End of the road for AC/DC

[pcolbeck]

Brian Johnson has been told he is going deaf and must stop touring immediately or lose his hearing
The band say they may complete the tour with guest singers but I suspect that with Malcolm gone and now Brian that will be it.

I much preferred Bon Scott myself and they have had a good run but still it's a sad way for it to end.

[Mr Larrington]

I thought Pete Townshend was pretty much deaf by about 1975 and it doesn't seem to have stopped him.

[Redlight]

It does explain pretty much all of the Who's output since then, though 

(PS I will make an exception for PT's album with Ronnie Lane)

[clarion]

I thought they were finished after Bon died, so it may be they can carry on.  I shall wait and see. 

It would be a shame if they had to retire just as Angus was getting ready to leave school.

[caerau]

Roger Taylor of Queen is deaf as a post too apparently.  Still I suspect it's a bit more important for a singer to be able to hear themselves - look at what happened to Adele at the Brits     

[LEE]

He's 68.  Time he stopped anyway.

I'm really not a fan of once great rock stars carrying on beyond about 30 years of age.  They rarely have much to prove, or add.

Are there many examples of rock stars saving their best work until their 30s ?

Paul Mccartney wrote "Waterfalls" when he was 38 which makes me think he should have stopped in his 20s.

It's really not the end of the road for AC/DC. 
Their '70s and '80s albums are still out there and I never wanted to see a bunch of 60 year olds attempt to recreate them live anyway.
I think cover-bands are generally better at that point.

Even the Bootleg Beatles are past it.  Is there a Bootleg Bootleg Beatles act I can go and see?

Edit.  Apparently they are the Bootleg Bootleg Beatles now...(They've been going for 3 times longer than the Beatles !!)


Current members
Adam Hastings (John Lennon) – Guitar, Vocals, Keyboard, Harmonica (2011–present)
Steve White (Paul McCartney) – Bass, Vocals, Keyboard (2012–present)
Stephen Hill (George Harrison) – Guitar, Vocals (2014–present)
Hugo Degenhardt (Ringo Starr) – Drums, Percussion, Vocals (2003–present)
Former members
Andre Barreau (George Harrison) – guitar, vocals (1980–2014)
David Catlin-Birch (Paul McCartney) – bass, vocals, keyboards (1980–1987, 2001–2012)
Neil Harrison (John Lennon) – guitar, vocals, keyboards (1980–2011)
Rick Rock (Ringo Starr) – drums, percussion, vocals (1981–2003)
Paul Cooper (Paul McCartney) – bass, vocals, keyboards (1987–2001)
Jack Lee Elgood (Ringo Starr) – drums, percussion, vocals (1980–1981)

[Redlight]

Are there many examples of rock stars saving their best work until their 30s ?

Not many for whom you could say their "best" work was after their 20s but I'd say there are several artists who continued to produce work that was still better than the average at the time, e.g. Neil Young, Joe Jackson*, Elvis Costello*, Joan Armatrading

* i'd venture that both produced far more substantial work in their 30s and 40s than in their 20s

[pcolbeck]

Are there many examples of rock stars saving their best work until their 30s ?

Elbow - All of them were in their 30s when they made it with The Seldom Seen Kid.

Richard Hawley - He's 49 and his best work has been in the last ten years

Bruce Springsteen  - Was in his late thirties when he released Tunnel of Love a.s good an Album as any he has done

There are lots more than you think. Some people have a youth-full early spurt and the muse seems to burn out and others are either slow burners or they just get better with age and experience.

[contango]

He's 68.  Time he stopped anyway.

I'm really not a fan of once great rock stars carrying on beyond about 30 years of age.  They rarely have much to prove, or add.

Are there many examples of rock stars saving their best work until their 30s ?

Paul Mccartney wrote "Waterfalls" when he was 38 which makes me think he should have stopped in his 20s.

Personally I wish he'd stopped by age 5.

[LEE]

Are there many examples of rock stars saving their best work until their 30s ?

Elbow - All of them were in their 30s when they made it with The Seldom Seen Kid.

Richard Hawley - He's 49 and his best work has been in the last ten years

Bruce Springsteen  - Was in his late thirties when he released Tunnel of Love a.s good an Album as any he has done

There are lots more than you think. Some people have a youth-full early spurt and the muse seems to burn out and others are either slow burners or they just get better with age and experience.

Just my opinion you understand....

Elbow - All of them were in their 30s when they made it with The Seldom Seen Kid. -Seldom Seen Kid is no better, worse or much different than their earlier albums.

Richard Hawley - He's 49 and his best work has been in the last ten years - He's gone solo from being a Guitarist in a band (some bloody good bands at that) so it's hard to compare.  (I do have his 2 latest albums though and love them)  "She Said" by the Longpigs beats anything on his solo albums

Bruce Springsteen  - Was in his late thirties when he released Tunnel of Love a.s good an Album as any he has done - I think he's as dreadful now as he's ever been.


Neil Young, Joe Jackson*, Elvis Costello*, Joan Armatrading

Elvis Costello was 25 when he released "Armed Forces".  He set the bar very, very high. No shame in never getting that high again (not many artists do).

Neil Young, Joe Jackson, Joan Armatrading...if you say so.


There's an excitement inherent in music by kids in their 20's that goes missing in later life.  Yes, they may mature as musicians and songwriters. Yes, their albums may be more "rounded" but I prefer the inane excitement of "Pretty Vacant" to John Lydon's later "Country Life" Butter adverts.

[Mr Larrington]

Iggy Pop freely acknowledges that in his old age he'll never write anything as good as the Stuffs he managed earlier in his chequered career but "I can still sing 'em!".  One of my lasting regrets is passing up the chance to see the reformed Stooges perform "Fun House" at the Hammy Odeon before Ron Asheton inconsiderately went and died.

[mattc]

There's an excitement inherent in music by kids in their 20's that goes missing in later life.  Yes, they may mature as musicians and songwriters. Yes, their albums may be more "rounded" but I prefer the inane excitement of "Pretty Vacant" to John Lydon's later "Country Life" Butter adverts.

yes I agree:

but there is a lot of good "mature and rounded" music out there. It would be a massive shame to simply dismiss it all.

[LEE]

but there is a lot of good "mature and rounded" music out there. It would be a massive shame to simply dismiss it all.

The problem is that we're mature and rounded now too.  We're too old to judge.

I'm 53, way older than when my Dad was way too old to know the slightest feck about rock.

[caerau]

Speak for yourself.  I'm too old to judge music for 12 year olds maybe but I'm quite happy to accept that my musical tastes have morphed and changed (yet are broadly similar - have become more accepting I suppose - growing up maybe  ) since I was 12 or 18 or 30 or whatever.  The fact that the music marketing machine seems increasingly obsessed with what 15 year old girls like is neither here nor there - that was true when I was young too - that's why I started to ignore the charts and listen to what *I* was interested in.  Plenty of it out there.  I still remember the day I was astonished to learn (via an edition of Who Wants to be a Millionaire of all things) that I had not clue what had been no 1 in the charts at any point in the previous year.  I cannot put a pin on the day I stopped giving a shit - sometime in my mid to late 20s I think.


Don't fall for the radio1 style hype that music is only for the yoof.




Doesn't mean I don't still like to rock it to GnR circa 1987 of course  

[caerau]

Being someone who has always worked at a university - where young people abound and seem to get younger every year    - I sometime wish they'd actually get off their arses and actually get into something new personally.


In the late 90s/early 20002s at Brum Uni I was astonished that they were still playing The Stone Roses on loop throughout the student buildings - WTF - that was *my* era.
Later in the 2010s I had a PhD students who was mightily offended by someone doing a 'rubbish and insulting' cover version of Pink Floyd's Comfortable Numb.  Er... that was before you were born George, what gives you the right to take possession of it FFS?


Has there actually been any kind of new wave of music in the popular genre in the last 20 years or so?  There have been various tinkerings with things like Metal (grunge, industrial, new etc.), Hip Hop and the like but nothing like the game changers that came before in the 50s/60s/70s/80s. 


In my old-person - past it - viewpoint of course.

[perpetual dan]

Are there many examples of rock stars saving their best work until their 30s ?

"Best", not sure - that's tied up with the listener too much for me to make claims on others' work. Still good and not just churning out the same old ideas, sure.

Nick Cave for one.

[Mr Larrington]

DJ Random is currently playing a Hendrix track from 1970.  When I visited the Hendrix memorial in Renton WA last year it occurred to me that had he lived he'd have been 72

The proto-hipster bloke next to me on the flight back from Seattle was carrying a bag from Sub Pop Records, whose heyday was about twenty-five years ago.  Never mind the bloody musicians getting old, it's me I'm worried about

[TimC]

It's not good news for Brian that his hearing's knackered, but it'll make little difference to his income I suspect. AC/DC will continue to get much air time for many years. As for old guys rocking, no-one - and I really mean no-one (with the possible exception of Ian Anderson) - is entitled to tell me or anyone else that we are too old to rock and roll. My coffin will have a noise limiting order on it, I hope!

[spesh]

It's not good news for Brian that his hearing's knackered, but it'll make little difference to his income I suspect. AC/DC will continue to get much air time for many years. As for old guys rocking, no-one - and I really mean no-one (with the possible exception of Ian Anderson) - is entitled to tell me or anyone else that we are too old to rock and roll. My coffin will have a noise limiting order on it, I hope!

So you're thinking of having a couple of miniature turbojets propel your coffin through the curtains at the crematorium, then? 

[TimC]

My coffin will have a noise limiting order on it, I hope!

Now that's funny, coming from the man who makes more noise in his job than most bands do in theirs!

But not as much as my Dad did in his, and he's in the same position Brian is. And I don't get to hear the day-job noise, nor is it what I'd inflict on the staff of the crematorium (there won't be anyone else there!).

[Hot Flatus]

Underworld have a new album out.

The singer is 60 next year.