Call for Glasgow AC/DC memorial as the band celebrate 50th anniversary

Brothers Malcolm and Angus Young, who formed the Australian rock band in Sydney back in 1973, spent their early years living in a tenement flat on Skerryvore Road in Glasgow’s Cranhill area. 

A decade earlier, when Angus was aged just eight and Malcolm was aged 10, they emigrated to Australia with their family, including six siblings, on the so called “ten-pound-pom-ticket - a scheme which saw over thousands of Scots take up the offer of a new life Down Under and a chance to escape post-war rationing and a housing shortage, reports The Herald. 

The calls for the memorial come ahead of the 50th anniversary of the band in 2023, an anniversary which has already prompted The Royal Australian Mint to commission a series of commemorative coins to mark the landmark birthday of the band.

DJ Jim Gellatly said he thinks it would be a “good call” for Glasgow to commemorate the Young brothers, especially given the fact that a statue to former AC/DC frontman Bon Scott exists in his native Kirriemuir in Angus. The life-sized bronze statue was unveiled back in 2016 on the 10th anniversary of BonFest International Rock Festival, which pays tribute to the singer, and was paid for following a successful two-year crowdfunding campaign that attracted headlines around the world and was also supported by AC/DC. 

AC/DC in 1975. (Image: Newsquest)

He told The Herald: “The Youngs are arguably Scotland’s greatest musical export despite making their home on the other side of the world. It would be great if the 50 years were recognised back in their home town. I think it’s a good call, especially with Bon Scott remembered with the statue in Kirriemuir (and one in Australia).

The DJ believes that, rather than in Cranhill, the ideal place for a memorial would be in Glasgow city centre near to where Scotland’s premier rock venue The Apollo once stood.

It was a 1978 concert at the venue that was used for the live tracks for AC/DC’s first live album If You Want Blood You've Got It , a concert which is regarded as being one of the best of their career and one which saw the band dress in Scotland football strips for the encore to paying homage to the homeland of both Youngs and Scott. 

He added: “There should be something, even like a paving stone. The ideal place for it would be round about where the Apollo was rather than sort of where they grew up because it would get lost out there.” 

Ivan McKee, MSP for Glasgow Provan, said he “fully supports” any plans for a memorial celebrating the Young brothers’ “remarkable” journey from Glasgow’s east end to rock ‘n’ roll super stardom as part of a rock band widely considered by music fans to be one of the greatest and influential of all-time.

He said: “As young lads in the 1960s, Angus and Malcolm’s experience of emigrating to Australia, so their dad could find work, was all too sadly shared by many Glaswegians. 

AC/DC are regarded as one of the world's greatest rock bands

“The story of their journey from Skerryvore Road to global fame with AC/DC is remarkable and their contribution to the music industry is immense. I fully support any plans for a memorial to this success, which was born out of Cranhill.” 

Among those also backing calls for a permanent memorial to the band is Cranhill native Dougie McEwan, a former classmate of Angus Young’s at Milncroft Primary, who also used to deliver newspapers to the Young’s household prior to their move Down Under.

Mr McEwan suggested a memorial could be put in place near to where the Young brothers grew up. 

He told our sister title The Herald: “You could have some sort of plaque located near the water tower in Cranhill to say that ‘100 yards down the road was the close that the Youngs grew up in’. 

“I recall exactly where it was on Skerryvore Road as, believe it or not, my mate who was a year and a bit older than me used to have a paper round and he delivered papers to the Youngs and I occasionally went with him. He would have been 8 or 9 at that time, delivering the Evening Citizen.”