Almost AC/DC

Not many people know that AC/DC's first singer was Dave Evans and not Bon Scott - although Dave left the band before their first album was published. I had the pleasure to meet Dave in my role as the sound engineer who saved the production of his album "Sinner" two days before it had to be submitted to the record company for reproduction.

During a mixdown session, the German team of engineers ran into problems with the digital tape, and our studio was the only one within 300 miles that had suitable equipment to transfer the tracks onto a different medium. My colleagues on duty did not dare to tackle this issue and called me at home around 8pm. I drove to the studio and prepared for an emergency task, and three hours later, Dave and his producer arrived with the faulty tapes.

Saving the material turned out to be difficult and required some unusual approaches, but after a nail-biting period with a very nervous producer on one side and a very calm and friendly Dave Evans, I declared all materials safe at 2.30am. The music was mixed the same day, and only 30 hours after the emergency operation, the record company accepted the final version and forwarded it to the CD plant.

The album Sinner was released in 2005.