OZ!

[John Dolva]

starting With Melbourne, the Capital City of the State of Victoria (interestingly the largest greek city apart from Athens)

Australia (contrary to popular belief is nearer the top of the world than just about any country. For some reason someone must have turned things upside deown so that when you turn it the right way up the writings all wrong!) is an interesting place replete with nuts of all kinds. Heres a Melbourne, Victoria, just above tassie, scene from the seventies. I reckon it must have been on a sunday, but the old rattlers are still there. In todays Melbourne many don't know what they've missed out on. They'd fled Perth (yet they're Perth youth) Perth then truly was nowhereland afa as the rest of the world was concerned (isolated by an unsealed east west crossing, when "I Crossed the Nullarbor" meant something) (till Bond buggered it up, the bastard) by the time I got into the pub scene and they were off to the top.

Melbourne in the seventies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiBMltWg2RQ...feature=related

Here you can see some of the architecture near the centre of the CBD

[John Dolva]

AC / DC

_{ssssss__}

^_ Oi

T.N.T.

Edited March 31, 2009 by John Dolva

[John Dolva]

^{hey Bon.....she's got the} J^ack....

(f''k it, his eardrums must be shot to hell...)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E65Otq3ntsM...feature=related

Edited March 31, 2009 by John Dolva

[John Dolva]

[John Dolva]

Checked out the Fly by Night Club last night. It was closed, but the band rehearsing allowed me to sit in.

Not exactly ACDC but pretty damn good.

Bon's buried a couple of clicks from here.

High Voltage, Fremantle,West OZ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvC-vENeF2E

[John Dolva]

live wire, live bon . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dzcmK1_qGU

Edited April 8, 2009 by John Dolva

[John Dolva]

an old State El. Comm. West OZ sign in freo. (Formed mid 70's disbanded mid 90's.)

[John Dolva]

Stick it...

AC/DC - Rock 'n' Roll Singer legendado subbed

[John Dolva]

Before venturing further into the land of OZ, a few safety tips.

After delousing et.c. you'll find your self on Australian soil.

One of the first things you notice is that people are friendly in a genuine way unless you poke your nose in the air, when you'll find, (as the fire cracker is going off between your butt-cheeks), that there is also a friendliness encompassing what others would call 'tough-love'.

Having learnt this lesson you're ready to venture further (if you dare, Sometimes a cuppa and a ticket out is a sign of wisdom.).

However, undaunted, you set off into wherever you happen to be, which could be a lot of places, so the safety tips are pretty basic.

Spiders. Different for different states. In some places you can die by sitting on a dunny (red-backs fav, hangout: dunny seats), in others on the ground (trapdoor spider) In others watch out for fast moving, jumping, lil'critters nicked 'white-tails' on the walls as you fall asleep. If you see one there are usually about twenty others hunting with it, so fast action will mean you won't have to spend the rest of your life watching a cancerous ulcer slowly engulfing your body and you can instead avagoodweekend. (remember to shake your shoes, boots, off before putting them on in the morning)

Snakes. They, like spiders, tend to be shy, but, again, in all the wrong places. Also they can migrate to and away from water as the season changes from hot to cold, wet to dry, dry to very dry, et.c. They are not cute. Don't let them fool you. All of them can turn you into history. Buy a book at the delousing section of the point of entry to OZ.

Read it.

Flies. Well you just gotta put up with them. Practice at home first, Stick a blade of grass in the corner of your mouth and try to look non-chalante as you wave your hands about. Difficult but not imposssible.

Crocs. Don't camp more than a couple of nights in one place, they'll be getting whiff of you and be heading your way. Should you be drunk enough that a bit of fishing in the shallows seems like a good idea you've only got yourself to blame. However, even then, as the crock is spinning you in the death roll prior to stuffing your leftovers under an underwater tree to ripen, if you have found your wits again, ignore the pain and confusion and seek out its eyes. It likes them and a couple of thumbs in the sockets will make them let go.

Crawl as fast and as far away from the shore as you can before collapsing.

River gums. Camping by a river (actually more likely a creek, if that, Except at odd times in the wet when it's a mile (or more) wide.) can be surprising as the healthy looking luverly tree you doze off under drops one of its branches on you head. In the same areas, avoid tall smooth barked gums as the 'drop-bears' (a cross of the tassie devil and a possum) waits in the branches for brekky. Again, remember they are also attached to their eyes and you don't have to be scalped completely.

Fear is your biggest enemy.

more later.

First, how to find Bon Scotts grave?

[John Dolva]

PS. The rains of yesterday highlighted another safety issue.

During the dry the tyres and oil leave a residue on the roads that the first rains turn into sludge. This is when lots of cars go spinning out of control.

Where one might see an accident a month, or signs thereof, suddenly in one rainy day there are many.

Seeing as large parts of the world drives on the wrong side of the road, a visitor (with an international driving licence) must focus on the fact that in OZ cars are driven on the right side of the road, ie the left. (yet another sign of a northern hemisphere centric world). So when you take your first steps into crossing roads, at least look both ways. Habits can be hard to break, bones are not quite so hard. Vehicles tend to be hard, heavy and fast, so to survive, please look in the correct direction before crossing the road.

Also: It's a good idea to stop driving before dusk and resume an hour or so after as the wildlife strolls about then. They can be huge wombats guaranteed to stop a small car in its tracks, kangoroos, which have very small brains but large heavy bodies, sheep, horses, camels, cattle, penguins, emus and lizards. Even little critters msut be prepared for. If you're tearing down the road and swerve to avoid one you might end up in necropolis, so unfortunately, if you're not wise enough to not drive during the danger periods, at least think of your loved ones before avoiding the rabbit.

If you see a pair of eyes glinting in the headlights, slow down. Australian animals like to hop into the front of them in quite a surprising way.

Locusts can be a nuisance. The wind screen can be a brown mush in seconds and the radiator clogged up and then the engine seizes up, which can be annoying if you're 1000 miles from the nearest service station. Carry water or you'll go bush and be found 50 years later. On the other hand, in the Northern parts of OZ, if you have a tendency to get hot under the collar, chill out or you'll go troppo and come suicide month, pre monsoon, you'll be a statistic.

Edited April 14, 2009 by John Dolva

[John Dolva]

Come to think of it, the basic rule is : 'be afraid'.

Having overcome the fear, if everything else fails, read the various signs informing you of when and where on the 14000 km beach that is OZ it's safe to swim, where to get eaten, stung, swept out to sea et.c. and all the other sign posts dotted about the place to help visitors.

__________________

Back to Bon.

His loved ones have placed a modest Plaque comemmorating their Son and Brother in the north east corner of the Fremantle Cemetary.

In 2006, a memorial arch was built leading to the grave, and a seat of contemplation.

If you drive down High Street to Freo, the Cemetary is on the left, then comes the golf club. If you see an arch on the rise on the right (which I built about '87 '88) you've gone too far. Behind you, about 500 meters, roughly a line from this arch, the sun shines ( sunset, past the winter equinox ) to Bon.

Rest In Peace.

__________________

A truckie who used to cart the band around told me that after Bon, AC/DC went 'purple'. (What he meant, I don't know. Some kind of inhouse saying.)

[Guest Stephen Turner]

A truckie who used to cart the band around told me that after Bon, AC/DC went 'purple'. (What he meant, I don't know. Some kind of inhouse saying.)

Deep Purple?

[John Dolva]

Steve, could be,

AFAIK Deep Purple were less comcerned with being called Heavy Metal. AC/DC maintained they were Rock. After Bon died, AC/DC considered disbanding, but their comeback, like Deep Purples, was more promoter managed. So even though AC/DC had a financially successful comeback with ''Back in Black'', they perhaps reminded the crew of the Deep Purple story, pre post Bolin.

Perhaps a kind of ''sellout'' that Bon might not have been altogether happy with. He was more into hotel/motel room demolition (according to the truckie). Anyway, without Bon, in some way, AC/DC could never again be AC/DC. Despite Angus.

[Evan Burton]

Boy, some big truth there.

If you drive around Australia you'll see dead wombats by the side of the road. Seeing them gives you an appreciation of what would happen if you hit them at night. Normally, they are BIG!

I still get a little upset when I see a wombat or a roo at the side of the road; I don't like to see any wildlife killed unless absolutely necessary and so wonder if an under-road tunnel might have saved some of these critters.

Ah John: Acca-dacca will always be the kings, whether you consider them rock or heavy metal. I've been banging my head for years (I'm quite the spectacle on the Wardroom dance floor) and love both AC/DC and Deep Purple. I think that really they are both 'metal' and both rock.

Besides, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, no?

[John Dolva]

I agree, Evan, and much is potentially avoidable.

I once drove from Townsville to opal country and even with a heavy ford ute at about 30 k's at dusk a huge herd of roos were cutting across, hopping faster than I was driving, in my direction but at an angle from the left, thinking they could surely see the car, when a big one whacked into the side from rear right leaving a big dent but just hopped on. We stopped and waited till an hour or so after dusk.

The Wombats surely can be massive, like huge fat heavy sausages. Unfortunately one never knows, unless looking, whether there is a young one in the pouch who may very well be still alive and saveable. There really should be a generally encouraged habit to avoid driving, or driving with extreme care, during the dusk time. It's tragic. I don't think many city dwellers setting off on their first road trip realise just how many are killed daily-nightly, and the road crews constantly cleaning them up off the road (actually a fresh roadkill can provide a delicious dinner) makes it seem it's not such a problem. In places like the Melb - Sydney bypass there are under road corridiors and I think they do work. A problem for OZ is the size of the place (comparable with Europe or the US of A) with a relatively small population and national budget to create the infrastructure like roads, bridges across the vast outback.

___________

Thanks for the headsup on Acca-dacca. There are so meany great Aussie groups. I agree IMO that AC/DC straddled Metal - Rock, but they themselves responded to that with, no, we're Rock.

Edited April 18, 2009 by John Dolva