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"AC/DC: Australia's Family Jewels," a massive exhibit honouring the famous heavy-metal band, opens at Seattle's EMP Museum on Saturday 28th April.

By GENE STOUT - Special to the Seattle Times

Rock band AC/DC has been raising hell for nearly 40 years.

Surely band members have never aspired to be cultural icons worthy of one of Australia's most prestigious museums.

But Tim Fisher, senior curator at Arts Centre Melbourne, which houses Australia's national performing-arts collection, couldn't think of a better group to honour. Fisher is curator of "AC/DC: Australia's Family Jewels", which made its debut at Arts Centre Melbourne in fall 2009 with the band's blessing and opens Saturday at EMP Museum, where it will be on display until September 29th.

EMP celebrates the opening of "Family Jewels" with a party featuring Hell's Belles, a Seattle-based, all-female AC/DC tribute band Friday at Sky Church. On Saturday, Anthony Bozza, author of "Why AC/DC Matters", will join EMP Museum's director of curatorial affairs, Jasen Emmons, in a discussion at JBL Theater.

"When I was looking for an idea for a rock 'n' roll exhibition, there was really only one choice for us," Fisher said in a phone interview from Australia.

"Because AC/DC holds this really quite important place in Australian culture, even though they were all kind of immigrant kids (from Scotland) who grew up here and then pretty much left. But we still hold them dear as an Australian product," Fisher said.

The exhibition has toured Australia and last appeared in Glasgow, Scotland, where Angus and Malcolm Young were born. Seattle will be the final stop on the tour - and the only one in North America.

It is a mammoth exhibit featuring more than 400 artifacts, including music, films, posters, photos, drawings, lyrics and costumes.

Among the costumes are diminutive guitarist Angus Young's blue-velvet school uniform and a homemade 1975 "Super Ang" costume (spoofing Superman), with gold-and-red satin cape. The latter was made by Angus' sister Margaret.

"It's the sweetest thing you've ever seen," Fisher said. "It's absolutely tiny. And he only wore it once."

Another "foundation object" sure to thrill hard-core fans of AC/DC is the black leather jacket worn by Bon Scott, the group's charismatic 1970s lead singer, who died in 1980 after a bout of heavy drinking (Scott was replaced by current singer Brian Johnson).

"I display that leather jacket as the personification of (Scott) as a performer at the time he died," Fisher said.

"I really wanted to be careful about how I treated it, and I didn't want to sensationalise it. It just hangs in a showcase. And it really marks the point between Bon and Brian Johnson."

AC/DC - which has sold more than 200 million albums worldwide - formed in 1973 in Sydney, Australia, and is known to many of its fans down under as Acca Dacca.

Fisher saw them for the first time in 1975 in Canberra, Australia.

"It was hot and loud as hell, and I couldn't hear anything much for about a week afterwards," Fisher says in the curator's notes for the exhibit.

"Back then, at age 16, I didn't know much better, I didn't have any money and I certainly wasn't buying Pink Floyd or Eagles albums. Live, loud, homegrown rock 'n' roll was the only thing that grabbed me in the guts.

"For my mates and me, as we played air guitar to Angus' wild leads, it was AC/DC - rock 'n' roll by us, about us and for us. There were no messages, no concepts. We just wanted to have a good time."

Fisher began gathering artifacts for the exhibit in 2009, traveling the world to meet with collectors.

He also traveled to the Young brothers' native Glasgow to attend a concert at Hampden Park, the huge soccer stadium.

"I went with a good deal of trepidation, not really knowing what to expect," Fisher said.

"About 60,000 quite tough-looking Glaswegians were there, but it was all so good-natured. Coming out of the show, there was a giant stream of people all pressed against each other, all sweating profusely, but all in a really good mood."

The exhibit provides a chronological retrospective of the band's career. But above all, there is music — lots of it.

It plays throughout the exhibit, via widescreen videos of historic performances (such as a 1977 concert at London's Apollo Theatre) and on headphones.

"It's a rock 'n' roll show," Fisher said.

"It's not polite. We've really cranked it up. EMP is used to that, but some museums are not."

On 15th April AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd hosted "Ferrari Day" displaying 30 Ferraris including two of his own to help raise proceeds for the "Look Good Feel Better" charity at the Tauranga Bridge Marina in Tauranga, New Zealand which drew a crowd of thousands.  

According to the Bay Of Plenty Times Mr. Rudd said the event was organised as a family day and to benefit his charity of choice.

"The main thing is to get people down here and have a day of fun. Let's make the most of the rest of summer while it lasts. I didn't want this to be an exclusive event, it's not a pretentious thing, it's a family day that a whole lot of people can enjoy," he said.

From NME.com - read the full article HERE.

Queen's Brian May has revealed that he would have liked to have joined AC/DC.

Speaking to the Independent, the guitarist said that he would have fancied a stint with the Australian rockers if it hadn't been for his business with Freddie Mercury and co, but also said he wouldn't have fitted in with the band as he was the "wrong sort of size and shape".

He said: I'd have probably liked to be in AC/DC [if Queen hadn't existed]. But I'm the wrong sort of size and shape, unfortunately.

He went on to add: "Because it's different from Queen. Queen were very eclectic – that's the word isn't it? – and we just trampled over every boundary that there was. But AC/DC are in a sense the opposite.

"They know their style and it's incredibly pure and I have a great respect for that. And every single note they play is AC/DC completely."

Brian May is set to have his time filled with Queen this summer, with the iconic rock band set to play live with American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert taking Mercury's place as the band's frontman.

Late last week the Australian Football League has announced that AC/DC's "It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock 'N Roll)" will be featured in the leagues 2012 advertising campaign.

According to the official AFL website, "It's only fitting that Australia's greatest game has adopted the world famous rock anthem It's a long way to the top from Australia's most successful rock band of all time."

"It's a great tribute to the late Bon Scott and a fantastic coup for the AFL to get such acknowledgement as this is the first time the band have linked themselves with an Australian sport."

AFL fans can expect to hear AC/DC's anthem played before matches during the 2012 season.

On February 17th 2012, Brian Johnson and Cliff Williams made a special guest appearance on stage with the Greg Billings band at Marina Jacks in Sarasota, Florida.

Brian and Cliff performed on stage with the band on versions of “Okeechobee Whiskey” (Stranger), “Hey Jude” (The Beatles), and AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long”.

You can see the video below!