Australian rock band AC/DC will be back in Prague

Australian rock band AC/DC will be back in Prague

The band in December announced a dozen dates for this leg, with a stop halfway through in Prague on May 22. They will be at Letňany Airport, a private field for small planes in the north of the city.

The show for this tour tends to have 20 songs, with hits from their 40-year career like “Back in Black” and “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” sprinkled through the show and tow classics saved for the encore.

The touring lineup is different, since Malcolm Young retired in 2014. He was replaced by Steve Young. Chris Slade has also taken over on drums from ex-member Phil Rudd. Slade had been in the band in the early 1990s.

Brian Johnson is still on lead vocals, with founding member Angus Young on lead guitar and Cliff Williams on bass.
Angus Young is the only original member left from the 1973 lineup, though Williams has been a member since 1977.

The band’s latest album Rock or Bust was released at the end of November 2014 and became the best-selling hard rock of 2015, according to Billboard’s year-end charts. It came ahead of releases by Nickelback, Foo Fighters, Breakin Benjamin and Five Finger Death Punch.

The album, the band’s 16th studio effort, reached number one in 12 countries and was in the top five another 12. It hit number three in the Czech charts. Overall it has positive reviews, with Rolling Stone magazine giving it three and a half out of five stars.

AC/DC was also competing on the road in 2015 with pop star Taylor Swift. And while Swift took in more money in 2015 from touring, $250.4 million to AC/DC’s $180 million, it was AC/DC who actually sold more tickets. They Australian rockers had 2,310,061 million fans see them live, while Swift had a paltry 2,273,328 million.

The discrepancy is due to AC/DC having cheaper tickets on average, $77.92 compared to $110.15 for Swift’s.
One Direction came in third in terms of gross monetary take from touring in 2015, while Ed Sheeran had the third-most fans, according to figures from Pollstar.

AC/DC was last in Prague in 2009 at O2 Arena, and before that at Strahov Stadium in 2001 and Sportovní hala in 1996.