Time and tide wait for no man - and that includes some of the big-name rock and pop stars who hail from our region.
Wallsend -born Sting is now 71; Mark Knopfler who was brought up on North Tyneside is two years older; while Washington -born Bryan Ferry was 77 last month. One other venerable North East rocker to add to the list is Brian Johnson, the gravel-throated, flat-capped lead singer with AC/DC who turns 75 this week.
Johnson, like his illustrious regional contemporaries, remains active on the music scene. Only last month, Brian took part in the giant tribute concert for late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins at London's Wembley Stadium, joining the surviving Foo Fighters and Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich on stage. “This is fantastic,” the singer declared as the musicians launched into a storming version of AC/DC’s Back In Black .
READ MORE: Then and Now: Newcastle City Hall in 1973 - and the iconic venue today
Meanwhile, his long-awaited autobiography, The Lives Of Brian , is set for publication this month. The singer says: "I've had some long nights and some great nights, some bad days and a lot of good days, and during that time I've gone from choirboy to rock 'n' roll singer, and now I've gone and written a bloody book about it."
Born in Dunston, Gateshead, on October 5, 1947, to a father who was a steelworker and a former World War II sergeant-major and an Italian mother, the young Johnson's early life was shaped growing up on industrial Tyneside. Years later, the one-time pupil at Dunston Hill School recalled: "There were places we were told not to go - and that's where we went, basically anywhere dangerous. The power station was definitely off limits. There were old army trucks and old railway carriages. I was completely in love with the trains."
As a teenager, Brian fell in love with music, then duly paid his touring dues on the road with Newcastle band, Geordie. They enjoyed UK chart success in March 1973 with All Because Of You reaching number six, and Johnson memorably performing the song on BBC TV's Top Of The Pops wearing a Newcastle United shirt.
The story of how the 32-year-old singer suddenly found fame and fortune is one of rock's great rags-to-riches tales. Geordie’s star had fallen somewhat and they were plying their trade in the clubs when, in March 1980, Johnson received a phone call out of the blue. He was invited to an audition in London with Australian-based AC/DC, whose singer Bon Scott had died a month earlier of “acute alcohol poisoning”.
The group’s rhythm guitarist and co-founder Malcolm Young later recalled: “We were all sitting there going ‘Where’s this guy Brian? He should have been here an hour ago.’ ‘Oh him? He’s downstairs playing pool with the roadies’ – so we thought, well, at least he plays pool!”
Brian’s unique, high-pitched vocals and easy-going manner secured him the gig, and within a week he was being flown to the Bahamas to record Back In Black , one of the best selling albums of all time, with current sales estimated at 50 million units. The rest is history.
In February 1983, a Chronicle photographer was on hand to capture Johnson among a 400-strong audience which braved snow and ice to pack out Heaton Buffs Club, in Newcastle, for the launch of the Kevin Keegan Roadshow. The singer, we reported, had “tried to get on United’s board, offering them a £100,000 injection of cash.”
Brian, a lifetime Newcastle United fan, told the Chronicle’s John Gibson, who was hosting the event: “I may not miss the snow when I fly to the Bahamas in a couple of weeks time for a recording session, but I’ll miss football nights like this!”
Between 1980 and 2014, he and AC/DC would release 12 albums with combined sales of well over 100 million - and he fronted the band at many of the world’s major concert venues. In 2013, he appeared as a guest singer on Sting’s The Last Ship album, a homage to the vanished North East shipbuilding industry, performing two songs.
In 2014, he was awarded an honorary doctorate at Northumbria University for his contribution to music. His enjoyable TV series Brian Johnson: A Life Of The Road saw the singer meet up with contemporaries such as Sting, Mark Knopfler, Robert Plant, Roger Daltrey, and Paul Rodgers to discuss their lives in music.
In 2016, Brian was forced to leave AC/DC after being diagnosed with hearing loss, only to return in 2020 with another huge album hit for the band, Power Up , which went to number one in 21 countries around the world. These days, the singer lives in a luxury waterside residence in Sarasota, Florida, USA, and his personal wealth is estimated at around £70 million. It's a long way from Dunston. Happy 75th birthday, Brian Johnson.
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