Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll

On March 14 and 15 the band filmed the video for the first single “Stiff Upper Lip” in the Tribecca area of New York followed by the filming of the “Satellite Blues” and “Safe In New York City” videos in Los Angeles, California. Andy Morahan directed all three. Towards the end of June, the band released a new “Safe In New York City” single that featured a previously unreleased track “Cyberspace”. AC/DC had announced the tour dates for their new tour a month earlier; it was to be their biggest one yet. It was a two-leg tour that included dates in North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan. A couple of new gimmicks were added in the stage set that included a giant Angus statue (as shown on the cover of the new album), fireballs during “Highway To Hell”, a dancing Rosie, and a news flash being played on huge screens as the show was about to start, in which the giant Angus statue would be destroying everything in the world, kinda like Godzilla. Towards the end of the tour, AC/DC fans got really worried when two of their shows got cancelled due to Brian’s sore throat. Rumors started to spread that Brian had left the band because his throat gave out.

In September, AC/DC was inducted into the Hollywood Rock Walk. In a rare “award winning” ceremony, their hands were marked in the cement at the Guitar Center on Hollywood Blvd. They were also nominated for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame that year, and the year after, but never got inducted.

In the beginning of the New Year, AC/DC released “Stiff Upper Lip Australian Tour Edition” in Australia that included a bonus disc with some live tracks, the previously unreleased “Cyberspace”, and the three videos from the new album. The set was later released all over the world.

Thanks to the growing popularity of the band in Japan, all of their CDs were reissued for Japanese release in the coming months. Followed by the reissues, the “No Bull” concert video, that was filmed in Madrid during the “Ballbreaker” tour, was released on DVD all over the world, making it AC/DC’s first DVD release. In mid-February, “Back In Black” was certified 19 times Platinum in the States, with sales of over 19 million in the US alone. Elektra also updated the certification of their entire US catalogue, which brought the band’s total US sales to date to an astonishing 63 million.

In June of that year, it was announced that Brian would rejoin his old mates of Geordie (Mark II) for a short tour of the Northern England pubs that supported them in the 70’s. He played a few gigs with them that spanned over a period of two months. Just before leaving, Brian recorded a couple of songs with his old band, which were released a month later on a non-profit compilation.

In December, the AC/DC show taped in Munich was finally released on DVD and video, simply titled “Stiff Upper Lip – Live”. The DVD’s release was originally delayed because of the horrible events of September 11, 2001. The original news flash was altered because it contained footage of the World Trade Center towers. Followed by the DVD, an Angus Young action figure was released by “McFarlane Toys”. ‘Twas a great Christmas for AC/DC fans. In April of 2002, Elektra announced that the Munich show would be shown on iN DEMAND Pay-Per-View in May. Just a few days later the Donington ’91 show was released in Brazil on DVD, making “Let There Be Rock” the only AC/DC concert video that hadn’t yet been released on DVD.

A strange piece of news started showing up on AC/DC fan sites later that month. It was announced that Brian had written music and lyrics for a ballet. He apparently teamed up with Sarasota’s famous ballet director Robert de Warren on “Helen of Troy”. The $1.2 million production was scheduled to open at Sarasota's Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in March 20, 2003. A rock news website “Total Rock” declared this “the biggest shocker of the year 2002”.