From left to right: Angus Young (lead guitar), Phil Lageat (author), Vanessa Girth (art direction), Cliff Williams (bass)
As AC/DC prepares its return to France for two dates at the Stade de France (without Malcolm Young on rhythm guitar, replaced by his nephew Stevie), here comes a truly impressive book—both in weight (4.5 kilos!) and content: AC/DC Tours De France 1976-2014 retraces, across 712 pages, 38 years of history between France and the world’s greatest rock band. With two albums recorded on French soil, the film Let There Be Rock, and 62 concerts, there was plenty to cover—and everything has been dissected in minute detail by the two authors, Baptiste Brelet and Philippe Lageat. The latter is THE French authority on AC/DC, a passionate expert with encyclopedic knowledge, and also a major figure in the French metal press, having been editor-in-chief of Hard Rock before founding Rock Hard. This year, he celebrates 20 years with a studded pen in hand. We met with him to learn more about the monumental project that became Tours De France 1976-2014.
How did your initiation to AC/DC happen?
I discovered the band in 1978, I was ten years old back then! It happened by chance, thanks to a friend’s older brother who was listening to them.
1978—that was the Powerage era, right?
Exactly! It was love at first sight, even though I was already listening to other things here and there, mostly 45s from Queen and Status Quo. After that, I started buying AC/DC’s albums as they came out, then saw them live for the first time on January 23, 1981, at Parc de Penfeld in Brest during the Back In Black tour. But for me, the first real time I saw them was a few days earlier at the cinema, thanks to the film Let There Be Rock, which I watched twice in a row! Until then, I only had photos and album covers to imagine them, and suddenly, Angus Young (lead guitar) and Bon Scott (vocals) came to life… Magazines like Best and Rock & Folk had started writing about them, but the film gave me images to match the words I had read before.
How did you go from being a fan to becoming a friend of the band?
I was supposed to see them in 1982 in Nantes but the show was canceled. Then I saw them in 1984 at Bercy, and on every French tour after that: in 1988 at the Zénith, in 1991 at Bercy, in 1991 at Vincennes, and so on, up until the Black Ice tour. In 1988, I went to their hotel—back then hotels weren’t mobbed by fans yet. There were only five or six of us, and we got to see them three days in a row, chat with them, take photos… I realized the musicians were exactly as I had imagined them: very approachable, modest, simple, human. My passion grew even stronger, and with another fan, André Cadiou, we started developing the idea of a fanzine about AC/DC. That became Let There Be Light in 1991—“let there be light”—because our goal was to shed light on some of the band’s lesser-known aspects. We then began multiplying concerts, traveling abroad to see them. Things moved quickly: we built strong relationships with the band’s UK management, met Stevie Young (rhythm guitar) and George Young (producer), and even started getting backstage passes…
So that’s how you became a journalist?
In 1995, I attended the filming of the Hard As A Rock video right up front, taking tons of photos over ten hours. When I got home, I called Hard Rock Magazine and they were interested, since it was the first French press piece about the Ballbreaker album. They then asked if I liked anything besides AC/DC, and since I was into hard rock and rock in general, I started writing for them. By a twist of fate, I found myself editor-in-chief after just eight months. I stayed there from 1995 to 2001, and in 2001, I founded Rock Hard, which just released its 150th issue this month.
A glimpse inside the brick of a book!
How did the book Tours De France 1976-2014 come about?
In 2007, I met Baptiste Brelet, who runs the Can’t Stop AC/DC webzine, and he reached out for my opinion. We hit it off, and he told me he wanted to write an article about all of AC/DC’s French concerts in the next issue. As it happened, I had already been working on that for a few months as part of a complete biography project. When Arnaud Durieux released his very thorough and successful biography (AC/DC Maximum Rock N’ Roll), I thought it would be pointless to go over the same ground, so Baptiste and I decided to focus on France, where there had been album recordings, TV appearances, autograph sessions… It was a real story in itself. Seven years, 220 interviews, 1,300 photos, and 1,200 documents later, the book finally came out!
Do you think the concept of your book could apply to other countries?
France is AC/DC’s third-largest market, after the US and Germany. So yes, there could be books about those countries, as well as Australia and England. But I know a book is already being prepared on AC/DC and Belgium: it’s a small country, so there haven’t been that many concerts, but there’s still a story to tell.
In what way is the relationship between AC/DC and France complicated?
AC/DC’s first French date should have been in 1976 at the Orange Festival, but due to political scheming, it was canceled. The band then opened for Rainbow, and their first actual concert happened in Besançon in front of 713 people. So, not a huge enthusiasm at first—France wasn’t a rock’n’roll country in 1976… It still isn’t in 2015, so just imagine back then! In 1979 came the Highway To Hell tour, with about fifteen French dates: the band started building a real following, and exploded even further with Back In Black. By 1982, there was already a bit of fatigue, and in 1984, organizational issues meant they played to just 2,000 people in Lyon. Their real comeback happened in 2001 with the Stade de France, with a more family-oriented audience.
How do you explain the band’s longevity?
The main reason is honesty: the band members know they make simple music—which doesn’t mean simplistic—and they never fell into the trap of changing their look with every album. You’ve never seen them at award shows, they were never in tabloids or gossip mags. A down-to-earth audience in search of something genuine can think, “That band fits me, because I could be that rhythm guitarist.” They’re excellent musicians, a perfectly oiled machine, very tight. Nothing is left to chance. Malcolm played strings as thick as railroad tracks. I remember the end of a concert where I saw his Fender Extra Heavy picks on the floor—there was barely anything left of them. Back in the Back In Black days, he was touring with a Gretsch White Falcon almost as big as he was. To have such a small frame and such a massive sound—that’s raw power. It’s not about sound effects—they don’t use pedalboards! Stevie is his protégé, and he did an excellent job on Rock Or Bust.
From left to right: Stevie Young (rhythm guitar), Cliff Williams (bass), Angus Young (lead guitar), Phil Lageat (author), Baptiste Brelet (author), Brian Johnson (vocals)
What feedback did you get from the band about the book?
I’ll admit we were a bit anxious: AC/DC has never helped promote a book, ever. Even the most respectful requests never got a response. This time, we were lucky to draw from our previous interviews, and even got to interview Brian Johnson (vocals) and Malcolm Young (rhythm guitar) specifically for the book. So they knew about the project, and some were very supportive. And yet, we don’t shy away from telling less-than-glorious episodes. When they saw the 4.5-kilo tome, they could hardly believe it was only about France! They agreed to take a photo with it, mentioned it in their French interviews, and consistently spoke highly of it. That was a first! Angus even congratulated Vanessa Girth for the layout, and was touched that the book was fan-made and self-published.
How many hours did you spend preparing it?
I didn’t keep track, and I regret it! Baptiste, Vanessa, and I all have jobs: Vanessa and I are at Rock Hard, with a monthly issue to put out, and Baptiste writes for Terra Eco in Nantes. So we had to carve out time in the evenings, on weekends, in our free time. There were countless hours on the phone with Baptiste, transcribing interviews, writing everything in the present tense—as if all the witnesses were sitting together around a table.
Did you already do several print runs?
The book hit bookstores on October 16, and it was sold out within a month. So we did a second print, and we’re launching the third on January 20. By the end of the third run, we’ll be at around 12,000 copies sold, which is a solid result given how specific the subject is and the price point. We used quality paper and it was printed in France.
How do you explain its success?
There are several reasons: first of all, the book is in French. Usually, AC/DC fans only get books released in English, which aren’t always translated. Also, we made a call to fans to share their documents and stories, so there was this real exchange. Radio host Francis Zégut (a huge fan of the band) even called Tours De France a “participatory book”—and he couldn’t be more right! Finally, every person who ever saw AC/DC live has memories tied to those concerts. Some saw them in the ’80s and never went back, others only caught them during the Black Ice tour… For all these fans, the book stirs up a part of their lives. We tried to immerse readers back into what they lived through, to shake up the memory box.
Tours de France 1976-2014
Editions Point Barre
€69.90
Available in bookstores, and also at www.acdclelivre.fr (in a special signed edition with a 1978 mini-poster)
