Bandstand: AC/DC perform Long Way to the Top

After a four-year hiatus, the Nine Network’s 1960s flagship music program Bandstand returned to screens, this time produced by the Grundy Organisation. With original host Brian Henderson unavailable, popular GTV9 personality Daryl Somers flew north to TCN9 in Sydney to record his segments. 

Seeking to capture Countdown’s teenage viewership, Bandstand’s 1976 reboot aimed to revive the classic music show format, updating it with a live teenage audience and contemporary hits. 

Although it didn’t achieve Countdown’s iconic status or capture such classic images as director Paul Drane’s famous Swanston Street stroll with AC/DC on a truck, Bandstand’s reboot still offered exciting moments of teenage adulation. From the opening episode, Australia’s most successful rock exports tore up Nine’s Willoughby studios with their typical energy in a performance of ‘It’s A Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'N' Roll)’ in February 1976, with Bon Scott singing live over the 45 release.