If you wanna rock'n'roll

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,,25578067-5000117,00.html
Cameron Adams
June 03, 2009 12:00am

MELBOURNE is proving itself again as the live music capital of Australia.
AC/DC sold out all 50,000 tickets to their first Etihad Stadium show in under
10 minutes.
Now Pink is in residence at Rod Laver Arena, where she has set a fastest-selling show record, with tickets snapped up in just five minutes.
Her Melbourne fan base is so strong she'll play 15 Rod Laver shows - the most in any state. Next is Sydney on a lazy 10 shows.
Melbourne may be spoiled when it comes to concerts, but despite the recession, key tours keep selling strongly.
By comparison, Adelaide continues to be bypassed by most international tours because fans are slow to buy tickets.
Promoters say Adelaide fans wait until the last minute, sometimes waiting until the night of the gig. That lack of passion just isn't the case in Melbourne.
Pink may be opening her Australian concerts with a cover of AC/DC's anthemic Highway to Hell, but the comparisons don't end there.
They'll both play to more than 150,000 people in Melbourne, proving they have the kind of demographic-spanning audience tour promoters dream of.
Pink said she saw people aged "from four to 64" at her first Melbourne show. One mother even turned her daughter's head away from the stage during Pink's racy, literal cover of The Divinyls' I Touch Myself.
Pink may have started by wooing teenagers, but she's won over their parents with good, old-fashioned talent. She sings live and puts on a real show with Led Zeppelin and Queen covers among her own hits.
AC/DC have built their fan base differently. Kids are discovering the band through their parents.
AC/DC still have the support of fans from the early 1970s. They well remember the band on the back of a truck cruising down Swanston St in 1976, blasting out It's a Long Way to the Top for Countdown.
Then there are the new generation of fans who remember It's a Long Way to the Top from watching the video on YouTube.
They may be men in their 50s -- and singer Brian Johnson is 61 - but AC/DC stay cool. Their albums get passed down through generations.
For instance, teenagers know Jet and Wolfmother are inspired by AC/DC.
There's a theory that the increasingly calculated and corporate world of modern rock has left kids disillusioned.
Too many albums with too many dud tracks, too many bands who have no longevity or personality.
It leads the younger generation to hunt for authenticity.
In a world where a video game called Guitar Hero lets anyone rock out, AC/DC's Angus Young is a genuine guitar hero.
While U2 and Coldplay reinvent their tours each time they hit the road, AC/DC pull out all the (hell's) bells, whistles and inflatable Rosies everyone expects.
The young fans who were listening to the Wiggles the last time AC/DC were on tour in 2000 will have a special connection with Angus Young.
They'll ditch their school uniforms to go to the concert, while Young will be putting on his old school uniform to go to work.