Greg James – Bon Scott Blog

Bon Finds a Home at Last

While the world goes nuts over accadacca’s new album, in Fremantle, some quieter developments long overdue…

These pix were sent to me by Gabby and Darcy, courtesy of Greg James, the sculptor who made the bronze statue of Bon in Fremantle.

[The photos are by “Genm152”, whose handiwork can also be seen here: flickr.com/photos/fun4me/]

Finally, it seems that the statue has found a home at the fishing boat harbour. And by the looks of the photo above, it was worth waiting for Greg to finish the custom Marshal amp which is Bon’s pedestal. It looks amazing!

Here’s Bon being craned out of the ute on site:

bon crane ute fremantle

Here he is being forklifted into position:

bon forklift

And finally, the proud sculptor with his work:

bon with greg

Apparently, there was a ceremony yesterday to celebrate the final placement. Thanks to the kind anonymous soul who sent me through some photos and movies live from the event. Unfortunately, my mobile phone is so old, it struggles to read those big files.

Any chance of emailing through those pictures to me? lucas[at]bonscottblog[dot]com

update: (29 Oct 2008)

Andre from the Fremantle Arts Centre went along to the unveiling ceremony for the pedestal-and-statue. He said it was a surprisingly modest affair, considering the potential volume of Bon’s fan base. There has been a change of government in Western Australia, and the minister in charge of this bit of land, Alana McTiernan, is no longer in power. Apparently she was a big AC/DC enthusiast, and one imagines that her successor has different tastes. Anyway, the Mayor, Peter Tagliaferri, presided over the ceremony. Does anyone else who was there have anything to add to this brief account??

Andre took the following photos on the day (thanks to Jasmin for emailing them through). [By the way, you can click on these images to see them a bit bigger…]

The Fine Details

bon and me
[The author clutches Bon’s knee and wonders what will become of him…]

Everyone, it seems, wants to know exactly where the bronze sculpture of Bon Scott will end up.

Forgive me if I’ve got some of the following details wrong. I’m sure it’ll all come out in the wash.

On Wednesday Simmo came to pick me up in his cream Kingswood station wagon, for another look at the statue. We drove the two blocks over to Greg’s studio, where we took some great closeup photos of Bon’s face and shoelaces and buttons and veins.

There was a definite sense of relief in the workshop. Greg was out, but one of his assistants, Alastair, told us about the week leading up to the big unveiling. Greg had been extremely anxious about the statue. More than any of the other dead-white-males he’s sculpted in bronze, the Bon Scott statue would have the eyes of a million experts scrutinising it for defects. The team put the finishing touches on the statue at midnight on Thursday. Greg looked crestfallen. “I’ve fluffed it,” he said. “I don’t know why, but it’s just not quite right.” But being made of bronze, it was too late to change anything.
Continue reading “The Fine Details”

Heavy Metal Striptease…

More bits of the bronze statue continue to be revealed in a kind of heavy metal striptease leading up to Sunday’s unveiling. The above article in the West Australian newspaper today almost gives away the whole game! Click on the photo to see it larger…

There was also a broadcast on ABC local radio this morning. They haven’t released it as a podcast unfortunately, but you can see a small snippet and photo here.

And over at AC/DC news, the tributes have been flowing in since Bon’s anniversary on Tuesday. Interesting to see several comments left by female fans, and one by a 15 year old!

AND! As if that wasn’t enough, a text message came through a few days ago from my brother Jono’s mate Minky, who said she’d seen a bronze statue of a lady on the Perth foreshore who was dressed to thrill in an AC/DC shirt. A fitting homage to Bon, methinks. Unfortunately, by the time I chased up the rumour, Minky said the shirt had disappeared. However, thanks to the erstwhile Jon Talisman from the Bon Scott Yahoo group, a photo has emerged! And here it is… Apparently that lady is called Eliza, and thanks to some local scalliwags, she’s a statue of many guises…

If its print-media articles you want, I’ve uploaded a few more that Jasmin photocopied for me:
–Rolling Stone magazine article from May 2007, page 1, page 2.
-An article entitled “Ride On” by journalist Matthew Hogan, from an unknown publication. This piece is based on interviews with very first (pre-Bon) AC/DC singer Dave Evans, who will be performing at the concert on Sunday.
-A similar article in Perth music weekly Xpress.