This one’s for the Shadowboxer’s of Geelong: The Angels will make their return to the Gateway Hotel in July for a massive double set headliner show performing the entire ‘No Exit’ album in full.
“Geelong audiences have always been wonderful to us,” reminisces the groups founding member John Brewster. “The Gateway is one of our favourite venues in the whole country. It’s very intimate and the acoustics are great so it’s all wonderful playing there.”
Taking some time away from recording the groups 14th studio album, the tour will be in support of the 40th anniversary of ‘No Exit.’
“The bands been together for 45 years now,” remarks John, “We did the ‘Face To Face’ tour last year and that was our massive seminal breakthrough album and now doing ‘No Exit’ which is mainly songs written by Rick and I.
“I have wonderful memories of writing those songs and recording that album. We play the ‘No Exit’ album, have a 20 minute break and then another set of Angels classics so we play the whole show.”
Speaking of the advantage of playing albums in their entirety, John spoke of some of the Angel’s classics that may now get their time to shine on stage. “There’s songs like ‘Thorn is Breaking’ which features incredible poetry that Rick came up with in ‘79 and to play that live is wonderful because it’s not a straight ahead hit single but the audience is always singing it. I love to play songs like that.”
It’s no surprise that Brewster finds enjoyment playing the lesser known Angel’s numbers, mainly because throughout their 45 year career the Australian pub rock icons have refused to stay stagnant. Most recently, The Angels have even branched out with their first ever orchestral shows.
“We’ve just come off a symphony show with 32 piece orchestras and 40 piece choirs it the Sydney Opera House and Hamer Hall in Melbourne and sold both out which was fantastic.
“The process is with a guy called Rob John who is a wonderful composer, conductor, violinist who became great friends with Rick and I. We’d choose songs and send him the studio versions and he’d compose the orchestra parts and bounce them back to Rick and I and we almost didn’t make any suggestions, he was just so in tune with what we wanted.
“We did the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra at the end of July last year and it was such an amazing experience that we decided to do a couple more. It’s something that I think we will do again so make sure to watch this space.”
The Angels will be hitting the Gateway Hotel on July 12. Tickets available via Oztix.
Written by Alex Callan
