Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be

When I finished up my Black Sabbath UK Vertigo collection a couple of years ago, I thought that I had probably completed the biggest quest that I'd ever take on. I threw a lot of money at those four records, and when that collection was complete, I was happy that I wouldn't have to get that crazy chasing another band whose first press records command such a high price tag. How naive of me. I didn't get much of a break before AC/DC came onto my radar.

AC/DC was one of my first loves, when 12 year old me discovered For Those About To Rock. For a while, AC/DC were my favorite band, and before I discovered Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, their cassettes dominated my Walkman.

When I started getting all nostalgic for those early AC/DC records, I got it into my head to collect the Australian first pressings for their albums. I didn't know what I was getting into, but I dived in and picked up a copy of TNT last year, and when my annual bonus from work came through last month, I knew it was time to chase down another one.

With the different cover art, and additional songs that didn't make it to the US pressings that I grew up with, it is easy to see how I got obsessed with those AC/DC Australian pressings.

For Let There Be Rock, Crabsody In Blue appears on the original Aussie pressing while everyone else got Problem Child.

Cool gatefold sleeve with lots of black and white photos.

First press with the blue roo labels.

This pressing of Let There Be Rock did not come cheap, but hopefully it will be most expensive of the bunch.