By Gary Cooper

AN INTERNATIONAL link has been forged to help Angus pay homage to the memory of one of its famous sons.

Artefacts relating to rock legend Bon Scott, frontman and lyricist of AC/DC, will wing their way across the globe for an exhibition in Kirriemuir being staged on the 25th anniversary of his death.

Australian devotees of the band’s singer, who was born in the Wee Red Town, have agreed to back moves to raise his profile in his home country.

The support was harnessed by Aussie ex-pat Darren Hill, who has returned to his adopted home of Forfar after attending a memorial service at Scott’s grave Down Under.

Darren was visiting family in Perth, Western Australia, where he was born and raised, when he decided to pay his own respects to his music hero.

The lifelong AC/DC fan was one of an estimated 700 people of many nationalities who gathered at Fremantle Cemetery, on the outskirts of Perth, last Saturday, exactly a quarter of a century since Scott died.

“It was just by luck that my trip coincided with the memorial service, but I would not have missed it for anything,” Darren said yesterday.

“There were people aged from six to 70 there, brought together by this one, very talented person and their admiration for him.

“A pipe band played under perfect blue skies and it made for a very emotional day.

“When people found out I lived five minutes from Bon Scott’s birthplace in Scotland, they thought it was brilliant.

“It then got me thinking about just how big the following is for this guy in Australia and wondering if folk in Angus knew about his roots.

“Do people here know that the band he fronted sold an estimated 150 million albums and is the fifth biggest-selling rock band of all time, behind The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and the Eagles?

“Without Bon Scott, there would not be the AC/DC we know today. He really kicked them off and his is a life we should be celebrating.”

Darren, who runs Kookaburra’s restaurant outside Forfar, said the county’s connection with the music icon was one to be proud of and is keen to see it trumpeted.

He struck up a friendship with Doug Thorncroft, one of the biggest collectors of AC/DC memorabilia in Australia, who is behind a fan club in Perth.

Doug has agreed to send part of his collection to Kirriemuir for a display to be staged in the town’s Gateway to the Glens Museum, possibly in May.

“There isn’t a lot in the council’s collection relating to Bon Scott, but I want to get as much stuff together as I can for an exhibition,” Darren said. “Hopefully it will bring people into the area and help to educate local folk about someone born on their doorstep.”

Gateway museum curator Fiona Guest said Darren was among a number of people who have contacted her, wanting to provide material for a tribute display.

“The family of Bon Scott have been very kind and have given us lots of information and some photos, but we don’t have many artefacts as such,” she said.

Born Ronald Belford Scott on July 9, 1946, in the Roods, Kirriemuir, he attend primary school in the town for a year, before he and his parents emigrated to Australia. The hard-drinking singer was found dead in a car in London.