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| Since it was first published in Australia in 1994, Highway to Hell has never been out of print in its home territory, and I’m stoked that it's now coming out - officially on October 27, through Pan Macmillan - in a new, fourth local edition, to add to the six other editions still currently available around the world. This new edition will be launched, thanks especially to the generosity of the fine folk at Young Henry's brewery, with events at Young Henry’s tasting bar itself in Newtown in Sydney on October 31, and at the Cherry Bar in AC/DC Lane in Melbourne (where else?) on November 12; see flyers below. These events will also launch a drop Young Henry’s has specially brewed in honour of Bon, called Big Balls, and will also have on sale, in addition to copies of the new edition of the book (complete with embossed cover!), a limited-edition print of the magnificent new cover illustration by great Sydney artist Glenn Smith. |
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| Highway to Hell, if I dare claim so myself, has to be the heavyweight title-holder of Australian rock books. By my estimate, it’s sold in excess of 100,000 copies by now, and the only other Australian rock book that’s likely shifted as many or more is Billy Thorpe’s Sex and Thugs and Rock’n’Roll. It’s the only Australian rock book, I think, translated into a foreign language, let alone five foreign languages, and no other has remained continuously in print as long as it it has – 21 years now – and that includes Thorpie’s highly colorised memoir, which went out of print a number of years back. When Highway to Hell was first published, there were a couple of cut-and-paste biographies of AC/DC around, but that was it. Since then, there has been a steady stream of books about the band, but for all of those that have come along aspiring to knock Highway to Hell off its perch, I think it’s enough to say that most of them pretty quickly fell by the wayside - while Highway to Hell has just just seemed to keep on keeping on. Remember too that the fully illustrated edition still remains available through Verse Chorus Press. If you live in Sydney or Melbourne, come along and join us in necking some Big Balls for Bon! |
