The Angels
Band members
- Final line-up
- Doc Neeson (vocals)
- Rick Brewster (guitar)
- John Brewster (guitar)
- Jim Hilbun (bass, sax)
- Brent Eccles (drums)
- Former members
- James Morley (bass) (1990 - 1993)
- Bob Spencer (guitar) (1985 - 1993)
- Chris Bailey (bass) (1977 - 1982)
- Graham "Buzz" Bistrup (drums) (1976 - 1981)
- Charlie King (Peter Christopolous) (drums) (1975 - 1976)
Website
Formed
Adelaide, SA, 1971
Band information
The Angels was one of Australia's greatest bands for two decades from the mid-70s. The group mixed a punkish proto-metal musical style grounded in boogie-based hard rock with an energetic and partly theatrical live performance which pushed them to the forefront of the local music scene and eventually developed a strong though small international following that saw their material covered by Great White and name-checked by groups like Guns N' Roses. Since 2000 when Doc Neeson was forced to leave after sustaining near-fatal injuries in a car accident, The Angels has only nominally existed as various groupings of former members playing and touring under different names including Members of the Angels, The Original Angels Band and Doc Neeson's Angels. A court injunction made effective from August 2007 restricts all former members of the band from working under the name The Angels.
The band was formed as the Moonshine Jug and String Band in late 1970 by John and Rick Brewster in Adelaide, with Neeson joining early the next year. They played coffee houses and university campuses and an EP from 1973 peaked at No. 5 on the local music chart. In 1975 the band began playing 50s rock n' roll and changed its name to the Keystone Angels. The Keystone Angels featured Neeson on bass, John Brewster on lead vocals and drummer Charlie King, a pseudonym for Peter Christodopolous. This version of the band toured as Chuck Berry's backing group and released a single.
AC/DC's Malcolm Young recommended them to Alberts and after becoming The Angels the single "Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again" was released in 1976. Christodopolous was replaced by Buzz Throckman (aka Graham Bidstrup) and Chris Bailey joined on bass to allow Neeson to take over as vocalist. Neeson's wildly extroverted style led to The Angels becoming a fearsome live act with a reputation difficult to surpass.
In August 1977, the band's first album appeared but was only moderately successful. The follow-up, Face to Face was released a year later and turned them into one of Australia's biggest bands. Face to Face charted for 18 months and gave them their first hit single, "Take A Long Line". At the end of the year The Angels toured with David Bowie. With the ascendancy of Cold Chisel and Midnight Oil still several years away and others like Sherbet and Skyhooks falling apart, The Angels was now the highest-paid live band in the country. With Face to Face still on the albums charts, No Exit debuted at No. 8 when it was released in mid-1979 and The Angels finished the decade with a performance on the steps of the Sydney Opera House on New Year's Eve in front of an estimated 100,000 people. The night was marred with drunken violence; Neeson was hit in the head by an object and Bailey was knocked unconscious with a beer bottle. The Opera House steps were not used as a venue for a major open-air concert again until Crowded House played their farewell show there in 1996.
In 1980 The Angels signed with CBS Records for worldwide release. To avoid legal wrangles with the American glam band Angel', the name Angel City was adopted for overseas release and touring; a compilation of Face to Face and No Exit was then released under the Face to Face name. The band's next Australian album was Dark Room, a No. 6 hit and another huge seller during an epic year for Australian music albums that included AC/DC's Back in Black, True Colours by Split Enz, Cold Chisel's East and The Boys Light Up by Australian Crawl.
Early in 1981, Bidstrup left The Angels and was replaced by Brent Eccles as the band began working on the Night Attack album. Geared for US audiences, it refined the band's boogie-fed style into a more metal direction. Bidstrup joined The Party Boys in 1983 before forming GANGgajang in 1985.
American Jim Hilbun replaced Chris Bailey during rehearsals for the group's 1982 US tour. With his melodic vocals and saxophone-playing and a dynamic live presence almost equal to Neeson's, Hilbun's impact on The Angels was immediate. The band's next single, "Stand Up", credited to Hilbun alone, was their first top 40 single success in more than two years. Watch the Red saw The Angels further experimenting with tracks like "The Zoo" built around a long studio jam session and "Eat City" with its tortured sax solo.
Two Minute Warning reached No. 2 on the Australian charts, the band's highest peak to that time but mishandling by their American label meant it was a failure elsewhere. Shortly after it was released, John Brewster was fired. Bob Spencer, a member of the 70s hard rock act Finch and Red Symons' replacment in Skyhoooks, replaced Brewster and The Angels signed to Mushroom for their next album, Howling. Howling was a more melodic effort in comparison to the previous three with keyboard contributions from Eddie Rayner of Split Enz providing some smoothness to the sound. The album spawned a raft of hits including the Animals' cover "We Gotta Get Outta This Place", at No. 6 The Angels' highest charting single.
If The Angels showed the occasional weakness in the studio, live on stage they proved themselves to be virtually unbeatable. Few bands could stand alongside The Angels in the live situation and the double live album, Liveline displayed the band's best colours. Much of it was recorded at Bankstown RSL in March 1987 but several tracks were lifted from earlier live shows, including the opener "Coming Down" that was taken from a never-released recording of their headlining performance at the 1983 Narara rock festival. Livelive has been subsequently re-released twice, first by Shock in 1999 as a remastered special edition featuring an extra 10 tracks. This edition was then re-issued once more by Liberation in 2007.
Beyond Salvation saw the Angels score their first number one album and featured yet another change in personnel with James Morley replacing Hilbun. The album was an ambitious double set which fathered several hit singles. The follow-up stiffed badly however and didn't provide the American breakthrough which the band hoped for. After this the Angels went off the road for a considerable period, losing both Spencer and Morley in the interim.
By late 1994 the Angels were back, this time with the 1981 line-up together again, and although it was obvious they had seen better days remained as popular as ever. After that the band toured less often and late in 1995 Neeson announced he would leave the band in mid-96. This simply never happened, and the band continued as ever. During 1999 the band toured a special three-part, three-hour show featuring material from their entire 28-year career. After this the band practically ground to a halt, playing only very occasionally and The Angels have since come to an end.
Shock re-released Liveline in 1999 with some extra and new tracks.
In 2004, a line-up of the Brewster brothers plus Bailey and Bidstrup, with John Brewster singing, began playing again under the name The Original Angels Band, although by late 2006 the group was again working under the name The Angels. Doc Neeson returned briefly to the live arena in July 2005 with a new band called Red Phoenix.