The origin of AC/DC’s one tonne bell
In Brian Johnson’s autobiography, he said that when AC/DC commissioned a one-tonne bronze bell to ring in the iconic ‘Hells Bells’, they’d effectively created the “world’s most expensive dinner gong”. The iconic bell was created by the John Taylor & Co foundry, whose workers used to play the song to let everyone know it was time for a tea break.
The literally rang in the Johnson era of AC/DC, who recorded Back In Black as a tribute to late lead singer Bon Scott, who died months before. The pressure of introducing fans to a new lead singer coupled with the album being an ode to Scott meant they knew they couldn’t cut corners and use a sound effect, thy needed the real deal.
Knowing they needed a real bell, the next step was finding one big enough to match their raucous sound. They first tried recording one at the Loughborough Carillon Museum, but a quiet hum of traffic and birds rendered the recording unusable. Then came a phone call to the Taylor foundry, direct from the Bahamas where recordings for Back In Black were well underway, to look for a second option.
In the end, they used a bell that was already in production, borrowing a mobile recording unit to wheel into the factory. Engineer Tony Platt explained that because of the harmonics, bells, particularly of the one-tonne variety, were especially hard to record. His solution was to plant loads of microphones, all with unique dynamics, around the Loughborough foundry.
Once it was recorded, Platt flew to New York, where he and producer Mutt Lange, who came up with the bell idea, sifting through the different versions. When they settled on the right combination of tones, they layered them and slowed them to sound more ominous.
In Babysitting A Band On The Rocks, author G.D Praetorius walked readers through the havoc the Hells Bell caused when wheeled out for a show at the Nassau Coliseum. “AC/DC’s new set piece, Hell’s Bell, was British-forged bronze and easily weighing a tonne or more,” he wrote. “Hidden from our view as it nestled in its huge custom road case, we assumed The Bell to be just another benign prop until it quickly became evident that it could crush any one of us in an instant.”
When a forklift was wheeled out to hoist it on stage for Johnson to clatter, it got briefly stuck as the stage struggled under its weight. After a brief panic, a heavy gauge cable saved the day and got the bell in prime position to open the show. “It all broke loose with the Infamous Bell,” recalled Praetorius. “[Its] great weight sent it sinking straight through the stage, launching AC/DC to sales of over 200,000,000 records. Back in Black alone accounts for more than a quarter of them.”
