HARD-rocking ACDC frontman Brian Johnson is returning to his Geordie roots to tour the Tyneside pub and club circuit.
The pocket dynamo is swapping the world's biggest stadiums for a string of small gigs at venues across the region with the band with which he originally made his name.
Johnson, 53, from Preston Village, North Shields, and three other members of 1970s pop group Geordie are to reform in September with the aim of going on the road in October.
They will tour the places where Johnson first hit the big time before becoming lead singer of ACDC and a multi-millionaire rock star.
Guitarist Dave Robson, now 47, said: "We've always kept in touch with Brian and when we all met up at a restaurant about two years ago he said he'd really love to get the old band back together.
"We didn't really take it seriously at the time but he mentioned it again and this year we started chatting about it in earnest and decided to do it.
"Brian really loved the band - when he left to go to ACDC he had tears in his eyes. He just wants to get back to his roots and give something back to the area, so we're planning on playing workingmen's clubs and pubs, assuming anyone books us.
"What's important is that we're going back to the venues where we used to play and where people came to support us.
"The three of us still living on Tyneside recently went back into the studio to see if we could still do it. After all, we hadn't played together in 20 years.
"We set up, had a cup of tea and then just cranked it up. It was really good - it was as if the 20 years had just blown away.
"I'm really excited about it and if it goes well we may finish off the tour in somewhere bigger.
"Brian will arrive in September. We'll spend three weeks rehearsing and then go out on the road in October."
The line-up that is reforming is based on the band that toured from 1977 to 1980 - Brian Johnson on vocals, Dave Robson on bass, Dek Rootham on guitar and Dave Whitaker on drums.
Brian was the only remaining member of the original Geordie which started in 1972. They had a string of hit singles and released three albums up to 1976.
The original line-up included Tom Hill from Gateshead on bass, Vic Malcolm from South Shields on guitar and Brian Gibson from Gateshead on drums.
They were launched to national acclaim in September 1972 when they released their first single, Don't Do That, which reached No 31 in the charts.
They had better luck with the single All Because of You which got to No 6 in April 1973, taken from their first album, Hope You Like It.
In the same year they had hits with Can You Do It and Electric Lady.
They became popular across Europe and went on to release the albums Don't Be Fooled By The Name and Save The World.
The original line-up once made a brief stab at reforming in 1982, without Johnson, when they released a single and an album.
