It is at this time of the year that many of us, after weeks of over indulgence, make wild & totally unrealistic resolutions that will hopefully set out our ever improving life guidelines for the next twelve months ahead. After talking to Rick Brewster recently, one of the founder members & guitarists with Australian rocker legends The Angels, I find that he has absolutely no intentions of changing much at all, as the band look to continue on from 2019, a year that saw them once again play a host of shows on The Red Hot Summer Tour with the likes of Suzi Quatro & Jon Stevens, as well as celebrating the 40th Anniversary of their third album ‘No Exit’ by re-recording & supporting it with some live shows. The band also completed a nationwide tour with Baby Animals dubbed ‘They Who Rock’, while still finding time to slip in some of their ‘Symphony of Angels’ shows with a full orchestra… so you can already see that they could be excused for winding things down just a little – but no, 2020 looks to be as busy again with the Brewster’s already committed to twenty seven Red Hot Summer Shows alongside eleven side shows with Boom Crash Opera… and that only takes them up until April!
Throw into the mix a re-recorded version of album number four, ‘Dark Room’ as well as the tantalizing news that there is a whole host of new material just waiting to be recorded & released and Angels fans can already start to feel excited for the year ahead. Having only met the band a few night’s previous after their show at Perth’s Astor Theatre, The Rockpit’s Sean Bennett managed to secure some phone time with Rick to discuss the busy start The Angels have in 2020, new material and who the two songwriters are that he would love to collaborate with…
Sean: Hi Rick, great to talk to you once again & thank you so much for your time after the show the other night.
Rick: You’re more than welcome, Sean – our pleasure. It was great to meet you.
Sean: I’ve waited a long time to see The Angels live and you certainly didn’t disappoint. You just look like you are having such a blast up there.
Rick: Well, thanks very much – that’s great to hear. We sure do, I must admit.
Sean: 2019 has been a huge year for you guys what with another successful run of Red Hot Summer shows as well as the incredible ‘Symphony of Angels’, ‘They Who Rock’ with Baby Animals as well as shows to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of ‘No Exit’ – it’s as if momentum is continually building for The Angels.
Rick: It’s a never ending story [laughs]. It’s been pretty full on and 2020 is looking like it’s going to be pretty much the same.
Sean: Well, once again you are playing the Red Hot Summer shows and this time there are twenty seven dates around the country but on top of that you are playing eleven side shows with Boom Crash Opera beginning on January 10th at The Gov in Adelaide and taking you through to April 3rd where you play at Bathurst Panthers in New South Wales so I’m sure the Christmas break is really the only time you can get to put your feet up.
Rick: There certainly isn’t much time for us to have a rest. We are playing a Symphony show in Brisbane on December 28th and then we are doing a gig on New Year’s Eve in New South Wales and then Red Hot Summer starts on January 4th as you quite rightly said, for twenty seven shows [laughs] as well as these side shows too.
Sean: It’s great for us fans to see you out & about so much…
Rick: …and these side shows are great for us because we are getting out to some venues that we haven’t played before like The Basement in Canberra as well as Paddington RSL in Sydney, which I think we last played in around 1978.
Sean: That would have been when you were touring your second album ‘Face to Face’.
Rick: I still remember it because The Saints supported us and Bob Yates had just brought Mi-Sex over from New Zealand and he brought them to the Paddington gig to meet us and he said to them “Guys, this is what you’re up against” [laughs]
Sean: [laughs] Nothing like a bit of pressure…
Rick: It was all good and in fact we’ve done quite a few shows with Mi-Sex and they have become great friends of ours – they were a great band and still are with Steve Balbi (ex-Noiseworks) out front.
Sean: So as you just said, these side shows are taking you to some venues I haven’t even heard of like Pittwater RSL in Mona Vale & Castle Hill RSL in New South Wales as well as some more familiar ones too.
Rick: Well, we are doing The Corner Hotel in Melbourne & The Gov in Adelaide obviously, which we have played many times. We’ve played The Corner a few times too – it’s a great venue – one of those last standing great pub venues…
Sean: I’m sure it recently got voted ‘Live Venue of the Year’ for 2019.
Rick: Did it? That’s good to hear. Someone told me the other night, when we saw you that The Charles is going.
Sean: I have heard rumours of that too, which if true will be very sad news.
Rick: Very sad indeed. That venue is right up there for us.
Sean: The Astor has been hosting some great rock line-ups and the sound there is fantastic.
Rick: I heard from a number of people out the front that it was really good sound and we had a fantastic sound on stage too, which always helps.
Sean: Boom Crash Opera are another band I’m yet to see live. Have The Angels played with them before at all?
Rick: We may have done on a previous Red Hot or Day on the Green event but to be honest I haven’t seen them live myself. They are one of those bands that happened in the 80s at a time when we were just touring non-stop and they kind of passed us by in a way. We had heard of them and listened to them on the radio but never worked with them, as far as I can remember and I don’t think I ever got to see them either. Since we decided to do this run I’ve see a few YouTube clips and they look like a really good band.
Sean: We have you back here in WA on January 12th with the Red Hot Summer show at Sandalford Winery so I’m going to try get out to that one as there are quite a few on this year’s line-up that I haven’t seen before but I have heard that has sold out already. I haven’t seen Hunters & Collectors, James Reyne or Boom Crash Opera yet…
Rick: Some great bands on the line-up and James Reyne puts on such a good show. Have you see The Living End?
Sean: Yes, I got to see them on last year’s show – another great band. It was so sad to hear the Australian music industry recently losing two wonderful characters in Stuart Fraser (Noiseworks) & Greedy Smith (Mental As Anything). It feels very different here in Australia when we lose people like this. In the UK you hear of an artist or band member passing away and it kind of gets mentioned over the dinner table just in conversation but here there seems to be a much more personal feel to it… almost like they were everyone’s mates and I put that down to the fact these bands all started off with those classic pub rock band roots – everyone was that bit closer to the bands themselves.
Rick: You are right and it’s so sad. I’m not sure exactly how old Stuart was but to me he was a young guy. I didn’t know him that well and the same with Greedy… just mainly conversations at Red Hot Summer or Day on the Green shows… in fact Stuart was responsible for me buying a particular overdrive pedal because I just loved his sound so much at one of his shows. He came off stage and I said, “What are you using? Come on, tell me!” [laughs] and then I went and bought one the very next day. Stuart was such a lovely person but also a really tasteful guitar player… truly inspiring.
Sean: They live on in their wonderful music. When I spoke to John (Brewster) on Friday we started talking about new material, of which there is plenty I believe but it’s just finding the time to get into the studio to record it.
Rick: That’s the problem. Yeah, we keep getting side tracked with other projects. We’ve spent the last three years re-recording old albums that were released forty years ago so it’s been the fortieth anniversary of ‘Face to Face’ and then ‘No Exit’ this year (2019) and we’ve just recorded… John probably told you we’ve just recorded ‘Dark Room’ for the Recharged Series and in the mean time we slip in new songs where we can. I wrote a song, I think it’s actually probably three years ago now when we started on the new album and we’ve now recorded it three times. It’s called ‘Under The Stone’… we’ve finally nailed it, the arrangement – I’m just waiting to do the solo on that next week and then it’s ready… we’re looking at possibly releasing that as a single song because we’re like every one… we can’t be buggered waiting till we finish a whole album because that could be another year or even two years away.
Sean: Did you play that the other night, ‘Under the Stone’?
Rick: Yes we did.
Sean: Yes, I thought I saw it because you all very kindly signed the set list for me, which is now pride of place in my office and I accidentally wrote the wrong song down in my review and then I realised what it was [laughs].
Rick: ‘Under the Stone’ it is…
Sean: But do you know what? For a new song it just feels as right in the set as all the old stuff.
Rick: Ah, that’s good to hear. John’s probably told you we’ve got quite a few songs half recorded, some fully recorded and we’re just slowly compiling… we’re not in a rush because there’s no point in putting pressure on the band. We’ve done that before in the past and it’s not a good thing. There’s nothing worse than a creative process and a lot of pressure. A bit of pressure I think is good coz it actually gets you off your arse and you do some work but to start putting deadlines on which has happened to us in the past with management or a record company saying, “We’ve got to have an album this year” then you start compromising.
Sean: So back in the early days when George (Young) & Harry (Vanda) gave you that push into producing and working on your own stuff when they were just up the corridor, has that helped you nowadays with the way you still look at things when your writing & making new music?
Rick: Oh, definitely…
To listen to Rick Brewster discuss the influences of Harry Vanda & George Young in more detail, visit our podcast ‘The Heaven & Hell Show’ to hear more.
Sean: I look forward to hearing ‘Dark Room Recharged’ and it will be good for the fans to get to hear more of the lesser played songs from your back catalogue.
Rick: Yeah, it’s good to throw the odd one of those in the set every now & again as well as new songs.
Sean: Last time we spoke I asked you what we the last album you had listened to and you told me you had been listening to The Cure Live, as you were going to see them at Sydney Opera House with a friend. So, eight months on what have you been listening to now?
Rick: Well, I just got a DVD yesterday in fact of The Rolling Stones called ‘Bridges to Buenos Aires’. I haven’t watched it yet and they’ve got a special guest on there, Bob Dylan doing ‘Like a Rolling Stone’. I think it’s going to be amazing. It’s much more my cup of tea than The Cure [laughs].
Sean: It’s been wonderful to chat to you again Rick and I won’t keep you much longer but one question I’d love to ask you and this is on the strength of last time we talked where you told me you had collaborated with Ross Wilson on a song that was eventually recorded by Joe Cocker, but if you had the chance to collaborate with anyone from the music industry, past or present, who would it be?
Rick: Oh boy. I can narrow it down to two immediately and they are both very much alive. The first one is Paul McCartney and the other one is Neil Finn – I put them both in the same basket. They are just amazing songwriters.
Sean: Is Neil Finn still songwriting?
Rick: That I could not tell you.
Sean: It was Neil who recently toured with Fleetwood Mac wasn’t it?
Rick: Yeah, he joined them. Apparently he’s been friends for a long time with Mick Fleetwood. I haven’t seen or heard them with his yet but when I heard it I thought, “What a perfect match!”
Sean: Well, it’s been an absolute pleasure yet again to get to talk to you and I look forward to hearing some new Angel’s material hopefully in the near future. We want to wish you all & your families a Happy New Year from all of us at The Rockpit and hopefully catch you at one of your shows in 2020.
Rick: Great to talk to you Sean. You too.
THE ANGELS 2020 SIDESHOW TOUR WITH BOOM CRASH OPERA
Friday 10 Jan – The Gov, ADELAIDE, SA
Friday 17 Jan – Corner Hotel, MELBOURNE, VIC
Friday 31 Jan – The Entrance Leagues, BATEAU BAY, NSW
Friday 7 Feb – Paddington RSL, SYDNEY, NSW
Friday 14 Feb – Pittwater RSL, MONA VALE, NSW
Friday 21 Feb – Triffid, BRISBANE, QLD
Friday 28 Feb – The Shed, Aussie World, SUNSHINE COAST
Friday 6 Mar – The Basement, CANBERRA, NSW
Friday 13 Mar – Castle Hill RSL, CASTLE HILL, NSW
Friday 27 Mar – Matthew Flinders Hotel, CHADSTONE, VIC
Friday 3 Apr – Bathurst Panthers, BATHURST, NSW
Tickets at theangels.com.au
For Red Hot Summer Tour dates, please visit
www.redhotsummertour.com.au
