History

THE ANGELS – a short history of a legend long in the making

“One of the great mysteries of our time is not whatever happened to Amelia Earhart, but why the heck Angel City (The Angels) never clicked in America.”

American fan posting on Amazon.com website

Anyone with familiar with The Angels music and their history knows they are not only one of Australia’s greatest ever bands but one of its longest surviving.

Since releasing their now legendary debut single ‘Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again’ in May 1976, the band has gone on to enjoy an extraordinary career – through the release of a vast catalogue of recorded music and performing thousands of gigs over more than three decades. Now that the quintessential Angels line-up responsible for recording the landmark first four albums that laid the foundations for everything that followed have reformed, and are now touring together for the first time since 1981, we are again reminded why the band is so revered.

Indisputably throughout their history they have been venerated not only by their legions of dedicated fans – many of whom have grown up with their music from their youth; but can boast a fan club of some of rock music’s greatest names. AC/DC, David Bowie, Keith Richards, Aerosmith, Guns 'N Roses, Meat Loaf, Kurt Cobain, Motley Crue, Great White, Cheap Trick, Pearl Jam and lastly, but by no means least, former Easybeats’ legends Harry Vanda and George Young, who also launched the recording career of AC-DC and a host of others via independent Sydney label Alberts – are members.

To trace the origins of The Angels you need to go back to Adelaide and Flinders Universities in 1970 – as friends got together and formed The Moonshine Jug & String Band. Its members included brothers John and Rick Brewster; and a Belfast born but Adelaide-raised Bernard ‘Doc’ Neeson – a distant relative of Ned Kelly. With their eclectic music rooted in a mix of 1920’s blues and jazz replete with washboard, washtub bass, banjo, harmonica and kazoos, their shambolic origins eventually gave way to genuine dexterity as they became a hit on the Adelaide arts scene. While studying to complete degree courses, Doc, John and Rick eventually succumbed to their appetite to pursue a career as professional musicians.

In 1974 and now emboldened by their academic grasp of the world of film, music and drama, the Brewster brothers and Doc decided to ditch the jug band and become electric warriors along with drummer Charlie King. Starting out with raucous cover versions of 1950’s rock ‘n’ roll and recycled rhythm and blues, it was only a matter of time before they would replace other people’s songs with their own. The first hint that they were putting together something special came with their appearance at the 1975 Sunbury outdoor festival where their good time rocking scored them a standing ovation and three encores from a wildly receptive audience in the tens of thousands.

Later in the year they thought they had struck rock ‘n roll gold when they were employed to act both as Chuck Berry’s backing band and his support. Undertaking a national tour with the man who some credit as the father of rock ‘n roll provided them with a priceless education in Berry’s distinctive stage craft and minimalism. But they also had to put up with one of rock’s most notoriously cranky, distrustful and generally unpleasant individuals. However, another support slot that year turned out to be both a heart-warming exercise and massively beneficial to their future when they toured outback South Australia with AC-DC – playing the three hot spots of Whyalla, Port Pirie and Port Augusta. In what resembled a rock tour variation on ‘Priscilla – Queen of the Desert’ the two bands got on like a house on fire.

Buoyed by the encouragement of Bon Scott and the Young brothers they moved to Sydney in early 1976, bolstered by a name change and evolving their sound to a more contemporary rock feel. Now as The Angels and following the recommendation of Scott and Angus and Malcolm Young, they were signed by Vanda and Young to join AC-DC at the Alberts label after successfully recording some demos of their new material.

Following the May 1976 release of the Vanda-Young produced debut single that would later become an institution via it’s notorious audience chant of “no way – get fucked – fuck off” – 'Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again' became a song as identifiably Australian as a pie and sauce. The chant has ensured it’s become one of the most iconic and best loved Australian rock songs of all time – although the band played no part in its original conception, which remains a mystery. At the time the single failed to chart and soon after King was replaced on drums by Graham “Buzz” Bidstrup; with Chris Bailey also being recruited to take over on bass guitar from Doc in early 1977 – thereby freeing him up to concentrate purely on his role as lead vocalist. Now the 2008 reunion line-up was complete and would remain together until after the release of fourth album ‘Dark Room’. Although the self-titled debut album (August 1977) garnered critical acclaim it was more a case of the calm before the storm! But a year later and a transforming makeover in their songs and stage show and the release of the seminal 'Face To Face' (August ’78) which remained on the album charts for a propitious 79 weeks, was the start of their reign as Australia’s most popular live band for the next few years now that AC-DC was permanently resident in the UK.

Coming face to face with success

Their dynamic live show saw them selling out the country’s biggest venues as well as helping mentor a whole new generation of bands as part of the so-called pub rock movement which became the dominant Australian sound for years to come. Their breakthrough year was crowned as complete when they appeared as special guest support for David Bowie’s national tour in November. Such was his personal fervour for their music he not only enjoyed watching them playing late night additional gigs during that tour but they had to reluctantly decline his invitation to tour with him in Japan due to other commitments. But his enthusiasm and that of their fans everywhere they played helped fuel their self-belief that international success was surely only a matter of time.

‘Face To Face’ unleashed a stash of classic songs, all written by the now established song-writing team of ‘Brewster/Neeson/Brewster’. Typically driven by a high-energy mix of muscular guitars underscored by a pile-driving rhythm section and topped off by the often manic and emotive vocals of their charismatic and hyper singer, ‘Face to Face’ also established the unique audience bonding tribalism now integral to an Angels show. Fans joyfully sang along to anthemic classics 'Coming Down', 'Take A Long Line', 'I Ain’t The One', 'Be With You', 'Straightjacket' and 'After The Rain' – while the bleak and atmospheric ‘Outcast’ and the climactic showstopper 'Marseilles' displayed other brilliant dimensions. After that there was no holding back the juggernaut as the follow up album 'No Exit' (June 1979) presented another clutch of classics, also written by ‘Brewster/Neeson/Brewster’, who have just recently been inducted onto the Australian Song-writers Hall of Fame. As well as more fist pumping anthems such as 'Shadow Boxer', 'Mr Damage', ‘Waiting For The World’, ‘Can’t Shake It’ and the blitzing ‘Ivory Stairs’, they rounded out their growing arranging sophistication with the wonderfully gothic ‘Dawn Is Breaking’ and brooding ‘Out Of The Blue’ – but arguably saved their best for the epic title track that highlighted just how much the twinned guitars of Rick and John didn’t just provide muscle, but the kind of lyrical melody that set them apart from so many high energy contemporaries.

With the release of their fourth album 'Dark Room' (June 1980), they hit the jackpot with their biggest hit single yet, the number one ‘No Secrets’, penned by Neeson and Bidstrup, further consolidating their enormous home success. Nowhere was this more apparent than when they played to a record 1979 New Year’s Eve concert crowd of 100,000 on the steps of the Sydney Opera House. However, inadequate provision by organisers failing to anticipate such a huge turn out led to fans at the front being caught in a crush as excited fans surged forward when the band appeared on stage just before midnight causing what Sydney media the following day called a riot. Fortunately, other than Doc and Chris being felled themselves by stray missiles hurled by some fans unable to move at the front, there was no serious injury, but it could have been far worse if fans hadn’t been helped on to the stage by the band. But the fall-out from the show being stopped in its tracks was a ban on rock concerts at the location for years.

Yet for all the band’s domestic popularity and sustained quality of their recorded output over their career, and despite launching numerous foreign campaigns in the next decade – the big overseas breakthrough didn’t eventuate. Although they won over fans wherever they played, whether in Europe or particularly in the north-west US market centred on the future grunge capital of the world – Seattle, they couldn’t overcome some significant hurdles that didn’t help their prospects. For a start they found themselves promoting ‘Face to Face’ as their American debut in 1980, when it was actually comprised of songs from that album and ‘No Exit’. But the real clinker was having to tour as the renamed Angel City because it was felt they needed to avoid possible confusion (and lawyers), with a minor league US glam band called Angel – let alone a defunct 1960’s girl band also called The Angels.

They were also famously sacked from a Kinks tour just as they were about to make their Madison Square Gardens debut in New York, because Ray and Dave Davies became paranoid they going over too well as the support act. Also playing a part was the frequent musical chairs that characterise management clean outs at US labels, which saw them losing valuable allies at critical junctures – along with the labels’ failing to pitch the band to their strongest demographics. Another fateful setback occurred when they prematurely returned home from America to fulfil local commitments just as they were starting to make significant waves on US radio with ‘Marseilles’ on their first overseas tour.

In early 1986, John, who helped instigate some of their most famous songs as part of the Brewster-Neeson-Brewster composing team (‘Marseilles’, for example) and first came up with the trademark stabby guitar rhythm they called the “nik-niks”, departed the band after some internal fall out. Just as Buzz and Chris found success outside The Angels as founding members of the highly rated GANGgajang, John became a member and co-producer of The Party Boys, helping to give them a number one hit before he rejoined The Angels again in 1993. This meant only Doc and Rick have remained the two constants over the band's career duration. Hence when the end finally came for the band that had emerged from The Keystone Angel apprenticeship in 1974 – just days into January 2000, the end of the journey at the time came as a shock to all involved, but none more so than Doc.

Shock, horror – Doc calls it a day

Just a few weeks earlier in December 1999, Doc had been injured in an automobile accident while returning home in Sydney one night. He was rear-ended and suffered massive whiplash after another driver failed to notice his car was stationary at a highway toll pool. At first he thought his severe aches and pains were largely a temporary discomfort, and with the help of painkillers he managed to get through the remaining dates of the current Angels tour, and a live performance with other leading Australian acts he had organised to appear in a triumphant all-star East Timor ‘Tour of Duty’ pre-Christmas thank you for Australian troops in the capital of Dili.

He then soldiered on about 10 days later to appear at a special Angels New Year's Eve Millennium concert outside Darwin’s casino, which as it transpired then became the band’s farewell gig. Just days later he was informed by his doctor that live performance was now to cease if he didn’t want to risk being crippled for life. Incapacitated by various trauma injuries from the collision and going through months of pain during rehab; he spent the next couple of years also battling bouts of depression.

In the interim John and Rick got back together with Buzz and Chris to play at a Ted Mulry cancer benefit concert in March 2001; that encouraged the four of them to tour a revamped band for several years that was billed as The Original Angels Band. They recorded and released a ‘Live At The Basement’ CD in 2006 which was also accompanied by an ABC television special. John and Rick also kept busy touring and recording as The Brewster Brothers, culminating in the 2006 ‘Shadows Fall’ album and the 2007 ‘Brewster Brothers Live at Port Fairy’.

Meanwhile in 2003 Doc made a cautious return to live touring as Doc Neeson’s Angels – before he then put together a new band Red Phoenix. In 2005 they toured at home and overseas and recorded a self-titled album. But amidst all this activity of recent years has been an on-going legal squabble between Doc and the other four relating to the respective use of The Angels name which ended up in a 2007 Supreme Court action. However, the presiding judge successfully urged both sides to settle their differences by private mediation rather than a costly drawn out trial. It was this subsequent reconciliation that removed the last barrier standing in the way of a reunion of the five marquee band members, and in May 2008 they announced The Angels were back. In this age of the internet their return to touring was greeted rapturously by their fans far and wide. It also served to underline the quirks of fate that had stopped them becoming a sizeable international success before now.

While it’s not hard to argue there’s nothing particularly alien about The Angels music that should have prevented them making it big overseas, obviously history confounds such acceptance. Little wonder then the band still find it jarring they never got the breaks they felt their music deserved. Not so much being deprived of a similar AC-DC level of mega-stardom and astronomical sales – that would be over the top. But being significantly more than an influential footnote in the CV of other celebrated musicians – and a cult band in North America and Europe!

“When I look back now on the band after all these years, I just marvel at what a great band we were and I don’t think we as a band understood it fully then,’ Doc says with the added benefit of additional experience now. ‘I think when we went overseas people at the record companies were a bit unsure what to do with these Aussies, even though I don’t doubt we were world class. In America they like to put types of music into boxes, and we got one reviewer who said we were a “new wave, hard rock, new romantic band”. The guy just didn’t know where to categorise us. But the audiences got it because to them we were just rock ‘n roll. But I think for the industry itself, given American sensibilities, they just found us difficult to pigeonhole.”

Putting that behind them now, the band has again hit the road with a documentary crew in tow to help capture the historic occasion for a future SBS documentary. How appropriate that in the 30th anniversary year since ‘Face To Face’, they’re back with a vengeance selling out venues again to make a special year in their long history even more memorable. As part of that process Alberts and Sony have put together a specially remastered and expanded edition of ‘Face to Face’ with five previously unreleased tracks taken from their legendary 1979 live concert at La Trobe University, as well as further special edition reissues of ‘No Exit’, ‘Dark Room’ and their debut album. Add to that schedule a feature packed DVD of the La Trobe concert in full Dolby Digital, and surely there’s never been a better time to embrace the good Doctor’s own advice – “this is it folks – over the top”!

View the full Angels history here