Live/Wire: the AC/DC Tribute Show
Slade Rooms, Wolverhampton
By Debbie Bennett

Love them or hate them, tribute bands are the next best thing. They attempt to bring you your favourite live show to an intimate venue.

And nobody does this better than the UK’s top AC/DC tribute, Live/Wire, the unique six-man salute to rock’s greatest band AC/DC, complete with cannons, a wall of Marshalls and two hours of rock ‘n’ roll.

For AC/DC fans, Saturday night was special, as it was 31 years to the day that original frontman Bon Scott died, giving the the evening more volume and more poignance, as mentioned by Live/Wire’s ‘Bon’, frontman Jon Belford.

Launching straight into Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be, the bare-chested Jon strutted about the stage in denim jeans and open waistecoat. Power classics such as Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Sin City and Touch Too Much followed to a packed out venue.

But Live/Wire doesn’t stop there. After an hour, ‘Bon Scott’ was replaced by current frontman, the flat cap-wearing Geordie ‘Brian Johnson’, alias Pete Eccles, whose Runaway Train, from AC/DC’s latest album Black Ice, showed the band was bang up-to-date.

And it was non-stop after that, with Heatseeker and Let There Be Rock keeping the crowd in a high voltage frenzy, and Pete carrying the school-uniformed ‘Angus’, as mimicked by band member Lorne Shippen, on his shoulders through the crowd.

Armed with the famous Gibson SG guitar and playing with superb style and feel, Lorne duck-walked and rocked his way through the show, keeping the crowd on their feet.

An encore of Highway to Hell, and mini cannons giving For Those About to Rock a touch of originality, the gig wrapped up with the two frontmen singing together.

Of course, for AC/DC this never happened – but this isn’t just ANY AC/DC tribute show.