AC/DC’s Scots guitarist Angus Young reveals carnage around the supergroup from wild groupies, fist-fights and links to serial killer in new book
Politicians in American led the charge for the group to be banned in certain States while far right Christian groups demanded the ‘devil worshippers’ shows should be boycotted
A GRIPPING new book about AC/DC schoolboy guitarist Angus Young charts the carnage around the supergroup from wild groupies, violent fist-fights, tragic fans’ deaths – and even being linked to a serial killer.
The world famous rocker from Glasgow is last man standing in the band that went on to sell an astonishing 200million records.
That’s after the rock and roll death of their Scottish frontman Bon Scott, losing his replacement Brian Johnson to hearing loss, the house arrest of drummer Phil Rudd and early onset dementia of founder and big brother Malcolm.
But amazingly that’s just the tip of the iceberg in a career spanning 44 years which once saw them involved in the manhunt for notorious American serial killer Richard Ramirez — dubbed The Night Stalker.
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The book’s author Jeff Apter explains: “Ramirez left an AC/DC baseball cap behind at one of the crime scenes which the cops released to the press in the hope the killer would be identified.
“It led to a huge backlash against the band because their hit Night Prowler had the lyrics ‘I am your night prowler — I sleep in the day’.
"This was said to have inspired Ramirez’s grisly nocturnal crimes.”
Politicians in American led the charge for the group to be banned in certain States while far right Christian groups demanded the ‘devil worshippers’ shows should be boycotted.
Ramirez was captured in 1985 and convicted of 13 counts of murder, five attempted murders and 11 sexual assaults.
He died in 2013 from lymphoma while awaiting execution on California’s death row.
The killer’s shocking crimes have since been used in three Hollywood productions including American Horror Story.
But Jeff says: “All through the trial there were television reports saying ‘Did the band AC/DC drive Ramirez on his own Highway To Hell?’.
"Angus grew increasingly angry as his band and the Night Stalker were lumped together.
“He eventually had to defend his group and said, ‘If you were really interested in being devil worshippers, you would go off and do that — it’s about as far away from what we are as you can get’.”
Angus arrived in Australia as a 10 year old with his folks William and Margaret and his seven siblings.
However, Jeff reveals their new start Down Under was even tougher than Glasgow’s rough Cranhill district they’d left behind.
The former Rolling Stone writer says: “Things were just as brutal when he arrived in Australia.
"Angus and Malcolm were from a family of eight so the first port of call was a migrant hostel in Sydney which they later described as being like a ‘prison camp’.
“Apart from the weather being warmer it was much the same as back home as it was violent.”
In 1973 Angus and Malcolm formed AC/DC. The name was suggested by their sister Margaret who saw the symbol on a Singer sewing machine which meant alternating current/direct current.
It was also Margaret’s idea for Angus to wear his school uniform onstage after she thought he looked cute while playing his guitar in his bedroom after coming back from class.
But it also had a dual purpose when they started performing in rough Aussie bars and clubs.
Jeff, 55, says: “Angus was always having beer bottles thrown at him so the dark school uniform was good at hiding all the mess and gunge.
He actually developed his erratic playing style to avoid being struck — as it’s much harder to hit a moving target.”
Although the rest of the group were big boozers and smoked dope, Angus was teetotal and never touched drugs. His only vice is chain smoking.
He was also discreet when he came to their growing army of groupies after the band set up home on Sydney’s Lansdowne Road, which once saw 100 young women pass through their doors in one week.
Angus later joked the true figure was “110”. After the tragic death of frontman Bon Scott in 1980, the group would experience a second major tragedy at a gig in 1991 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
During their concert three teenage fans — Jimmie Boyd Jr, Curtis White Child, both 4, and 19-year-old Elizabeth Glausi — were killed in a crush at the Salt Palace Acord Arena.
Away from the stage the 62-year-old Scot lives the quiet life with Dutch wife Ellen van Lochem.
The couple — who never had any children — now split their time between homes in Aalten in Holland, Sydney and the UK.
Angus once said: “For the two hours I climb on stage I become the schoolboy. But as soon as it is over, I get off stage and go home and get told to wipe my feet before I come in.”
And Jeff, one of the few journalists to have interviewed reclusive Angus, says: “He’s a very quiet man. He’s not a great talker. He lets his guitar do the talking.
Horror king Stephen King describes himself as an AC/DC superfan, quoting their 1976 song Dirty Deeds in his novel Skeleton Crew.
But Jeff adds: “King is someone they’re proud to call a fan — but Angus and co certainly attracted the worst sort of believer in Richard Ramirez.”
It's Scott he wanted
TRAGIC lead singer Bon Scott died just as AC/DC were on the cusp of becoming superstars — but it was his dad who told the Young brothers to rock on.
The original frontman was just 33 when he choked on his own vomit after a marathon booze-up in London.
But after his service in Australia, Bon’s father dad Chick told Angus and Malcolm: “You’ve got to keep going. Find another singer.
That’s what Bon would have wanted.”
And even though Angus is the only original member of the band left, Jeff insists the AC/DC juggernaut will rumble on.
He says: “ They’re still one of the biggest grossing touring bands in the world and Angus still likes playing the world’s most famous schoolboy.”
High Voltage by Jeff Apter is out now published by Nero Books £16.99
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