Some interesting Bon history

[Freuds_Cat]

I was doing some research into an Adelaide musician called Peter Head who started playing gigs in his early teens and was responsible for one of the iconic Australian prog albums of the 70's and found that he was great mates with Bon Scott. I found some of this info fascinating. most of the info here I have borrowed from Peter Heads Wikipedia page.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Head


On October 20, 1996, Head, released the Bon Scott 'Round and Round and Round' ep on Head Office Records (with label partner, radio announcer and musicolgist David Woodhall). The original tracks were recordings from 1973.

"The tracks were recorded for $40 which was all the studio time we could afford then" laughs Head. "Bon and I used to help each other out. I'd write music and he'd sing lyrics of my songs. Those were pioneering days. They were recorded at the first 8 track studio in Adelaide. I'd been carting the tapes around for twenty years and then I met Ted Yanni at Round Midnight and we started talking about new technology and what you could do with older material like this."

'They were just rough demos and a few weeks later Bon went off to join AC/DC and that seemed to be it ... The fun off finishing off something first started 22 years ago really appealed to me'. explains Head.  In the case of 'Carey Gulley', Woodhall had only a cassette dub.

edit: Carey Gully is a place (too small to call it a town) in the Adelaide hills near where I live.

"Round And Round And Round" and "Carey Gully" are the last two songs Bon Scott committed to tape a month before joining AC/DC and the only released from a three year period in his career between Fraternity's "Flaming Galah" in April 1972 and AC/DC's "Baby Please Don't Go" in March 1975. In their original form, the tracks are genuine Australian long lost 'Basement Tapes", recorded a few months after Bon's motorbike accident. Recently re-discovered, both "Round And Round And Round" and "Carey Gully" have been extensively reworked to create musical pieces which the project's collaborators believe Bon would have been proud of. As an occasional member of The Mount Lofty Rangers, a South Australian collective of creative artists and musicians.

edit: The Mount Lofty Ranges is the proper name for the Adelaide Hills. Mout Lofty being the highest point.

Bon Scott recorded these two compositions by the group's musical director Peter Head in July 1974. Peter Head recently teamed up with producer Ted Yanni, another old friend of Bon's. Using the best technology available, Ted isolated the original vocal track from "Round And Round". and then over many months rebuilt an entirely new backing to the song, so it sounds as though it was recorded today rather than yesterday The original version is also included on the CD single. It features former members of Headband and Fraternity. "Carey Gully", a lilting country-flavoured ballad has been tastefully augmented with strings - the Classically Blue String Quartet. The song celebrates the Mount Lofty Rangers' stomping ground at the time, then home to one of South Australia's leading artists. Vytas Serelis, whose stunning photo portraits grace the CD cover. The whole project has been achieved by many people - musicians and technicians donating time, talent and studios in order to pay tribute to an old friend. The result is one of the best recordings available by Bon Scott displaying a side to his vocal ability that wasn't as evident in subsequent releases.

"Musician Peter Head, former leader of Adelaide's Headband and a virtuoso piano player, befriended Bon. Bon would go to Peter's home after a day shovelling shit, and show him musical ideas he had had during his day's work. Bon's knowledge of the guitar was limited, so Peter began teaching him how to bridge chords and construct a song. One of the songs from these sessions was a beautiful ballad called Clarissa, about a local Adelaide girl. Another was the country-tinged Bin Up in the Hills Too Long, which for me was a sign of things to come with Bon's lyrics; simple, clever, sardonic, tongue-in-cheek. .."

Bon Scott's infamous motorcycle accident occurred after a Mount Lofty Rangers rehearsal and he never returned [to that band].

About 11pm on May 3, 1974, at the Old Lion Hotel in North Adelaide [I have played more shows at this pub than I can remember. Also my wife managed it for a few years in mid 90's]   during a rehearsal with the Mount Lofty Rangers, a very drunk, distressed and belligerent Bon Scott had a raging argument with a member of the band. Bon stormed out of the venue, threw a bottle of Jack Daniels on to the ground, then screamed off on his Suzuki 550 motorbike. Three hours later, I received a phone call from his wife, Irene, at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Bon was in a coma, near death, after a disastrous collision with a car. I drove to the hospital, and there was Bon as I had never seen him; limp, smashed to smithereens, his jaw wired, most of his teeth knocked out, a broken collar bone, several cracked and broken ribs, deep cuts across his throat. He was in a coma for three days. He remained in hospital for 18 days. This happened before Bon was to find fame with AC/DC. Irene tells me that, before Bon went into the coma that night, the nurse sarcastically said to her: "He says he's a singer."

It is often speculated that if Bon Scott hadn't joined AC/DC soon after his accident, a solo album of similar material would have been completed. "What most people don't realise is he was hard working, passionate about his music, and a perfectionist willing to work day and night" says Head.

[OldManC]

That was a great read. Thanks for sharing that. The local flavor makes it that much more enjoyable. It's nice to hear that Bon was more than the caricature that AC/DC allowed him to be.

[gweimer]

I had the pleasure of shooting the breeze and drinking beer with Bon Scott at an outdoor show in Davenport, IA.  He was friendly, and actually pretty mellow offstage.

[Highlander]

Nice story... only had the pleasure of seeing him once on his last UK tour...

[Lightyear]

Nice read, I really enjoyed it.

AC/DC just wasn't AC/DC after Bon died - at least to me.  I saw them, with Bon, in the Houston Music Hall - must of been the last tour before he died.  This hall was designed for theatrical performance - the acoustics were just killer and that was one hell of a show. 

[Aussie Mark]

AC/DC just wasn't AC/DC after Bon died - at least to me.

+1

I think the first post-Bon album, Back in Black, is great, but after that they just go for mundane repetition and self parody like ZZ Top did after "Legs".

Then again, I saw AC/DC with Bon a couple of times, and that's how I remember the band.

[Lightyear]

I caught the Back in Black tour as well.  It was an OK show but it was like the first Christmas after you'd figured out that Santa Claus actually your Mom and Dad   Just anti-climatic....

[Freuds_Cat]

AC/DC played here 2 weeks ago. I didnt go but I did see the Back in Black tour all those years ago. I agree with the Bon was best sentiment.

[Highlander]

gotta agree here, saw the BIB tour in a small UK theatre and thoroughly enjoyed them, and again at a Monster Of Rock show, but haven't bought a record since BIB...

[Basshappi]

Me too, other than BIB all my AC/DC albums are Bon era. They just weren't quite the same after Bon died.

Saw them twice both times with Bon. The first time was very early in their career because nobody knew who they were. They were the first act on a three act show with Frank Marino and Mohogany Rush ans the headliner was Aerosmith. This was my very first rock concert I was 13 or 14 at the time so this had to be around 1977. I remember that Frank Marino didn't play because he had fractured his hand earlier in the day.

Second time I saw them was on the Highway To Hell tour. Molly Hatchet opened the show, they were on their first tour with their "Flirtin' With Disaster" album and they were fantastic. AC/DC were good but this was the only concert I have ever walked out on. They were so brutally loud that it just became this undefined wash of noise. I went and stood in the parking lot (with quite a few others as it turned out) and enjoyed the music from there.

[Highlander]

My best-man was a BIG fan and told me a story of the first time he saw them in Hammersmith, not at the Odeon (where I saw the last tour with Bon - circle seats - BS and AY came up and played a few feet from where I was sitting, read standing, at that point! - he sure had some stamina to run round the venue with Angus like that...!) but at a pub/bar (forget the name - now long gone - was a Fullers pub, for those that know UK ales...!) round the corner...

Bon Scott came on playing the bagpipes (badly) and wearing a kilt...!