AC/DCrage has issued a joke apology for sharing a mix-up between a flatbed truck and a ute in the caption of a recent video surrounding AC/DC’s iconic music video, It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll).
Of course, the It’s A Long Way To The Top music video was produced by the Countdown team in 1976. To celebrate the anniversary, rage unveiled a segment from a Guest Program episode featuring Paul Drane, former Countdown studio director and the mastermind behind the video.
On Tuesday (24 February), rage cited the 50th anniversary of the It’s A Long Way To The Top music video, describing it as “one of the most recognisable and requested” clips in the entire rage vault. However, it was their mention of a “pick-up truck” that amassed a multitude of comments on social media.
“Not a pick-up truck. A flatbed truck,” a follower commented, and they weren’t the only one.
The following day, rage shared a joke apology, addressing concerns about the use of the term “pick-up truck.”
The statement begins: “At approximately 8:52 pm last night, a meeting was held in the executive board room of the rage holdings limited offices to discuss the advent failures and timeline that led to the creation and upload of the 24/02/2026 social media post that highlighted the 50th anniversary of AC/DC's music video for their song 'It's a Long Way to the Top'.”
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Adding that the “meeting’s agenda” was focused on the use of the word “pick-up truck” to describe the vehicle that transported the band down Swanston St in Melbourne’s CBD in the music video, the “rage leadership council and board of directors” shared the following findings:
The word 'pick-up truck' should've not been hyphenated.
The word 'pick-up truck' should've been changed to reflect the Australian understanding of the word, which is 'Ute'.
The clip 'It's a Long Way to the Top' actually features a ' Flatbed truck, not a 'ute'.
The statement continued, “Further talks were held to discuss the possibility of removing the clip in question from rage's archives to avoid further embarrassment, but the decision was made to keep it due to the historical significance of the Music Video™.
“We'd like to apologise to the Countdown heads, Molly Meldrum AM, Paul Drane and AC/DC for our mistake, and we hope you can continue to keep watching rage for retro months to come.”
The joke apology was signed off by “rage’s zoomer digital content officer.”
In November, 374 passionate bagpipers set a new world record while playing It’s A Long Way To The Top, and it happened in the heart of Melbourne.
Together, Victoria’s piping community smashed the long-standing world record of 333 pipers playing the bagpipes en masse in melodious (or comedic) harmony, previously held in Bulgaria from 2012.
As Consequence of Sound noted, two of the bagpipers who performed on Wednesday were Les Kenfield and Kevin Conlon, two of the three members of Rats of Tobruk Memorial Pipes and Drums, who initially performed with AC/DC in the It’s A Long Way To The Top music video.
