The Angels

Before Angel City became the export name, the Angels were an Adelaide band called the Keystone Angels, cranking out boogie from 1974 with Doc Neeson singing and playing bass, the brothers John and Rick Brewster on rhythm and lead guitar, and Charlie King on drums. In 1976 Buzz Bidstrup took the drum stool, Chris Bailey took the bass so Neeson could prowl the stage with nothing but a microphone, and they trimmed the name to the Angels.

What came next was pub rock with the fat cut off: hard, fast, no-nonsense riffing that packed Australian beer barns and raised the bar for every band that played them. The self-titled album on Mushroom in 1977 carried "Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again", Face to Face followed with "Take A Long Line", and Dark Room brought "No Secrets" in 1980. Overseas, a name clash forced them to go out as Angel City, a tag the band has never hidden its dislike for. Guns N' Roses, Pearl Jam and Great White all counted them as an influence, and Cheap Trick became road buddies.

The ARIA Hall of Fame took them in during October 1998. Neeson quit in 1999 after spinal injuries from a car crash, the band broke up the next year, and rival versions toured under the name until the original lineup reunited in 2008. Bailey died in 2013, Neeson in 2014, and the Brewsters keep the flame lit.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.