AC/DC: From humble beginnings

LYNDA Manning has seen AC/DC perform twice in her life, and the two experiences couldn't be any more different.In 1975, a 15-year-old Lynda Blundell went to the Tumut racecourse to see the La De Das, and the supporting act on the night was a young band called AC/DC.The humble stage was the back of a truck parked near the winning post on the Tumut racecourse with a small audience ? barely anything in comparison to the sold-out crowds the international stars would perform for over the next three decades."When we saw them they were really good," Ms Manning said."Their music and energy was impressionable on 15-year-old girls at Tumut, and there was just something about them that was different and original."We could see they were going to be famous, so we hung around afterwards to chat with them, and got autographs and photos."After the concert Ms Manning and her girlfriends went to AC/DC's dressing room where one of her friends tried to get Bon Scott to give her his shark's tooth that he wore around his neck, to no avail."Another thing that stood out was Angus Young wearing a blue school uniform and his skinny legs dancing all over the stage, it was just so different to anything we had seen before in Tumut," she said."We thought they had a really cool name that was easy to remember."Ms Manning admits she didn't hear much more about AC/DC until they released High Voltage later that year and started making appearances on Countdown."We would all watch them on Countdown and say, 'hey we've met those guys, we knew they'd be famous someday'," she said.Fast forward 35 years and Ms Manning has witnessed the veteran rock gods again, this time in a fully packed Etihad Stadium in Melbourne and without the up close and personal exchange of words and autographs."It was a long way from the back of a truck at Tumut, but the school uniform has stayed and Malcolm still has his long hair, the stageshow has blown up to mammoth proportions and it was one of the best shows I've ever seen," she said.