It’s been 10 long years. Here’s what AC/DC fans can expect as the legends finally power up
Accadacca will then headline the BP Adelaide Grand Final on November 30 and head to Perth’s Optus Stadium on December 4 and 8, and Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium on December 14 and 18.
Who will open for them?
AC/DC will be supported at each show by Melbourne pub-rock band Amyl and the Sniffers, who have just been nominated for a Grammy. They are in the running for best rock performance with their track U Should Not Be Doing That – their first Grammy nod.
Having just earned a Grammy nod, it’s the perfect time for Amyl and the Sniffers to be opening for rock gods.Credit: Richard Clifford
Beyond Amyl and the Sniffers, a different local rock act will also open each Australian city. In Melbourne it will be The Casanovas, Large Mirage in Sydney, Oscar the Wild in Adelaide, the Southern River Band in Perth, and Headsend in Brisbane.
The Power Up tour by the numbers
AC/DC doesn’t do anything by halves. The Power Up tour, which has already been described as “sweat-inducing, fist-thrusting rock” in Europe and the US, required about 300 tonnes of steel for its set and the equivalent of about 28 tonnes of PA systems and speakers. The stage alone takes about three days to put together.
It involves so much gear, in fact, that it all had to be shipped to Australia from the UK in 74 separate sea containers – 26 for production equipment and 48 for stage gear.
The projected audience of their world tour, which has so far travelled to 43 cities across the globe, is currently between 3.5 and 4 million people. As for those working on the tour itself, there are 155 crew members in total, including 87 production staff, 38 steel crew members and 30 local crew.
More fun facts about Accadacca’s tour
- Number of semi-trailers used to transport the production from city to city in Australia: 26 trucks for the main production and 21 trucks for each stage system
- Number of road cases used to transport all equipment (lights, audio, video, stage, instruments, wardrobe, etc): 1161 cases, carts and pieces of truss (aka structural frameworks for the stage)
- Total kilowatts of power consumed during one stadium show for lights, audio, video, rigging, etc: 500 kilowatts
- Length of cables used for power, lighting and audio equipment: more than 4 kilometres of mains cable (about 4114 metres)
AC/DC’s biggest Aussie moments
Hands-down one of the most memorable AC/DC moments on home soil was when the Grammy Award-winning band filmed the music video for It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock’n’Roll) on the back of a flatbed truck down Melbourne’s Swanston Street nearly 50 years ago. They were accompanied by members of the Rats of Tobruk pipe band, blasting their bagpipes alongside Bon Scott, who died in 1980 and was replaced by current singer Brian Johnson.
The music video for It’s a Long Way to the Top brought the world to Swanston Street.Credit:
However, in 1975 – a year before the iconic music video was filmed – the band turned heads for a very different reason. While introducing themselves to the country on the Australian music TV show Countdown, Scott dressed up as a schoolgirl, replete with blonde pigtails and skirt to match Angus Young’s soon-to-be signature schoolboy outfit.
In 1976 the band made history as one of the first in Australia to use pyrotechnics and fake blood in a music video. The Jailbreak video is punctuated by gunshots and explosions, all of which was set up and filmed in a quarry in the Melbourne suburb of Albion.
Years later, in 2003, Angus and Malcolm Young performed alongside fellow legendary rockers The Rolling Stones at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre. They played various tracks, including a rendition of B.B. King’s Rock Me Baby, to about only 2000 fans. The Stones were also reportedly very amused by Angus’ classic duck walk, which he says was inspired by the pioneering rock’n’roller Chuck Berry.
How far have they come?
AC/DC debuted on New Year’s Eve in 1973 at Chequers Nightclub in Sydney. Since then they’ve been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and have sold more than 200 million albums worldwide, becoming one of the bestselling artists of all time.
Their 1980 LP Back in Black (their first with new singer Johnson following Scott’s death) sold an estimated 50 million copies globally.
Their most recent album Power Up, which was released in 2020, debuted at No.1 on the ARIA chart. It also debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200 – the band’s third time reaching the top spot there.
The Australian leg of AC/DC’s Power Up tour will begin in Melbourne on November 12 at the MCG before travelling to Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane.
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