AC/DC iconic interview on this London street

On July 16, 1976, AC/DC were filmed on James Street in Covent Garden, London, for an interview segment broadcast on the Australian TV program Countdown. The band had arrived in the UK just months earlier — their first British tour — playing to tiny audiences in pubs and clubs, unknown outside Australia, armed with an absurd amount of confidence and the kind of live show that left no one indifferent. The Covent Garden interview captured them in that moment of raw, uncelebrated hunger.

The footage is now famous among AC/DC fans: the band on a London street, Angus in his schoolboy uniform, Bon Scott grinning and entirely himself, the whole thing shot with the casual energy of a band that hasn't yet been told they're supposed to be a big deal. Covent Garden in 1976 was a different neighbourhood to what it is today — the market had only recently been converted from its working wholesale function, and the area had a slightly rough-edged creative character that suited the band perfectly.

James Street still exists as part of the Covent Garden market precinct, now surrounded by tourist shops and buskers. The street where the interview was filmed is publicly accessible, and for fans who know the footage, standing on the same cobblestones carries a particular charge.