Irrespective of which musician you ask, listening to their very own track performed on the radio for the primary time is a second an artist will always remember. Though it beforehand held extra cache than it does now, getting radio airplay remains to be a seismic achievement.
Brian Johnson of AC/DC nonetheless holds the second near his coronary heart and can proceed to do for the remainder of his life. When he joined AC/DC, the group have been already superstars who had been on the radio extra occasions than they’d be capable of bear in mind, and it was his earlier outfit, Geordie, whose track was the primary he had performed on the radio.
Geordie was first shaped in 1971, and it didn’t take lengthy for the music business to spark an curiosity of their sound. After gigging relentlessly round Britain for his or her first 12 months collectively, the band managed to safe a report cope with EMI, who launched their debut single, ‘Don’t Do That’, in the direction of the backend of 1972.
In the course of the early Seventies, radio was the top for bands and was essentially the most environment friendly approach of discovering an viewers. Nonetheless, the variety of stations was restricted in contrast with right this moment, and getting that massive break was nothing however a pipedream.
Having a track performed on BBC Radio may make or break careers, and it may change the panorama of a band in a single day. The load they as soon as held is nearly to fathom within the streaming age, however radio was the business’s major gatekeeper for a sustained interval.
Johnson didn’t have to attend too lengthy earlier than listening to Geordie’s debut single on the airwaves, and he remembers it prefer it was yesterday. “The primary time I heard a track of mine on the radio, I’ll always remember that was with Geordie. We have been travelling to Wales. We’re gonna cross this large bridge. There was a DJ on BBC Radio known as Noel Edmonds,” the singer recalled to AXS TV.
“He had a programme known as ‘My Decide Of The New Songs for the Week’. He mentioned, ‘I feel that is gonna be an amazing track from a Newcastle band’. We have been within the van driving. He (he mentioned) ‘It’s known as ‘Don’t Do That’. It’s unbelievable, right here it’s.’”
He continued: “We stopped, and we have been going (places on a stunned face). I imply, we have been simply in… it’s a marvellous feeling the primary time you hear. So that you ask any artist that query, and they’re going to say it was one of the best time ever to listen to your music on the radio.”
That first play helped ‘Don’t Do That’ surge into the UK prime 40, and over the next 12 months, they’d have three extra tracks additionally obtain this feat. Sadly for Geordie, that’s the place their chart success ended. Nonetheless, their decline opened the door for Johnson to finally substitute the late Bon Scott in AC/DC.
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