AC/DC ready to rock New Zealand

Described by Aerosmith's Steve Tyler as the "second most powerful surge that can flow through your body," AC/DC have made a career by being the heavy-hitting, power-chord-loving, Aussie-boys of rock and roll.

The Australian heroes have spent more than three decades topping charts – their musical masterpiece Back in Black went double platinum – and are synonymous with gritty-blues-driven songs about sex, drinking, debauchery and the odd bit of smut.

It's a formula that seems to be working.

AC/DC have sold 26.4 million albums worldwide since 1991 and are second only to The Beatles.

Unlike other bands who delve in to concept albums, adapt their music for the new generations and constantly evolve – Acca Dacca are quite happy where they are, and have no plans to change.

Like the Aussie idiom goes: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

The hard-rock/heavy-metal band featuring perpetual schoolboy Angus Young on guitar and chain-smoking Brian Johnson on vocals will set foot on our shores soon – for the first time in 14 years.

With over 85,000 AC/DC tickets sold, one in every forty New Zealanders will see them play live - AC/DC have obviously struck a chord with Kiwis.

After moving from Scotland to Sydney in 1963, brothers Angus and Malcolm Young began perfecting their dual-guitar style while Angus was still in high-school.

The schoolboy shorts were a by-product at the time that would later be one of the defining features of the band.

Moving through numerous bassists, drummers and singers the duo eventually chose fellow Scotsman Ronald Belford 'Bon' Scott to be their front man.

The then-roadie was notorious for his drinking and would often drink a bottle of whiskey before going on-stage to quell his nerves – resulting in his rasp tone and on stage 'swagger'.

By 1975 their first album High Voltage was recorded in just ten days and was a raw version of the music the band would later be defined by. It cemented the band in the Australian and New Zealand markets and helped begin our affinity with AC/DC.

The band's fame continued to grow off the back of albums T.N.T, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Let There Be Rock and Powerage but they would not gain true international recognition until the 1979 release of Highway to Hell.

Following Highway to Hell the band had established themselves as an international powerhouse.

However, in a matter of months infamous alcoholic lead singer Bon Scott drank himself to death and choked on his own vomit. Officially labelled a 'death by misadventure', Bon remains to many the true AC/DC singer. A statue of him stands in Freemantle Western Australia where he was buried.

Scott barely got a chance to experience the band's success and just as it was beginning it looked as though the AC/DC rollercoaster may have come to a halt.

Months late deciding the only way to honour the memory of their friend, the Aussie boys chose to push on and enlisted new front man Brian Johnson – the singer for one of Bon's favourite bands.

Four months later Back in Black was released and went on to make AC/DC one of the most defining heavy rock bands of all time.

Songs like You Shook Me All Night Long, title track Back in Black and the definitive Hells Bells instantly made this a classic AC/DC album and a rock and roll landmark.

The boys were back and Brian Johnson was a welcome addition to the band.

Wanting to return to the rough, underground feel of their earlier albums the band changed producers and had little commercial success with albums Flick of the Switch, Fly on the Wall, Who Made Who, Blow Up Your Video.

Despite this the albums still sold relatively well with long time fans.

Rolling Stone magazine famously said following the release of Razors Edge that AC/DC had set "a new record for the longest career without a single new idea."

While such a call would make other bands despondent, AC/DC thrived on criticism and continued to make their type of swagger-happy rock.

The following albums Ballbreaker and Stiff Upper Lip stuck closely to the AC/DC formula of huge blues-driven bass, no-frills guitar riffing, stadium chorus lines and smutty lyrics the band is renowned for.

Eight years after releasing Stiff Upper Lip the band once again came together to write their latest album Black Ice. The fifteenth album by the Aussies was said to have been in the pipeline for two years and was the second best selling album of 2008.

Dubbed by reviewers as AC/DC militantly refusing to alter their form, it was called their best album in years, if not decades.

Shortly after the band said they would begin an 18 month worldwide tour that included New Zealand.

Three decades later AC/DC fever is still alive and well in New Zealand.

The New Zealand concerts saw people queuing outside ticket outlets nationwide. One fan planned to tattoo the band's name to her buttocks in an attempt to win free tickets.

Simply put, AC/DC are a juggernaught of rock and roll.

For over thirty years they have been playing their own style of rough-as-guts rock and refuse to change.

Expect the school boy uniform, cannon explosions, duck walking, chain-smoking and the rock and roll swagger only Brian Johnson can muster.

Expect to embrace the heavy bass, long solos, wailing vocals and the stadium anthems that are AC/DC.

Concert dates: Westpac Stadium, Wellington, January 28 & 30; Western Springs, Auckland, February 4.