anecdotes - sleeping out for AC/DC tickets

Sleeping out for AC/DC tickets in 1987

AC/DC were touring in 1988, for the first time in 7 years. They even had a good album out, Blow Up Your Video, with a couple of cracking songs. A huge improvement on 1985's Fly On The Wall, which was, to put it politely, a steaming crock of shite.
My best mate Lee and I, diehard fans complete with long hair and denim jackets, decided that we had to get in early to get a good seat. I actually had quite a few blokes' money, had to get about 12 tickets from memory.

So, there being only a couple of Mitchells Bass outlets around (what it was called before Ticketek), we decided to bypass Parramatta - where we figured they'd be queued up from arsehole to breakfast time - and head for Wynyard. Surely no other AC/DC fans even knew it existed? You only go there if you're working in the city.

We duly caught the 1AM train from Kingswood into the city, armed with a bottle of cheap bourbon, some Coke, and the excitement of knowing we were getting tickets to see our favourite band. There were a few others on the train who let the occasion get the better of them and opened their booze. The cops got on at one point, confiscated the open grog, examined our unopened bottle and allowed us to keep it. Great relief was felt at this point.

We got to Wynyard a bit after 2AM, and to our dismay found about 30 people ahead of us who'd had the same idea. Some had brought sleeping bags and had obviously been in residence a while. We took our place at the back end of the queue, and rectified the closed-bourbon-bottle situation.

There were some scary fuckers there, but we must have looked teenaged and Westie enough not to get ourselves into trouble. There was much ACDC chat and some singing and general having a good time going on, when the cops showed up and started arresting people at about 3AM.

Apparently some silly bastards in the queue had broken into the cellars of the Menzies Hotel - accessible in the same arcade we were occupying - and it had an early CCTV setup. So they basically grabbed everyone ahead of us in the queue, and we went from 30th to about 3rd.

One bloke who wasn't arrested was lying on his sleeping bag - rather than in it - and couldn't be woken. The reason he wasn't in it became apparent when he moved and a series of glassy clinking noises ensued. He'd stuffed it full of bottles of Scotch during the Great Bottle-O Robbery. Brilliant idea, until he woke up and tried to roll the bag up again. That was still a few hours away for Mr Alcoholy Smell of the Month though. Even when tickets went on sale at 9AM, he was punching out the Z's while those in the queue stepped over him.

I do hope he got to see the band.

From about 5AM onwards, those arrested began to trickle back. One bloke showed me his charge & bail papers. I made sure I didn't mention I worked in Local Courts at that point. We kept our place at the front of the queue. Z-Man kept on snoring.

From about 7.30 onward, normal people started coming past. People in work clothes. People who hadn't sat up all night in their Bon Scott tshirts, jeans and denim jackets. Denim jackets covered in patches and studs in my case. These people probably hadn't even drunk bourbon and coke from a bottle that morning. Freaks.

Come 9AM, the doors opened and the computer crashed, roughly at the same time. Tickets for Johnny Farnham were going on sale the same day, and the system couldn't cope with the demand. We did get our tickets in the end...and after hanging around for a bit, Lee and I picked up front of house tickets for the 3rd show.

Both gigs were awesome but that's another story.