AC/DC - Hundreds Gather In Kirriemuir To Celebrate Life Of Bon Scott

May 2, 2009, 15 years ago

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Scotsman.com is reporting:

Kirriemuir, Scotland is rightly famous for its excellent gingerbread and association with the writer JM Barrie. But the "wee red toon" is also the birthplace of Bon Scott, the late vocalist with AC/DC, a band with distinct PETER PAN tendencies. Now in their 50s and with their lead guitarist still wearing school uniform, the surviving members continue to tour the world's enormodomes with songs about sex, excess and the righteous power of rock. They play Hamden Park at the end of June.

This is the fourth time that Kirriemuir has hosted a tribute, and this year's is known as "Rock On Bon!" Hundreds of AC/DC fans have descended on the town. The manager of the Thrums Hotel says he could have filled the rooms two or three times over, and there are a number of hardy rockers camping in the fields round the town. Local bands are playing all day in pubs, but the big draw is a performance at the town hall by High Voltage, an AC/DC tribute act from the badlands of East Anglia.

The loudest noise in town is usually the chiming of the Old Parish Church, but today that's drowned out by Harley Davidson engines. In the Gateway To The Glens museum, where they have a Bon Scott display, Howard Morley tells me that he and his wife Jackie have driven up from Cambridge as a treat for his 59th birthday. "AC/DC is his life," she says. "He won't buy any records with the new singer."

It doesn't take long to see Bon Scott's Kirriemuir. Born in 1946, he lived in the town until he was six when the family emigrated to Australia. There are plans to name a street in his honour and some local fans would like to see a life-size statue erected in town, but there are few traces of his life here.

His primary school has been demolished and the exact location of his family home on Elders Close is a local secret as the family who live there have no desire to see hyperventilating AC/DC fans peering through their windows. It is possible, however, to visit the former premises of the bakery run by the Scott family. On Bank Street, this is now Fingerprints, a shop selling cosy fleeces, embroidered cardigans and T-shirts emblazoned with a picture of Bon Scott holding a pint.

Down the hill from Bon Scott's home, the Star Rock Shop has been selling traditional sweets since 1833. There's a very good chance Scott came in here as a child. Now a local artist Eddie Summerton plans to make a sculpture of the singer using the shop's 120-year-old recipe for rock. He will make a cast and a woman called Rosie will supply the fine detail by licking the sculpture into shape with her tongue, the fine detail being "the tight trousers with one bulging testicle on either side of the seam."

Read more here.

Bon Scott 23 Pictures, Images and Photos


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