bon

in elementary school tom's friend diederik ter haar had an older brother, mark, who was a fan of australian hard rock group ac/dc and therefore tom and diederik were too. at age ten, tom had heard on the radio that ac/dc was playing on july 13th, 1979 in the rijnhal in arnhem. he got himself and his dad tickets (or maybe the other way around) and off they went. tom even sat on dad's shoulders during the concert. they both agreed the major highlight was singer bon scott (the bare chested with tattoos) carrying through the audience on his shoulders guitarplayer angus young (the short one wearing a school uniform) with a wireless guitar.
the next day tom was still totally excited while his dad complained about a high tone in his ears, because of the hard rock. tom buys his first ac/dc album and is hooked.

on february 19th, 1980 singer bon scott dies while sleeping in a car in london. that summer ac/dc records their best selling album and even in the top five or so of all time: back in black. the new singer is nowadays still called "the new guy" and in rotterdam on march 13 2009, just a week ago, ac/dc plays 8 songs from bon scott, 4 from back in black, 4 from their new album and only 2 from the 25+ years in between. tom rests his case: bon scott made the difference.

so what do you do while driving around 3000 kilometers in a camper van in perth, western australia in february 2008? buy ac/dc's hitalbum tnt and play it while visiting bon scott's grave in fremantle and whenever driving gets tiring.

and in 2009 with many kilometers to go? buy four albums
1. dirty deeds done dirt cheap
2. let there be rock
3. if you want blood, you've got it
4. highway to hell
5. back in black
admittedly, most of these tom had bought earlier in his life as well.

laurian is not a big fan but she sometimes tells tom to play ac/dc if she thinks he's getting tired behind the wheel.
while going to melbourne, tom not only gets a visit to acdc lane for his birthday but also he realizes that the videoclip of "it's a long way to the top, if you wanna rock 'n roll" had been recorded there in swanston street with bon scott playing the bag pipe. how cool it was to see that the big labor day parade was held in the exactly same street!
while laurian, her parents and allard were having a coffee, tom took mette on his shoulders and with his tomtom in his pocket he walked to acdc lane.
acdc lane is a small street with a music bar called the cherrybar and not much more. a co-owner of the cherrybar is james young. james had pulled a stunt a few years back when bon scott's widow irene thornton was selling all their letters and pictures in an auction. james bought everything because he didn't want it to end up with "some german(!) fan".

tom found james' mobile phone number and here's their sms conversation:
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tom:
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thank you, james, for inviting me. i really appreciate it.
here's the message i sent to you earlier:

hi james,

my name is tom voute. in 1979, when i was 10 years old, while sitting on my dad's shoulders, i saw bon scott in holland. there's still footage from that concert - even on youtube (a search on ac/dc arnhem would do). who would think he'd die less then a year later?

now in 2009, my wife, 2 toddlers (0 and 2 years of age) and i are touring around australia listening to all bon's stuff while driving.

i looked you up on google and thought i saw that you exhibited bon's memorabilia in the see office and also for a time in the cherry bar. but these messages were all from a year or two ago.

my question to you is, is there still a possibility for me to see them?
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tom again:
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hi james,
we're going tomorrow night to tasmania.
can i stop by your office tomorrow afternoon? i won't be long and i don't expect a reception.
regards,
tom
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james:
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Hi Tom, tomorrow after 2pm should be ok, James
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yessss! this was ten days ago. so off the whole family went. the office was in port melbourne and so was the ferry to tasmania. that was good luck. at the office, the receptionist didn't know a james young. it turned out this was james' previous office! how sad! but, unlike a real tour, where you don't come back to the place you just left, tasmania was a side track and the van would come back! today!

and even though james wasn't there he allowed tom to take a look at the collection. it was darn worth it. loveletters, postcards, wedding pictures, passport pictures, lots and lots.
the rest of the family was waiting in the camper van for daddy to fix his craving. where was the van parked? you guessed it!

ps mette's quotes:
* daddy, niet donker maken. nu kan ik echt niet meer zien/daddy, don't make it dark. i really can't see anything anymore now (on the boat back from tasmania in the cabin when the whole family went to sleep at the same time and tom switches off the lights)
* hello (in a high pitched voice was her answer to the question what the parrot says in one of her books. this was because the parrot on the current campground says hello all the time)
* (tom: the kolala in the picture plays... mette: ) gitaar/guitar (tom: just like... mette: ) angus young