H.I.P.

Proudly bearing their first album of new material in five years, Stiff Upper Lip, a resurgent AC/DC return to Japan for their first visit in 19 years. To coincide with the tour, record label Eastwest is re-releasing their entire body of albums in "LP Replica" CD format.

Down Under' quintessential rock heroes, AC/DC were formed in 1973 by guitarist Malcolm Young with younger brother Angus on lead guitar. Only 15 years old at the time, Malcolm's sister suggested he wear his school uniform on stage; the getup soon became the band's visual patent.

AC/DC's original lineup featured singer Dave Evans for their first single, "Can I Sit Next to You," but the band's chauffeur, the immortal Bon Scott, took over on lead vocals when Evans refused to mount the stage. With a number of convictions on petty criminal offenses, Scott helped seal AC/DC's image as socially maladjusted mischief-makers.

The group released their first album, High Voltage, in Australia in 1974, and steadily raised their profile with the release of Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap in 1977 and Powerage in 1978. But it wasn't until 1979's Highway to Hell that the floodgates broke for AC/DC's popularity in the UK and US.

Just reaching their peak, however, AC/DC were devastated by the death of Bon Scott in Feb 1980. In true rock form, the coroner's report stated that he had "drunk himself to death."

With nary a pause, AC/DC replaced Scott with Brian Johnson, recording Back in Black, which was to prove the band's biggest album, moving over 10 million copies on the strengths of the single "You Shook Me All Night Long."

While AC/DC haven't been able to equal the success of Back in Black, they remained a top international concert draw throughout the '80s and '90s. Their current tour features a 10-meter-tall mock bronze statue of lead guitarist Angus Young, who still wears his trademark schoolboy uniform at age 45.

You've got to give AC/DC credit for sticking to their hard-driving, beer-drinking, working-class brand of rock, which makes absolutely no concessions to the times. Appropriately for a band that practically invented the term "arena rock," AC/DC have been booked to play at one of Kanto's few arenas. Cigarette lighters not supplied.

AC/DC play Yokohama Arena on Feb 19-20.  See listings for details.