NEWS:
The Angels are set for a 2013 tour that will have punters salivating. The Angels 100% Tour brings together for the first time a unique line-up. While all crucial to The Angels 38 years of rock n roll history, Doc Neeson, Bob Spencer, James Morley, Buzz Bidstrup and Jim Hilbun have never shared a stage before together.
LIVE:
This distinctive band has provided cathartic rights for generations of loving fans and sold millions of records worldwide since forming in Adelaide in 1974. Doc has now racked up 38 years with The Angels. In late 2012 he was such a hit on the SBS show RocKwiz Some Kind of Genius national live tour that he appeared and performed live on four separate shows around the country. Bob Spencer, gun guitar player and self-confessed gig-junkie, has blitzed Angels stages for seven and a half years so far. Spencers physicality on stage is only surpassed by his dedication to playing white-hot rhythm and lead.
Doc Neeson:
I am very excited about playing with the guys again on The Angels 100% tour. Everyone in this band is a great musician who has been in The Angels at some time in their careers. This band has a top pedigree and kicks ass! Its been too long since our fans have heard the real thing. With this band they are going to get it. 100%. I cant wait.
The incomparable Doc Neeson is of course the founding singer, co-writer and galvanising front man who won The Angels legions of fans from the start and has never left the band. The Irish-born gent harnessed his Honours degree in Drama and Film Production at Flinders Uni to help create a raging rock experience with the drama of film, NOIR.
The Brewster Brothers:
It really is a tragedy that these two phenomenal guitarists have had what ever fallout with Doc. It is to me the great shame job they have done to themselves by recruiting Dave 'Gleeso' Gleeson to do cover jobs of some of Australian Pub Rocks finest tunes. These both outstanding guitarists should be apart of 100% even if John only has a cameo role.
John Brewster. SHOOT IT UP.
This man is one of the hardest rock guitarists that has ever blessed Australian rock music if not hardest and best ever!
Bob Spencer:
Bob Spencer the 90's
Bob talks about his early influences:
I have fond memories of the energy of Angels gigs,said the ex-Skyhook, both from the band and the audience. Bobs looking forward to reliving and renewing that high. Having spent the last few years in serenity, security, bussiness and personal success and great family satisfaction, its time to mix things up and go on the road again!
Bob Spencer (born 5 September 1957) was a guitarist in two significant Australian rock bands in the1970s and 1980s, Skyhooks and The Angels. Spencer grew up in Sydney's south-eastern suburbs and attended Our Lady of Annunciation Primary School, Pagewood, Maroubra, from 1963 to 1965 and Marist Brothers, Daceyville from 1966 to 1969. He performed for an hour at his primary school graduation concert in 1969. In 1970 he started high school at Marist Brothers Pagewood (nowcalledMarist College) and was a founding member of Finch, a rock band, in 1973 while attending Marist Brothers College. He did his HSC in 1975.
He left Finch to replace Red Symons in Skyhooks in 1977 and in 1986 joined The Angels. He remained with the band until 1992 .Other bands in which he played include Mystery Band (1980-82), Fandango (1981), Honeymoon and Young Lions (1984) Black Cat Moan (1989-90), the Puppy Bashers (1991) and the Temple Gods (1992-93). He lives in Melbourne where he is active in his band Raw Brit playing covers from the 60s and 70s, originally made famous by English bands such as Free and Slade. He is also a coach for professional bands as well as helping out more mature amateurs as part of the Weekend Warriors programme.
Bad Ass Bob
These are some of my favorites with Bob
Play loud
Jim Hilburn:
Another great live showman, Jim Hilbun has spent an impressive 18 years touring and recording with The Angels to date. The versatile US-born bass player who joined for an American Angel City tour in 1982, and ended up moving to Sydney, also handles a mean sax and loves to sing.
I'm proud of my contribution to The Angels, and I am looking forward to bangin the boards as a 100 percenter.. To me, music hasn't ever been about competition or politics, it is about sharing a joyous experience with the players and the listeners That, the chicks love, and making a quid hopefully!
Graham Buzz Bidstrup:
Buzz joined The Angels in 1976, playing with them as the band sweated their way to being arguably the biggest in Australia. His total time in the band so far is 11 years. Known for his deft left hand swing, Bidstrup played on such Australian classics as Mondo Rocks Chemistry, Australian Crawls Reckless and all GANGgajangs recordings and as Jimmy Libles long-term drummer.
The Angels has been home to some very fine musicians in its nearly 40 years of gigging! Now I have the unique opportunity to play with three of those talented people who joined after I left but who were instrumental in forging their own part of The Angels history. This history continues to be written in 2013 with The Angels 100%.
Eccles:
A great back beat, tight as. Wonder what he is up to.
I can still remember the first time I saw the Angels live, it was the NO EXIT Tour, 79, I think, at Brisbanes Festival Hall, I was 13 years old. My main recollection of it was the riff, then the chorus of No Exit and I can still see Doc standing center stage arms out stretched and my ears beginning to bleed.
Ever since then I must have seen The Angels about 20 times or more. I saw the Night Attack tour at BFH and I think they got louder. I managed to get to do a load-in for them at the Bombay Rock on the Gold Coast prior to the release of Two Minute Warning where they were road testing Underground and Look The Other Way. And still to this day the crowds reaction to look The Other Way was one to behold, it blew everyone in that room into the middle of next week, it was awesome
I saw the Watch the Red and The Howling tours both at BFH respectively although they are a little blurry the two are fine albums unfortunately the mostly played Angels track from this wonderful array of songs is We Gotta Get Out Of This Place which I can remember from a festival, Raceway Rock, at the Gold Coast International Raceway and was not impressed that they would do a cover let alone that one.
A new direction
But for me the most brilliant live set I have ever witnessed in my life time was the Beyond Salvation tour in 1990. I think I was the only person in the crowd who could comprehend electric guitars at that volume, it must have been at least 120db, however I felt so proud for those guys when there was a live television cross to Adelaide on ARIA day November 1990 where they played the set live better than the album. It was #1.
Sources:
I dedicate this Blog to The Angels whose work should be put into guitar teachers curriculum.
