In 1980, Mike Milsom, bell-master at John Taylor & Co., was tasked with casting a bell for the launch of rock legends AC/DC’s long awaited ‘Back in Black’ stage tour. The Aussie heavy-metal band had approached manager Paul Taylor-a mere seven weeks before the scheduled date of recording. They discussed using a real bell in the prelude to the first track-Hells Bells-on the group’s seventh studio album. Marking the band’s comeback after the tragic death of their lead singer, Bon Scott, it was, ironically, also to be the last significant bell that Paul Taylor was to commission before his own death the following year.
The bronze bell (77% copper, 23% tin) was tuned to E and measured 48” in diameter. With the logo and ‘Hell’s Bell’ lettering in relief on the bell’s exterior this meant the finished bell weighed 1.03 UK tons (2318lbs / 1051kg).
The large logo proved a tricky embellishment rendering the bell unbalanced; resulting in a distinct wobble in the bell’s tone. Fortunately during tuning Taylor’s identified, with four red circles on the bell’s outer surface, places where the bell could struck to achieve a clear tone. To help it stand out on stage they painted the AC-DC bell gold and polished the logo revealing the bronze sheen.
The AC/DC sound engineers came to the bellfoundry and recorded Mike Milsom hitting the bell precisely to achieve the right sound. Later in New York the note was dropped a complete octave by halving the tape speed. On the finished track it tolls an ominous 13 times (emulating a funeral knell). With ‘Hells Bells’ recorded in the key of A major the bell’s note (E) makes a pleasing interval of a perfect fifth.
It was used throughout 1980 until the final concert (Auckland:Nov.1991) following their European ‘Razor’s Edge’ tour. The band’s new frontman, Brian Johnson, dramatically launched most shows by striking the bell onstage using one of Taylor’s mini sledgehammers.
Touring in the 1980s, for maximum impact, the band wanted a swinging bell on stage. However, the additional weight of a cast-iron headstock, wheel, motor, chain drive and frame-made for the ‘Flick Of The Switch’ tour raised some safety concerns regarding stability. So plans were changed. Instead they introduced a fake fibreglass bell. Quite different in shape and height to Taylor’s bell: the false bell’s yellow logo was on both sides and had a domed top. Online videos clearly show both bells being used at concerts over the years. Unfortunately, the deception fooled many and some magazines referencing Taylor’s bell actually show the ‘fake’ bell instead, swinging wildly out over the heads of audiences.
It has also been pointed out by some aficionados in the world of heavy metal trivia that although the album track is “Hells Bells” (plural with no apostrophe) the bell that Taylor’s cast was clearly inscribed “Hell’s Bell.” (Single with possessive apostrophe).
And what of the bell today? AC/DC guitarist Malcolm Young commissioned a smaller replica from Taylor’s but the original – manufactured for £6,000 in 1980 – is still in AC/DC’s possession, Rumours suggest it is stored in a London warehouse but who knows perhaps a recently refurbished bellfoundry museum could offer it a more fitting home at some point in the future.
-Mark Temple
