Rock giants AC/DC have backed the Angus bid to create a statue in honour of the band’s Angus-born former frontman.
In a “fantastic” boost for Kirriemuir’s DD8 Music community group, the legendary outfit’s official website had highlighted the online campaign to raise £50,000 in just a month for the creation of permanent town memorial to baker’s boy Bon Scott.
Just 10 days after its official launch at Kirrie’s annual BonFest celebration of the band and its famous Angus son, a kickstarter funding drive has generated almost £12,500 in pledges.
The kickstarter internet scheme has been used to fund art, design, and technology projects and with a worldwide fan base which has helped AC/DC rack up a phenomenal 200 million global album sales, DD8 music are hopeful rockers in every corner of the globe will back the Bon bid.
“AC/DC don’t just put anything up on their website so to have a link up on their page to the Bon Scott statue campaign is just huge,” said Graham Galloway of the group’s presence on the www.acdc.com website.
“The reaction since we launched the statue campaign at BonFest has been amazing and it’s a large amount of money we’re trying to gather in a pretty short time, but AC/DC has such a huge fan base that if we can get the message out to as many people we could reach the target with small donations from a lot of people,” Graham added.
Italian act Boun Scotch recreated the AC/DC hit Long Way To The Top for a video shot around the streets of the Angus town during this year’s BonFest and Graham said that clip seemed to have been viewed “everywhere except for Greenland and Mongolia.”
https://youtube.com/watch?v=lZwjuT0H1R0%3Flist%3DPLC2F04DAAC3FF6A18
DD8 Music and Bon Scott statue campaign pages on social media sites including Facebook have also been flooded with comments from AC/DC fans worldwide.
Scots sculptor John McKenna has been commissioned to create the artwork, and although the final design of the statue has been chosen the aim is to keep it secret until the official unveiling hopefully at BonFest 2014.
Scott, who died in London in 1980, aged just 33, is already honoured in a Kirrie street name and with an engraved stone slab in the town’s Cumberland Close alongside those of other famous Kirriemarians.