AC/DC originated in Australia, and was formed in 1973 by brothers Angus Young and Malcolm Young. They were born in Glasgow, Scotland, but then moved to Sydney Australia with most of their family in 1963. They classified themselves solely as rock n roll, but are considered to be one of the pioneers of heavy metal. They are also one of the highest grossing bands of all time. "AC/DC" is an abbreviation meaning "alternating current/direct current" electricity. They originally got the name from their older sister Margaret, who saw the initials ACDC on a sewing machine. The brothers felt that this name symbolized the band’s raw energy and their power driven performances.
The members included Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Larry Van Kriedt, Dave Evans, and Colin Burgess. The people who wanted the most success out of them were Australia’s legendary roadie Ray Arnold and his partner Alan Kissack. The two men convinced “Chequers” entertainment manager Gene Pierson to let the band play at the popular Sydney nightclub in 1973. Colin Burgess was the first member fired, and several bassists and drummers passed through the band the next year. The Young brothers decided that Evans was not a suitable frontman for the group, because they felt he was more of a glam rocker. It was Gene Pierson who arranged for Bon Scott from “Fraternity” to join them as the lead singer. (Paul Sutcliffe, Pg. 34, P.2)
In September 1974 Ronald "Bon" Scott replaced Dave Evans. By October 1974, the Australia-only album “High Voltage” had been recorded. It took only ten days, and was based on instrumental songs written by the Young brothers, with lyrics added by Scott. Within a few months, the band's line-up had stabilized, featuring Scott, Malcolm and Angus, bassist Ma...
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...leased on DVD as “Live at Donington”. A year later, AC/DC recorded "Big Gun" for the soundtrack of the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie “Last Action Hero”, and was released as a single reaching No.1 on the US Mainstream Rock chart, the band's first No.1 single on that chart. The band is currently in the making of a new album, supposedly. It is still the same lineup and their most recent tour “Black Ice” sold out shows wherever they went. The band claims that they are still together and are planning another tour, which just goes to show how much of a powerhouse AC/DC really is.
Works Cited
AC/DC Home | The Official AC/DC Site. Sony Entertainment, 2011. Web. 02 Dec.
Sutcliffe, Phil, and Robert Alford. AC/DC: High-voltage Rock 'n Roll: the Ultimate Illustrated History. St.
Paul, MN: Voyageur, 2010. Print.
"AC/DC INFO BASE." Coastal IT: Home. Web. 02 Dec. 2011.
Eddie Van Halen was born in Holland in 1955 and immigrated to Pasadena California. At the age of seven, Eddie was training as a classical pianist, although his love for Rock and Roll was developing. He started working a paper route and used the money to buy a drum set. His brother Alex, also musically inclined, bought a guitar. After months of practicing, Alex and Eddie switched instruments. Alex would spend hours on Eddie's drums and loved to play them. Eddie, a little frustrated with the drums, picked up Alex's guitar and felt at home with the instrument. Eddie would sit in his room for hours memorizing Eric Clapton guitar rifts' from "Cream". In his teenage years, Eddie and Brother Alex Van Halen played in local clubs and local parties in California. They started become a big name in the local area of Pasadena California. A police officer once commented that the parties that the Van Halen brothers played at were so big, that the police were looking for where the party was in a four-block radius. There would be almost 2,000 people attending house parties when the Van Halen brothers played. Alex and Eddie initially called there band Genesis but learned there was a much bigger group in Europe with the same name, so they changed it to Mammoth. The band had humble beginnings and the brothers could not afford a PA system for their concerts. They rented a PA system from David Lee Roth when his band was not playing. During one performance, the rented PA system broke down. A member of the local band...
Schinder, Scott and Andy Schwartz. Icons of rock : an encyclopedia of the legends who changed
The Dave Matthews Band has been a musical power house for years. They have meshed together almost every type of music together to create their extremely unique sounds and attractiveness towards their music. Dave Matthews, lead singer and guitarist from South Africa has put together a band that no one will ever be able to create again. Dave picked four extremely talented and unique sounding men to join his band and together they have created some amazing music. The members of the band include Stefan Lessard on bass, Boyd Tinsley on violin, Leroi Moore on saxophone and one of the best drummers in the world, Carter Beauford. Together these men will one day leave behind a similar reputation as one of the all time greatest "jam" bands of time.
The Police were a three part band composed of Andy Summers the guitarist, Steward Copeland the drummer and Gordon Mathew Sumner the bass guitarist and singer. Before the band was formed Steward Copeland was part of the band Curved Air. In 1976 the band disbanded leaving Copeland without a job, or passion. Copeland yearned to join another band and reunite music with his life; coincidently he and Gordon met up at a local jazz club and appreciated each other enough to start a band. Soon after the two of them released their first song “Fall Out”, the two of them invited a Henry Padovani to join the band, who gladly accepted [why?]. In 1977 the three of them quietly toured with Mike Howlett as a project band for a Gong reunion – who Mike Howlett was formerly a part of. Copeland was almost excluded from this tour due to Mike choosing a different drummer. Luckily that drummer was busy and the band kept together. The four of them came under the name Strontium 90. A little while after that gig Andy Summers proposed to join the band on the condition that Padovani would be kicked out. Both Copeland and Gordon resisted after the idea at first due to the loyalty to Padovani, but after a few more concerts Summers was in and Padovani was informed that he was out of the band due to his limited abilities as a guitarist. Coming to distress in early 1978 the band accepted a shallow deal for money as a band in a gum commercial. The commercials director had only one condition, that they dye their hair blond for the shoot. The band was blessed to get this opportunity as later known because the blond hair became a trade mark of the band. The band’s first album was a hardship for them; they had a small studio and low budget, provided by Copeland’s older ...
The band consist of 8 members, Nathan East bassist/vocals, Andy Fairweather-Low, lead guitar/vocals, Steve Ferrone- drums, Chuck Leavell-key boardist, Ray Cooper- tambourines, Katie Kissoon and Tessa Niles- vocals, and Eric Clapton- composer, rock n roll guitarist, lead vocalist. The band members dressed in casual attire. The band members were professionals, they knew exactly how to orchestrate every chord, they collaborated with the lead singer and each other in ways that wasn’t so noticeable to the audience but they knew which chords to use for every song, the band was a top notch team. The tempo of the songs were a mixture of fast, slow, to a medium style beat. The texture of the songs was homophonic and well put together lyrics. The style of the music was from the 1960s-1970s which genres were rock, blues rock, psychedelic rock, hard rock, jazz and blues.
Jimmy Page played guitar, Robert Plant was the vocalist, John Paul Jones played bass guitar and the keyboard, and John Bonham beat the drums. The group had the complete set up for a band right off the start. They produced their first record in thirty hours to complete their deal with the old Yardbirds. They toured Scandinavia for awhile also to complete their obligations to the Yardbirds.
1993 was a very busy year. They got a contract from Trent Reznor's new own label Nothing and got a spot on NIN's 94 tour. The making of their first album, "Portrait of an American Family", was underway. Trent Reznor was the producer of the album.
Another founding member of the band was Bev Bevan. He was born Beverly Bevan in Birmingham, U.K. on November 25, 1945. He formed his first professional band, called Denny Lain and the Diplomats, in 1963.He retired from music to become a furniture salesman, but then joined Carl Wayne and the Vikings. He then later joined The Move and helped create ELO. (Petersdorff 4)
The Concert Band. New York: Rinehart and Company, Inc., 1946. Print. The. Rhodes, Stephen.
In early 1970 the band Queen was formed. Freddie Mercury on vocals, Brian May on guitar, Roger Taylor on drums and Mike Gross on bass. They had known each other for years. All living in the town of Kensington in Britain, sometimes even living together. Brian and Roger belonged to a band called Smile, and Freddie was a very talented vocalsit playing for the band Ibex. They decided to join forces, to better themselves, and their chances of obtaining fame and fortune. After a few months with only a few gigs Mike Gross left the band. He was replaced by Barry Mitchell, who only played a few gigs with them. After a few short months they were looking for their third bass player. Roger, was at a party one night and was introduced to John Deacon, an electronics major at the University of London and a good bass player. The two hit it off, and Deacon became the new member of Queen.
1 Gass, Bryan "A History of Rock Music: The Rock and Roll Era" World Book. Ed. 6. 1994.
(Schwartz, 1) The name of their band was actually inspired by a Muddy Waters Song, “Rollin Stone”. Their first single was “Come On”, released in 1963. Andrew Loog Oldham was the band’s first official
That brings us to the last segment of our concert, the Modern Era. Traditoinal musical instruments in the modern period have not changed nearly as much as they have in the 18th and 19th centuries. There have been gradual iterations of musical instruments within the 1900’s, such as updates to the violin family. There were many new instruments created in the Modern Era, all of which focused around electricity. This evening’s selections do not include any such selections with electronic instruments; however, there are arrangements available for the electric instruments such as the organ, keyboard or syntehsizer, or electric guitar.
What has the power to make you get up and move, to both inspire you and enrage you? Rock, rap, “pop”, country, and blues are all forms of this phenomenon we call music. Music has been a part of each and everyone of our lives. How often have you heard a song and it brought you back to a place in your past, or reminded you of someone? Chances are you were listening to music that fell into one of the two most popular categories, rock or pop. Both rock and pop can be considered movements in society, however the motivation for these movements were on the opposite ends of the spectrum. Also another thing that they have in common is that once the artists are famous the may both have a tendency to fall off the deep end. This may entail spending thousands of dollars on drugs and alcohol. Eventually many of both pop and rock stars end up in rehab. Even though the lines between rock and pop can be blurred at times there are many distinct differences.