Before Wembley, before the MCG, before private jets and long before Brian Johnson, Australia’s biggest rock act was just another band touring the country in a clapped-out rental playing to spotty teenagers.

AC/DC, who cemented themselves as one of the monsters of rock with the mammoth hit Back in Black — with sales of more than 50 million (and counting) — were regular fixtures at school halls, pubs and clubs across the state.

The days when the band’s growing — yet still domestic — popularity extended to those who caught them on Countdown or on 3XY’s Top 40.

A time when no one could imagine the band they had just seen play for $3 at their local town hall would become the biggest in the world.

Soundchecks, sandwiches and chats with Malcolm Young

In January 1977 a 14-year-old Mark Thomas was one of those kids enjoying his summer break on the streets of Horsham, when he saw a truck pull up outside the town hall.

“We caught wind that AC/DC were performing in town that night so we thought we would have a sniff around at the town hall,” Mr Thomas, who now lives in Port Lincoln, remembers.

“We were fascinated by all the big gear and amps that came out; we’d never seen anything like it.”

His stargazing was cut short when a crew member asked if he and his mates could help set up the band’s gear before inviting the group to watch soundcheck.

“The tour manager handed us a $20 note and asked us to get some sandwiches, and that was a fortune back in 1977. We bought them lunch and cans of coke and they looked after us after that,” he said.

“My memory of that soundcheck was watching Malcolm and Angus (Young) locking in and just how tight it sounded.

“They were looking at each other and just grinning from ear to ear … to be invited inside that inner circle was just amazing.

“Malcolm Young then started talking to us about an appearance on A Current Affair they did with Mike Willesee and he didn’t like the way he treated them on the show, apparently he was a bit harsh on them and labelled them as punks.”

The older Young brother also ensured the boys — who did not have tickets for the show that night — got to see the band perform and receive VIP treatment.

And as for the gig itself?

“It was loud … it blew our tiny minds.”

When describing an AC/DC concert, loud is probably an understatement.

Just ask fellow fan Ken Fraser who could hear the band “as clear as anything” from the next town over from a show at the Korumburra football ground in 1976.

Mr Fraser had left the Mother Rock festival at Korumburra midway through AC/DC’s set to drop off some mates home in Drouin when he could still hear the music as he approached Poowong — some 18km away.

“The music was coming straight over the hills … but it wasn’t just the music, you could hear Bon Scott singing,” he said.

A ticket for one of these town hall gigs costs less than what fans will fork out for a packet of chips at the upcoming MCG concert.

Several Melbourne high schools also gave up their halls for the band to perform, including Ivanhoe Grammar, Boronia High School, Kew High and Glen Waverley High School in the mid-1970s.

The band was also a regular at the Matthew Flinders Hotel at Chadstone and Melbourne’s Festival Hall.

Fans in Mildura paid $3 in January 1976 to see the band perform at the local tech school as part of the “Lock Up Your Daughters Summer Vacation Tour” — where the band’s resident schoolboy “duck walked” atop the speakers on the stage.

Even in January 1976, Angus Young — rock and roll’s Peter Pan — was the most popular member of the group among the young and passionate crowd which soaked up every moment.

Avid fan Brian Charles said he “hitchhiked” from Red Cliffs to see the Mildura show.

“We’d all meet up at Sergi’s Pool Hall in Red Cliffs and then hitchhike into Mildura,” Mr Charles said.

“I remember everybody was pissed, even though we were all only 16, 17 and maybe even 18.

“It was a school night, because I vividly remember staying at my brother’s place, a one bedroom flat just off Deakin Ave, so I went back there after the concert and then woke up nice and early and hopped on the bus to Red Cliffs High School.”

‘AC/DC cheered us off the stage’

The four Morwell teens who made up the band “Axis” were given a simple instruction before their set ahead of AC/DC’s gig at the Sale Town Hall in front of about 2500 people in January 1976.

“We were told we had to fire up the crowd for AC/DC,” guitarist Ross Warren recalls.

“We had never played in front of that many people before … it was a whole different ball game from what we had done before.”

And fire up the crowd they did.

“We gave it our best and had a great reaction from the crowd,” Mr Warren said.

“We even had AC/DC on the side of the stage for our last song giving us claps and cheers for our set. It was surreal. Something I bet the four if us won’t forget.”

Morwell music promoter Red Moore drove a hard bargain in the lead-up to the show for a local group to open the night, with AC/DC initially wanting their own warm-up band instead.

Axis lead singer Claudio Marino said he and his bandmates were “besides ourselves” when they were given the all clear.

“Red fought for us and we got lucky and he slotted us in,” he said.

“We couldn’t believe our luck … we were just a young band at the time and there we were playing before AC/DC.”

Even after starting up one of the Latrobe Valley’s biggest energy companies — Alternate Energy Innovations — Stephen Soutar said his “claim to fame” was being on the drums that night for Axis.

“I did a talk at an energy conference in Traralgon and the lady that was running it asked what my claim to fame was and I told them I opened for AC/DC,” he said.

It did not take long for the rest of the world to take notice.

By the time the band released its “Let There be Rock” album in March 1977, AC/DC had well and truly caught the globe’s attention — swapping regional town halls for the international stage.

Before long AC/DC’s discography became Hollywood’s soundtrack, with the band’s songs featuring in more than 70 films — including about a dozen Marvel blockbusters.

The Brisbane concert Christine Currie attended in November 2015 in front of tens of thousands of screaming fans was “very different” to the gig she saw at the Ararat Town Hall in 1976.

“In the (Ararat) hall there was no barrier, you could lean over and touch them,” she said.

“My ears were ringing afterwards. You could hear it outside. It was a different type of music as well for the time.”

The Ararat gig is also remembered by locals for a “big brawl” that broke out near the fountain outside the venue.

And did anyone who saw this fledgling band touring Victoria’s regional hubs think they would become the biggest musical act in the world within a few years?

“We didn’t realise at the time how big AC/DC was going to be … it was really exciting to see this band and not in our wildest dreams did we think they would go on to do what they did,” Ms Currie said.