As what would have been Bon Scott's 80th birthday arrives on Thursday 9 July, the late AC/DC frontman is being celebrated across the music world, with his rarely interviewed younger brother Derek reflecting that the singer would not have mellowed with age. Forty-six years after Scott's death from acute alcohol poisoning in London in 1980 at the age of 33, his legacy still looms large, with tributes from AC/DC's Angus Young, Judas Priest's Rob Halford and others underlining his enduring influence on rock music.

Scottish-born and raised in Western Australia, Scott sang with the Valentines and Fraternity before joining AC/DC in 1974 and recording six studio albums, culminating in 1979's breakthrough Highway to Hell. The anniversary is marked by a raft of events: new footage on the Bon Scott YouTube channel, a Birthday Bash concert in New York, a Neumann microphone edition, Scotland's Bonfest and a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Fan Day. His estate, left without a will and unstructured until 2020, is now professionally managed after the family acted against "bad actors" falsely posing as the official estate.