AC/DC Olympic Stadium London 04-06-16
New venue for me and a very impressive Olympic Stadium the new home of West Ham United and this was to be the opening show here.
I was fortunate to see AC/DC in 1982 as a 16 year old and this was my youngest son Matt's first AC/DC show at the age of 13.With Matt resplendent in his new AC/DC t shirt we managed to sneak into the gold circle part of the stadium for the first 6000 people.
First up Tyler Bryant And The Shakedown from Tennessee who played a 45 minute set that for me had too many time changes and slower parts so any momentum built up soon went.
When they just played the song not bad but in a huge stadium grab the attention and don't stop.
From the day it was announced that Brian Johnson was having to give up live work due to a hearing problem the internet has been alive with who should or should not or even should they?Then the call to Axl Rose and the internet nearly combusts with the amount of flack the band received for appointing him.
Youtube footage of the earlier shows had shown a man and a band in perfect harmony and a lot of people who had got their refunds may have been wondering if the call had gone in to early.
With an extra 15 minutes added to the setlist in comparison from last year's Wembley show this is what they played.
Rock Or Bust
Shoot To Thrill
Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be
Back In Black
Got Some Rock & Roll Thunder
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Rock 'N' Roll Damnation
Thunderstruck
High Voltage
Rock 'N' Roll Train
Hells Bells
Given The Dog A Bone
If You Want Blood (You've Got It)
Sin City
Shot Down In Flames
Have A Drink On Me
T.N.T.
Whole Lotta Rosie
Let There Be Rock
Encore:
Highway To Hell
Riff Raff
For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)
So the only question is how was Axl?
He was fantastic.The show even started 2 minutes early so no fannying around 2 hours late and his vocals were superb.
He appeared to struggle a little on Hells Bells but on the Bon Scott era songs he blew the roof off.The mid set pairing of If You Want Blood and then Sin City was sensational.
During Riff Raff he was dancing round like a lunatic not what a man with a foot still in plaster should be doing and no sign of the throne he had used before.
He and Angus showed a great chemistry and Angus was duck walking like a mad man and like the rest of the band appeared to have been given some real impetus with the new working approach.
We had all the bells and whistles of an AC/DC stadium show and we all went nuts from the word go.
Simply put we all had a blast Axl fitted in like a glove and Matt said it was amazing.
