was a knock on the door and I'd turn around and there's Bon.

I say, "Hey, mate, can I come on in?"

He says, "Yeah, sure, man, come on in."

And the thing that was really cool about Bon is

he brought his own bottle...

and he brought his own glass.

The gigs got bigger and wilder, and as punk rock wilted,

they returned to Glasgow, the city that had birthed them

and literally shook the foundations.

# In the beginning

# Back in 1955

# Man didn't know 'bout a rock-and-roll show... #

We did a couple of nights in Glasgow that were just insane.

Because Glasgow Apollo had this reputation

for just being a crazy gig.

And the balcony was designed in such a way that it moved,

like aeroplane wings, they've got to be able to move.

And this balcony would shift 18 inches.

# Let there be rock... #

And I remember the balcony was moving so much

that I ran back into the corridor

and said, "This is going to collapse."

When it was time for an album, the boys always came home to Albert's.

George and Harry would produce their first six albums,

using the formula of recording the intensity of the band raw and live.

It amazed me that Angus did all the sound stuff in the studio.

And it was deafening.

Just deafening.

At the end of that take, his headphones flew off his head

and he was on the floor spinning around.

And, you know, the amp had smoke coming out of it

and that would be the end of the take.

In this Sydney studio,

a seismic shift in music was taking place.

A distinct sound, produced by migrant kids made good.

One day, the great guitar bands of the world,

from Guns'N'Roses and Metallica to the Foo Fighters would wonder

how the Albert's guitar sound was created.

It came down to being fearless.

Next, Ted Albert sang Rose Tattoo.

I'm bleeding up here for you, you've got to give me something, yeah.

Come on.

We used to think that our volume was sonic exploration, actually,

that we were communicating with the gods, that we were trying to

create a conduit that took people,

dare I say, transcendentally...

..into another place.

And it's the intensity that we tried to capture on tape.

They may have traded the grog for green tea these days,

but back then, record labels wouldn't even meet with Rose Tattoo,

let alone sign them.

George and Harry went to Ted and said,

"We've found this really eccentric, different bunch of people."

And...I think Ted knew better than to judge us by what we look like,

to say, "OK, I'm listening, I'm not looking."

And what I'm hearing, that related to him.

He said, "I love your sound. I love what you do."

Albert's took the risk and signed the Tatts.

George and Harry knew there was the makings

of at least one great song, and got to work.

# 30 days in the county jail... #

We realised that there was a process going on in the studio.

And it was quite magical.

And I remember George sitting there with his guitar with Mick,

and they were just jamming.

And then, all of a sudden...

# Da-da-da-da-dah Da-da-da-da-dah... #

And that's almost a John Lee Hooker hook.

All of a sudden, Bad Boy went from being like...

kerchunk, kerchunk, kerchunk, kerchunk...

into this...swinging like...

zap-bap-bap...

And it had the hook.

# I'm a bad boy... #

Bad Boy For Love would become a hard rock classic.

Albert's, Vander & Young, AC/DC set a standard

for the way that Australians approached their rock-and-roll.

The way we...we do it...here.

Rose Tattoo, Albert's again.

And they were riding the wave and taking us with them,

you know, singing about us.

# Bad boy for love

# Yeah, I'm a bad boy... #

The Albert's rock sound was established.

But a golden age of pop was also beckoning.

George and Harry's Flash And The Pan

was building a strong international following

and predicting the sounds of '80s quirk pop.

# Wonder why it's getting cold at night

# Must be getting old

# Looks like I'm going to have to wait a while

# What the hell, I'm bored... #

At the same time, John Paul Young was charting in Europe

and needed a follow-up hit.

I mean, thank God for Standing In The Rain because it gave us

a direction, even though it was only a B-side.

You know, but because the Germans liked it,

it gave everybody a bit of a pointer.

Oh, so this is the way we should go.

Quite often an idea would lie around for God knows how long

because we couldn't somehow finish it or fake it

or whatever was needed, you know.

Love Is In The Air was an example of that.

When George came up with that melody, it climbed to the chorus.

The idea that had lain around for years suddenly came to life.

# Dun-dun-dun-dun, da-da-da... #

You know. Ah, yes, of course, love is in the air.

# Love is in the air

# Love is in the air

# Oh... #

# Oh-oh-oh... #

George said to me, "I've tried putting words in there,

"I don't know, I don't think it suits.

"Just do something, just dum-di-dum something."

So, that's where that came from.

George said, "Take all the mixes up to Ted. And play 'em to Ted.

"And let him choose."

Well, he got to hear all the stuff we did.

You know? And...he'd be going through things like, you know...

"I like that one." So, you knew straightaway.

I remember when he heard Love Is In The Air, he was like...

He was beside himself.

And...I can see why, too.

Love Is In The Air would be Vander & Young's greatest pop success,

and for many, their most memorable.

It's been covered more than 300 times.

# But it's something that I must believe in

# And it's there when I call out your name... #

But not even Shirley Bassey in the Bahamas could nail it

like John Paul Young.

# Love is in the air

# Love is in the air... #

From tattooed bad boys to baby-faced balladeers,

Albert's was riding a wave of success.

AC/DC had landed on American shores,

ready for the same hand-to-hand combat

they'd been through in Australia and Europe.

July of 1978, I go to see them at Oaklands, Day On The Green.

60,000, 70,000 people, I can't remember exactly.

They're the opening act for Aerosmith.

Unbelievable.

The most amazing show.

We got out there at about 10 o'clock in the morning and they killed it.

And the crowd just went nuts.

At the time, Aerosmith was the biggest band in America,

with rock-god front man Steven Tyler and lead guitarist Joe Perry.

Do I love Steven? Yeah.

But, you know, honestly, Joe Perry can't stand up to Angus.

Sorry, Joe, but it's the truth.

So, that's going to hurt, but you know, probably he'll hate me,

but he hates me already, so it doesn't really matter.

The truth is that Angus is fucking amazing. That's all I can tell you.

He is of the people, for the people, by the people.

Just like Abe Lincoln said it, he gives it 100% high energy.

Perfect name, AC/DC, electric.

By 1978, word of AC/DC's power as a live act was spreading.

It got the attention of Atlantic Records' young new president

Jerry Greenberg.

When you see a crowd reaction and you see a band live like that,

let's just say the light bulb went off in my head and I got it.

I said, "This could be our next big band."

Greenberg's plan was simple.

Get AC/DC on radio.

I just knew that if we had made the right record,

if we could get the right record made, with these guys,

they were going to be enormous.

Bon was working on a song

about the relentless hard graft of touring America.

What Angus called the "highway to hell".

Highway To Hell was the single that woke American radio up to AC/DC.

# Livin' easy, lovin' free

# Season ticket on a one way ride... #

I'd just got a new stereo system in my office, right.

I turned it up as loud as I could,

I actually cracked the window in my office.

Oh, my God, what a record that was...

But cracking the airwaves didn't mean a break from touring.

The AC/DC juggernaut was now rocking at top speed.

And the rock-and-roll life was taking its toll on Bon Scott.

On the surface, all his dreams are suddenly coming true.

Highway To Hell has become a platinum album in America.

It's just taken AC/DC to exactly where they wanted to go,

and the very next album is going to be the big one, the really big one.

In January 1980, the boys were working on what would become

the Back In Black album when Bon called Fifa at Albert's.

He told he was excited, he'd heard all the riffs

that Malcolm and Angus were coming up with for the new album

and he couldn't wait to get into the studio.

He just said, "This is going to be a big one.

"Some of their ideas are amazing."

It was the last time she heard Bon's voice.

-RADIO:

-'Lead singer of the rock group AC/DC was found dead

'last night in a parked car in South London.

'Scotland Yard said the body of Bon Scott was discovered by a friend

'who'd left him in the car hours earlier

'to sober up after a day's drinking.'

I was in the office when George and Harry came in and told me

that they'd heard about Bon.

He loved the whole Albert family. He used to call it his family.

And I got really...

He became a really close friend of mine over the years

and I was only looking at some letters...

I've got about 20 letters that I've kept over the years,

and one of his last lines was, "I always smile when I think of you."

And I thought, that's exactly how I feel about him.

The Young brothers thought Bon's death could be the end of AC/DC.

Atlantic pushed hard for the band to keep going.

But Ted Albert told the boys he would support them,

whatever they decided to do.

At the funeral, Bon's dad Chick encouraged Malcolm and Angus

to find another singer and keep going.

And so another chapter began.

It was just something they just all sat down

and said, let's just do something.

Cos otherwise they were just going to peter out, I suppose.

And they just said,

"Let's just go and rehearse some singers and see what happens."

They had always had great musical intuition, but no-one expected

them to go with a singer from 1970s Top Of The Pops band Geordie.

It was just a strange day, you know. I was downstairs playing pool,

and now, I'm upstairs with all these singers.

One of our crew guys was downstairs playing with him

and had said to him, "What are you doing here anyhow?"

He said, "I was told to come here to audition,

"you know, for the band AC/DC."

He said, "It's upstairs," you know?

Hello, this is Brian Johnson from AC/DC

and you're watching Countdown '81 right across Australia.

-See you, mate. See you, sport.

-HE LAUGHS

I had said to Malcolm after we'd heard him sing, I said,

"He'll be able to hit those high notes."

And so... And he did, he hit those high notes.

Brian Johnson became part of the family, making Back In Black.

Then came the tour.

It was time to face the home fans

where the long way to the top had started.

BELL RINGS

When I saw them at Sydney Showgrounds,

the first gig with Brian out front,

the way they handled that... handled that gig

and handled the transition between the two singers,

man, I don't think any band sounded any better.

Back In Black did what Malcolm Young had set out to achieve from day one.

It made AC/DC the biggest rock-and-roll band on earth.

# Back in black I hit the sack

# I've been too long I'm glad to be back, yes, I am

# Let loose from the noose

# That's kept me hanging about... #

Malcolm just knew what he wanted from that band

or what he wanted to achieve with the band.

And he never veered from that.

He and Angus started it, and then with Bon, you know,

it just took off, and then with Brian coming in,

it's just been an amazing journey.

# Hey, hey, hey I'm back in black

# Yes, I'm back in black... #

It was the ultimate triumph for Ted Albert,

who had focused his life's work

on building a musical family around the people he believed in.

He put his money behind us,

he took a big risk and he never put pressure on us at all.

He was a real player.

We've worked with other record companies since then

in different countries and everything else,

but I don't think we've ever met anyone

who was so genuine and honest

and you could trust as a person.

And we certainly owe Ted a lot

because we may not have been here today

if it wasn't for a guy like Ted.

CHEERING

It cut both ways.

Ted Albert's dream started with the Easybeats.

15 years later, AC/DC ruled the world.

# You've been thunderstruck... #

In 1990, as AC/DC toured The Razors Edge album,

Ted sat down to write one of his regular letters to Malcolm.

"Dear Mal, I'm completely blown away by the new album. I love it.

"In fact, I had subwoofers installed in my car in honour of it.

"Congratulations on songs, sounds and performances.

"Thanks for our long association

"and the success that you have bought to my company.

"My very best, Ted Albert."

# Thunderstruck

# Thunderstruck... #

A week later, Ted Albert died suddenly of a heart attack, aged 53.

Ted's legacy is many things to many people,

but his most important legacy, I think, in the music field,

is what he did for rock and roll

and giving Australian rock and roll respectability worldwide.

# Countrymen, friends Lend me your ears

# I'll tell you a tale of 15 years

# I'm an old man who's all forlorn

# I want to see the city where I was born

# Show me the way to St Louis

# Show me the way... #