In the Presence Of Legends (AC/DC at Hampden)

On Tuesday June 30th, I was lucky enough to take in AC/DC at Hampden on the final show of the European leg of their Black Ice World tour. I was with my soon to be best man Gav, who is a lifelong AC/DC fan and lover of all things classic rock. Never before had Gav been able to catch Angus and co live so this was a very special night for him. To me AC/DC are a band that I have really only started to appreciate in the last few years, with the Back in Black album being my introduction to their sound, songs like ‘What Do You Do For Money Honey’ and ‘You Shook Me all Night Long’ helping me to appreciate their majestic anthems and I have steadily gotten to love more of their repetoire since.  I was very excited about seeing them live and could only imagine how Gav was feeling after decades of anticipation.

It was an extremely warm night in Glasgow which added to atmosphere at pitch level. As we entered the famous stadium, Irish rockers The Answer were belting out some rather cool sounds, the gravely voice of Cormac Neeson is awesome and they deserve some real recognition. As the night got muggier and the beer started to boil, English indie rockers The Subways took to the stage and instantly it was evident that they were not going to be of mass appeal to the growing crowd. The poor youngsters were brought in at a late stage to replace Thin Lizzie, so they were doomed to fail from the start really. Their performance was not neccesarily bad, it just did not suit the audience and the middle aged rockers around started to show their lack of patience and disgust. The crest fallen pop rockers left the stage and it was then that the crowd seemed to instantly swell. Whoever was responsible for putting them on after The Answer should slap themselves in the face, the classic rock of the celtic chaps would have  perfectly complimented AC/DC.

After a wait that was as slow as tectonic plates, the giant screens on stage burst in to life, treating the crowd to an animated film of the band and some fantasy rock chicks hurtling along on the Rock n Roll Train as the speakers blasted out a train track noise that shook you to core. As the movie flashed along and came to it’s end, the back of the stage exploded and the huge black smoking locamotive came bursting through!  At this point the boys were on stage and blasting out (yup you guessed it) Rock n Roll Train for their latest album Black Ice. The crowd were bouncing, singing and flashing the devil sign as the guitars and drums blared, shaking Hampden to it’s core. From that moment on we knew we were all in for a treat and a glance at Gav returned a look of amazement and awe!

The hits just kept coming (including ‘Back in Black’, ‘Shook Me All Night Long’ and ‘Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap’) and the special sound and lighting added to the experience. We were among a happy fun crowd that were intent on having a great time no matter what. I was recently saw Oasis at Murrayfield and was in amongst some absolute idiots who were more focussed on swaggering about looking for somebody to punch, what a contrast this was, as people from all age groups came together to worship true rock gods.

The stage and overall show was a sight to behold and when the 1977 hit “Whole Lotta Rosie” started, the locomotive was amply stradled by a giant inflatable woman with a whole lotta loving on offer (see below).

We were situated to the left of a square stage that was placed in the middle of the pitch and was connected to the main stage by a runway that parted the crowd like Moses.  At various intervals throughout the show, Angus Young and Brian Johnson would run up the runway, teasing the crowd but never quite ending up on that stage. It wasn’t until nearly two hours into the show that the crowd stage was utilised. After Angus had treated (!) the crowd to his traditional striptease (check out his boxers below!) he then started to work his guitar with every incredible inch of skill he could muster, whipping the crowd up in to a frenzy as he edged closer to the crowd stage (continued below)

before dissapearing under the stage and emerging a-top it, bathed in light and looking almost angelic! After some engrossing strumming, the stage started to lift Mr Young high in to close air above us (see pic below) as he continued to rule 50,000 people with pure rock and roll majesty.

Angus played that guitar for at least 15 minutes and at one point was using only his left hand on the upper frets whilst still producing an incredible rolling sound.

After two full hours of rock paradise, the stage when dark and the token breather before the encore commenced. A matter of minutes later and the stage exploded in light as the first riffs of AC/DC monster hit ‘Highway to Hell’ pierced the air. The crowd exploded as myself and Gav bounced and screamed along with the famous lyrics and really appreciated that we were viewing masters of the Rock n Roll art. As the pace of Highway to Hell dropped away, the 1981 anthem, ‘For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)’ began and had the crowd mesmerised for the final few minutes of the show. The Rock and Roll journey was complete, it lasted 2.5 hours but the memories will live on forever.

The smiling and buzzing crowd slowly dispersed on to the streets of Glasgow, the air was still heavy and the gig legs started to kick in! We walked the three miles back to our hotel with the sounds of AC/DC charging through our brains and reflected on what we had witnessed. Back at the hotel there were people saying that they had seen AC/DC 7 or 8 times and the one that we had experienced was up there with the best. A cool beer was quaffed before heading back to the room for some Rock n Roll dreams.

A truly awesome experience and one that will be rememebered until the day we join Bon Scott in the big gig in the sky.