In the long and illustrious history of bad music industry ideas, it’s likely that a psychic event held to commemorate the release of Bonfire, AC/DC’s 1997 box set, is the worst of the bunch.
Bonfire was released to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Bon Scott’s birth. It included the soundtrack of the band’s Let There Be Rock concert film, the outstanding Live At Atlantic Studios (originally issued as a radio-only promo in 1978), a CD of rarities, and, for some reason, a remastered version of Back In Black. To generate interest in what was, to be fair, a pretty lackluster album, a seance was held – apparently in collaboration with the band’s record label – during which contact with the late vocalist was attempted.
To perform the seance, which took place on Halloween during a live radio broadcast in the presence of AC/DC’s Angus Young and Brian Johnson, the services of Peter James, a full-time ghost hunter and psychic, were requested. James claimed to have encountered his first ghost when he was seven years old and had previously worked as the resident psychic on the television show Sightings, so he was certainly the right person for the job.
“I was asked to participate in this show on this festive occasion in tribute to Bon Scott and, quite frankly, I’ve been tuning into his vibrations all day long,” explains James. “I do feel sincerely that he’s with us in spirit. He has a message for Angus, and that is that he’s not the only dirty old man in the band now – whatever that means – and that he’s driving the highways in the sky and he’s having a ball.
“He’s also very, very pleased with the fact that the band is continuing in his absence, because he did in fact have a lot to say and a lot of music to write, and the band is indeed continuing on I’m pleased with that.”
“Excellent,” responds the incredulous host. “Do you do you feel or see anything else?”
“I feel like Bon is guiding the band,” continues James, who is, we suspect, making this shit up as he goes along. “He’s being a big influence on the band regarding the material that they’re now writing, and I feel that he’s travelled with them a lot and he’s with them more than they realize.”
“Bon is in a very good place vibrationally, he’s very very pleased with what’s going on,” James continues, before remembering why he’s presumably been paid a fee to take part in this debacle. “I’ll make a prediction regarding Bonfire: it’s gonna be a phenomenal success, so everybody get out there and buy it when it comes out.”
Quite what the watching musicians make of this nonsense is unclear, although MTV News reported that Brian Johnson expressed doubts about whether contact with the other side had been successfully made.
“If Bon was there he’d be too busy shaggin’ something,” Johnson said. “He’d have all the good lookin’ women up there. He wouldn’t be bothered coming down here.”
