How singer started a rock legend
THEY are one of the biggest bands of all time. They play to packedout stadiums all over the world. They have sold more than 200 million albums. And one of their founding members was born in a house in Carmarthen.
More than 70 million people in America alone have bought an AC/DC album – but it’s unlikely many of them have heard of Park Hall, a housing estate on the outskirts of Carmarthen town centre.
That is where, in 1953, Dave Evans was born.
Some 20 years later, he helped form a band which has sold more records than The Rolling Stones, Abba, and U2.
He was only five when he left Carmarthen but he still remembers the town where he was born in vivid detail.
“My mother’s parents and my father’s parents all lived in Park Hall and I was born there,” said Evans from his home in Australia, where he has just returned from a gruelling tour of South America.
“When I was two we moved to Mill Street and stayed there for three years, then my parents decided to move to Australia.
“It was a particularly cold winter in Carmarthen in 1958 so I think my parents just fancied a change. My grandfather had fought in the First World War alongside some Australians and he made some friends that way.
“He would always say ‘We’re welcome in Oz any time’, so one day my parents, my sister, and me packed our bags and left.
“I remember being stood on the platform of Carmarthen railway station, aged five, waiting to get on the train and all these relatives were crying because we were leaving.
“I didn’t really know where we were going or why but we got the train to Portsmouth and got on this big boat. Six weeks later we’re in Australia.”
It was 15 years later that Evans saw an advert in the local paper in Sydney that changed his life. A group of young men wanted a singer to jam with them in a disused office in the suburbs. Evans, who was already a keen singer at that point, answered the call.
“My dad was a great singer, a tenor, and you know what Welsh people are like with their singing. I was in another band at the time and they used to talk about this local guy called Malcolm Young, so I knew of him. I spoke to Malcolm and he said ‘Come along for a sing’ and the next thing I know I’m in the band.
“A week later he asked his brother Angus to join and we formed the band there and then. The only thing was we didn’t have a name, nobody could decide on one, so we said we would all put three names in a hat and whatever was picked out would be the name.
“Before we got round to that, Malcolm and Angus’ sister-in-law said: ‘What about AC/DC?’ It just seemed to fit. We abandoned the hat idea and just went with it. AC/DC was born.”
The band would rehearse in earnest but it wasn’t until New Year’s Eve 1973 that they had their first real gig. It was at Chequers, an iconic nightclub in Sydney which has attracted names like Sammy Davis Jnr and Shirley Bassey during its illustrious history.
“For the first couple of tunes the dance floor was a bit empty so we were a bit worried,” admitted Evans. “But people soon got into it so it was great.”
Evans was part of something that was really going somewhere. People were
“I finished the rest of the tour and then we had a meeting where it was decided that I was out. I said ‘Fine’ and that was that. I was no longer in AC/DC
Dave Evans
already aware of Malcolm and Angus Young, who were the band’s guitarists, due to the musical success of their older brother, George, who had enjoyed top 10 hits in Australia with his band The Easybeats.
People knew Angus and Malcolm were something special and that they would go on to great things.
Malcolm in particular, said Evans was the real driving force behind AC/DC’s sound for the next 40 years – a sound that has cemented itself into rock ’n’ roll folklore across the world. But in October 1974, less than a year after their first gig, Evans was out of the band.
“A lot happened in that time,” said Evans. “We had our first record, our first gigs, our first tour, three bass players, we played some of the biggest venues in Australia. It was an amazing time.
“We were always very ambitious. When you’re young you want to show the world what you’ve got. We were doing shows but basically we weren’t getting paid. The management had money but we were basically starving, so one night we’d had a few drinks and I said my piece and it all kicked off.
“I said: ‘That’s it, I quit’. I finished the rest of the tour and then we had a meeting where it was decided that I was out. I said ‘Fine’ and that was that. I was no longer in AC/DC.”
Evans soon joined another band called Rabbit, who would go on to have success with five singles and three albums.
AC/DC, meanwhile, had replaced Evans with a Scottish-born singer by the name of Bon Scott, who used to chauffeur the band around. The rest, as they say, is history.
Scott died suddenly in 1980 at the age of 33 and later that year the band’s most famous album, Back in Black, was released with a new singer called Brian Johnson.
The album would go on to be one of the biggest-selling records of all time and, to this day, has sold more units than any Beatles album. Only The Eagles, Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin have had more successful albums.
How different life could have been for the boy from a Carmarthen housing estate had he not fallen out with the management that night in 1974. Perhaps, more than 40 years later, he would still be part of AC/DC, who last toured in 2016 with Guns ’N’ Roses legend Axl Rose taking the mic.
“You can’t have any regrets in this life,” Evans said. “The success AC/DC have had has been amazing but I’m still touring all over the world and I still get huge respect wherever I go to play.
“I’ve been made an honorary police officer in Tenaha, Texas, the only non-American to have been given that honour, and I’ve been granted the freedom of the city too.
“I’ve had an amazing life and I would not swap that for anything. I’m going to enjoy a nice rest over Christmas and go back on the road next year with the Dave Evans Band.”
As for his Carmarthen roots, Evans still has a fondness for where he was born.
“I’ve been back a few times to see relatives and the old place hasn’t changed much,” he said. “Park Hall is pretty much the same as it was. Mill Street has changed a bit over the years but it’s still there. I played a gig in the Outback bar the last time I was there and it felt great to be back home.”
AC/DC may have stopped touring following Malcolm Young’s death in 2017 but 65-year-old Evans shows no signs of stopping.
“As long as I’m enjoying it I will keep going,” he said. “If people still book you and want to come and see you perform why would you stop?
“After all – have you ever tried getting a Welshman to stop singing?”