AB/CD supported by Insomnia
Friday 26th October 2001, Bedford Esquires.

A lot of AC/DC T-shirts clad the crowd at this gig, which was by no means a sell-out. Insomnia (formed 1998) kicked off, more used to playing bigger crowds, last seen supporting the Nirvana tribute band. They have an atmospheric grungy feel, with a good thrash sound when they get going. They can definitely play their instruments well, with part effects coming from the guitar. The vocals were slightly weak and at times played with back to the crowd, but for a young band there is definite potential here. They moved well on stage – the bass player certainly looked the part and was on reserve to stand in for the tribute band if their bass couldn`t make it. There were quite a few good instrumentals, and they seemed to enjoy what they were doing, especially the last number which went down well. – Worth seeing!

From the upper echelons of heavy metal the AC/DC tribute band AB/CD thundered in with their mascot Angus Young look-alike – grabbing the limelight in true Angus style with continuous movements on stage, excellent guitar playing and trademark school uniform (from when the real Angus used to go to band practiced direct from school, and the image stuck!) The rest of the band didn`t seem to stand out much in comparison, although the Bill Oddie look-alike vocals were really strong, which helped belt out songs with the energy of a 2-ton steam hammer from hell. The tracks were all from the late Bon Scot era, with a fair retrospective of songs from the early albums including classics "Whole Lotta Rosie", "Highway To Hell" and "Let There Be Rock", disappointingly cut short towards the end technical bit.

I remember an interview with AC/DC when asked why all six albums sound the same, they replied, “That`s simply not true – we`ve done seven albums that all sound the same.” I wonder if more variety would be added if some of the later Brian Johnson songs were mixed into the set. A good night for `old school?` - ( or other naff tags people put on pre-nineties music), with the crowd joining in throughout.

Keith Pickering