Its hard to believe that The Angels fourth studio album ‘Dark Room’ is forty-two years old this year and as with ‘Face to Face’ and ‘No Exit’ the band decided to re-record the album with the ‘Recharged’ tagline, using the current line-up of brothers Rick & John Brewster, John’s son Sam, Dave Gleeson and drummer Nick Norton to capture the chemistry and freshness of the group. Unfortunately the plan was to tour the album launch on its 40th Anniversary with the pandemic putting paid to those plans, until now. Chomping at the bit and ready to rock out, The Angels have been wowing crowds on recent The Red Hot Summer Shows and now are ready to embark on a countrywide tour playing ‘Dark Room’ in its entirety.
It’s always an honour & pleasure when The Rockpit get to talk to either Rick or John, with their legacy carved in the stone tablets of Australian rock history and this time we managed to get some valuable talk time with John as he discussed memories of the recording the album over forty years ago as well as new music and Alan Lancaster’s sad passing…
Sean: Hi John, it’s Sean from The Rockpit over in Perth.
John: Hey Sean. Its good to hear from you.
Sean: How have you been?
John: Really good thanks. The band is going great which is good.
Sean: I see you have already got some Red Hot Summer shows under your belt and you received rave reviews for your appearance at Bluesfest too.
John: Bluesfest was brilliant, yeah. The whole thing was just a great experience
Sean: It was a lot more rock orientated this year too, which gave it another element.
John: Yeah, we were very, very happy yo be involved. Its just great to get the band back out there again after all the covid issues and of course we will finally be able to get back across to Western Australia again, which is always wonderful.
Sean: I see from the tour dates your back out on the road this weekend but we had the pleasure of a sneaky visit from you guys back in September for a brief fly in/fly out show at the Crown, Perth.
John: Yeah, and that was the thing. Through the covid period we were able to do a few things… not very much but that one was put in at the last minute as a Grand Final recovery day or something like that so that was good fun.
Sean: It was a wonderful show. I managed to grab a couple of tickets after only finding out about it only 48 hours before the show itself. The band room was great, you guys were in fine form and it as a great setlist too. It was also nice to have a little teaser for us that live music wasn’t far off returning.
John: Its been a pretty weird time for all of us. I particularly feel for the road crews, tour managers and promoters too but we’ve been through it now.
Sean: We can only move forward and of course, this visit is to showcase the ‘Dark Room Recharged’ album, which we didn’t get to see when it was released in 2020, recorded by the current line-up. Another fantastic album in your collection which must have stirred up some amazing memories when you went back in the studio from when you originally recorded it forty or so years ago.
John: Oh yes, very much so. We didn’t manage to do any of those ‘Dark Room Recharged’ dates in 2020. Covid shut us down so its going to be weird do these shows to celebrate forty years of an album, when in fact it is now forty two years old but who cares because its just such a great album to celebrate. What we do is we do the whole ‘Dark Room’ album in exactly the same sequence that we recorded it and then we have a little break and come back on to do another set filled with a whole lot of other songs.
Sean: Well, we are always blessed with hearing some of the tracks from this album in your current set anyway. Songs like No Secrets, Face the Day, Under the Stone are regular crowd favourites. When you went back in to record the ‘Recharged’ version it must have been quite surreal for Dave (Gleeson) as I’m sure he was a huge fan of the original album.
John: I mean, that was kind of one of the main reasons for doing it. We have never tried to replace the original album but we wanted this version of the band to experience recording it. Its the same for Sam (Brewster) & Nick (Norton) on bass and drums and oh my god they have just nailed it. Its just so good.
Sean: And of course, there are the bonus live tracks from when you played it in its entirety at the Bridge Hotel in Sydney, which captures the energy of the album perfectly.
John: We just enjoy this band so much and its not like we haven’t enjoyed other line-ups of The Angels… I’m proud of anyone who’s played in the band but this line-up has been settled now for nearly ten years. It’s just wonderful.
Sean: The family connection with your son Sam remains strong too which is great. You must look across the stage most nights and feel a sense of pride seeing him alongside you, up there.
John: Oh yeah, night after night, that’s for sure. Sam stepped up to the plate when Chris (Bailey) became ill with cancer and of course Chris sadly didn’t make it back but Sam & Chris became good friends. Sam started to study Chris’s style… he doesn’t copy Chris but he has a very similar style to Chris with that lovely rolling bass that he used to play. So, yeah very proud of Sam. Fantastic.
Sean: I see Sam has been busy during the pandemic. I follow him on Instagram and have been watching some of those beautiful guitars he’s been making.
John: He just made one for Brett Kingman who’s playing with James Reyne. We stood side of the stage when James was playing up in Cairns the other day… it was our last Red Hot Summer show for the season. Oh my god Sean, that guitar sounded beautiful. Brett was very happy with it. Very happy.
Sean: Back to ‘Dark Room’, are there any songs you love to play live that have now made it back into the set because of playing the album from start to finish, that may not have been played for a while?
John: Yes. There’s a song that I was never really a fan of but its really grown on me and I know its one a lot of the fans love and that is ‘Alexander’. It was always a great piece of music but you sometimes think that they aren’t the best but you look back retrospectively and realise they are actually quite fantastic. So it’s nice to play ‘Alexander’. Of course we will also be doing ‘Devil’s Gate’ and I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with that one because I blow my lungs out playing the harmonica solo on that one [laughs] but people like it.
Sean: You’re also mixing the tour up with some Greatest Hits shows in New South Wales as well.
John: Its seems almost confusing because we have the Greatest Hits idea and the Dark Room Recharged idea too but the reason for those Greatest Hits shows is that they are shows we weren’t able to do. They got rescheduled.
Sean: Well, we get to see you here at two wonderful venues; the Ravenswood and The Charles Hotel
John: We love The Charles.. and the Ravenswood as well. Its an easy drive down there and always a great gig there too by the river.
Sean: The one confusing thing with your albums? ‘Night Attack’ is now forty-one years old [laughs]
John: Yes, it is [laughs]. We’ve had thoughts about ‘Night Attack’ too. I don’t know if we are going to go back in to rerecord that one. We kind of just wanted to do the trilogy of ‘Face to Face’, ‘No Exit’ and ‘Dark Room’. ‘Night Attack’ is an album I’m also pretty proud of. It was Chris Bailey’s last album before he left the band and joined up with Buzz (Graham Bidstrup) in GANGgajang.
Sean: I remember when we last spoke we delved into the incredible history of the Australian rock scene and spoke at length about Albert’s and the magical place that it was, but was ‘Dark Room’ the last one you recorded there or had you moved on by then?
John: We left Albert’s at the end of… and when I say that I always get a little pang because I think that was the craziest thing the band ever did. It was the craziest management decision ever made was to leave Albert’s but having said that it actually happened so that’s that really. Yes we left Albert’s after the ‘No Exit’ album but we kept our publishing with them for the ‘Dark Room’ album so in a sense you are right. The ‘Night Attack’ album with the first of the albums totally away from Albert’s. If I had my time over we would never had left Albert’s in the first place but you know, these things happen, mistakes get made… its not like we didn’t have a good career overseas but we could have had a bigger one if we had stayed at Albert’s – that’s my belief anyway. But you can’t have regrets.
Sean: It was from our last talk that you put me on to The Marcus Hook Roll Band, which was just fantastic.
John: Isn’t it great?
Sean: That’s a real bit of Australian music history right there.
John: And of course Malcolm and Angus (Young) are both playing on that pre-AC/DC era.
Sean: An incredible collection of songs and something I didn’t expect musically either.
John: Harry & George were just amazing.
Sean: I know your primed and ready to hit the road but have you managed to do much writing of any new material?
John: We’ve actually got quite a few songs recorded and they still need to have a bit of work done to them with lyrics and stuff. We’ve got about a whole album’s worth ready to go and there is some really good stuff there too.
Sean: And I’m sure that has come from that chemistry we spoke about that this line-up has in abundance. I was drawn to watching Nick on drums at Crown last time you were over here.
John: He’s great isn’t he. He is also a great singer too. We had an EP out called ‘Under the Stone’ that you might want to check out. There’s a track that Nick & I wrote called ‘Escape’ and we also did a film clip for it too. Its worth having a look at it if you get time. It’s kind of a covid song I suppose and Nick sings it. What a great singer. He’s just fantastic. I love the sound of his voice.
Sean: So these shows take you up to December with a few gaps in between, which is great to see.
John: Yes, then we will be coming back over later in the year to play a Symphony show at Perth Concert Hall. It maybe November time? It’s such an amazing show.
Sean: I’ve been waiting to see this ever since Rick (Brewster) kindly sent me the DVD of the live show.
John: Its a good show, even if I say so myself. Its fantastic. We are doing seven of those shows right around the country. We’ve done a few of these now and its one of the great experiences. Its like full circle for us because we both grew up in a classical family and our repertoire just suits these arrangements.
Sean: Would that classical background have subconsciously helped when writing back then?
John: Oh, no doubt about it. Absolutely sure of it. Take a song like ‘Take a Long Line’ with that melody that Rick plays during the solo. That’s a combination of Rick & I going into different keys, singing lines and our guitars and that has to have come from our classical upbringing & roots.
Sean: I really can’t wait to see it and hear it live. Just before we go I just wanted to quickly talk about something I only found out about on the eve of you guys flying in last September. That was the night we sadly lost Alan Lancaster, which in turn led me to The Bombers, which you were in. What a fantastic album that was!
John: That Bomber’s album is one I’m really proud about. That was a period when I wasn’t in The Angels and Alan and I became very close friends. In fact we were next door neighbours for thirteen years. It was a total tragedy to lose Al. He got a cancer that took him out and because of covid at the time I couldn’t go across to Sydney to say goodbye to him. I did speak to him on the phone though so he holds a very special place in my heart. He was a wonderful human being and a great guy. Very sad indeed.
Sean: It was actually that early Status Quo line-up with Alan in it that got me into rock music. I remember my Mum & Dad buying me the cassette of ’12 Gold Bars’ for Christmas one year.
John: That’s great Sean.
Sean: Sorry to end the interview on that sad note but as always thank you so much for speaking with us and we can’t wait to catch the shows here in WA next month.
John: Thanks Sean, great to talk to you as always.
Tickets from the https://theangels.com.au/
DARKROOM RECHARGED
FRI 20 MAY – THE GOV, ADELAIDE, SA
SAT 21 MAY – THE GOV, ADELAIDE, SA
FRI 27 MAY – BLACKTOWN WORKERS, BLACKTOWN, NSW
SAT 28 MAY – REVESBY WORKERS, REVESBY, NSW
FRI 3 JUNE – Chelsea Heights Hotel, ASPENDALE, VIC
SAT 4 JUNE – YORK ON LILYDALE, MOUNT EVELYN, VIC
FRI 10 JUNE – BELMONT 16’S, BELMONT, NSW
FRI 17 JUNE – MANSFIELD TAVERN, MANSFIELD, QLD
SAT 18 JUNE – KINGS BEACH TAVERN, KINGS BEACH, QLD
SUN 19 JUNE – WALLABY HOTEL, MUDGEERABA, QLD
FRI 24 JUNE – RAVENSWOOD HOTEL, RAVENSWOOD, WA
SAT 25 JUNE – CHARLES HOTEL, NORTH PERTH, WA
FRI 1 JULY – THE JUNIORS, KINGSFORD, NSW
Fri 16 Dec – The Bridge Hotel, SYDNEY
Sat 17 Dec – The Bridge Hotel, SYDNEY
GREATEST HITS
SAT 11 JUNE – CEX, COFFS HARBOUR, NSW
SAT 2 JULY – TORONTO HOTEL, TORONTO, NSW
WED 31 AUG – CASINO RSM CLUB, CASINO, NSW
THUR 1 SEPT LAURIETON UNITED SERVICES CLUB, LAURIETON, NSW
SAT 3 SEPT – THE SUNKEN MONKEY HOTEL, ERINA, NSW