John Brewster Of The Angels: 'Doc Neeson Had A Huge Presence'

John Brewster felt weird watching himself back on the new documentary about The Angels, Kickin' Down The Door. He watched it at the Ballarat Regent Cinema and performed an acoustic set of the band's classic songs with his brother and fellow guitar player, Rick Brewster.

Directed by Madeleine Parry (Hannah Gadsby: Douglas, Hannah Gadsby: Nanette) and produced by Peter Hanlon (Holsted), Martin Fabinyi (Chopper, Wolf Creek), and Rick Davies (The Caravan), Kickin' Down The Door lends an intimate insight into the tensions between a band and how they produced all-time classic hits, Take A Long Line, Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again? and No Secrets.

Known for the incomparable stage presence of vocalist Doc Neeson and the guitar-playing chops of brothers John and Rick, The Angels exploded in the Adelaide and Melbourne local scenes and across the country. But a dream of conquering the world like their mates in AC/DC fractured relationships. Things got so bad that when one member asked his brother to leave the band, they ended up estranged for years.

The documentary features interviews with the Brewster Brothers, Graham "Buzz" Bidstrup (who played the drums for The Angels from 1976 to 1981 and co-wrote and co-produced No Secrets), Brent Eccles (who took over from Bidstrup in 1981 until 2001), and many more.

"The Angels definitely had some tough times. We hardly took drugs, it was more alcohol, but these are the sort of things that happen in a rock and roll band," John Brewster says about the conflicts between bandmates captured on screen. He's a tad envious of how easy he has it now: "we go away for a weekend, play some shows, then go back home. Back then, we toured for hundreds of nights a year."

In the documentary, homegrown record producer Mark Opitz (Cold Chisel, Divinyls, INXS) claimed that, like AC/DC, The Angels changed rock music in Australia. "AC/DC left our shores and based themselves overseas, leaving a little gap that we could fill," Brewster notes. "And when we did [have a hit], it was incredibly exciting - it went off like a rocket ship taking off. It was all cutting edge."

While the Brewsters were raised in an upper-middle-class family influenced by classical music, Doc Neeson grew up in Elizabeth, South Australia. He was rolling with a community of music lovers, including Glenn Shorrock (founding member of The Little River Band) and Swanee and Jimmy Barnes.

"A lot of people came and went [from Elizabeth], and the thing that united us was love for music. Particularly in those days, in the late '60s and early '70s, so much music was British-based. We loved The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and so on," he says. But Brewster's first love was Bob Dylan, "and still is. I saw Dylan play in 1966, and it changed my life. That show is probably one of the great reasons that I do what I do, you know, and started writing songs because he's, to me, he's the greatest of all time."

So, did the brothers consider going down the classical music route, or was rock and roll their calling? "That's a really good question," Brewster laughs. "Rick was definitely going down that path. He won the Eisteddfod, South Australia, at the age of 16 on the piano. Our grandfather was a concert pianist and composer-conductor. Our dad was a principal cellist for the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, and he was a conductor and ran the orchestra when he became the Director of Music for the ABC. Our grandmother was an opera singer, and mum was a ballerina. That was our family!

"I was the black sheep. I loved rock and roll from the first moment I heard Bird Dog by The Everly Brothers. Oh god, I got hooked," Brewster recalls. John and Rick were in a few successful groups in Adelaide before they realised they needed to be in a rock band. "That's how the whole thing began. And Doc was with us."

John Brewster is very proud of the songs The Angels wrote in those days. "They still sound fresh today, all these years later," he says. Speaking of their songs still feeling fresh, John and Rick recently performed Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again? with Dune Rats, Ruby Fields, Jackson Van Issue (Beddy Rays), Anna Ryan (Teen Jesus And The Jean Teasers) and Kelly Jansch (TOTTY). The Brewsters' guitar playing is immediately recognisable - nobody plays the song like they do, with that tone and slightly off-key to the ear.

"It was amazing. Just talking about it with you is giving me goosebumps," Brewster gushes. Danny Beus, the vocalist and lead guitarist of Dune Rats, sounds almost identical to Doc; the addition of female backing vocals and the infamous chant make it perfect. "Rick and I had the most wonderful time with those people. 

"They were just great, such a fantastic band. They'd arranged the song really well. I just loved it. I loved everything about it when we got on so well. They were so respectful to us and, you know, not that we ever demand respect. But they were obviously kind of blown away that we were playing with them," he says. Brewster later caught up with Dune Rats' manager, Matty Woo, who said that when the band performed Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again? at a festival, you couldn't hear them over the deafening crowd singing every word.

Doc Neeson was known for being an extraordinarily charismatic yet terrifying performer. "He was a huge presence. We still miss him. It's not always easy, but he was exceptional. He imported a lot of theatrics and was very influenced by Bertolt Brecht and the theatre of expressionism. That's probably what made him so frightening on stage," Brewster explains.

Kickin' Down The Door viewers will see the frontman at his scary best when they watch the documentary. "I didn't have anything to do with how [the documentary] was shaped, but I have to say that I thought it was really balanced," Brewster says. "Rick and I are the last men standing [from the original lineup of The Angels], and to see and hear Doc, we felt like he definitely spoke, and it was special. They did such a great job with it. We're really excited that it's going to about 90 theatres! What a legacy to leave behind for our families."

THE ANGELS: KICKIN' DOWN THE DOOR is now playing in cinemas. Find the closest theatre to you playing the documentary here.