To celebrate our first birthday (yes, it really has been that long) we decided to give our forum a new makeover. Not only are we making progress, we are also pushing forward and progressively aiming to have a marketplace right here so that members can buy and sell their collectibles and memorabilia – along with anything surplus that other fans might like to own. The benefit to this, over say eBay, is that you already have other AC/DC fans right here that are most likely to want to add to their own collections.

Features, features, features…

We are packing as much as we can in the way of new features, pushing the boundaries of what traditional forums are able to offer. From social networking features and connection to and from Twitter and Facebook, we are on top of our game in an ever increasing world of technological advancement. Yet we are also small enough to care and to ensure that these features do not intimidate  our users. Careful planning and commitment to informing users well in advance of any change is a priority.

Here is a small list of features currently supported:

More than anything else, we hope other fans will find our forum a useful and engaging place to hang out and make friends. One thing that is unique to AC/DC fans, is no matter where you go, which country or continent, AC/DC fans are the friendliest fans on earth. Our forum is just an extension of that great comeradery which exists between fans.

A preview is available at http://www.inthestudio.net/. The program will feature the new upcoming album, Iron Man II which is released April 19th through Columbia Records.

The new album, considered by some to be the ‘unofficial greatest hits of AC/DC’ consists of 15 classic tracks including:

‘Shoot To Thrill’
‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Damnation’
‘Guns For Hire’
‘Cold Hearted Man’
‘Back In Black’
‘Thunderstruck’
‘If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It)’
‘Evil Walks’
‘T.N.T.’
‘Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be’
‘Have a Drink on Me’
‘The Razor’s Edge’
‘Let There Be Rock’
‘War Machine’
‘Highway To Hell’

Other Iron Man II releases include a vinyl set and a collector’s edition.

Collectors Edition:

- 15 Classic AC/DC songs plus over 50 minutes of video including the brand new clip for “Shoot To Thrill” featuring Iron Man 2 footage.
- 7 7/8″ x 10 3/4″ foil-stamped 32 page hardcover book featuring liner notes from David Fricke, a foldout AC/DC poster and AC/DC stickers.
- Limited edition reprint of The Invincible Iron Man #1 comic book with variant cover by John Romita Jr., and back cover cartoon by Angus Young.

CD/DVD:

- 15 Classic AC/DC songs in a hardcover package with a 32 page booklet featuring liner notes by David Fricke plus 50 minutes of videos.

Double LP:

- 15 Classic AC/DC songs pressed in 180 gram vinyl.

“Let There Be Rock”, the AC/DC concert documentary that was filmed December 1979 at the Pavillion De Paris, will receive its long-awaited DVD release in January 2011. Eddie Trunk, the co-host of the VH1 Classic television program “That Metal Show”, was interviewed about the band’s impact for one of the DVD’s bonus features. He writes on his blog, “[The company which is releasing the DVD is] doing some cleanups to the audio and video and making it as high-def as the source will allow.” He adds, “I can tell you I have an advance and it looks and sounds great, but they are making it even better!”

Source: Blabbermouth

Reference: Eddie Trunk’s Blog

Also, Live Nation have announced a further date on 26th June 2010 in Sevilla leading to speculation that further dates could be announced.

The Australian rock band will play in the Basque Country for the second time in as many years, the City Council of Bilbao confirmed on Wednesday in a press conference.

The Australian band’s performance will be at San Mames stadium, which has a capacity of almost 35,000 people, far more than their previous gig at the Bilbao Exhibition Center.

Tickets for both shows go on sale online on 22 April at 10AM (local time). At the same time that tickets go on sale to the general public, ACDC.com will hold a members-only Fan Club Onsale from a separate allotment with reserved seats and general admission tickets for listed shows.

Winners of each contest will win tickets for the Las Vegas show on April 9th at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino.

    1. Iron Man 2 – marvel.com

    2. Show us your AC/DC superhero – facebook

    3. Superhero duckwalk video contest

Budding photographers! Don’t miss this opportunity to register to be Guido Karp’s “Assistant for one day” at the upcoming Hannover show in Germany.

May 25 2010, one lucky ambitious photographer will have the opportunity to become assistant to famous photographer Guido Karp.

Karp has an online registration form at http://www.guidokarp.com/workshops/en/acdc.php to be completed by entrants eager to assist AC/DC’s photographer at the May 25 2010 Hannover gig in Germany. Get practicing changing lenses in the dark in less than 3-seconds and carrying hefty photographic equipment. If you know the Canon EOS dSLR system like the back of your hand (Karp works with the Canon 1Ds MK 3 series), as well as your av, tv and ISO’s this could be the opportunity you have been waiting for!

NOTE: The closing date for the contest is 1st May 2010.

The band won the best hard rock performance prize for the song War Machine, beating past winners Metallica and Linkin Park as well as Nickelback and Alice in Chains.

They remain in contention for best rock album where rivals include Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood, Green Day, Dave Matthews Band and U2.

The hard rock award was handed out during a non-televised ceremony where 100 of the 109 categories were announced ahead of the main telecast that is set to kick off at 12 noon AEDT at the Staples Centre in downtown LA. The rock album prize will be announced then.

AC/DC did not get their first Grammy nomination until 1991 when album The Razors Edge was cited in the two-year-old hard rock performance category. It lost to Living Colour.

An Iron Man 2-themed video for their Back In Black track “Shoot to Thrill” was released today — watch it above! It features live footage from a recent AC/DC gig in Argentina, and some of the first scenes from the movie.

What is noteworthy about the Iron Man 2 soundtrack is that it’s about the closest the band has come to releasing a greatest hits album, which they’ve notoriously avoided, instead hoping to encourage fans to buy entire albums from their catalog. Aside from “You Shook Me All Night Long” and “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap,” the Iron Man 2 album is a pretty solid composite of the band’s best.

Advance orders for AC/DC’s Iron Man 2 soundtrack can be made starting today via Walmart and amazon.com. The soundtrack’s official on-sale date is April 19, a few weeks before the movie’s May 7 release date.

Download festival 2010 have confirmed AC/DC are the first headliner of 2010. We Previously reported on AC/Dc’s official site leaking the news back in December, but the word was made official today on the AC/DC website who again released early.

AC/DC will be celebrating the birthday of two special events at download, The 30th anniversary of the first Donington Monsters Of Rock and the 30th anniversary of ‘Back In Black’. It’s rumoured AC/DC will celebrate the release of back in black by performing the album live.

Festival co-founders Maurice Jones and Paul Loasby originally created a day-long summer festival dedicated to rock and heavy metal bands in 1980, and it remains the only major British festival dedicated to hard rock. Loasby said this year’s celebration would be a fitting tribute to Jones, who died last year.

“Download 2010 will be one for the history books. It will see the return of the world’s greatest rock band to the most legendary and spiritual home of rock,” he said.

“We have been pushing for this moment for many years, but for this to become reality alongside the likes of Them Crooked Vultures, Motörhead and Megadeth is the best 30th anniversary of the site we could have dreamed of.”

Download Festival is a three day rock music festival held annually at Donington Park, England (which hosted Monsters of Rock between 1980 and 1996, and 2002’s Ozzfest). It takes place at the end of spring, and is owned and managed by Live Nation. The 2009 Download Festival took place on June 12–14 at Donington Park with an estimated attendance of 120,000 over 3 days. The headliners were Faith No More, Slipknot and Def Leppard.

So what do you guys think of the news? Sonisphere has announced Metal legends Rammstein, Iron Maiden and Fear factory, whilst download has announced a worthy, but more classic rock band keeping with their classic rock Sunday line-up.

May

14 – Sofia, BG – Vassil Levsky Stadium
16 – Bucharest, RO – Piata Constitutiei
19 – Udine, IT – Stadio Friuli
22 – A-Wels, Austria – Flughafen
25 – Hannover, Germany – Messe

June

13 – Stuttgart, Germany – Cannstatter Wasen (Festival)
15 – Nice, France – Parc des Sports Charles Ehrmann
18 – Paris, France – Stade De France
20 – Dresden, Germany – Festwiese Ostragehege (Festival)
22 – Berlin, Germany – Olympiastadion

Latest dates with tickets being sold through the fanclub are being posted online at https://tickets.acdc.com/index.php?location=eu

Black Ice is competing for the Grammy in the best rock album category whilst War Machine has been nominated for the category of best hard rock performance.

The Grammys will be staged inside the 20,000-seat Staples Centre indoor arena in downtown Los Angeles on January 31.

Also, in the category of Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical (A Producer’s Award. (Artists names appear in parentheses.)) Brendan O’Brien was nominated for:

• Black Ice (AC/DC) (A)*
• Crack The Skye (Mastodon) (A)
• The Fixer (Pearl Jam) (S)
• Killswitch Engage (Killswitch Engage) (A)
• Working On A Dream (Bruce Springsteen) (A)

A date for the final release has yet to be decided.

The music icons also picked up the trophy for highest-selling album for their 2008 release, which was their first album in eight years.

AC/DC beat Eskimo Joe, Jet, The Drones and The Temper Trap to take out the coveted award.

The award was announced by Jimmy Barnes, but the band are out of the country on their Black Ice World Tour.

In a video shot backstage at their show in Sao Paulo, Brazil the band sent a brief message home.

“This is very kind. Thanks very much,” they said.

Source:  www.news.com.au

The winning entry was produced by Bontox and the runner-up entry was produced by Meltdown. Both produced great artwork which was voted on by members of the AC/DC zone forum. AC/DC zone dug deep into the swag pile and managed to award the runner-up with the AC/DC Backtracks Standard Edition which includes 2CDs and 1DVD.

The AC/DC Backtracks Deluxe Box Edition with working Amplifier is available exclusively from http://www.acdcbacktracks.com.

The Winners:

#1

#2

Competing for the award of  Best Album was:

01. Black Ice – AC/DC
02. Death Magnetic – METALLICA
03. Folklore & Superstition – BLACK STONE CHERRY
04. The Ballad Of John Henry – JOE BONAMASSA
05. Everyday Demons – THE ANSWER
06. Chinese Democracy – GUNS N’ ROSES
07. Consolers Of The Lonely – THE RACONTEURS
08. And You Were A Crow – THE PARLOR MOB
09. The Devil You Know – HEAVEN & HELL
10. Black Clouds & Silver Linings – DREAM THEATER

The list of winners is as follows:

Marshall Classic Rock Roll Of Honour 2009 – full list of winners

Best New Band
Voted for by readers of Classic Rock magazine
Sponsored by Mean Fiddler
Winner: Chickenfoot

Album Of The Year
Voted for by readers of Classic Rock magazine
Sponsored by Universal Catalogue / Lost Tunes
Winner: AC/DC Black Ice

Band Of The Year
Voted for by readers of Classic Rock magazine
Sponsored by Guitar Hero
Winner: Iron Maiden

Best Reissue
Voted for by readers of Classic Rock magazine
Sponsored by Live Nation
Winner: Black Sabbath Reissues

DVD / Film Of The Year
Voted for by readers of Classic Rock magazine
Sponsored by Play.com
Winner: Anvil! The Story of Anvil

Event Of The Year
Voted for by readers of Classic Rock magazine
Sponsored by Alchemy
Winner: Download Festival

Outstanding Contribution
Chosen by a Classic Rock Judging Panel
Sponsored by Monitor Audio
Winner: Ronnie Wood

Tommy Vance Inspiration Award
Chosen by a Classic Rock Judging Panel
Sponsored by Rhino
Winner: John Bonham

Innovator
Chosen by a Classic Rock Judging Panel
Sponsored by Eagle Rock
Winner: Ginger Baker

VIP Award
Chosen by a Classic Rock Judging Panel
Sponsored by Dannoff Premium Vodka
Winner: Doc McGhee

Metal Guru
Chosen by a Classic Rock Judging Panel
Sponsored by Bravado
Winner: Biff Byford

Spirit Of Prog
Chosen by a Classic Rock Judging Panel
Sponsored by Planet Rock
Winner: Dream Theater

Marshall 11 Award
Chosen by a Classic Rock Judging Panel
Sponsored by Marshall
Winner: Billy Gibbons

Childline Rocks Award
Winner: Steve Harley

Classic Songwriter
Chosen by a Classic Rock Judging Panel
Sponsored by Sony Music
Winner: Paul Rodgers

Classic Album
Chosen by a Classic Rock Judging Panel
Sponsored by Provogue
Winner: Aerosmith Rocks

Breakthrough
Chosen by a Classic Rock Judging Panel
Sponsored by Rock Radio
Winner: Joe Bonamassa

Comeback Of The Year
Chosen by a Classic Rock Judging Panel
Sponsored by EMI Music
Winner: Mott The Hoople

Living Legend
Chosen by a Classic Rock Judging Panel
Sponsored by Marshall
Winner: Iggy Pop