By Mikayla van Loon
Australian rock band royalty, The Angels, are preparing to bring their long awaited tour to the eastern suburbs when they arrive in Mount Evelyn next week.
The band known for hit songs ‘Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again’ and ‘No Secrets’ are touring pubs and clubs across the country including the York on Lilydale on 4 June.
Guitarist John Brewster said after two years of cancellations and not being able to tour, it is not only exciting for the band but for the roadies and managers to get back to doing what they love.
“This year, we’ve done close to 20 Red Hot Summer shows on huge stages to thousands of people along with six other bands and last December, we played with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, it’s called Symphony of Angels. So we’ve done some wonderful things.
“But when we do this one, it’s back into our territory. We love it all but this is back in the pubs and clubs and doing the Dark Room album, it was supposed to be celebrating 40 years since we released it in 1980.
“Of course, we’re celebrating 42 years because of the Covid hiatus if you like but we’ve done a couple of these shows now and it’s just fantastic.”
The show itself is a longer one, with John saying the band will sing the songs from the Dark Room album before taking a break and heading back onto stage to finish with some of the hits.
“I think it runs for about two and a half hours. We’ve, in a way, rediscovered that the Dark Room album was one of the best albums we ever made.
“We’ve made a lot of albums of course over the years but this marks the year that we started touring the world in 1980. So it’s a pretty significant album.”
After 40 years since the album was released, John said he thought it may have been a challenge to get back into the swing of it but really muscle memory kicked in and it came naturally.
“I must say, we are playing wonderfully well and we’ve done a lot of shows this year so the band’s a very well oiled machine.”
Playing pubs and clubs, John said, is “just part of what we do, it’s a really special part.”
As a band, we grew up playing the pubs and there’s other things too, town halls and whatever but the pubs have always been a major part of what we do.
“We don’t get out there that often but when we do we love it. It’s familiar territory for us, it’s up close and personal.”
John said those more intimate venues allow an audience to really be involved in the music and enjoy the performance from a different perspective.
Over the years, John said the crowd and audience who seem to attend the gigs always vary in ages, with young people still loving the sound of Angels songs.
“Looking at the audience and seeing all these young people and they’re singing along with every song.
“Back in those days, we made albums to be a complete work. The Face to Face album, the No Exit album, the Dark Room album, that trilogy of albums, are probably the best three albums we’ve ever done.
“It’s great to see the crowds responding so well to the songs. We wrote songs, which I’m proud to say are pretty timeless. They’re still great to play and they don’t sound like they belong in another era. To me, they’re still well on the cutting edge.”
Darkroom Recharged is touring across the country from May until December, with two shows in Victoria.
To buy tickets head to, www.theangels.com.au
