The Angels’ guitarists take a long line with book, CD, shows

The Angels’ co-founding guitarists Rick and John Brewster are the subjects of a book on their 50-year history out on August 1.

It will be accompanied by a CD tracking their various music incarnations, and a series of shows with the brothers sharing stories, playing music and taking questions from the audience.

The entire project goes under the name Brothers Angels & Demons.

The book, four years in the making, was written by long time friend and one-time Mi-Sex manager Bob Yates.

“Everyone’s memory is different, so the book is from our viewpoint,” Rick Brewster told TMN.

Stories and anecdotes also come from a lengthy interview that their late singer Doc Neeson did with the National Archive six months before his death.

Brewster says that they also tapped some members of their loyal following. “We let them read the early draft, and they’d pick us up on dates and shows!”

The Brewsters’ story began in Adelaide in the Moonshine String and Jug Band, which later evolved into The Keystone Angels, and then The Angels.

Emerging in the late ‘70s, they quickly made their namewith a mix of a theatrical singer, poetic lyrics, hard guitar riffs and a light show inspired by German theatre.

The Brewsters’ father was a classical musician, a cellist with an Adelaide orchestra.

A purist who didn’t care for rock music or any of its theatrics – he never saw his sons play in the band – two pieces of his advice shaped the band’s future.

One was that the intensity of a performance should only be in the fingers.So Rick Brewster never moved on stage, adding to The Angels’ sense of mystique.

Secondly, Brewster Sr’s emphasis was, “Make the melody swing!”

The result of that advice was songs likeTake A Long Line, Shadow Boxer, Face The Day and After The Rain.

These not only broke them into radio and made them the country’s highest paid band at the time, but they went on to inspire members of Guns N’Roses, Pearl Jam and Nirvana.

The book is accompanied by a 2CD set, which includes five previously unreleased Moonshine String and Jug Band cuts, as well as those of The Angels, The Brewster Bros and The Symphony of The Angels.

The stories and Q&A sessions will take place at:

Thu 24 Aug | Brass Monkey, Cronulla NSW

Fri 25 Aug | Leadbelly, Sydney, NSW

Sat 26 Aug | Centro CBD, Wollongong, NSW

Sun 27 Aug | Lizotte’s, Newcastle, NSW

Thu 31 Aug | Birds Basement, Melbourne, VIC

Fri 01 Sep | Hysteria Lounge, Lilydale, VIC

Sat 02 Sep | German Club (upstairs), Adelaide, SA