We’d never been to a concert before, and we really didn’t know what to expect. Ann and I joked that the new band called Ol ’55 we’d seen the week before on Countdown would play the one song, their cover of Paul Anka’s “Diana”, over and over. Along with about 5000 other Canberrans I saw Skyhooks, Hush (they played a mean “Paperback Writer”), Ol ’55, John Paul Young and a couple of local bands. My eldest sister Jane spotted Skyhooks guitarist Bongo Starr and climbed up the lighting rig to follow him. And Ol’55 didn’t even play “Diana”!

1976 came around and I’d definitely been bitten by the music bug. I’d save up my pocket money and buy an album every couple of weeks (starting off with the Beatles and Ringo Starr – my fave Beatle! – and at $6.20 for a full-length album this was manageable if I cut down on milk bar treats). I’d go to the Canberra Theatre to see bands either by myself or with my younger sister Sara. We saw Chuck Berry, Leo Sayer (supported by Kush), Dr Hook (who supported themselves dressed up as a glam band), even the Dudley Moore Trio (that was with my dad, of course). One day, after school I went to the Boulevard cinema, watched  a double feature of A Hard Day’s Night and Help!, then walked over to the Canberra Theatre and saw Skyhooks (again!). Caught the bus home and was in bed by 10.30. No homework tonight for this 11-year old!

As far as I was concerned, AC/DC were no different to Skyhooks, Kiss or The Sweet. Seemingly popular with all the kids, they were a Countdown band. I’ve still got the photo I took off the TV of the back of Angus – his out-of-focus schoolbag taking up the whole screen. I bought the Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap album when it was released in September and “Problem Child” instantly became my favourite song – it was about me! I related to it like no other s”Bad Boy”. I was also amazed at how, when the song ended, it started up again. I’d never heard anyone do that before. And those loud maracas!

So now we’re in the last week of primary school. It’s December and it’s hot. And AC/DC are coming to Canberra. They haven’t been here since late December of the previous year (I had no chance of going then) and I wasn’t going to miss out this time. I had to get mum to persuade Tim, Nigel and David’s  parents that the boys will be okay and she’ll pick us up after the show. Besides, it was on at another school, so it wouldn’t be any different to an after-school activity. On Monday morning, mum walked through the laneway behind the bookshop and into Homecrafts (possibly Canberra’s one and only mainstream record store at the time) and bought our tickets. They cost $5.30 each. Mum must have been the first one to buy them when the shop opened at nine because I got ticket #1. ‘A Great Dose Of Rock N’ Roll’ it says on it.

That first week of December was action-packed. AC/DC played “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” live on that Sunday’s episode of Countdown. There was also a band from Newcastle called Benny & The Jets whose performance – for reasons most likely related to their Elton-inspired name – I also remember. Two nights before the AC/DC show, while I was with my parents at my 6th Grade Speech Night, my three sisters were all at the Bay City Rollers concert in Canberra (my youngest sister Sara wearing a knitted red and white ‘Woody’ jumper that mum had made.  I wasn’t jealous that I couldn’t go and see the “Bye Bye Baby” teenybopper band, I had my number one ticket!

Thursday 9^th December. One of the other mums drives me, Tim, Nigel and David to Ginninderra High School to see AC/DC in the school hall. Walking in, there’s a few dozen mainly older teens sitting around the edges of the room, all dressed in the standard uniform of desert boots, grey Levis, black tee-shirts or Miller chequered shirts and lumber jackets. No, can’t be, as it’s summer, forget the lumber jackets. We sit and wait down in front of the stage. I feel small, being one of the youngest kids here and surrounded by some pretty tough looking guys. The hall fills up. Maybe 500 kids are here. The support band comes on. They’re called Punkz. I’ve seen them on Countdown but they’re not punk at all. Long curly hair, flared jeans and big wide ties. The only song I can remember them playing is a cover of “Smokin’ in The Boys Room”.

I’d like to say the lights dim, but I doubt there was a person ‘doing lights’. I’m at my first indoors rock show and I’m in the front row. So I get prepared. I’ve taken my shirt off and I’m perched on Tim’s shoulders, punching the air as Bon Scott enters from side of stage with Angus on top of his shoulders, playing a repetitive riff on his Gibson SG. They come right up to the front of the stage, directly in front of me. Bon grinning at the crowd, dressed only in a pair of blue jeans, and Angus hammering on and off. With one hand! Never seen that before. The rest of the band joins in and BANG!

I’m being spat on by both Bon and Angus, as they get into the music pounding away behind them. My friends laugh at me, think it’s pretty funny I’m being unintentionally spat on. I like to think that was when I was ‘baptised’. AC/DC’s set is one classic song after another – “T.N.T.”, “Jailbreak”, “Dirty Deeds”, “Rocker”, “Big Balls”. Angus flashed his bum to the crowd, a performance that was also front-page news the same week, as the police were taking as much interest in the antics of AC/DC as we kids were. The Ginninderra High School Hall becomes a blur of sweaty kids jumping around and a sweaty band playing tight and loud. I just remember the band getting into it and Bon and Angus being clowns pretty much the whole time. The band finish off the set with a monstrous “Baby Please Don’t Go”.

There are quite a few fans  waiting at the side door for the band to come out. While we’re waiting, a younger kid, maybe about 8 or 9, starts hassling me. I tell him to fuck off. This goes on for a while. AC/DC appear, we all reach out to touch them and wave them onto their bus. My friends and me turn to walk up the grassy hill to the road to wait for mum. The little kid appears again, but this time with some bigger kids. Way bigger than us. “Hey, you picking on my brother?” “No,” I reply, “he was hassling us.” Before we know it, there’s about five 1st and 2nd-formers from Ginninderra High School on top of us, kicking, punching, spitting. It’s a full-on fight. And we’re outnumbered. Damn that little kid. I should have ignored him. Now he’s cheering his older brother on. There’s a crowd forming: cool, a fight.

Luckily for us – another mum – waiting to pick up her kids, sees what’s happening, hops out of her car and breaks up the fight. She makes us wait in her car until my mum arrives. This feels even worse than being beaten up, as we see our tormentors only metres away, jeering and giving us the finger. Mum arrives, thanks the lady for looking after us and drives us home. She recalls that one of us got our finger jammed in the door but I can’t remember that bit.

A night I’ll never forget. Spat on by Bon Scott and Angus Young. And beaten up afterwards. What a great way to finish primary school – with my ears still ringing the next day thanks to AC/DC.