Blood + Thunder: The Sound Of Alberts (DVD)
AC/DC and The Easybeats - Scottish/Australian immigrant brothers change the world when they form two huge rock bands. A rock & roll dynasty is born!
It's 1964. At an Australian migrant hostel, the Young brothers from Scotland form the pop phenom band Easybeats whose hit song Friday On My Mind conquered the globe. Their brothers, in turn, later become the rawest, loudest rock superstars ever: AC/DC. Those bands and more --Ted Albert's label--tell the story of a rock soundtrack that shook the world. This program is a two episode series, each episode is one hour long. Australia got its own rock & roll in the '70s because of a life--long bond forged a decade earlier between music company Alberts and the Youngs, an immigrant family from Glasgow. AC/DC played so loud and with such raw energy that the music reverberated across the world. It's 1964. The conservative, cultured Albert music dynasty and the Young family, residents of the Villawood Migrant Hostel, both have music running through their veins. Their sons come together and one of the most exciting periods in Australian cultural history begins. Ted Albert wants Australia to have its own songbook. He first signs Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs then The Easybeats, founded on the raw talent of teenager George Young and two other irrepressible migrant kids Harry Vanda and Stevie Wright. The Easybeats win over the locals with She's So Fine, do a deal with United Artists in the US, then give Australia its first international hit with Friday on My Mind in 1966. George and Harry finesse their musical skills in London while Ted matches their songs with the artists in Alberts' stable. Alberts hits flood the charts, not just rock & roll but also cracking pop; Ted Mulry's Falling in Love Again, Alison MacCallum's Superman, John Paul Young's Pasadena and Love is in the Air. AC/DC, featuring Angus and Malcolm Young and a force of nature called Bon Scott, The Angels and Rose Tattoo all join the Alberts stable. Brian Johnson steps in when the lifestyle claims Bon in 1980, and the Back in Black album is a massive success across the world. While coloured by tragedy, it is a triumph for Ted Albert who backed the band with rock--solid conviction.