AC/DC – Live In London (Tarantura TCDACDC-2-1,2)

Live In London (Tarantura TCDACDC-2-1,2)

Hammersmith Odeon London, England November 2, 1979

Disc 1  Live Wire, Shot Down In Flames, Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be, Sin City, Walk All Over You, Bad Boy Boogie, The Jack

Disc 2  Highway To Hell Girls Got Rhythm, High Voltage, Whole Lotta Rosie, Rocker, If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It), Let There Be Rock  

AC/DC’s UK tour in support of Highway To Hell began October 26 1979 in Newcastle and ended on November 9 1979 in Liecester and was made up of 14 dates four of which were at London’s Hammersmith Odeon (a fifteenth scheduled October 25 in Newcastle but was rescheduled until  Jan 25, 1980 and was the second to the last date Bon Scott played with the band). November 2 was the second date at Hammersmith and was recorded by the BBC for broadcast.

There have been many releases of the show Angus Cha Cha (Oh Boy 2-9142) From Down Under (Metal Memory MM 90001) Tropical Prison (Work 5516-2) and two songs, Live Wire and Shot Down In Flames were released officially as the B-side to Touch Too Much. The recording used on this release is excellent, well balanced with no hiss and could possibly be from the pre mixed masters as you can here the sound guy mixing the levels in the first song Live Wire.

The set list is typical from the tour, five tracks from the new record show how confident the band was with the new material. The opening salvo of Live Wire > Shot down in Flames is every bit as effective and Led Zep’s Immigrant Song > Heartbreaker was, it gets you from the very beginning, especially the guitar interplay at the start of the later. A blistering 12 min 30 second version of Bad Boy Boogie is a highlight of the first disc, AC/DC’s version of Hoochie Coochie Man is thundering boogie blues at its best, what gets you not only is Angus’ solo’s but the rhythm section most notable the work of brother Malcolm Young. Always in the background his playing is solid and gives the song its hard hitting depth.

Bon intros the next song as one to get you dancing and a bit of a sing along, again he uses the add libbed lyrics about a dirty little bitch. The seconds disc starts with two tracks from the new album, the title track and Girls Got Rhythm, the latter being very effective live .A definite second disc highlight is the ten and half minute version of Rocker, originally released in 1975 on the T.N.T. record the song is boogie from start to finish, hand clapping and raucous again the rhythm section are in complete unison allowing Angus to solo at will….fantastic stuff.

Let There Be Rock closes the evening, the song that defines the band is eight minutes of hard rock heaven. We are blessed to have so many high quality recordings from the Bon Scott era and this one ranks high. The packaging is gatefold style high gloss with a picture of Bon and Angus on the cover, with Angus with his hand on Bon’s crotch. Bon has his Lynyrd Skynyrd belt buckle on obviously displaying admiration for a band from another continent who could be considered the American AC/DC.

The inside cover has pictures of Angus with the same pictures also on the cd’s. What could be better, great packaging, great sound quality, and a fantastic performance that should appeal not only AC/DC fans but to the general collector this release is a highlight of 2009.