Full steam ahead

Gone are the days when AC/DC's biggest fans were black T-shirt-wearing bogans. No doubt there will be a fair few of them buying tickets to the Australian heavy rock band's two New Zealand shows when they go on sale on Tuesday but, according to concert promoter Garry Van Egmond who has been with the band for 26 years, their fan base has changed dramatically since the male-dominated days of the 80s.

"Now it's crossed over into a much younger audience, so they have an audience from 12-year-olds to 60-year-olds and that's been the making of the great success of this tour and the album sales [of latest record Black Ice]."

He puts this wider appeal down to the band's reputation for putting on a great live show.

"They are known for their concerts and great productions and I saw them in London recently - they did two hours and 10 minutes right through and it really was a spectacular concert. The word of mouth has got out about that and people talk about the value you get for your dollar."

The giant stage set for the Black Ice Tour is moved around the world in 48 12m containers and takes 120 people around four days to set up.

All tickets to the shows - at Westpac Stadium on January 28 and Western Springs in Auckland on February 4 - will cost $159.90 from Ticketmaster (Auckland) and Ticketek (Wellington).

When tickets went on sale in Australia, box office records were broken with 520,000 tickets for the 11 sold-out shows purchased in three hours. It has also sold out around the world, having started in Europe in February and currently rumbling through North America.

And despite the reasonably steep ticket price, Van Egmond believes the New Zealand shows will be just as popular with sell-out crowds expected, including 60,000 at Western Springs.

"What the boys have insisted on - and this is the band themselves, who are very much involved in setting ticket prices - is that we couldn't charge more than US$100 [$152] a ticket. But if you look at other shows, the Rolling Stones, the Police, and U2, I think the Stones was anywhere from $350 down to $99. But we've decided to keep it at one price."

Without giving too much away about the show, it starts with a video of the band on "The Rock 'n' roll Train". Then, the first we see of singer Brian Johnson, guitarists and brothers Angus and Malcolm Young, bassist Cliff Williams and New Zealand-based drummer Phil Rudd in the flesh, is when they steam onto the stage in a locomotive.

And judging by setlists from the shows so far, there's a good chance they will crack straight into, well, Rock 'N' Roll Train of course, off Black Ice, with classic Back In Black up soon after.

All aboard, then.