Highway to Hell
Page 36
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Clinton Walker has been hailed as “our best chronicler of Australian grass-roots culture” by the Sydney Sun-Herald.
Born in country Victoria in 1957, Walker grew up in Melbourne and, after dropping out of Brisbane Art College in 1976, started writing for student newspapers and his own punk fanzines. After moving to Sydney in 1980 and freelancing for rock magazines such as RAM and Rolling Stone, he gained a reputations as Australia’s most prescient and colorful music critic. His early books Inner City Sound (1981; reissued by Verse Chorus Press in 2005) and The Next Thing (1984) were the first to champion punk and independent music in Australia, and are now regarded as classics of DIY cultural history.
Since Highway to Hell was first published in 1994, Walker has written four more works of ground-breaking music and social history: Stranded: The Secret History of Australian Independent Music, 1977-1992 (1996), Football Life (1998), Buried Country: The Story of Aboriginal Country Music (2000) and Golden Miles: Sex, Speed and the Australian Muscle Car (2005).
Walker was the presenter of late night live-music TV show Studio 22 on ABC, co-wrote the acclaimed 2001 rockumentary Long Way to the Top, and produced soundtrack CDs for both series. He also wrote the documentary film based on Buried Country and produced its double-CD soundtrack, as well as Inner City Soundtrack, a 2CD set released to coincide with the new edition of that book.
Walker lives with his wife and two children in Sydney’s inner western suburbs, just down the road from AC/DC’s birthplace.
Pin-up idols, 1969. (courtesy Vince Lovegrove)
ABOVE: The Valentines in their last incarnation, Autumn 1970, not long before breaking up. Left to right: Ted Ward, Bon (wearing his ‘Super Screw’ T-shirt), Paddy Beach, Wyn Milson, Vince (Glenn A Baker Archives)
BELOW: Fraternity, by now rechristened Fang, on the road in their own magic bus; England, April 1973. Hamish Henry (centre) wearing shades and a mous- (courtesy the Scott family)
Bon, ‘Wild Man of Fraternity’, gracing the cover of short-lived Australian rock rag Sound Blast; November (courtesy David Frith)
ABOVE LEFT: On stage, Melbourne Festival Hall, New Year’s Day, 1975. (Trudy Worme)
ABOVE RIGHT: The same day: after a quick change into the kilt, Bon introduces ‘Young Talent Time’ graduate Debbie Byrne. Bon: ‘She wanted me to be her “boogie man” and it just happened that I had a bit of costumery (like me balls). Said I ruined her (Trudy Worme)
BELOW: On ‘Countdown’, 1975. Bon’s appearance in a schoolgirl’s uniform prompted howls of (courtesy ABC)
ABOVE: With Irene at Fraternity’s Finchley house in London, 1972, before the rot set in. The house degenerated into a (courtesy the Scott family)
BELOW: Bon at Bondi on the bike he rented over the summer of 1977/78.
ABOVE LEFT: With Silver at her flat in London, circa (courtesy the Scott family)
ABOVE RIGHT: With Mary and Peter Renshaw in Melbourne, after a few drinks; Christmas (courtesy Mary Renshaw)
BELOW LEFT: With Anna (courtesy the Scott family)
BELOW RIGHT: At Angus and Ellen Young’s wedding; London, February 1980. (courtesy the Scott family)
ABOVE: The block of flats in Overhill Road, Dulwich, where Bon died.
BELOW LEFT: Isa at home with ‘the boys’ after Bon’s (courtesy the Scott family)
BELOW RIGHT: The oft-stolen plaque marking Bon’s grave at Fremantle Cemetery. After the first such theft in early 1988, Isa told the West Australian: ‘We know there are plenty of visitors as we sometimes find fresh flowers. And we often have to remove empty beer and whiskey bottles, but there has never been any damage until now. How can anyone do a thing like (Tim Ferrier)
Mary: ‘This photo was sent to Graeme by a fan after Bonnie died, and then Graeme gave it to me. I just think it really captures Bon.’ (courtesy Mary Renshaw)
1 Lester Bangs, “James Taylor Marked for Death,” in Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung (Alfred A. Knopf, 1987), pp. 55-56.
2 Printed in “Metal Hammer & Classic Rock Present AC/DC,” Metal Hammer magazine special issue, 2005.
Copyright © 1994, 2001, 2007 by Clinton Walker
Published in the USA by Verse Chorus Press,
PO Box 14806, Portland OR 97293, www.versechorus.com
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
Design and layout by Steve Connell
The editor and the publisher wish to thank all those who supplied photographs and gave permission to reproduce copyright material in this book. Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders, and the publishers would like to hear from any copyright owners from whom permission was inadvertently not obtained. In such cases, we will be pleased to obtain appropriate permission and provide suitable acknowledgment in future printings.
, Ltd.
eISBN : 978-1-891-24186-4
Library of Congress Control Number 2007931765