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BON SCOTT
 Ronald
Belford Scott was born on July 9, 1946 in Kirriemuir, Scotland. He spent
the first six years of his life in the small town of Kirriemuir. Bon's
parents hailed from musical families; his father, Charles, known to
friends and relations as Chick, played drums in the Kirriemuir Pipe Band
and performed with the local light-opera company. In 1952, the Scott
family relocated to Australia. The Scotts first resided in Melbourne
before settling in the Adelaide suburb of Sunshine. In 1956, Bon's
brother Graeme was diagnosed with asthma and the Scott family relocated
to Fremantle.
As early as grade school, Bon had shown an affinity for music,
first playing recorder in school; he would subsequently have brief
flirtations with piano and accordion, before settling on drums. Bon took
his first tentative stepsas a performer at the age of twelve, playing a
recorder duet with a classmate at a school concert and banging the drums
alongside his father in the local Caledonian Society's Scots pipe band.
Bon's lifelong distaste for authority led him to quit his studies at the
age of fifteen. After leaving school, he held a series of odd jobs,
driving a tractor, laboring on fishing boats and working as an
apprentice weighing-machine mechanic.
Bon's earliest bands found him doubling up on vocals and drums. In Perth
during 1966 he played with The Spektors. Then he moved on to The
Valentines. In May 1967 The Valentines released a debut single entitled
'Every Day I Have To Cry' on the Clarion label. Despite its lack of
originality, the single reached the Top 5 of the local charts. But their
next three singles flopped and they decided to move to Melbourne for a
change of luck.
The Valentines recorded three Easybeats songs, 'She Said', 'Peculiar
Hole In The Sky' and 'My Old Man's A Groovy Old Man'. The latter reached
No. 23 in the Australian charts in July 1969. On September 20, 1969 The
Valentines were arrested for dope possession which shattered their
clean-cut image beyond repair. Nevertheless The Valentines released
another single, 'Julliette' in April 1970 that barely reached the
Australian Top 30. The band officially called it quits on August 1,
1970.
Within six months of The Valentine's dissolution, Bon received a call
from Bruce Houwe, leader of a new blues-rock band called Fraternity,
inviting him to join his group. By the time Bon joined Fraternity, the
band had already recorded a single, 'Why Did It Have To Be Me', and
begun gigging around Adelaide, where it had relocated from its original
base of Sydney. After two albums for RCA Australia, 'Live Stock' in 1971
and 'Flaming Galah' in 1972, Fraternity decided to try their luck in
Europe. For most of 1973 they toured the Continent, principally Britain
and Germany. They even got to support a band called Geordie, fronted by
one Brian Johnson, in the UK. The European trip was largely fruitless
for Fraternity and they returned to Australia slightly disillusioned.
After returning home, Bon was involved in a motorbike accident that left
him in a coma for three days and in the hospital for several months,
ending his association with Fraternity.
Now based in Adelaide, Bon was reduced to taking on casual work until
the day he was offered the chance to drive this new band called AC/DC
around. Bon lost little time in telling the band he could play drums,
and before long he'd successfully auditioned for Peter Clack's position
in the band. He also recommended as bass player his old friend from
Fraternity, Bruce Houwe. But Bon harboured ambitions to front the band.
He persuaded the Young brothers that the band needed a better frontman
and he suggested himself as the ideal replacement. And when Dave Evans
failed to turn up for a show, Bon seized his chance.
Bon Scott was the man who brought AC/DC into sharp focus. He was a
unique personality, a man of such charisma that he could make every
single fan in an audience of thousands feel like he was performing just
for them, whilst also having the ability to make the local pub seem like
an arena. He enjoyed life and loved nothing better than giving pleasure
to others.
Yet Bon Scott was also an excessive drinker and this would ultimately
lead to tragedy. After a night of heavy drinking, Bon died in a car
parked outside a friend's flat in South London sometime on February 19,
1980. He was prononced dead on arrival at Kings College Hospital. Bon
Scott lies in the Fremantle Cemetery's
www.acdcbiography.com
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