AC/DC Edinburgh Murrayfield: Remembering rock band's 75p student union gig in Edinburgh in 1976

The rock band’s progress from student union to stadium spans some five decades. And, for many, Thursday night’s huge concert in the Scottish capital is possibly the final time they will see the band live in this country.

While the R word – retirement – has not been officially mentioned, there is a sense among the fanbase this feels like the last hurrah. If so, AC/DC could not have found a more appropriate location to take a final UK bow.

Edinburgh not only marks the end of the European leg of the 2025 tour, it also brings AC/DC full circle to where it all started with a gig just a ten-minute drive away at Edinburgh Napier College’s Student Union at Sighthill in April 1976. If the wind blows in the right direction, the sound of Angus Young’s guitar solos may well be heard that far away on the night.

Some argue Edinburgh was not just their UK debut – others give that credit to The Red Cow in London. But also their first gig outwith Australia where they had toured relentlessly in 1975, building up a reputation for their live-energy live performances.

A record deal brought them to the UK, but the prospect of a gig featuring a wholly unknown rock band wasn’t hugely popular among the regulars at the student union.

Robin McMillan, who became a journalist with the Fife Free Press and emigrated to New York where he became editor-in-chief of Golf Magazine's custom publishing division, shared a flat with other student journalists across from the venue in Calder Road.

A sign on the door confirmed the standard Friday night disco was cancelled to accommodate AC/DC. Even worse, they had to pay the princely sum of 75 pence to get in.

“The charts were full of 10cc, Showaddywaddy etc, so paying for an unknown rock band wasn't really welcomed,” Mr McMillan recalled. “And then the guitarist shows up with a Gibson SG in a school uniform with short trousers. Looking back, they were fantastic. I can still see Angus walking along the back of the union's faux-leather seats and the place going wild.”

The gig was planned as a warm-up for the band’s landmark London showcase, with AC/DC looking to Scotland, birthplace of the late Bon Scott and the Young brothers, Angus and Malcolm, for a venue. The band charged £50 – the going rate back then was around £15 – and David Lawrie, the Sighthill Union president, recalled importing a stage to accommodate them.

Writing on the website https://www.ac-dc.net/, he recalled: “The stage was borrowed from a pal at the Swallow Hotel, Edinburgh. It had to go across the main doors into our prefab Union, so everyone came in the back fire door. The set was amazing – dangerous though as Angus was carried round the dance floor on Bon’s shoulders he kept hitting his head off the ceiling mounted spot lights.”

The band returned to Edinburgh just two months later, this time to play the Leith Theatre where tickets cost £1. October 1976 saw a third capital gig at The Caley on Lothian Road – now home to a Wetherspoons’ pub.

As the band’s reputation and following grew on the back of albums such as High Voltage and Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, AC/DC played Edinburgh University in 1977 before two nights at the Odeon – another great lost live music venue – in 1978.

By the time they returned in 1982, Brian Johnson had been installed as lead singer following the death of Scott, and a new era had started with Back In Black. Released to astounding critical and commercial acclaim, it became one of the greatest rock albums of all time, and its follow-up, For Those About To Rock, was riding high in the charts when AC/DC shook the Playhouse Theatre to its very foundations in 1982.

Tickets for the shows cost just £4, underlining just how accessible live music was to a very different generation. Seats at Murrayfield set fans back three figures, but for those who have followed AC/DC from student union to theatres and on to stadiums, they were simply priceless.

With Johnson now 77 and Angus Young 70, time is no longer on the band’s side, but the reviews from this ‘Power Up’ tour have been pretty positive as they deliver two-hour plus gigs packed with classics.

Our rock heroes are all growing old before our very eyes – Bruce Springsteen is 75, Neil Young 79, Rod Stewart 80, Roger Daltrey 81 – so every gig is one closer to the final bow and simply has to be savoured. For those about to rock, we say thank you.