AC/DC is playing in Wellington on Dec 12, and Auckland on Dec 15. Photo / NZPA
AC/DC is playing in Wellington on Dec 12, and Auckland on Dec 15. Photo / NZPA
Western Springs will be blacked out when AC/DC bring their rock’n’roll roadshow to New Zealand in December. As fans prepare to snap up tickets tomorrow, well-known Kiwis talk about why they’ll be among the tens of thousands of fans heading to the Auckland and Wellington shows.
Jono Pryor, TV comedian
Will never forget the night he saw AC/DC for the first time - at Western Springs in 2010.
"It was incredible, I saw a man eat a packet of cigarettes," he recalls. "My wife was due to give birth to our son but we went anyway and we spent the gig wedged between a panelbeater called Shane and a part-time stripper named Lazer."
One highlight was interviewing guitarist Angus Young for a radio show.
"It was like talking to God. He had some ripper stories," he says.
"My favorite quote was, 'I'm sick and tired of people saying that we put out 11 albums that sound exactly the same. In fact, we've put out 16 albums that sound exactly the same'."
AC/DC are like a religion to Pryor.
"I think of them [fans] like Taylor Swift's "Swifties" except they only wear black and don't shampoo their hair."
Has the rousing sound of AC/DC to thank for finding her a husband.
Panapa - breakfast show co-host on the Sound - was bowled over by Mike Nesbitt's guitar playing when he blasted out a version of the band's anthem Back in Black when they were first dating.
"I went around to Mike's place before we went to the cinema and he was leaning up against his bedroom door playing the famous opening riff from the song," she says. "It was a wicked version and he played it perfectly.
Leah Panapa will be at Western Springs with her husband this December.
"I think he did it deliberately to woo me over and it bloody worked because I ended up marrying him.
"It is hard for a girl to resist a man who can crank out an AC/DC tune and I was instantly in love with the band's music, too."
Panapa missed the gig at Western Springs five years ago but will be at the December show with her hubby.
Greg Boyed, TV presenter
Recalls his first AC/DC gig with a mix of delight and terror.
The TV One news presenter first saw the band live in Wellington, in November 1991.
"It was on the Razor's Edge tour at Athletic Park and the venue was a sea of leather-clad gang guys and broken bottles," he says. "The stage had collapsed the day before the gig and it was postponed, but they got it together and the band put on a fantastic show."
The night the concert was scheduled, bored, unruly fans smashed cars, two people were stabbed and 57 were arrested.
"It was a pretty intimidating atmosphere but it was also intoxicating."
Boyed can't wait to see his favourite group for the fourth time.
"Most of the original members are missing now but it is still largely about Angus Young and his guitar. He is still like a demented wind-up toy ... just amazing."
Wynton Rufer, football legend
Former All White Wynton Rufer is a longtime AC/DC fan. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Will juggle his role as an ambassador to the Under-20 World Cup with securing AC/DC gig tickets.
The 52-year-old starred for Zealand in the All White's first World Cup campaign in 1982 and was named the Oceania Footballer of the Century.
The longtime AC/DC fan reckons the band is the Manchester United or Chelsea of the rock world.
"The tickets for Western Springs go on sale a couple of days after the Under-20 final but I will still be on official duty as an ambassador," he says. "I am going to be busy on my computer and phone in between work to get tickets for the Auckland concert.
"To me, AC/DC are the big guns. Once you are a fan, you follow them for life."
Joel Tobeck, Shortland Street and Westside star
Joel Tobeck used to be in a band that covered AC/DC's biggest songs.
Knows how to play almost every major AC/DC guitar riff by heart.
He used to play in a band that covered the group's biggest songs.
"I first saw AC/DC in Melbourne in 2010 and was completely blown away," Tobeck says. "As soon as Angus Young appeared on stage I felt so emotional at finally seeing my hero.
Barrington - who has appeared in Outrageous Fortune and The Almighty Johnsons - believes the secret to the group's success is they have never changed their winning formula.
"They still belt out three-chord songs and despite putting on a stadium show, still wear old jeans and T-shirts.
"Forty years on they still look and sound like an Aussie pub band and that is what I like about them.
"They don't appear in the gossip columns and no one knows much about what they get up to off-stage. They are the real deal. One hundred per cent rockers."
Josh Kronfeld, former All Black
Josh Kronfeld is an avid collector of early AC/DC music. Photo / Peter Meecham
Has agreed to sit through a Robbie Williams gig with his wife Bronwyn so he can get to see AC/DC.
The openside flanker has manoeuvred his missus to make sure he will be rocking at Western Springs in December.
"Robbie Williams is not really my thing but it will be worth going to see him in November as a compromise because it means I get to see AC/DC in return," he says.
Kronfeld is mainly a fan of AC/DC in the days when wildman Bon Scott was the singer.
Scott died in 1980 in London after a booze bender. He was replaced by vocalist Brian Johnson, who has fronted the band since.
Kronfeld is an avid collector of early AC/DC music and has an extensive collection of rare and bootleg albums and DVDs.
"I first heard the band on the radio doing It's a Long Way to the Top and it blew me away," he says. "From then on I started buying all their stuff and it is the perfect music for driving to.
"There is nothing like going on a road trip with AC/DC on and the stereo blaring at full.
"The only drawback is it is a bit heavy on the gas, as their music makes you put your foot down."
David Shearer, former Labour leader
ACDC fans David Shearer and his son Vetya Shearer. Photo / Michael Craig
The strait-laced politician is a closet rock headbanger.
The former Labour leader likes to unwind by playing electric guitar - and listening to AC/DC.
Shearer took his music-mad son Vetya to see the band at Western Springs in 2010 and will be back there again to see them in December.
"Vetya was 13 when I took him to see them and it was his first concert," Shearer says. "I remember him going to bed afterwards and he told me it was the best night of his life, which is a nice memory.
"It was a spectacular show and I loved it myself, but I fortunately managed to stay out of the mosh pit."
Shearer first got into AC/DC via their classic 1980 album Back in Black.
He has several of the band's CDs in his collection and is considering wearing a set of AC/DC illuminated "devil horns" at the next gig.
"I'm at the age where I don't care any more. I will just be out to enjoy myself and have the time of my life."
Shearer says he is surprised at how many of his high-flying business and political friends are fans of the group.
"AC/DC appeal to a huge cross section of people," he says. "The last time at Western Springs I bumped into a lot of folk who I normally see wearing a suit and tie but who were dressed in their heavy rock civvies. I hardly recognised them."
Shearer reckons AC/DC are up there with the Rolling Stones in terms of staying power and cross-generational appeal.
