Alcohol and Burnouts

PART FIVE OF “THE UNVEILING”
jackie and her clan
[Jackie, Amy, Roisin, Melissa…]

We headed back to the stage. Noiseworks were on now, their lead singer Jon Stevens swaggering around the microphone stand. “You know, he still looks pretty hot!” Mish exclaimed.

But her gaze wasn’t just idly taking in the rocker’s rugged good looks. Mish kept noticing family groupings in the crowd around us. She had an especially keen eye for mother-daughter duos. Dancing behind us were Jackie and her 13 year old daughter Amy. Jackie also has an 18 year old son, and a 16 year old daughter. “They’re all here somewhere!” she said cheerfully.

Just then her 16 year old, Melissa, rocked up with her mate Roisin. Jackie told the girls to pose so their picture would end up in the Bon Scott Blog. And so it has.

“Did your mum bring you up listening to this kind of music?” I asked Melissa. “Yeah! We were raised on alcohol and burnouts!” she said, gleefully raising her AC/DC stubby holder to the sky.

I HEART BOYS IN BANDS

PART 2 OF “THE UNVEILING”
megan in her custom t shirt

We spotted a girl with a home-made Bon Scott T shirt. “Quick, give me one of those cards with your blog address on it!” Mish said. And with that, she had joined the team.

She darted forward and tapped the girl on the shoulder, breathlessly blurting out: “Hi I’m Michelle and this is Lucas and he’s an artist from Sydney doing a blog all about Bon Scott and it’s really great and he’s writing about fans like you and can he take your photo and put it up on the web?” She was into it, of course. How could she refuse a request like that? Her name is Megan.

Megan was there with her husband Kim, but they’d left their six year old son at home. “Maybe soon he’ll be big enough to come to concerts, but not yet,” she said. Megan had doctored the front of her shirt, so instead of reading “I HEART BOYS IN UNIFORM” it read “I HEART BOYS IN BANDS”. Although she was the one with the customised Bon Scott shirt, Kim is the real fan. He’s got tons of memorabilia on display in his domestic shrine to Bon. I told Kim about Bec’s photographic project. He said he’s already seen her ad in the local news, and will definitely get in touch with her…

The Unveiling

[THE FOLLOWING IS PART ONE OF AN UNFOLDING SERIES OF EPISODES FROM THE AUSSIE ROCK CELEBRATION CONCERT ’08, AT THE CONCLUSION OF WHICH WE WILL UNVEIL FOR YOU THE BRONZE STATUE OF BON SCOTT. WE APPRECIATE YOUR PATIENCE. BON HAS WAITED TWENTY EIGHT YEARS, FOR THIS MOMENT. SO AN EXTRA DAY OR TWO FOR THE BLOG ENTRY WON’T HURT YOU…]

Sent:
19 Feb 2008
16:38:46
Hey Mish wanna come
to a concert on sunday?
Sender
Lucas

Sent:
19 Feb 2008
16:45:53
Only if it is oz rock
and I can wear black
jeans
Sender
Mish

And so it came to pass. The big day had arrived. I was due to meet Mish around 4pm at the Claremont Showgrounds. After a rowdy bus and train journey with the Hamilton Hill Clan, I joined a conga line of black T shirts at the back of a seemingly endless queue, suffering under the baking sun. Somewhere up the line came the plaintive cry of a female voice: “Why do we wear dark clothing in this heat?”
Continue reading “The Unveiling”