At the beginning of last year, The Angels found themselves back where they'd been a few years ago when their original singer, Doc Neeson, had been forced to drop out because of the after-effects of a car accident. Reunited briefly in 2007 for the second national Countdown Spectacular tour, they'd then come together again the following year to tour on the back of the 30th anniversary reissue of their seminal breakthrough album, Face To Face. By the end of 2010, however, Neeson had decided not to continue the relationship and since the band had no recording deal anyway, it all ground to a halt again, with drummer Graham Bidstrup also opting out to manage Neeson as a solo artist.

Founding members with Neeson, guitarist brothers John and Rick Brewster, meanwhile, threw themselves back into their own Brewster Brothers band. It was while they were playing back in their original home state, South Australia, that a possible solution presented itself. “I don't know how it happened,” John Brewster, on the line from his home in Victor Harbour, a coastal town well to the south of Adelaide, admits.

“It's just some freak thing that happened up here in the Adelaide Hills when we were doing a little gig in a place called The Haus [in Hahndorf], and Dave [Gleeson, The Screaming Jets frontman] lives nearby and he just happened to come along to this gig. We were looking for a singer and he came up on stage and sang, and I called him about two weeks later and said, 'Dave, we're looking for a singer. What do you reckon?'” he laughs.

“I kind of believe in fate or serendipity, whatever you want to call it; it just happened and for all the right reasons and a very natural thing. Dave came in and not only did he step into what people are saying are big shoes – I don't think he's stepped into anyone's shoes, he just came in and started singing our repertoire, which has been a big part of his life anyway, he's a big fan – but he did it so well and brought his own thing into the band and, you know, has so much respect for Doc anyway.

“But he's not trying to be him,” he continues. “I can think of a lot of great singers but I think Dave is the best hard rock singer in the country, and I can't think of other people who could necessarily fit the bill either. He's a good guy.”

The other thing, as it happens, is that Gleeson's vocal range is just perfect for The Angels. “He's got that timbre that you sort of need for us,” Brewster agrees. “I did it for a while with The Original Angels Band [The Brewsters and original rhythm section Bidstrup and bass player Chris Bailey, who came together in 2003 to play at a benefit concert for Bali bombing victims in Perth], and I think I do well in The Brewster Brothers, but I'm not a frontman, not a rock singer. I can write rock songs but I'm not a rock singer, and Dave's just got all of that power and he's so musical too, he's very musical.”

By August last year, Gleeson, the Brewsters, Bailey and multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Nick Norton, who had played in a band called Gangawry that John Brewster had mentored in their teens, had taken themselves into Albert's Studios in northern Sydney suburb Neutral Bay to record some tracks. The result is their new album, Take It To The Streets. “The thing that we really needed to do and had needed to do for I don't know how many years, as far as The Angels is concerned, was write a new album, and Doc wasn't interested,” Brewster explains, their last original studio album having been 2000's Left Hand Drive, released through Shock. Neeson, on the other hand, had decided to record a solo album. “So suddenly we've got this guy that is [interested] and a whole band that's into it. We'd already started a lot of the [songwriting] process and Dave came in singing songs we'd already written, but the song called Life Gets Better, which I think is one of the standouts, Dave wrote with Rick.

“We've always kept very close contacts with Albert's,” Brewster explains. “[Former Easybeats guitarist, songwriter and producer] Harry [Vanda]'s no longer with Albert's but [A&R Manager and manager of all things AC/DC] Sam Horsburgh is, but whatever happened over in [original premises] King Street, the spirit's survived and it's over there now too.

“This album was recorded start to finish in nine days – the mix took another three days – and I reckon you can hear that on the album; there's spontaneity going on there. And the reason why [Elvis Costello's] Pump It Up is there is because we just did it for fun! Rick said, 'Why not this one?' and started playing [the riff] – I love that song and started playing it with him and twenty minutes later, we'd actually got it recorded. It's not the first time The Angels have done a cover obviously – [1987's] We've Gotta Get Out Of This Place was a huge one for the band – but it was nice to do and everybody in Albert's came down and went, 'Oh, man! We love that song,' so we put it on the album.”

Those nine days of recording were inevitably spread over five months as the then still independent Angels fitted sessions between the performing and recording commitments of the various members, but the first song they cut with Gleeson was Waiting For The Sun, which became the title track of an EP they then released and toured, launching it at Sydney's notorious Annandale Hotel and following it up with a national tour. “And it went great,” Brewster reckons.

“We had no idea what would happen, but it just went so well. We did a show at the QPAC Theatre in Brisbane in January, on the back of that touring we'd done in November, December, just a one-off show, and over 1100 people came. I must admit, doing the soundcheck during the afternoon, I was thinking, 'Is this going to work in a theatre?' I didn't need to worry because it unbelievably worked, and fortunately we recorded it.”

Which is why the new album – the band has signed to Liberation, renewing their relationship with Michael Gudinski, who signed them to Mushroom back in 1984 – comes with a limited edition bonus disc, Live At The QPAC, with Gleeson delivering a fistful of classic Angels – as well as several of the new – tracks.

The Angels will play the following shows:

Wednesday 19 September - Norwood Hotel, Adelaide SA
Thursday 20 September - Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC
Friday 21 September - Bridge Hotel, Rozelle NSW
Saturday 22 September - Bridge Hotel, Rozelle NSW
Saturday 27 October -  Sydney Blues & Roots Festival, Sydney NSW
Sunday 4 November - A Day On The Green, Brisbane Sirromet Wines QLD
Saturday 10 November - A Day On The Green, Hunter Valley Bimbadgen Estate NSW
Saturday 17 November - A Day On The Green, Perth Kings Park WA
Saturday 24 November - A Day On The Green, Melbourne Rochford Wines VIC
Saturday 1 December - A Day On The Green, Barossa Valley Peter Lehman Wines SA
Saturday 8 December - A Day On The Green, Launceston Josef Chromy Wines TAS