It was an association AC/DC had little time for, but that didn't stop the band sticking its hand up for a Stranglers support slot. A job was a job, at least until stardom would allow the Aussies to set their own terms on the world stage.
In 1979, three years after leaving Australia, breakthrough album Highway To Hell became AC/DC's first million-seller.
Named after a quote from school-uniform-clad guitarist Angus Young about life on the road, it nailed the band's colours to the mast on the strength of a punchy production job by Robert "Mutt" Lange.
The Zambia-born producer's respect for the band's minimalist ethos shines through on an album that still feeds AC/DC's live set today. From the anthemic title track to Girls Got Rhythm, Walk All Over You, Touch Too Much, Shot Down In Flames and the boisterous If You Want Blood (You Got It), there's nothing here that the band couldn't deliver on stage.
Correspondingly straightforward are the themes of sex, thugs and rock 'n' roll. No punk politics here, just a dodgy albeit good-natured lean toward the sleazier side of life and an unremitting enthusiasm for party time. Frontman Bon Scott, in his final outing before drinking himself to death, is at his wicked best as he chews up the scenery with impish glee.
All of this concentrated energy comes together in Beating Around The Bush, a spirited twin-guitar boogie so tight you couldn't slip a credit card through an aural crevice. Only in closing track Night Prowler does the pace and space suggest anything truly sinister.
Although sales for next album Back In Black would number in the gazillions, Scott's swansong is a fitting testament to his hell-raising spirit.
