The Angels: ‘We’re a Lucky Band’

As The Angels mark 40 years and their old home base of Albert Productions marks 50, guitarist/songwriter John Brewster takes DOUG WALLEN through the decades, including good times with AC/DC and Vanda & Young and not quite as good ones with Chuck Berry, Ray Davies and Mark Opitz.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]

The last time The Angels were in the news was when their audacious singer, Doc Neeson, died in early June, following a 17-month battle with a brain tumour. But despite Neeson’s firecracker brilliance on stage and on record – and he’s still thrilling to behold, even observed through the handicap of imperfect YouTube uploads at a remove of years and decades – The Angels have made their last two albums without him, recruiting The Screaming Jets’ Dave Gleeson after Neeson chose a solo career over more work with the band.

The Angels are wrapping up their 40th anniversary tour this weekend, celebrating a career that has taken them from Adelaide to Sydney, from an acoustic ensemble called The Moonshine Jug and String Band to the electric The Keystone Angels before settling on a band name that stuck. (Although internationally they had to be called Angel City, and later The Angels From Angel City, for legal reasons.) For all their commercial success in the 1980s and early ’90s, though, and as a perennial touring draw in the years since, The Angels are inextricably tied to their first three albums, made while signed to Albert Productions in Sydney: 1977’s The Angels, 1978’s Face to Face and 1979’s No Exit. Though they only truly took off commercially halfway through that three-album run, the first record gave them the enduring theme song ‘Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again’, with its snotty rallying cry “No way! Get fucked! Fuck off!”

The deal with Albert came at the encouragement of tour-mates AC/DC, who recommended The Angels to in-house Albert producers Harry Vanda and George Young (both formerly of ’60s-era Aussie legends The Easybeats). A full decade older than The Angels, Albert Productions is marking its half-century anniversary this year with the new 5CD box set Good Times: Celebrating 50 Years of Albert Productions. Accompanied by a 48-page booklet of photos and notes, it’s stuffed with the expected hits, rarities and live tracks, spanning Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs, The Easybeats, The Missing Links, Stevie Wright, Rose Tattoo, Knievel, John Paul Young, Flash and The Pan, Doc Neeson in solo mode and of course Alberts’ greatest success story, AC/DC.

The Angels land seven songs on the set: ‘Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again’ (1976), ‘Comin’ Down’ (1978) and ‘Shadow Boxer’ (‘1979’), plus the 1978 B-side ‘Planned Obsolescence’ (1979), the early rarity ‘Open That Door’ and two live recordings. That’s a good enough reason as any to revisit The Angels’ early relationship with Alberts. Rhythm guitarist and key songwriter John Brewster – who co-founded the band with his brother, lead guitarist Rick Brewster – did just that with us, granting an open-ended interview that jumps around across 40 years in the life of one of Australia’s defining rock bands. He also didn’t shy away from challenging the perspective of Face to Face and No Exit engineer Mark Opitz or questioning Neeson’s decision to go solo – and let’s just say he’s no fan of The Kinks’ Ray Davies – while gushing with praise for the likes of Vanda and Young, AC/DC and late Angels bassist Chris Bailey.

Some 50 years after Ted Albert started up a production business under the umbrella of his family’s music publishing company, we’re still talking about The Angels, AC/DC and many more of these bands. Let’s keep talking about them.

The first thing I want to get into are the Angels songs included in this box set. We’ve got some of the big hits, but there’s also that song ‘Planned Obsolescence’.
‘Planned Obsolescence’, yeah. [Laughs]

It’s really cool. It was a B-side for ‘Shadow Boxer’, right?
Yeah. You’re in the studio and, as you do, you’re just kind of jamming on things. I think Doc was just making up words and we kind of liked it. I actually didn’t choose it to go on this thing: Sam [Horsburgh, Alberts A&R manager] did. I’m really pleased that he did. It’s a rarity.

It’s got a great guitar solo in there that I guess Rick played.
Yeah, he does all that stuff. I’m a rhythm man. [Laughs]

And ‘Open That Door’: I don’t know much about that one.
Again, great choice of song by Sam. Before we really discovered what we were trying to do as a band … we’d been a jug band called the Moonshine Jug & String Band. Then we formed an electric band and met up with the guys in AC/DC quite early in the piece and they introduced us to George and Harry. Which was just a whole life-changing event.

In the early days, when we were still searching for a musical direction, me and Rick and Doc went round to the apartment of this guy that was giving Doc some vocal lessons. It was John Forest, who used to play a ukulele and busk in the streets. He was an old fella – he’s just passed away now – and he was getting old then, when we were young. We loved this guy and we were at his apartment one night. About 5 o’clock in the morning, we were having a bit of a jam. I got on the piano and I started playing this piano piece that’s really simple. Because we were having such a good time, it just went on and on and on. There was a knock at the door, and this guy at the door starting singing, “Open that door/Let me in.” [Laughs] Then I sang back, “You got the key, ba-by.” It was the milkman, delivering the milk. An old guy with white hair and a white beard. So he came in and we all jammed with Joe the milkman for a while.

That’s kind of how that song got written. We went to George and Harry with it; we tried to turn it into something. It would have been a bit epic. George was playing rhythm guitar – any time George played any instrument, it was a total inspiration. He was just playing rhythm guitar and taking us through the changes. That’s one of the last things George and Harry actually produced for The Angels, ’cause they handed over production to me and Rick. It was just this fantastic thing. It never saw the light of day, but I love it for what it is: just a representation of those wonderful early days when we used to share the studio with AC/DC. We’d often be there when they were recording, and they’d often be there when we were recording.

Sounds like a real time capsule, that song.
It was pretty amazing stuff, yeah. Incredible days, really. So I think the fact that Sam picked that to put on there is great.

“My big regret is leaving Alberts. It was a crazy decision.”

How many albums did you do total at Alberts?
Sadly, only three. The fourth one, [1980’s] Dark Room, we had left Alberts and signed with Epic in the US and CBS in Australia. Neither of those deals do I particularly regret. My big regret, though, is leaving Alberts. I think it was a crazy decision by management. It was something that Rick and I weren’t happy about, but we were outvoted. It was a really sad thing. We certainly did some great stuff overseas but I think, had we stayed with Alberts, it would have been a whole different story. We would have been playing with AC/DC all around the world – as we did in Australia, and you know what happened in Australia. We shot off like a rocket, after many years of travelling around in an old Holden EH station wagon.

I interviewed Mark Opitz a few years ago, and we talked about him producing The Angels. Was he pretty integral to finding that distinct Angels sound, or what’s your memory of that era?
Hard question to answer, Doug. The only way I like to answer these things is to answer truthfully, and to answer truthfully, it may sound like I’m putting Mark down. I think Mark embellishes his memory very much of those times. I don’t think Mark had anything to do with us finding our sound. But he does. [Laughs]

I thought you might say that.
Yeah, well, when George and Harry handed over the reins of production to me and Rick … and it was me and Rick, but we credited the whole band. I regret that too, because I think you should actually tell things as they are. But in those days were young guys and we just went, “Fuck it, credit The Angels.” We weren’t looking for that kind of [individual] recognition necessarily. But when you get to be older guys, like we are, you think, ‘We should have told it like it was.’ It’s not for us to blow our own trumpets: it’s for future generations to look back and go, “My grandfather did that.”

“I don’t think [Mark Opitz] had anything to do with the production.”

It’s preserving the history of it.
Yeah. And we both feel the same way about Mark. Mark was a terrific engineer, and he engineered both those records [1978’s Face to Face and 1979’s No Exit] – I don’t think he had anything to do with the production of either of them. But he was a really good engineer, and my memories of working with Mark are great. I don’t have anything against Mark. But he’s got a huge ego. [Laughs] And he tends to embellish his role. I know a number of other people he’s worked with have the same feeling, and it would be better if he was little bit more humble.

It looks like you guys had this amazing run early on: you played Sunbury [in 1975] and toured with Chuck Berry and AC/DC in the space of a year or two. Is that right?
Yeah, we did, actually. And we weren’t that good then. We were trying to find out what we were. That story about ‘Open That Door’ is part of that same story, although that was in 1976. If you listen to the first album we did [1977’s The Angels], it’s not a very clear direction.

But sorry, I’ll answer your question. It was amazing. We played with Chuck Berry [as his backing band] – only three of us did; we were only a four-piece band then, called The Keystone Angels. Doc didn’t get to play with Chuck. I played the bass and Rick played piano. He’s a really good keyboard player. And our first drummer, Charlie King, played drums. We also did our own opening set. So we were his support band and his backing band. I think Chuck just picked up anybody. [Laughs]

I remember doing the Hordern Pavilion [in Sydney]: it was our first gig. There were about seven and a half thousand people there. We were pretty young and green. So [we said,] “Mr Promoter, when do we actually get to rehearse with Chuck?” “Sorry, you don’t get to rehearse with Chuck. You just get to play with Chuck.” So we were shit-scared. But we did our homework, and Rick learned all the keyboard parts on the black notes as well as on the white. Because we had heard that Chuck just picks … wherever his hand lands on the guitar, he plays a song in that key. It’s not necessarily the same every night.

I was the bass player, and I wasn’t allowed to play any bass runs. I tried it once, and Chuck turned around to me and said, “Uh-uh.” But that was a great experience. If you ask Angus Young about Chuck Berry, he’s gonna tell you that Chuck Berry was a big part of his influence. So we’d all been influenced by Chuck Berry. I don’t think anybody liked Chuck Berry that much, though – I think Keith Richards wanted to punch him out! [Laughs] That’s what I’ve heard.

“We became friends [with AC/DC] almost immediately.”

As for AC/DC, it was absolutely fantastic. We were asked to play three gigs with them in South Australia, which is where we were all living at that stage. Three country towns: Port Pirie, Whyalla and Port Augusta. Port Pirie was the first gig: the guys walked in and we became friends almost immediately. Then we were in Whyalla and Angus and Bon [Scott] came up to me and Rick and Doc and said, “Y’know, we’d love to go back to Sydney and tell George and Harry about you guys.” We said, “Wow, would you do that?” Angus or Malcolm – I can’t remember; probably Malcolm – was saying, “We’ve got a good thing over there. We’re signed to Alberts and it’s really good. They’ve got a studio and George and Harry do the production.”

And true to their word, they told George and Harry about us and we went over to Sydney. We were playing at a divey gig called Checkers, which was also a love/hate thing, and Angus, Malcolm, Bon, George and Harry came walking down the stairs. We went and talked to them. The next day we did a few songs [for them] on acoustic guitar, and I guess we were signed about two weeks later. It was great.

Playing on acoustic guitar, did they just want to get a feel for what you guys could do?
We turned up with the drums and amps and everything, and hauled them all up into the lift and up the stairs and into the studio. George said, “Oh, you didn’t need to do that. We just want to hear some of your songs.” So we played acoustic guitars and sang a few songs, and they must have seen something in them. I don’t think we were that good, but we were getting there. They obviously saw the potential.

Do you remember which songs you played?
Well, one of them was ‘Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again’, which was our first single [in 1976] and didn’t really do the business, but now it’s huge. [Laughs] It’s huge! I think a song that I wrote called ‘Shelter From the Rain’, which is from the first album. It’s a bit more … almost country. Probably ‘You’re a Lady Now’, which again is on the first album. These are songs that aren’t really in the direction the band ended up finding. We sort of ended up finding our musical direction, I suppose, when I wrote a song called ‘I Ain’t the One’, which is on Face to Face. That was what we called the “nick nicks” [guitar sound].

Did that song set the tone for Face to Face?
Yeah, it did. I came in the studio with that and we recorded, I think, a demo of it. [Then] we re-recorded it. We all got really excited because we said, “That’s it! That’s our sound.” So Rick wrote ‘Take a Long Line’ a week later, I wrote ‘Marseille’ a week later and before you knew it we had the framework of an album.

That’s great. I want to talk about the live versions that are on the box set. Do you know off the top of your head where these versions of ‘Going Home’ and ‘Comin’ Down’ are from?
I’ve got a pretty good memory for stuff like that. I’m just blown away by Sam’s choices. I think they’re great. ‘Going Home’ is really very blowy. We did it on a radio station … where are you from, with the American accent?

I’m from near Philadelphia originally.
That’s where we didn’t get to play with The Kinks. They kicked us off their tour because we were going over too well.

The Kinks are one of my favourite bands.
Yeah, I like ’em too. [Laughs] But I’m not a big fan of Ray Davies.

“Ray Davies had us kicked off the rest of the tour.”

Well, he’s pretty famous for being prickly.
He didn’t like us ’cause we were going over too well. I don’t know what his problem was, because I always reckoned if a support band goes over well, the main act is going to go down even better than normal. You’re the warm-up act, y’know. We were killing it and they ended up booting us off the tour. We did the West Coast – really, The Angels did our best business on the West Coast, probably because of that Kinks tour – and we were going over great. Doc would go out in the audience [mid-song]. One day the Kinks manager contacted our manager: he said, “You gotta tell your singer that he’s not allowed to go out in the audience.” Doc of course went, “Get fucked. No one tells me what I’m allowed to do in my performance.” So Doc went out in the audience [again] and that was it. That was at the LA Forum. The next night was Philadelphia. So Ray Davies had us kicked off the rest of the tour.

I’m probably wandering all over the place…

No, it’s fine. But you have so many live versions…
Yeah, so in the beginning of 1978, which is just before we released the Face to Face album, we did this show at St Leonards Park [in Sydney]. We weren’t the headline [band], but it was recorded by ABC Radio, by Double J. Keith Walker was the engineer. It was a show that almost changed … I suppose it was one of those career-changing moments because we knocked ’em dead, and I think the commercial radio stations got to hear about it and started having a listen to what we doing. Then we released ‘Take a Long Line’ and that was it. The whole thing became very exciting. At that stage we were a very big draw live. The word had got out. That was one of those concerts that had a lot to do with that. Later in ’78 we toured with Meat Loaf, and that was with the Face to Face album out there, so the album went like double platinum. And we toured with David Bowie later that year.

So it was a turning point for the band.
Huge turning point. I think that concert in Sydney at St Leonards Park was one of the founding moments of us starting to really take off into the big time. It was a great show. I’m not sure where ‘Comin’ Down’s from. [Ed. The Elizabethan Theatre, Sydney]

The Angels have a whole “greatest hits” album just of live songs. Forty of them. Most bands would have trouble getting together 40 live songs recorded from over the years, let alone having 40 that are good enough to release together.
Yeah, thanks. I guess we know our own luck. We’re a lucky band. Just being involved with George and Harry, for a start, and being friends with AC/DC: it was just completely inspiring, the whole thing. We just had the best time.

You’re in the midst now of a 40th anniversary tour.
Yes, we are. It’s going great.

“Doc wanted to go solo. Which I found really odd, because he hadn’t written a song.”

You’ve done the last two albums with Dave Gleeson. Was that a hard decision, to move on with Dave singing in place of Doc?
Look, it was the only decision we could make. We started this band in 1974, with Doc. Doc chose to leave the band. We had a reunion with Doc [in 2008], which went well, but Doc came up with this idea that he wanted to go solo. It wasn’t the first time he’d done it; he’d done it a number of times, actually, over the years. He was a fairly “I wanna be alone” kind of guy. He was a tall man, and found sitting on the Taragos to be hard work. I don’t think he liked being on the road. [Laughs] I remember discussing it with him, saying, “I’m not gonna argue with you, Doc. That’s your decision, if you want to leave the band and do a solo thing.” Which I found really odd, because he hadn’t written a song. If you’re gonna do a solo thing, you’ve got to actually come up with some songs.

But anyway, that’s what he chose to do. All I know is that it’s the band that me and Rick put our lives into, and it’s our career, all of a sudden it looked like it’s all over. We sought legal advice, and the advice was that we had every right to continue. We met up with Dave Gleeson by accident. We’d always admired him as a singer and liked him as a guy, but Rick and I were doing a Brewster Brothers show up in the Adelaide Hills, and Dave lives very close by. He was up in the front row and I said, “Hey Dave, you wanna come up and sing a song?” He said, “I’d love to.” I said, “Do you know any Angels songs?” He said, “I know ’em all!” [Laughs]

He got up [and sang] and Rick and I just looked and went, “Wow. Here’s the guy.” We went into the studio and started recording and it was an absolutely joy. So consequently we’ve done two albums with Dave in under three years, and I’m actually really proud of ’em. I think we’ve done really well. He’s fantastic, and we’ve really encouraged him to write. The first one we did, [2012’s] Take It To the Streets, is a bit more me and Rick [writing]. In fact, some of those songs were probably gonna be Brewster Brothers songs, but we tweaked ’em a bit and turned ’em into Angels songs. But the second one [2014’s Talk the Talk] is a real Angels album. [Founding bassist] Chris Bailey is actually on it: he’s on five of the 12 tracks. He came in not long before he died [in April 2013] – he was well enough to come in and play his bass, and I’m so pleased at that legacy.

My son Sam [Brewster] took over [after that]. He was already playing in the band, because Chris wasn’t well enough to play on stage. Sam played seven songs and Chris played five.

It’s great that you can pass the torch that way.
That’s exactly what he said, actually, only he called it the baton. Chris said, “I’m passing the baton on to you, Sam.” [Pauses] It was a very sad time. He was a wonderful bass player, and I’m really proud to say that my son has turned into a fantastic bass player too. In fact, we actually had to call Sam a couple times when we were mixing the album, [asking] “Was it you or Chris that played on that track?” [Laughs] That’s a big compliment.

Well, John, thanks again for talking to me. It’s been great.
Thanks very much. I find it very easy to talk about those days at Alberts, because they really, really were very special. To be under the influence, if you like, of George Young in particular – I don’t want to just pick him out and not include Harry, but George for some reason in particular was just the most inspirational person I’ve ever met. He never told you what to do: he’d just say, “Have you ever thought about this?” When we’d get stuck for an idea, we’d knock on George and Harry’s door and I’d say to George, “Look, we’ve got this idea. Rick wants to go this way with it and I wanna go this way. What do you reckon?”

And George would invariably say, “I get both ideas, but have you thought about maybe putting a C sharp minor in there?” And you’d go, “Oh fuck, that’s a really good idea.” [Laughs] Those were really great days. I’m sure you can hear it in my voice: I just get excited thinking back to it.

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The 5CD box set ‘Good Times: Celebrating 50 Years of Albert Productions’ is out now through Alberts/Sony, as is this year’s 180g vinyl reissue of The Angels’ ‘Face to Face’. The Angels are finishing up their 40th anniversary tour; dates below. Learn more about the band here.

Thurs, Aug 21 – Wenty Leagues, Wentworthville, NSW
Fri, Aug 22 – Mounties, Mt Pritchard, NSW
Sat, Aug 23 – Maroubra Seals, Maroubra, NSW