Band

• Dave 'Gleeso' Gleeson

  

  DAVE ‘Gleeso’ GLEESON joined The Angels as lead singer mid-2011, and immediately began recording a new album with the band and touring their ‘Waiting For The Sun’ series of acclaimed live shows. Gleeso formed his first rock band ‘Aspect’ in 1985  in Newcastle writing their own songs and covering rock classics like The Angels and AC/DC. In 1989 Dave, with Grant Walmsley, Paul Woseen, Richard Lara and drummer, Brad Heaney, formed ‘The Screaming Jets’ and quickly gained a reputation as one of Australia’s great rock front men. Piling up a slab of hit singles and albums like ‘All for One’ in 1991, ‘Tear of Thought’. ‘World Gone Crazy & ‘Do Ya’. In 2002, Gleeson released a solo album, ‘Wanted Man’. The, at times, wild  and hilarious, Angels lead singer is also heard around Australia on the Rock of Ages show 12-1pm weekdays and the Rock Show 7-9pm weeknights nationally on the Triple M Network.

• Rick Brewster

  

  RICK BREWSTER trained as a classical pianist, winning the under 21 Eisteddfod at just 16, but went over to the dark side of rock when his brother asked him to help form a band back in 1970. Rick Brewster, standing rock-still, has been lead guitarist for The Angels since they began, and brought instant classics like Take a Long Line, Mr Damage, Outcast, Save Me and Dawn is Breaking into the volatile mix. While other lead guitarists tried to out-noodle each other, Rick Brewster decided long ago that the drama, depth and musical scope of classical pianists like Beethoven could be channelled into rock. His intuition paid off and his sense of melody has produced so many memorable, soaring solos through the years. In late 1979 and through the eighties Rick developed a keen interest in photography and some of his work has been used in album covers and other Angels related artwork. Rick, and his brother John remain the longest standing members of The Angels and the core songwriters and producers for the band.

• John Brewster

  

  JOHN BREWSTER kicked off what eventually became The Angels four decades ago, in Adelaide 1970, when he asked his brother Rick if he wanted to play with him in a band. The Moonshine Jug & String Band was born.mDoc Neeson joined the jug band a year later and Moonshine became one of Adelaide’s most successful bands, selling out residencies week after week and playing big festivals and concerts. John wrote a song in 1973 called ‘Keep you on the Move’ which peaked at number 4 on the Adelaide radio charts. It was a rock song recorded by a jug band. John, Rick and Doc realised that they had to change direction and so the band evolved into The Keystone Angels in 1974.  An appearance at the 1975 Sunbury Pop Festival resulted in touring Australia with Chuck Berry and, later that year, with AC/DC who liked the band so much they introduced them to Harry Vanda and George Young in Sydney. The Angels then signed to Alberts and went on to huge success, both in Australia and, in the 80s, in the US, Canada, England and Europe. John left The Angels in February of 1986 and joined the Party Boys with Status Quo Bassist, Alan Lancaster, until mid 1989 when John and Alan formed The Bombers, and signed a major worldwide record contract with A&M in Los Angeles. They wrote, produced and recorded the album ‘Aim High’. As rhythm guitarist and key songwriter for The Angels, John Brewster was instrumental in developing The Angels guitar-driven sound and brought Angels classics like I Ain’t the One, After the Rain, Marseilles and Shadowboxer to the band. Although he learned to play guitar listening to Bob Dylan, it was the Australian hard rock and UK punk rock explosions of the mid-1970s that inspired John Brewster to crank up the speed and volume of The Angels for their massively successful albums Face To Face and No Exit.

• Chris Bailey

  

  Chris began his music career in the late 60’s, playing bass in his local school band before going on to co-found the notorious Adelaide-based bands Red Angel Panic and Headband, of which he was lead singer. He joined The Angels in 1976, playing on the first 5 albums and touring constantly until 1982 when he left the band to work for a brief period in the USA. He returned to Australia to become a founding member of GANGgajang in 1984, and in between his Gang commitments became an ‘in demand’ session player for diverse artists playing everything from country music to celtic classics to jazz. While still performing in, and now managing GANGgajang, he is once again an integral member of the re-vitalised Angels.

   

   

• Nick Norton

  

  Multi- instrumentalist and songwriter, Nick Norton, has performed, written and recorded with a multitude of artists over the last 15 years. He is currently the recording and touring drummer for Australian rock icons, The Angels, and a contributing writer on the band’s new material. He also plays extensively on the national circuit with seminal Australian songwriters, the Brewster Brothers. A regular on the Sydney scene, Nick is kept busy freelancing. Past projects have seen him play with NY based songstress Sandrine and his own band GangAwry with whom he signed record and publishing deals with Flashpoint Music as chief songwriter. On top of recording duties with the aforementioned artists, other sessions have included renowned House DJ’s, Random Soul and Husky. Currently pursuing a uniquely creative route, under his own name, Nick writes and performs as guitarist/ vocalist with some of Sydney’s finest jazz/ groove musicians including Tim Fisher (James Morrison) and Paul Derricott (Lanie Lane).