Long Way to the Top


Long Way to the Top was a six-part weekly Australian Broadcasting Corporation documentary film series on the history of Australian rock and roll, from 1956 to the modern era, it was initially broadcast from 8 August to 12 September 2001.
One of its writers, James Cockington, provided a book tie-in, Long Way to the Top: Stories of Australian Rock & Roll. Another series writer, and interviewer, Clinton Walker, compiled a 2× CD soundtrack album, Long Way to the Top: Original Soundtrack from the ABC-TV Series, by Various Artists, which featured in the show. It peaked at No. 9 on the ARIA Albums Chart. A year later a related national concert tour followed.

History

Long Way to the Top took its name from the AC/DC song, "It's a Long Way to the Top ". The six-part series was produced by Paul Clarke, directed by Greg Appel and edited by Andrew Glover. It was narrated by the former radio presenter, Chris Winter.
It featured interviews with Australasian singers and instrumentalists. Most of the nearly 200 interviews were conducted by music critic, Clinton Walker, who also co-wrote the series, and compiled a 2× CD soundtrack album, Long Way to the Top: Original Soundtrack from the ABC-TV Series, by Various Artists featured in the show. It peaked at No. 9 on the ARIA Albums Chart. The other writers were Tony Barrell, Sandy Webster, James Cockington and Laurie Zion. Cockington wrote a book tie-in, Long Way to the Top: Stories of Australian Rock & Roll.
The original series was well received for the ABC when shown in 2001: a national concert tour in 2002 followed.

Episode list

Concert tour

In 2002, the promoters Michael Chugg and Kevin Jacobsen decided to build on the popularity of the show, by sending a package tour of artists featured in the program on a national concert tour of Australia. Jacobsen's brother, Col Joye, was on the Long Way To The Top tour, as well as Lucky Starr, Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, Little Pattie, The Masters Apprentices, Stevie Wright, Daddy Cool, Normie Rowe, The Atlantics, John Paul Young, Dinah Lee and Marcia Hines. The tour proved to be successful, taking receipts of $10 million with a budget of $4.5 million. The ABC broadcast, highlights of the tour and subsequent CD and DVD packages went on sale.
The concert tour was a unique event, in that the line-up had not toured together before, and would not do so again. Ross Wilson said: "It was personally a buzz for me, meeting up with some of those '50s guys like Col Joye. Backstage everyone knew they were part of something momentous, because that entire lineup would never come together again. I think the audience got that vibe, too.".