Ahhh yes here’s another fine instalment of a DVBeer’s Review…
In case you forgot DVBeer’s is basically Me getting together with my good pal of over 40 years Tbone over at his place and we consume Beers. I bring over a few Music DVD’s and after the Suds hit we review the DVD’S! Basically were a Buzzed up version of Siskel and Ebert!
Let’s Do This….
Beer Of Choice For The Review: Rolling Rock
When I hit 40 years young about 10 years ago my younger sister asked me what I wanted for my Bday…It was simple. AC/DC’s new Mega DVD release Plug Me In. Boom Done Deal!
Plug Me In is over 7 Hours of DVD footage spread over 3 DVD’S from the Late Great Bon Scott years right into the Brian Johnson years… I will say the packaging is deadly check out the pics I took of the box set!
Ok, so this review is going to be a 2 parter as we didn’t even get into the second DVD as this thing is a huge monster of a set! (by the time we did shut it down at Tbone’s it was well past 1:30 am!)
We did though make a dent into it ….
AC/DC “Plug Me In” track listing:
DVD 1 (2 hours 22 mins):
01. High Voltage (King Of Pop awards) – October 1975 (4:02)
02. It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘N’ Roll) (Bandstand) (4:41)
03. School Days (St Albans) – March 1976 (5:40)
04. TNT (St Albans) – March 1976 (4:46)
05. Live Wire (Rollin Bolan) – July 1976 (6:12)
06. Can I Sit Next To You Girl (Rollin Bolan) – July 1976 (4:14)
07. Baby Please Don’t Go (Melbourne) – December 1976 (11:49)
08. Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be (Sight & Sound) – October 1977 (5:13)
09. Rocker (Sight and Sound) – October 1977 (8:10)
10. Rock ‘n Roll Damnation (Apollo) – April 1978 (3:44)
11. Dog Eat Dog (Apollo Glasgow) – April 1978 (4:26)
12. Let There Be Rock (Apollo) – April 1978 (8:27)
13. Problem Child (Rock Goes To College) – October 1978 (4:44)
14. Sin City (Rock Goes To College) – October 1978 (5:23)
15. Bad Boy Boogie (Rock Goes To College) – October1978 (9:06)
16. Highway To Hell (Veronika) – July 1979 (4:12)
17. The Jack (Veronika) – July 1979 (5:19)
18. Whole Lotta Rosie (Veronika) – July 1979 (5:19)
DVD 1 Bonus Footage:
* Band Interview at Airport 1976 (2:16)
* Band Interview at Covent Garden (2:27)
* “Problem Child” – Melbourne (3:56)
* “Baby Please Don’t Go” (Germany, incomplete) (2:10)
* “Dirty Deeds” on Network Sounds (0:40)
* Bon Scott Interview (15:11)
* “Rock n’ Roll Damnation” – Top of the Pops (2:47)
* Australian Music to the World interview in Atlanta (1:31)
* Nice Super 8 movie (3.34
That’s right 2 hours and 22 minutes! That’s just one Friggin DVD! So we get to watch AC/DC in the earliest stages of their career. Some real old crazy black and white footage of the boys playing School Days and TNT. Whats remarkable is as Tbone pointed out that Angus was like 16 years old when some of this was filmed. I pointed out that it was weird seeing Bass Player Mark Evans not singing background vocals but drummer Phil Rudd handling the backing vocals along with the best Rhythm Guitarist Ever Mr Malcolm Young!…
Baby Please Don’t Go from 1976 is a cooker of a track! When one thinks of AC/DC you think of them always sounding the same. True but not always is the case as this version has Rudd playing a real straight ahead drum groove as I remarked that it has a feel like if Charlie Watt’s was cranked up on speed! What a swing to it and kudos to the remastering team on this Box Set( Mike Fraser) that enhance the audio of this and Baby Please Don’t Go is AC/DC playing Chuck Berry like boogie rock at a high-speed! Classic!
Of course you see AC/DC moving up in popularity as they were blasting out there form of Rock on TV shows and actually playing Live! Rocker is real cool as Angus take’s off into the crowd and sits on the lap’s of a few females! Haha…If your a dude and Angus parks his fanny on your girlfriends lap what are you gonna do about it? Exactly! Your gonna do nothing as Lead Singer Bon is watching to make sure no one manhandle’s his Lead Guitarist!
Cool to see footage of the Boys playing tracks from the Apollo(1978) as in these are the songs (Rock N Roll Damnation/Let There Be Rock and Problem Child) that we all heard live on the classic live If You Want Blood album that came out in late 1978!
One tune that was recorded live from the Apollo is Dog Eat Dog which I made the comment that this is one of there best tracks and it features a real cool groove on the drums one of which when AC/DC entered the 80’s they moved on from which is a shame! As always Bon writes clever lyrics and proves without a doubt he’s one of the best ever at that task! Watch the video and be prepared to get your ASS Kicked! Cliff Williams takes over on Bass from the booted out Mark Evans and I tossed out verbally that Cliff in this video has a Ramones Like Haircut!
The bonus material added is real cool as well with one of them being an 15 minute interview with Bon solo which is a rarity as it seemed like a lot of AC/DC interviews were done as a unit!
Bon is classic! At one point he tells the interviewer “He shouldn’t hold his microphone down there”. The interviewer named Ian is a bore as he repeat’s some questions over at various points. Bon though does talk about how AC/DC at that time was going to be opening for KISS as Bon tells the tale of the Bass Player of KISS(Gene Simmons) discovering AC/DC playing in L.A and offered them the opening slot on the American Tour. What’s classic is Bon nor the interviewer could remember the name of the Bass Player In KISS! Ha! Bon also states that they would be opening for Rush as well and the dopey interviewer has no idea who Rush is as well!
The first DVD ends with bits of clips of Super 8 Film of one of Bon’s last shows….
We skipped the 2nd DVD and went straight into DVD Numero 3 which features a ton more of footage of Bon and Brian!
We delved right into what I consider the best AC/DC album ever (well from Brian’s tenure in the band) Flick Of The Switch which AC/DC includes here as an 53 minute live Flick Show from 1983 featuring new drummer Simon Wright.
Live at Houston Summit 83 (Whole Concert segment runs 53 minutes):
01. Guns For Hire (5:31)
02. Shoot To Thrill (5:32)
03. Sin City (5:24)
04. House Is On Fire (3:58)
05. Back In Black (4:12)
06. Bad Boy Boogie (14:33)
07. Rock ‘n Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution (5:07)
08. Flick Of The Switch (3:25)
09. Hells Bells (5:24)
This is a superb show and this is the reason why I wanted the Deluxe Edition as AC/DC is on fire here and drop down 3 tracks from the Flick album live! An album which is forgotten amongst them but not me!
As the Rolling Rock Suds were hitting big time during Bad Boy Boogie Tbone noticed at one point after the Angus Young strip a roo portion that when Johnson appears back on stage at exactly the 10 minute 25 second mark you can see Brian’s expression as some one in the crew added a rather interesting extension to his mic! Give Jonno credit he looks over laughs but keeps singing as he knows he’s been had! Great eye Tbone. I never noticed it……
Plug Me In is a box set done right!
This sounds pretty great. I really like the Bon Scott stuff and this looks like a really great set (obviously cause it includes footage from Glasgow, innit!).
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Right in your hometown! Is that place still open? Apollo? This is a great set!
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Sadly not, Deke. Closed down a long time ago… before my time!
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Bummer….well if you you tube some of those tracks theres a lot of footage from it. Cool just how raw sounding they were back in 78…Go for the throat as they say!
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I also especially like the Bon Scott era. I didn’t know Phil Rudd was a singing drummer. The interviews sound pretty funny…maybe the interviewers were just starting out as well. :).
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Phil Rudd by the time Cliff Williams came along lost the Mic…haha…
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I wonder if he missed it….
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Not sure but back than there vocals were ruff almost street like which is a charm in a way. I howled when my Buddy Tbone did the Squealer backing vocals! Classic stuff….
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I have sooooo much AC/DC on video, I thought I had this! I do not. I don’t know why, I do have Family Jewels and Backtracks. I don’t watch DVDs enough to make it worthwhile, but this sure sounds AMAZE-BALLS Deke.
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Man I don’t watch them also as I hadn’t watched this in a loooooong time! The packaging is deadly..the video stuff is classic….
My next trip to Tbones were gonna dig into the Cheap Trick Budokan Deluxe package that came out a few years back….
Tbone has no idea it’s Cheap Trick…..haha
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That oughta be good. I still have to finish the damn Motley video.
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Look forward to it…
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Tough when the wife keeps having seizures to the light show! lol…sadly I am way behind on my video watching. I have an Aerosmith I bought in Taranna with Aaron…still sealed…
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lot’s of time Mikey..which Aero?
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Crap if I know…gotta look it up!
I believe it’s Donington.
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Cool I heard the audio of that one..it’s quite good from what I remember ….
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It was there, it was used, it was cheap…I brought it home. LOL.
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I’m not a big one for music DVDs at all but I’ve got this one, the ‘Rock Goes To College’ footage is brilliant – AC/DC at their very best, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve got an older mate who saw them back then too … not fair!
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Me and Tbone were saying that as well as it would have been something to see them at that time. Your right that college one is ripping as well! Kinda funny seeing them rock it out loud with Bon and the boys…
This is a great set!
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Meant to add we laughed at the start of Rock Goes To College as the boys rip right into Problem Child cutting off Phil the guy whose introducing them….Bon even says “Thanks Phil” at the start…Killer stuff indeed!
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Yup, I remember that too! I think I’ll dig this one out at the weekend.
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My work here is done!
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Rolling Rock & AC DC feel like they’d pair nicely – for those about to (rolling) rock!
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Ha…nice play on words ….
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You know you gotta admit when ACDC do up a box set like this, they always throw in a bunch of little extras for the fans. You have to respect that.
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Holy sh*t, 7 hours??? I don’t think one case of beer was near enough for one dude, let alone two, Deke! That’s one helluva party. This looks gorgeous, what an historical document. Looking forward to part two! Is your liver? Hahaha!
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Like I posted we didn’t even dent DVD disc 2 ….man it’s a cool looking box set …at one point I wanted to take the For Those About Rock Sticker and slap on Tbones Bar somewhere but than common sense prevailed!hahaha
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I’m not even all that big an Acca Dacca fan and I have this! Pretty essential. Worth it for the Bon stuff. I agree with Joe, the Rock Goes to College stuff is brilliant.
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This is the definitive AC/DC box set in my mind…
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