Star Scene: John Brewster of The Angels

John Brewster’s scene is golf and his old MG sports car “believe it or not” he laughs. The Angels have been on the road for most of this year and show no signs of stopping yet. Brewster says “It’s been an amazing year, playing in London, Paris and the Sweden rock festival and of course, our wonderful country that we spend most of the time in. It’s been a great year.”

[pullquote]We’ve done 2 albums of all new original material. We’re planning to do more once we get off the road. Hopefully there will be a new album next year [/pullquote]He’s pleased that people still want to see the band live. “It’s amazing, we love it, we love the whole relationship with our audience. This show that we’re doing at the moment is kind of a big show – a song for every letter of the alphabet – and some of our songs go about five and a half minutes. So it’s a pretty long show, but we’re really enjoying it, and people are too, so that’s great.”

Who decided on the songs for the show? “Me and Rick really, but you know, we get input from others. Sometimes it’s the audience that decides too, people come up to us after shows and say – oh, why don’t you do “Who rings a bell”, for example, – so that song is in under “W” and No Exit is under “X”.” [laughs]

I was wondering how they went with some of the more difficult letters. “You have to get a bit creative, you know?” For example, Z? ZZ Top! We didn’t have a Z so we went, oh, lets do La Grange, a ZZ Top song.”

Am I ever going to see your face again is a pretty big one. Is that under A? “We were starting with Am I Ever Going to See Your Face Again?, but that was kind of a basic place to do it, so that comes under Y now. You can, see, cause it’s got a “Your” in it. [laughs] So we start with “After the Rain”, you know, doing Face as an opening song, it’s kinda great fun, but really it’s something you want to save to the end. And it’s kinda cool doing it later cause it’s where the audience do their thing. [laughs] Which is just amazing.”

John continues “Favourite song for me at the moment is Skid Row After Dark, which you probably don’t know. I reckon it’s one of the best songs we ever wrote. So, we’re doing that one and I’m really loving doing No Exit, actually. That one’s up there at the end of the show and it’s very enjoyable. We still love it all, to be honest with you. There’s not a song that we do where I think “I can’t wait until this one’s over”. We just love it. The band’s playing great and Dave Gleeson’s a wonderful part of the band. Nick Norton, he’s an incredible drummer. Great guy. He happens to be also an excellent sing/songwriter. He’s a very talented boy, but he’s an incredible drummer so we got him on the drums, my son Sam on the bass, they certainly bring a new energy to the whole thing. We play like we’re on fire, I can tell you.”

As for recording – “We always plan on that. I think it’s really important for bands to continue to write and record new songs. As this stage with the band we’ve done 2 albums of all new original material. We’re planning to do more once we get off the road. Hopefully there will be a new album next year.”

See the Angels

Tue – 13th Oct 2015
Benefit For David Day – Rock Of Ages
Thebarton Theatre, Torrensville SA

Sat – 19th Dec 2015
Brothers, Angels & Demons
Goodwood Institute, Goodwood SA

Sat – 2nd Jan 2016
Red Hot Summer Tour – 2016
Mackay Park, Batemans Bay NSW

Sat – 9th Jan 2016
Red Hot Summer Tour – 2016
Centenary Oval, Port Lincoln SA

Sat – 16th Jan 2016
Red Hot Summer Tour – 2016
Mary Ann Reserve, Mannum SA

Sun – 17th Jan 2016
Red Hot Summer Tour – 2016
Old Mount Gambier Gaol, Mount Gambier SA

Sat – 23rd Jan 2016
Red Hot Summer Tour – 2016
Mornington Racecourse, Mornington VIC

Sun – 24th Jan 2016
Red Hot Summer Tour – 2016
Mulwala Water Ski Club, Mulwala NSW

Sat – 30th Jan 2016
Red Hot Summer Tour – 2016
Country Club Lawns, Launceston TAS

Sun – 31st Jan 2016
Red Hot Summer Tour – 2016
Tolosa Park, Glenorchy TAS

Sat – 12th Mar 2016
Red Hot Summer Tour – 2016
Lazy River Estate, Dubbo NSW

Sat – 19th Mar 2016
Red Hot Summer Tour – 2016
Westport Park, Port Macquarie NSW

Sun – 20th Mar 2016
Red Hot Summer Tour – 2016
Kiama Showgrounds, Kiama NSW

Sat – 26th Mar 2016 
Red Hot Summer Tour – 2016
Bendigo Jockey Club, White Hills VIC

Sun – 27th Mar 2016
Red Hot Summer Tour – 2016
Bonnie Doon Hotel, Bonnie Doon VIC

View our Flashback Friday gallery with the classic Angels lineup.