Category: Correspondence

The Ugly Sexy Factor

ugly sexy flyer
[click on the image for a bigger size!]
The Ugly/Sexy Factor: Bon Scott & Fashion
Thursday 12 June, 8pm Fly By Night Club, Fremantle. $10 entry

This Thursday night, if you’re on the west coast of Australia, there’s no excuse to miss The Ugly Sexy Factor.

It’s kinda like a cabaret discussion night thingummy, but with now-legendary west ozzie AC/DC tribute band FAC/DC (facca dacca) providing the loudness.

For all the details see this page here and scroll down a bit…

Basically, the event was conceived by Jasmin Stephens, the Bon Scott Project Curator, in an attempt to answer the question:

“if Bon wasn’t conventionally handsome, what was it that made him so damn sexy?”

Now, I know that many of my regular readers (Carolyn and Susann especially) think this is just a riduculous question. To them, there is no controversy, Bon was the sexiest man alive…

But others, especially various female friends of mine, have reported bewilderment at the idea of Bon’s charm. Simply looking at a photo of his face, they don’t get the attraction. It’s only after watching him onstage or in a video interview that things begin to change…

And guess what?! Fremantle Arts Centre have slipped me 10 free tickets to the night to give away to my most-loyal-of-all readers!!

Hmm, let’s see… The ten best thoughts on this UGLY-vs-SEXY Bon Scott business get the free tix!! (and of course you don’t have to be in Western Australia to contribute to the debate… I will think of suitably postable prizes for the geographically challenged amongst you…)

Get to it folks!

(Not) Peter Russell Clarke

At ABC Radio National, Jasmin, Cecilia and I sat for a radio interview with Amanda Smith. It was broadcast yesterday, and here is a podcast of it! Personally, I don’t think I come across as particularly entertaining in this one. I dunno, maybe all my energy was consumed by the pint-size ocker chef we had just thrillingly encountered…

But it’s worth listening to, if only for the pieces of audio heritage that Amanda has managed to dig up: Bon singing with Fraternity, and a sound grab from an interview he did in the late 1970s… You’ll note that the podcast is currently a long audio file featuring other interviews besides our one about Bon (including a short and worthy homage to the recently deceased art legend Robert Rauschenberg…) scroll to about half way through to hear our bit…

(Sooner or later, that audio file will be removed from the ABC page. When that happens, try listening to it here instead…)

Oh, and thanks to the ever-vigilant Jon for this oddball one – your chance to vote for Bon as “hottest of the hot” Aussie Blokes… (Although it looks like simply being alive has helped Hugh Jackman surge ahead of Bon for the moment…)

And finally, cheers and thanks to everyone who read and emailed me about the article, Bon To Rule by Iain Shedden, in the Australian Newspaper over the weekend. The blog-as-art is getting a good outing these past few weeks eh!

Bon Scott Blog Highlights

bon scott highlights

If you’ve only just tuned in, the Bon Scott Blog might seem a bit overwhelming. Where do you start? How do you find what you’re looking for? Which are the best bits?

So I’ve created this here HIGHLIGHTS page to help you navigate your way through the project with ease! A Readers’ Digest version, if you will…

(You can also find the HIGHLIGHTS by clicking the button in the menu bar at the top of the blog, just underneath the little Bon Scott Lego Man).

Or if you want the FULL BLOG CONTENTS list, check out this page…

Happy reading!

yours fanfully
Lucas
The Bon Scott Blogger

Bon Bon Media Frenzy!

An article has come out in an Australian art magazine about the Bon Scott Project, which describes my blog pretty well, I reckon:

One strand of that conversation has been realised in artist Lucas Ihlein’s popular Bon Scott Blog. Ihlein writes in his introduction, “Lucas was not a fan of AC/DC. You can read about his process of immersion! He is meeting fans, visiting cemeteries, chasing up Bon’s old friends and lovers, attending concerts, and listening to a lot of heavy rock. It’s a fascinating read. A good starting point is Ihlein’s account of his visit to the Fremantle Cemetery where there’s a humble memorial plaque for Scott, a missing heritage plaque and a steady flow of intriguing pilgrims, including Ben Scott, the alleged love child of the singer. The responses to this entry reveal the wide range of people The Bon Scott Project is engaging.

The article also describes some of the artworks which will be in the Bon Scott Exhibition in May. And there is a photo of me with the statue – that photo was taken by Perth superfan Simmo! You can read the whole article in Realtime Magazine here.

Also, thanks to this article in undercover.com.au, I’ve had a spike in visitors to the site in the last week. The Undercover story was mirrored all over the place, notably in Sleaze Roxx, the Ultimate AC/DC Blog, Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles, themusic.com.au, and of course our good friends over at AC/DC News.
Continue reading “Bon Bon Media Frenzy!”

Butt-head Science

graphical representations of pop songs

By now, “graphical representations of pop songs” like the one above have probably already weaseled their way past your spam filter and into your inbox, together with viagra and fake rolex watches and whatnot. I was sent a half a dozen or so of them from my friend Chris-O, who is obviously spending a few too many hours procrastinating from his thesis about the withdrawal symptoms of methamphetamine.

Someone has kindly uploaded ’em all over here. And if rap is more your thing, you might find these mildly amusing. But whoa, google around a little more and you find hundreds of the little critters. Phew. I think I was happier when I thought there were only six.
Continue reading “Butt-head Science”

Bon’s Web Walk

I’ve got one more story to post from Melbourne – about a trip to visit Bon’s loyal roadie Darcy in the Yarra Valley. It’s just in with the experts for “fact checking” before it goes live, but while we wait, lets think a little about writing technologies, shall we?

Bon wrote a shitload of letters. We must remember, kiddies, that in the 1970s there was no internet. There was no email. There were no blogs. If Bon were travelling the world playing gigs today, would he still send letters?

Would he run his own blog? (Now THAT would be something.) Would he, perchance, have his own webcam TV show, or a whacky Alice Cooper or Bob Dylan style radio broadcast? Or be the star of his own Osbournes reality TV show?

Speaking of reality TV …over at the Bon Scott Club (a yahoo group dedicated to keeping Bon’s hell-raising spirit alive forever), the fans are playing a game inspired by those “vote em off” shows, called “AC/DC Song Survivor”.
Continue reading “Bon’s Web Walk”

Bon Radio Shenanigans…

billie weston pool hall fans
[Ardent fans pose for a photo by Bec Dagnell in the Billie Weston Pool Hall, Scarborough Beach, WA…]

Word just in… tomorrow morning (Tuesday the 11th of March) I’ll be speaking on the JJJ breakfast show about the life and legacy of Bon, his bronze statue, and my own “relationship” with Bon.

Rumour has it that the Mayor of Fremantle Himself will also be shooting the breeze with Robbie, Marieke & The Doctor.

It should all happen at 8:30am or thereabouts.

Should you perchance listen in and then come over to this humble blog to pay me a visit – you might be able to participate!

I am looking to meet up with Bon Scott fans in the greater Sydney area (which is where I will be blogging from now until the middle of April).

Crazy collectors? Shrine in the shed? Tribute bands playing only 1974-80 Acca Dacca? Long lost love child?…

Get in touch and be featured in the blog!

Cheerio,
Lucas

– – –

UPDATE:

you can listen to the interview online here (7 minutes, 6mb, mp3 file). Thanks Josh for taping it! There’s a brief description of the interview in this comment below. I didn’t get to say as much as I would have liked about Bon and me, but that’s breakfast radio for you I guess. Big on high paced laffs and short on thoughtful pauses!

Franck’s Brush with Bon

The imminent erection of the Bon Scott Bronze Statue in Fremantle is drawing fans from around the world. Because of the distance, many international Bon-lovers won’t be able to make it on the 24th of February, but they seem to be following the events from afar with fascination. Franck, a passionate fan from Paris, contacted the Fremantle Arts Centre, to enquire about the best way to get to the cemetery. I emailed Franck, asking him if he had any special stories of his own. Here’s his reply:

Hi Lucas,

Many Thanks to contact me…
Of course I’ve got lots of stories about Bon but the best i think it was in 80’s (1981/1982 ?) during the concert in Paris ; I was 17 or 18 (I’m born in 1964) and Bon with Angus on his back climb down in the arena in the middle of people…they arrive just in front of me and i was paralyzed looooooooool

i couldnt move my arms to touch Bon and Angus and it was very easy….at the end of the concert i was crying alone in a place of the arena and a man come in front of me and says what ‘s the matter ? I explain my story and he says ok dont cry come with me …we have passed the security and nobody ask me nothing just smiling to this man…and we have arrived in the backstage i have entered in a room and here just in front of me Bon / Angus / Malcom and Phil !!!!
after i have dream many time i was playing guitar with them looooooool but no… i have never play with them …just to speak with them and take a glass of whisky.

At this time it was impossible to live a story like that with the french stars in France…french are too idiot…but with Australian stars it was possible.
so god bless Australia…
cheers
Franck

Reyes Del Sonido Metalico

esto es rock
(Above: a scan from Hana’s 1983 Mexican Heavy Metal zine…)

AC/DC actually can put me in this kind of mood…say if im feeling down or whatever, I can put some of these classic Bon Scott albums on and then I get in that kind of hyperactive mood. Something about it takes me back to being fifteen and then I can tap into that youthful spirit…and I think that’s something Bon Scott carried with him as well. That youthful spirit of living the good life…
–Demolition Damo, February 5th, 2007

With this mood-altering theory of Damo’s in mind, I’m a-bloggin’ away with Back in Black blaring through the speakers. I know, I know, it’s not a Bon album (depending on which side of the fence you sit on, vis-a-vis that conspiracy theory) …but I’m yet to aquire any Bon-era albums beyond T.N.T. (I’ll remedy that later on today down at a discount CD shop on Pitt Street Damo told me about). But in the meantime, I’m trying to spit words out on my keyboard with these driving beats and the screeching of Brian Johnson… hammering out words and headbanging (mildly) at my desk …It really slows my word-per-minute rate down, and I have no idea if the resulting paragraphs will be readable, but it sure feels good…

Anyway, I’ve been rummaging through the Bon Scott Blog Mailbag®. Thanks to everyone who’s written or sent in their stories. Here’s a highlight: an email with attached images from Hana, who seems determined to boost my Bon Scott credibility by sending through some extremely rare old Mexican Fanzines. She writes: Continue reading “Reyes Del Sonido Metalico”

Meeting Clinton Walker

Clinton Walker at his desk
(Clinton Walker looking over the Bon Scott timeline he constructed while writing his book…)

It just so happens that one of Bon Scott’s biggest fans lives in Dulwich Hill, only fifteen minutes walk from my house. Last Thursday Katie and I popped around for a cup of tea with him. He took us out to his “den” – a revamped chookshed in the backyard, stuffed with books and records, and spilled the contents of his filing cabinets all over the coffee table.

It’s impossible to recount everything Clinton told us. I won’t even try. In the process of writing Bon Scott’s biography, he accumulated an encyclopedic knowledge of the subject. I was a little overwhelmed by facts and anecdotes. I could have made an audio recording of everything he said, and then uploaded it for you… but then again, you could just go read the book…
Continue reading “Meeting Clinton Walker”