THIS IS IT FOLKS.... OVER THE TOP.....The Angels

The Angels loom large in the memories for people of our age, who can forget seeing the boys live, and wondering exactly what the hell Doc Neeson was blabbling about. They burst onto the scene in the mid 1970′s and went from strength to strength. I first saw them at a gig at Sundowner Hotel Punchbowl in 79, before i'd really heard much of their stuff...WELL...they  blew the roof of the joint and I was hooked from than on....
Saw them quite a few times through various incarnations, the gig at Narara Music festival where Doc climbed the lightning rig was fkn brilliant, what am I talking about, a crook Angels gig was a rare beast, the singer babbling bizarre verniage , the unmoving brothers in black playing twin S.G Gibson's
 last I saw them was up here on the Central Coast at Ourimbah RSL ....found out later they were filming that documentary " NO WAY GET F**KED, F *#K OFF,  about the reconciliation and subsequent reunion tour, I checked , didnt get me head on tape....BUGGER....the same level of performance was there, amazing really, given Docs spine issues....anyway to some band history

They started life in Adelaide, at Uni as the The Moonshine Jug and String Band, originally formed by  Joh and Rick Brewster somewhere around 1970, by '74 they’d changed name to Keystone Angels and were starting to attract some attention of a wider audience. In 1975 they dropped the “keystone” to become The Angels and had released their first single “Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again” in April 1976. At that time they were performing as a 4 piece band with Doc Neeson handling vocals and bass, Charlie King on drums and John & Rick Brewster on guitars, and wasnt that a fun video with Doc playing a Rickenbacker and dressed totally in leather

Sometime after this Graham “Buzz” Bidstrup had replaced Charlie King on drums and Chris Bailey joined soon after on bass to make the band a 5 piece. This is the first “classic” lineup of the band. Their big break came with 1978′s Face to Face album, reaching number 16 in November and staying on the Australian charts for 79 weeks. This album also gave them their first big hit with
the single “Take a long line”, with the iconic beginning " THIS IS IT FOLKS OVER THE TOP"

The last sight of The Angels in the 70's for me was seeing Doc get walloped with a bottle at The Opera House at the news years gig...always wondered if that bottle tossing prick ended up in hospital or not, if anyone knows gimme a shout.


The 80′s & 90′s

Buzz Bidstrup left in early 1981 and was replaced by Brent Eccles & about 12 months later Chris Bailey also left to be replaced by Jim Hilbun. They had a number of successful albums during this period including “Night Attack”, “Watch The Red” & “Two Minute Warning”.
The next significant lineup change was when John Brewster left and the job went to ex-Skyhooks guitarist Bob Spencer in March 1986. By the mid to late 1990’s the band had tried to crack the US market with limited success but support in Australia had remained fairly solid. All this time the band toured relentlessly and were famed for their energetic live performances and on 20 October 1998, The Angels were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.
They performed their “last” gig on New Years Eve of 1999. Doc Neeson, having suffered spinal & neck injuries in a car accident, announced he was leaving.

For most of the 00’s there was some fairly nasty angst and animosity between various members with quite a few disputes over the name. Doc Neeson toured for a while under the name “Doc Neeson’s Angels” with a band containing Jim Hilbun, Dave Leslie, Paul Wheeler and others. The Brewster brothers teamed up with Buzz Bidstrup & Chris Bailey to form “The Original Angels Band” but in 2008 differences were sorted and the band reformed again as The Angels....my two cents is this, the Brewsters founded the band, so its their band

I did see a version at Ted Mulrys Benefit Gig..that was a damn good version too

Just recently The Angels, featuring founding members Rick Brewster, John Brewster and Chris Bailey, were joined by Screaming Jets singer, Dave Gleeson, and undertook the Waiting For The Sun Tour across Australia, to support the release of the same-titled new EP....how good is that ?.. Dave Gleeson has grabbed the mic, should be a helluva version of the band

OH YEAH one more thing....as relates to The Angels and their song "Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again" and the pre requisite response from audiences. Whenever Doc Neeson sang the words of the Angels' classic love song 'Am I Ever Going to See Your Face Again?' back came the ingenious response: 'No way, get f*cked, f*ck off'...many have wondered about the origin of the shout back, I've heard various stories about it being started in Kalgoorlie and what have you...I like to think we started it at Bankstown RSL...so there ya go