AC/DC – Let There Be Rock

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Warner Home Video
Produced by Eric Dionysius & Eric Mistler

Recorded in 1979 on what would be the final tour with popular singer Bon Scott, and released in 1980 after his death, the Let There Be Rock concert film from a show in Paris, France has become a thing of legend as it has been out of print for a long time.

The complete audio from the film was released as a double-CD soundtrack as part of the Bonfire box set in 1997, but the video counterpart has remained steadfastly unavailable. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the recording (which was actually two years ago), Warner Home Video have digitally remastered the original footage for this DVD release (also available on Blu-Ray).

The remaster and transfer is excellent. The recording doesn’t look at all like it’s 32 years old. The colour definition and clarity is some of the best of any recording from that era. Some criticism has been leveled at the sound quality, but this is largely unfounded. The sound hasn’t been remastered in the same way that the video footage has, and that’s because it didn’t need to be. It sounds exactly how you’d want a ’70s AC/DC recording to sound. Raw and loud. It doesn’t sound like a tidied-up-on-the-computer mix, which is perfect for AC/DC, who have never been about the polish. They probably could have done with sorting out the abrupt cuts between some of the tracks with some simple cross-fades of crowd noise though.

The film kicks off with the now-obligatory road movie portion, which accounts for the opening 9 minutes or so, and is very poor. But then, presentation standards have changed since 1979. The voice-over guy simply lists things. The members of the band, the cities on the tour, the components of the stage set-up. Never expanding on, or fleshing out any of them. There are also no talking heads. So it’s literally 9 minutes of rolling footage, like someone’s left the camera on by mistake.

Instantly skippable then, to the first song, at which points it’s clear just how good the remaster of the footage is, and how raw and powerful the audio recording always was. This is without question still the best live footage of the Bon Scott era of the band available anywhere, and for that reason is essential for every AC/DC fan, even those who still have a treasured VHS copy of the original release.

And so, to the bad. For sadly there is some bad. Firstly the classic live concert DVD problem that has befallen, and ruined many other releases over the years. Interspersing the songs with interview and backstage footage. This is especially criminal when the interviews are as stupid and inane as the ones here. “Are you waiting for World War III?” Really? The members, and all five are featured at various points, are not asked a single worthwhile question, and as such don’t give a single worthwhile answer. Angus spends most of his segments making glib jokes, Malcolm, Cliff and Phil have nothing to say at all, and Bon occasionally gives a serious answer, even if it is lacking any actual information.

The saving grace is that there are only four of these segments, and none of them are very long – some are just 20 seconds – and they are contained in their own chapters, so can be skipped without missing any songs. Which makes it all the more disappointing that there isn’t a “concert only” option on the menu, something which is inexcusable on such a DVD. The songs can be selected individually from the menu, but any interview parts from that point on will still be played.

Next, one of the most interesting song inclusions, Walk All Over You, which has barely been played by the band since Scott’s death and does not appear on any other officially released AC/DC recording (there’s a promo clip on Family Jewels), is both incomplete and has no concert footage. It fades out after a few minutes, which is doubly disappointing seeing as the audio is complete on the soundtrack CDs in Bonfire, and the footage shown while it plays is of the band messing around in various cars and a plane in some remote location.

Third, T.N.T., which should be between Rocker and Let There Be Rock, and is included on the soundtrack CDs, is missing entirely. Presumably because there’s no surviving concert footage for the song.

It continues to be a shame that companies who do these high-profile restorations and re-releases of classic concert footage for anniversaries and so forth can never seem to get it right. And it’s no like everyone involved, and everyone interested in buying the result, knows full well fans’ primary concern is the live footage. Every press release before and after the release, and even the back of the DVD box, talks exclusively about the music, with not a mention of the interviews and other segments; because they know no one really cares. Or at least no one is buying the DVD for that reason. So the continual failure of these companies to acknowledge this by making the effort to give the customer what they really want in a release is increasingly disappointing with each one.

What should have been a five-star essential purchase isn’t. Fortunately for Warner Home Video, the fact that the live footage is so good, and that live recordings in general of Bon Scott are so rare, it’s still an essential purchase, despite its failings.

“ remaster and transfer is excellent ”

Tracklist: Road movie / Live Wire / Shot Down In Flames / Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be / Sin City / Interviews / Walk All Over You / Interviews / Bad Boy Boogie / The Jack / Interviews / Highway To Hell / Girls Got Rhythm / High Voltage / Interviews / Whole Lotta Rosie / Rocker / Let There Be Rock

Written by Andy Lye
More: DVDs, Hard Rock, Live DVDs, AC/DC