Tell us what you do remember of meeting Bon in the mid-seventies with Fraternity when
they played with your band?
Yeah, that was at Torquay.
It was… we had driven down from Newcastle and it was a long way, it's probably about
350 miles, maybe more.
And we were just absolutely tired, in fact, we were late for the gig.
And we got there.
And I remember the first thing we saw was this huge American bus, which we hadn't seen
anything like it in my life.
And we were going, ‘Boy, these guys must be huge’, you know, because we were in a
little transit van or something, six-wheeler.
And we walked in and we saw ‘Fraternity’ and they opened up.
I don't know if they were headlining or just not, we got their late so, you know, they
had to go on.
And we went and caught the last couple of songs and I was sitting looking like and these
guys are good, you know?
But we didn't have much time.
We got into our clothes and run on the stage.
And then when we came off afterwards, I remember I was on stage and I had an attack, appendicitis
or something.
I was doubled over at the end ahh, but Bon thought I was doing a James Brown.
He thought.
‘He's got a good act that kid’ wasn't.
I was.
And afterwards, you know, back in the dressing room, I got some shots from the doctor or
something.
And I know we all got together and they were telling us that the bus had broken down and
it was the coldest night and Torquay in I think about 100 years, it was actually frost
on the ground.
And of course, Torquay's, known as the Riviera of England with palm trees and everything.
So it was bloody cold and we were staying at a Bed and Breakfast, you know, four beds
and one room, you know, and it was absolutely bitter cold.
And the inside of the bus, the boys, Fraternity’s bus, was like a fridge.
I mean, they couldn't do anything.
So we were just kept drinking and I think until we got kicked out of the hall where
we were playing.
This is where my memory gets a little blurry.
And cause it was, as I said, there was drink involved and we would just got on famously
with a brand new friends who were musicians from Australia and we'd never been there,
we wanted to hear all about it and all of that.
And and then one of the guys in the band, I think, was Tom Hill, the bass player, said,
‘Yeah’, you know, he knocked on the window and said, ‘Hey, you come in and get warmed
up’.
I mean, I don't know how much of this is true because, you know, and because we had to put
shillings in this gas metre, it lasted about 10 minutes and then it was, you know, freezing
again.
So but what did play a gig the very next night with him and I think that's where we kind
of got drunk again.
And we're really enjoyed each other's company.
And it's the sad thing about music is, you know, we went a different ways and I think
they had to come back to Australia, I think money was getting short and times were tough
there.
Certainly was for us.
You know, we were trying to climb up the ladder and and that's where I met him, but I didn't
know it was Bon.
And I remember in about 1978 somebody said, ‘Well, you got to watch TV tonight, BBC
2, there's a band on called AC/DC.
And there was a programme called Rock Goes to College, which was pretty adventurous for
the BBC then.
And I turned it on and it was like the first time I saw Little Richard, you know.
I just went, ‘What the hell is that?’
It was it was Angus just at his peak, I think he was 22 or 23.
He was just gone and he was born to sing.
I just this guy with a big smile on his face, you know, just you just fell instantly in
love with his band, you know?
You just, you know, because I was in a little band at the time playing in the clubs and
the first thing we did was learn Whole Lotta Rosie after I was saw it on television, we
bought the record and we started to do a few songs off on the clubs.
But it wasn't until I think it was 1981 when we first went to Sydney, Australia, but but
after that we went to Perth and, and we got letters saying that Bon’s mum, Isa I think
it's, it's the proper way to pronounce it, was going to come to the gig with the two
brothers.
Colin and Graham…
Derek and Graham.
And come and say hi.
And we were sitting back in the dressing room having a cup of tea, and I was saying, ‘Yeah’,
you know, she said, ‘Didn't you play and meet our Bon before?’
And I went,’ I don't think so’.
And it was then I think it was Graham.
I'm sure it was Graham said, ‘Yes, you did, I was there in Torquay when you played’.
When I went, ‘That was Bon?’.
Because he looked completely different and it just it knocked me off my feet when I suddenly
realised I had known the man, you know.
And that must have been 15 years ago when we knew each other for the first time bloody
15 years, can you believe that?
But anyway, isn't it strange how stuff happens, you know?
But anyway, that was my recollection.
Some of them would be hazy, you know.
But we certainly had a good time down near Cornwall in Devon with because we discovered
the cider, this cider, this rough cider, and it was cheap and he could get gallons of this
stuff.
And that's what we drank, You know, it was great times.
After Bon died tell me about being approached by AC/DC.
Well, well, you know, it was a strange thing.
I had a little business up in Newcastle.
Wasn’t much, but it was a little business, you know, to pay the rent.
And I had a little band at night that were playing in the clubs and pubs and called Geordie
Too.
And I was enjoying myself, you know, and, and the telephone rang one day and, I think
I've told this story a million times, and telephone rang.
And it was a lady with a very heavy Eastern accent, you know, like German East, you know,
like Russian, whatever it was.
I nicknamed Olga from the Volga.
And she said, ‘You ever come to London and you think you are a singer?’
Who's this?
And she said, ‘You must come’.
And I said, ‘I'm not coming to London’.
I said, ‘I don't even know who you are’.
I said, ‘Who's it for’.
‘I cannot tell you’.
And I said, ‘No, I'm not coming to London’.
You know, the pretty abrupt, you know, they don't mean to be rude, you know, but it's
just the way it happened and all that.
And so, you know, about half an hour later, a friend of mine phoned as and he said, ‘Hey,
Brian, interested in doing a singing on an advertisement?
It's good money’.
It's in London.
And I said, ‘Oh, and he's now a friend of mine.
And, you know, he did all the Monty Python stuff, Andre Jackman, that was his name.
And I said, ‘I'll be down’.
I said, ‘When is it?’
He said, ‘Next Monday’.
So I phoned up Olga from the Volga back and I said, I said, ‘You said Monday?’
and she said yes.
So I drove down, I did the advert and then I drove I think it was about a couple of miles
to the studio.
I think it was Vanilla Studio, I'm sure that's the name of it.
And I walked in there and all the crew were downstairs playing pool.
And of course I'm at work and I the first thing I did was put me five p on a table and
I started playing pool with them and the tour manager came down and he said, ‘Has anybody
seen that Geordie kid?
He's called Brian, if you tell me if you see him to get his arse upstairs, he's about 40
minutes late’.
I said, ‘That's me.’
He said, ‘Oh yes’.
So I went in there and that's where I'm at the lodge, you know, there was sitting there
and I remember I never forget Malcolm if you walked up there was with a bottle of brown
hair and he said, he said, ‘This is what you drink, isn't it?’
And I said, ‘Oh mate, I could murder it.’
And I was a little nervous.
That's not the right word, but I knew I was in … these guys were good.
I mean, I'd already seen them perform on the TV and he said, ‘Well, what, what do you
want to do?’
And, you know, sort sorted out a song.
I think it was Nutbush City Limits, which took them by surprise.
And Miles said, well, at least it's not Smoke on the Water.
Like all the other guys, all the other guys that have been coming up with their Smoke
on the Water.
Yeah, I think they’d had enough.
And, you know, it was.
It was fun.
And then he said, ‘Do you know any of our songs?’
And I said, ‘Rosie’.
And he went, ‘Wow.
Right.’
And you know, I didn't know what it was.
But as soon as this started playing and I was singing with him and everything, you know,
there was just something was happened that I'm not clever enough to tell you what it
was.
But, you know, you could tell, you know, my hair's standing on end and, you know, it was
just it was it was fantastic.
It was it was wonderful.
I'd never thought I'd never sang with a band this good.
I mean, they were just great.
Phil On the drums.
Cliff on the bass, you know, Malcolm and Angus together with them guitars.
It's just so, you know, for me… realised I had to go and sing, you know, with a fixed
bayonet, you know, it was simple as that.
There was no hiding from this stuff and and that was it.
I said, ‘Listen, that was brilliant, but I've got to get home now because I've got
to open the shop up in the morning and it's like a four-hour drive’ And they’re like,
‘What?’.
It was probably about 8.00, 8.30 or something.
And, you know, maybe and you know, I didn't think I was ever going to get it.
Please don't get me wrong.
I just thought this was a great chance, you know, to tell the boys in the band in Newcastle
that I actually had a sing with AC/DC and I thought that was it, you know, they were
sure they got just a hell of a lot of guys, much younger than me as well and, and Australian
boys that the new and all that kind of stuff and but boy was I thrilled when I drove back
to Newcastle I was just over the moon.
And I told the boys in the band, I said it was brilliant, what a band.
And I never thought anything of it until the next morning the phone rang again and this
time it was the manager, Peter Mensch.
‘When you come back down?
I mean, like tomorrow?’
And I said, ‘I can't it I've got three gigs in a row with the band and I didn't want to
let the boys down’ because it was their weekly wage, you know.
And so what decided on the next week, Monday again.
And I went down and this time I stayed overnight and just, you know, just started to talk to
each other.
And, you know, because I really didn't know him the first time I was a little bit in awe,
you know, I don't want to say too much, but and then they said, ‘We want you to come
back down again’, you know, ‘get yourself sorted out’ – this was Peter Mensch.
And I guess that was it really.
It was it was unbelievable.
It was quick, you know.
And then next thing I knew, I was I was on a plane to the Bahamas, which was funny and
of itself, you know, because we were all sitting in the back and all smoking tubs and drinking
and having a ball back.
And of course, he didn't drink, but.
And then getting off at the Bahamas, you know, there wasn't really an airport.
You just got off down them steps, you know, so you just down them steps, you know.
And he I was made I think I had two pairs of socks, two pairs of underpants, three t
shirts, pair of jeans and a denim bomber jacket.
And that was it.
That was it.
And it was 95 degrees.
And we had to walk in this lane to get into the terminal thing.
There it was.
It certainly was an adventure.
It was fantastic.
And then we went to the studio and after about two or three days of getting set up.
We were off and I mean just non-stop for about six weeks.
Every day, you know, I think we had a couple of days off in the six weeks on a Sunday or
something, but that was about it.
It was just I suddenly realised the work ethic of these boys is just phenomenal and I learnt
a lot.
You know, I learnt so much from them.
Has it always been your policy to kind of honour and respect Bon in your performances?
Yes.
Well, I think for me, you know, the more I looked into Bon’s lyric and these, you know,
first of all, the lyrics was just so clever, you know.
And so some of them were sneaky, you didn't even know- his double-entendre, as was just
legend, you know?
And it's just, he's… he just exude this complete and utter a joy when he was on stage
- you just got to look at the old clips and you just see him.
He's having the time of his life.
And think I went through the band and,you know, I realised I couldn't be him.
There wasn't anywhere, you know.
But I think when Malcolm and Angus came to me and they said, ‘We've got this song’,
you know, ‘It's called Back in Black, but, you know, we would like to write something,
but we don't want it to be mawkish;.
And, you know, one of them things, you know, you've just got to be right on the money.
And and it was, you know, what it was?
It was just, you know, it was like you'd say, I don't believe in spirits and stuff like
that.
So I'm not going to get in that way.
But, you know, when there's something there that makes things different from the norm
and you don't know what it is and you just you know, and as you get older and life, you
start going, ‘I wonder’, you know, but it was special, I think that's a good word
to say.
It was very, very special.
And it was undoubtedly then in some form or other, I don't know.
But [00:16:45] he certainly, certainly inspired me.
I think that's what he was more than anything to me, an inspiration.
And even when I hear him talking in old interview, it was still laugh.
And I still even if I've seen it 20 times, I still laugh and chuckle along with him.
And it's he was a special guy.
He really was.
I wish I had had got to know him more.
But I didn't.
That’s life.