Classic live Rock
You’ve Been Thunderstruck!
Why AC/DC’s Thunderstruck at Donnington in 1991 still blows me away
A few days ago, a friend linked to a video of a Chinese lady playing a cover of AC/DC’s Thunderstruck on a traditional Chinese Guzheng. It was brilliant, a musical trapeze that perfectly captured the original.
To a point.
Wallowing in nostalgia for one of the bands of my childhood, I watched the live version of this song again, filmed at Donnington Park in the UK in 1991 — about 10 miles from where I grew up.
I couldn’t go. My dad said I was too young — I was 16! Plus, there was no way he would let me out for the weekend with 100,000 heavy metal fans.
I corrected him and told him AC/DC weren’t heavy metal — they were rock ‘n’ roll. And started singing one of their most famous songs, ‘It’s a long way to the top if you want to rock ‘n’ roll.’
He wasn’t interested, and I didn’t go.
Luckily, they brought out a live video of the gig a year later. The opening of which blew me away. Thirty years later, it still does. Goosebumps every time. And I consider it one of the most powerful live rock performances ever.
