Welcome to a breath of fresh air with Sandy Kaye. Hi, thanks so much for your company. This week we’re in Australia where John and Rick Brewster have spent the last five decades helping to create the soundtrack to Aussie rock music.
As a founding member of the legendary band, The Angels, the brothers have been there from the very beginning, including the release of their iconic debut hit, Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again, a song that’s celebrating its 50th anniversary and continues to inspire one of the most famous audience sing-alongs in rock history. In this episode, John Brewster joins me to reflect on the origin of The Angels, the stories behind their enduring career and why their music still resonates with fans across generations. I’m sure you’re going to enjoy my conversation with John Brewster.
Hiya. Hey, John, good to see you again. How are you? Yeah, I’m good, Sandy.
How are you doing? I’m excellent. I can’t believe you guys are back on the road again. Nothing can keep you away from your public, can it? No, thankfully.
I mean, it’s, you know, I’m 76 years of age. I’ve got new knees so I can walk through the airports much better. I can stand on stage.
No problem. I just feel fantastic. And I love the band.
I just, I just love playing. You’re not sick of it at all? Nah, not at all. You know, I play with my wonderful brother.
You know, I’ve got a relationship that one is, you know. And of course, my son Tom’s playing drums, Sam on the bass and Nick Norton out the front. Nick’s just wonderful.
He’s just blowing everyone away. I think he’s a great front man. It’s got to feel good having the family members as part of the band too, the next generation.
Yeah, never something I didn’t see that really coming. It’s just that those guys play so well, you know, and they like our repertoire. I’ve got no place to go at the bar.
Maybe you might show I’ma see your face again. I’ve got to stop and stop the memory that goes climbing through my brain. I get no answer so the question still remains.
Am I ever gonna see your face again? Am I ever gonna see your face again? It’s great to see the younger generation kind of taking over the band in a way, you know. Sam’s running it now. I used to do all the logistics.
I don’t do any of that stuff now. I just look at my phone and it tells me what I’ve got to be at the airport at such and such time. I just go and I just follow along, take my guitar and play.
I’m having a great time. Does that mean that the young ones are writing for the Angels now too? Yeah, yeah. The last album, 99, I’m really proud of that album.
I think it’s wonderful. It’s got such a contribution of Sam and Nick, a little bit less from me than normal because I was getting over the health issue, basically a heart attack. So everything’s fine now.
And it ended up being, I think, one of the best albums we’ve ever made. I think it’s a wonderful record. We’re a fresh legal sander Keep the money for zero Convictions to surrender To let the token past go Pictures of people are plastic You trade your glory for gold Factors affect politicians’ success Is this shit the goal to hold? Was it the heart attack that led to you giving up control and realising that you’ve got to start to do things a bit differently? Yeah, that and just how clever my son is, Sam, you know.
He’s just really good at all that sort of stuff and he’s much more IT savvy than I am. So he can do what is quite actually a stressful job, you know, all the logistics and stuff. Of course, yeah, yeah.
Was he always on board with the band or was there a period of time where he was embarrassed by you, like most sons of their dads? Oh, that’s a really good question, actually. You know what, I don’t know that they were. I think the thing is that the Angels, you know, all that repertoire, all those songs we wrote, they’re actually pretty cool, you know.
I think we didn’t write kind of lovey-dovey songs that you’d play today and go, it really doesn’t relate to where we’re at in our lives. We can do Mr Damage. It’s just as powerful and relevant to, you know, as it was when we first wrote it.
What were some of the inspirations for all the songs that you have written in the past? I mean, it’s really hard to talk about what a song is about. Some are a bit more easy than others. I wrote After The Rain after seeing a special on the Holocaust, which is an incredibly confronting thing to have watched, and there’s a certain anger involved in writing the lyric of that song because if you analyse the lyric, it really relates to that.
So I can say, yeah, well, that’s what that’s about. Rick wrote Take A Long Line after watching the street people in King’s Cross. I wrote Shadowbox after there was a guy in the cross actually, you know, punching a No Standing sign.
So, you know, you can say, well, it’s a little bit about paranoia. So, yeah, there was a subject, there was an angle with all the songs, but it’s hard to actually talk about it. What I’m getting from you was that a lot of them were social commentary on what you saw around you and your reaction to it.
Yeah, I think that’s very true, and I think that, well, certainly in my case, but I think also Rick as well, and Doc, Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan is the greatest love of my life as far as music is concerned. People say to me, oh, yeah, he wrote good words, but, you know, he can’t sing, and, you know, his music’s… You’ve got to be kidding.
Those songs, those melodies are just so brilliant, and his singing was brilliant, you know. But because he’s such an incredible lyricist, it was like, well, lyrics are that important. We don’t want to write sort of naff songs that are going to last five minutes.
You guys are the longest-lasting Australian band ever. Are we really? Yeah, that’s probably true. You’ve never gone away.
You’ve always been there. Yeah, and I’m really quite proud of that. I think the band, you know, it’s still cutting edge to me.
The young guys playing with us, with Rick and me, they’re just great. So one of the things about The Angels, it’s always been about our relationship to live audiences. I was going to mention that.
It’s still the case, you know, so we can go out into regional places and pull big crowds and just the same as it always was, really. And I guess the faces that you see in the audience look a little different these days than what they did in the beginning. Well, yeah, we play the young people.
I mean, there are older people who come, but so many young people come to our shows, and that really buys me away, really, you know. It’s just that they relate to the songs. I think the repertoire is driving the whole thing.
I think it’s probably arguably important that Rick and I are there, you know, the old guys, because that’s where the guitars come from, and we are a guitar band, you know. So the whole experience is actually wonderful. People say to me, in the time you’re retired, you know, I just say, you’ve got to be kidding me.
Why would I walk away from this? It’s just good. I’ve heard you say it’s been a hell of a ride, lots of twists and turns. Yeah, I don’t think there’s going to be any more downs, actually.
You know, when you’re young and you’re burning the candle at both ends and trying to make it internationally as well as in Australia, lots of arguments come with that, lots of tough times, and then addictions come into the whole thing too. So how do you keep the young ones on the straight and narrow? Oh, it’s more they keep Rick and me on the straight and narrow. Times are different, you know.
When we were young, we just lived and breathed the band, you know. We had marriages, and they didn’t… I like to think that they were quite successful. I’ve got three wonderful sons from my first marriage, and I’ve got a really friendly relationship with my ex-wife, but, boy, those girls put up with a hell of a lot because we were just on the road all the time.
So it was hard to be a family man and be in the Angels. And I’m sure, you know, the guys from Cultures will tell you very similar stories. Yeah.
And now your friends are all departed So your feet and throats they’re gone And Shadowboxer Don’t close your door, lock your windows tight Be much safer staying out of sight When you say times have changed, What is it that we don’t write ourselves off like we used to in the 60s, 70s, 80s, do we? No, no, no, we do look after ourselves way better. I think maybe there was a time in my early days with the Angels that I thought I had to smoke a joint before I played. I didn’t think that I could enjoy the experience if I didn’t smoke a joint.
And then I started to discover that, oh, hang on, it’s even better when you don’t. But the old period is something I look back on with great affection because we had wonderful times. But we’re still having it, it’s just different.
The band back in those days had to live in the same city. Now Rick’s living in Tasmania, I’m in Counter Bay, South Australia, Sam’s up in Adelaide, Tom’s in Sydney and so is Nick. And it doesn’t matter.
14 studio albums, 8 top 10 albums, 17 top 40 singles. You couldn’t have asked for any more, could you? Wherever there are accolades, the Angels certainly feature. That’s nice.
You wouldn’t have had it any other way really, would you? No, I mean, from the moment that we decided that we’re going to be a professional rock and roll band, it’s a thing you can’t stop. Well, you can stop if it doesn’t work. But when we took off, when Rick wrote Take a Long Line and we toured with David Bowie in 78, the whole thing just went completely crazy.
I was talking to someone the other day, I said, it’s like we’re riding a racehorse. And the racehorse was just that little bit out in front of all the other racehorses. But if you try to jump off the racehorse, you will die.
So you just had to hang on for the grim day and go. And that’s what I was like. These days, it’s not like that at all.
You get on a plane on Friday, you fly to, say, Sydney, get in the band vehicle, go and do a gig, get up and have breakfast and coffee. It’s all very civilised. And the punters too, back in the old days, they used to fight their way to the bar.
These days, I think those guys, I think you’re ahead of me, after you.
This is a breath of fresh air with Sandy Kaye. It’s a beautiful day. I guess you’re also not on long-haul flights.
You’re not doing the UK and the US anymore. We did, but we did some shows in 2015. Combined, my wife and I had a wonderful holiday in Italy and France, when we played France, it was a full house.
It was only a 600-capacity room. The crowd sang everyone a rich guitar solo. It was incredible, and I liked part of the band.
Amanda, the actress, waits at the station. She’s dressed in with nothing to do. With billiards on steps, she’s quick to accept.
The weather and time still is cruel. She lives in a tower, armed with defences. She learned from her mother and friends.
She walks like a fellow, dressed in day-glo. When she’s in pain, she pretends. The late in the night, when the lights are out, she slays off her stockings and shoes.
She made you her daughter and lets you discover the smile she keeps, she keeps for you. She keeps no, she keeps no, She keeps no secrets from you. She keeps no, she keeps no, She keeps no secrets from you.
She keeps no, she keeps no, She keeps no secrets from you. Faced in the morning, wet in her shadow, she throws her dice and I change. Success in Japan, a rescuing man, knows she won’t change anything.
Cause late in the night, when the lights are out, she slays off her stockings and shoes. She makes you her lover and lets you discover the smile she keeps. You wouldn’t have had any idea that people there would know the lyrics to your songs, would you? No, well, I think one of the mistakes that management made was that we did really well in Europe and we never went back there.
It was crazy, the focus was on America and we did really well there too, but we shouldn’t have left Europe out of the equation. But finally we did. So when we did Paris, we hadn’t played there for 35 years.
Most of the audience were under 35 years of age and they sang everyone a mixed guitar solo. And when we did Marseille, which is my song, they were singing the rhythm guitar part. They were all going… Did it blow you away? It did, yeah, completely, yeah.
Bought me a box of French cigars, bought me a Blackberry. Kicked my French from the girl next door, teaching me night and day. Got me thinking about the South of France, Vis-a-Visable.
Pack my suitcase, take a chance, got nothing to lose. Now you’re hitting the road to do the 50th anniversary tribute to your debut track, which was Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again? That song has become an indelible part of the Australian culture. How do you account for that? Well, it never ceases to amaze me, but it’s got a lot to do, I think, with number one, it’s a good song.
Sure is. Number two, the Larrick and Australian come up with the chart. And the chart’s just amazing.
I mean, doesn’t matter where we play, everyone knows it. I mean, we should be doing the AFL Grand Final. Can you imagine, you know? I can’t swear on your program, can I? Everyone knows what the chart is.
And we get asked, you know, and you’ll probably ask the same thing, where did it start, who did it, and whatever. That’s my next question. We don’t know.
Really? I’ve read different stories about it. Yeah, there’s probably ten thousand different stories, but none of them are really true. I mean, how did it happen? I have no idea.
Because it spread around the country at a time when there was no internet or mobile phones even. So how did that happen? It’s just a great mystery to us all. I know where we first heard it.
You know, we talk about that Mount Isa thing. Yeah, yeah. Well, tell me about that episode.
It was back in 83, right? 1983, the first time we ever played Mount Isa, we had around three thousand people in the town hall. It was a great show. They kept on hollering for more.
So we would do the encore, but they wouldn’t let us go. So somebody said, let’s play a face singing. We hadn’t played the song for a couple of years because we felt we’d kind of moved on from that song.
With face to face, no exit in the darkroom. Anyway, so we went back out on the stage, sang the song, and three thousand people chanted the famous chant. And that blew us away.
So we then, I think I was the big expert. I said, oh well, you know, it’s an isolated community, so it just happened in Mount Isa. But we put the song on the show then.
Wherever we went down the east coast, we went across to Perth, into Adelaide, into Melbourne, back to Sydney. Wherever we played, they did that chant. And you don’t actually ever go near those lyrics, do you? It’s the audience calling it back to you.
Well, it’s a wonderful Laurican Australian thing to do. You know, they’ve done that sort of thing to other songs too, but this one really stands out for the crowd, I think, because of the chant. Yeah.
And then you get a young band like the June Rats come along and do their version of the song. They got Rick and I to come and play, do it with them. And they sent a demo, with my friend Peter Hanlon, who did our movie, by the way.
He produced our movie, Kicking Down the Door, which I think is a great, great movie. Yeah, the June Rats sent this demo, and I was sitting with Peter, and I had my phone, and I said, let’s have a listen to this. I said, no one ever gets our songs right, so it probably won’t be very good.
I put it on, and I just went, wow, this is fantastic. It’s described clearly by the sky, but I’m never gonna see your face again. Am I ever gonna see your face again? It seems like I’m watching you guys pass me by, but none of them are you.
Am I ever gonna see your face again? There’s something in me. Just for anybody who is watching this who doesn’t know what we’re talking about, when we say the chant, if you do Google the song’s title, which is Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again Live, you will hear exactly and see exactly what we’re talking about, of course. So you need to be in the know here to understand what it’s all about, and it’s an incredible experience when you’re part of a live audience and everybody in unison is throwing those words at you, but you’re right.
It epitomises the larrikin Australian and just the whole Yahoo nature of it all, doesn’t it? Yeah, and I think that’s wonderful. The song actually has a bit of a tragic back story though, doesn’t it? It’s not such an upbeat story. No, it’s not at all.
It’s about a friend of our manager at the time, our manager, John Woodruff, who in the school was killed in a motorcycle accident. The lyric of Face Again is really Doc’s song. Because we had a songwriting partnership, Rick and I contributed musically, but not too much with the words.
Might have been here and there a bit, but it’s his song really, and it’s about somebody he knew, and so yes, it’s sad, but we did it in a pretty upbeat way, so it’s quite a rousing song, so the no way thing sort of fits. Yeah, it sure does. It was your debut track, Face Again.
Do you think it was your making? I mean, it was a great way to start off. Yeah, it was, and produced by I think the greatest producers this country’s ever known in Vander and Young, Harry Vander and George Young, who were just the most incredibly inspiring people to work with. We became part of a family when we signed with Alberts, that we were there with the Ted Mulry gang, there was Rose Tattoo, John Paul Young, of course Vander and Young, ACN and ACDC and the Angels, so what a stable of artists, and it was like a family.
It was also the heyday of Australian music, wasn’t it? It was. It was all happening, and you guys were playing every night, you were playing somewhere. It was all about the music.
It was, yeah. It’s changed a bit. It’s fantastic, yeah.
Yeah. It’s changed a bit, but it’s still happening, isn’t it, and it’s so good that the likes of the Angels are still out there doing it and playing a set list that’s remarkably close to what you were doing way back then. Yeah, the songs have endured, I think, and what we did was we just kept playing live and, you know, you’d do a venue and there’s like 50 more people than the previous time, and before you know it, the place is overfilled, and that was when it was really exciting when, you know, there were 2,000 people in a venue that was licensed for 400 and like sardines, and then you realised there was 1,000 people outside that couldn’t get in.
Yeah, right. That gets exciting when it goes like that. That’s how we did what we do.
You know, we’d write a song, we’d put it on stage that night, and if it didn’t go over very well, you just went and wrote another song. Be With You, though, when we first started doing Be With You, people kind of walk away, you know. They’re like, oh, this is too slow.
It’s one of my biggest songs now. Your flashing eyes are a beacon light That guides the jet plane in the night I just won’t be with you Pick me up when I’m down Feels so good when you’re around Just won’t be with you Just won’t be with you Take much more to conquer with you Just won’t be with you That’s a really good song. I wrote that with Doc in the piano room at Albert’s, which is where Bon Scott used to sing his vocals.
Pretty hallowed ground, actually. We had just seen ACDC record Let There Be Rock. We were in the studio with them when they recorded that song.
That was one of the great experiences of my life, to watch ACDC do that song, because they were just going for it. We became friends with ACDC virtually instantly. We did three shows in 1975, and it was in Mooralla that Angus Malcolm and Bon Scott, the wonderful, incredible Bon Scott, came up to us and said they wanted to tell Harry Vander and George Young about us.
True to their word, they did. Consequently, we got signed to Albert’s and moved to Sydney from Adelaide. There began a pretty intense period of writing and recording.
Rick wrote Take A Long Line in 1978. In 1978, we released a face-to-face album, toured with Meatloaf on about a hill tour, and then later in the year with David Bowie. I’m proud to say that David Bowie chose the band.
He was hands-on with everything, and he liked us. He said, I want these guys to open for me. Yeah.
That’s another thing that happened. When we did the David Bowie tour, we had dinner with him every night in his band. We all got to know each other very well.
We played the Bondi Life Sabre one night. It was night off for those guys. There were 1,800 people in this quite small room.
Then we have what we call a punter barrier, which is between keeping the audience at bay. I put drinks on the stage. We started with After The Rain, and I just saw a bit of movement to my left.
I looked there, and it was the entire David Bowie and his band. They came right in front of us, just straight underneath us and watched the whole show. That’s something that gives me goose bumps telling you about it.
Now, my girl, you’re so young and pretty And one thing I know is true You’ll be dead before your time is due See my daddy in bed a-dyin’ See his hair is turnin’ gray He’s been workin’ and slavin’ his life away Workin’ so hard Can’t you hear This place, this place We’ve done lots of great tours. In fact, we did the Back In Black tour with the boys. We left Alberts, which I think was the greatest mistake ever.
Why did you? I manage it. I don’t mope about it. There’s no point in regrets.
So much talent came out of Adelaide, John Brewster, didn’t it? How do you explain that? Yeah, my dad was the lead cellist of the Symphony Orchestra and then became the director of music for the ABC. And he told me one time that there was something like six of the world’s best that we’re talking about in the classical field. Adelaide’s always had a strong partnership with the arts, I guess, probably the wrong way to put that.
But we had the Beatles come to Adelaide in 1964. Adelaide was a very conservative town and the Beatles set us free. They really did.
It was so exciting. And then Dylan came into the equation. So I saw the Beatles in 64.
I was 14 years of age. I saw Dylan two years later and that just changed my whole life.
This is a breath of fresh air with Sandy Kaye. It’s a beautiful day. What we got exposed to, and I think all the ten pound poms that were living out of Elizabeth, we got to know these guys.
Guys like Doc Neeson, Glenn Shorrock, Jimmy Barnes, Jimmy Barnes and Swanee, they all became friends of ours. But it’s like, you know, so Rick and I grew up in a classical musical family. We went to a private school, St. Peter’s College, and it was after we left school that we started to meet these guys from Elizabeth.
And I think somehow or other it was a cross-pollination of ideas that, you know, I think they needed us and we needed them. It doesn’t matter who you are, we’re all trying to get on. Everyone in his own way from the day that we are born.
Rainbows for that ballroom queen. Gotta fix the past of the clientele. And let some paper out.
Well, it’s a change of life and how. You used to be a hobby talk sister. But you’re a lady now.
Did your family encourage your professional musicality or were you destined for other things? I tried other things for a while because my dad said, I don’t get in the music, so it’s a rat race, which of course it is. And my brother Rick did an agricultural science degree. But the thing is, it’s, you know, blood.
My grandfather started the whole thing. He started the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. He was a concert pianist, an amazing composer.
So I strongly believe there’s a music gene that is handed down, you know, whether you like it or not. That’s right. And even if you try and ignore it, you can’t get away from it.
No. And I didn’t want to get away with it. I tried other things and went, this isn’t for me.
And then we started the band and that was for me. Were you taught classically first or were you self-taught? I’m totally self-taught except for I did do the cello for a while, but my dad was a brilliant cellist. He lived long enough to see your success, didn’t he? He did and he didn’t approve really because we did it really tough on the financial end, you know, for years.
It was really touch and go. I’ve got to say, what became ex-wives were amazing. They supported us through the toughest times.
But Dad one time said, look, girl, you know, you’ve forced me to make a comment about what you’re doing. He said, I think you’re crazy. And he was kind of right, but the last year of his life, by that stage, of course, the band had hit the big time.
And he called me and he said, son, I’ve been listening to your music. And I nearly fell off the chair because he’d never taken any interest at all in what we were doing musically. And I said, really? And he said, yes.
He said, it’s very good. He said your melodies, chord progressions, et cetera, he said are very clever. Wow, that gives me the shivers.
I can only imagine what that meant for you. Yeah, it definitely gave me the shivers. This is the guy that when I bought I Am The Walrus, I got the single of I Am The Walrus.
And I went, oh, I’m going to get Dad for this one. So I said, Dad, you’ve got to listen to this. I said, the London Philharmonic Orchestra signed.
So he goes, pours himself a scotch, lights up a cigarette, puts it on the radiogram in those days, puts it on, it plays. And I go, what did you say? He said, hang on a second. He played it again.
A little bit more scotch whiskey, played it again. And I went, what did he say? No, no, just a sec, son. He played it a third time.
And I thought, I’ve got him, I’ve got him. Because he’s really listened to it. He puts it back in the jacket, walks over to me, hands it to me and said, bloody rubbish.
I was sort of a bit black sheep of the family, really. My grandmother was an opera singer. My mum was a ballerina.
Rick won the Eisteddfod at the age of 16 on classical piano. And there was I up in my bedroom playing Bob Dylan songs. So I was an odd man out.
Well, you’ve certainly proven yourself since those days. Yeah, you know, just a family of classical musicians. But we now do and have now done a number of shows called Symphony of Angels, where we’ve got orchestral arrangements to our songs.
And we walk on stage with the orchestra actually playing a piece of my grandfather’s symphony. John, did you and Rick always get on? Or did you have the brotherly stouches like most do? Well, you should see the movie, Kicking Down the Door. That’ll tell you a bit.
We fell out at a crazy time in, I’d say, probably many bands’ lives in 1985. And we were touring America. We had the wrong agent.
It was a disastrous tour. It was just hard times. And of course, at the same time, we’re having kids.
Suddenly, kids are coming to the equation. So it got harder and harder to leave your family. We’d spend our whole life together, you know, from childhood.
We were virtually never apart the whole time. Because the age difference is very little, isn’t it? Very little. And we needed a break from each other.
So I left the band for seven years. And about five years into that, I called Rick one day. And I said, Rick, you know, whenever I see you, it’s friendly.
I said, but there’s a wall between us. I want to kick that wall down. And Rick said, oh, I’ve waited five years for you to do this, for this phone call.
I said, well, you could have called me. He said, no, it had to come from you. So it’s the whole big brother thing.
I was overprotective of Rick when we were younger and stuff. And these things stick. So we got together in a cafe.
And I realized that whatever we were talking about went right back to childhood, you know, and me being the big brother, me being overprotective. And I said, well, yeah, okay, you’re right, but let me tell you about some of the things you did, like drinking a bottle of kerosene and nearly dying, having your stomach pumped out, and trying to set off a .303 bullet in a vice. And Rick went, oh, right, yeah, okay.
So all these things came out and, you know what, we’ve been great ever since that talk. It’s like we exercised a demon. What did you do in the five years that you were with the band? I became great friends with Alan Lancaster from Status Quo.
We played in the Party Boys, which was great fun. And during the course of that, Swanee joined the band and initially it wasn’t going very well, you know, we were a very small crowd. And Alan and I discovered Johnny Kongos is, he’s going to step on you again.
And Alan and I looked at each other and went, this is Party Boys, we’ve got to do this. And we had a number one single. It went through the roof.
And, well, suddenly the Party Boys went from playing to 50 people to 2,000 people a show. It was, like, incredibly exciting. So we had great times with that.
But I then rejoined the Angels. I guess you never looked back. I feel incredibly lucky.
Lucky in my marriage and lucky that I have three sons and one stepdaughter. They’re all wonderful. They’re all doing well in life.
Two of the boys are playing with me, but they have a big thing going on outside that. That’s not their career. But they can do that because the Angels really is a weekend band.
You know, when we tour, there’s a lot of flying, but it’s not like the old days when we’d go out for weeks on end and driving everywhere. Did you warn them off trying to do music full time like your dad had? No. No, I never.
Dad was right, but he picked the wrong time to do it because of the late 60s. He’d talk about security and work for that company. Yeah, you’ve got a job for life.
You’ve got a job and you’ve got a gold watch and whatever’s at the end when you retire. But none of us in the late 60s could care less about security. We were lucky.
We were living in an incredibly great age. It was fun, and there was a serious aspect to it too. We marched against the Vietnam War and stuff.
We were the baby boom generation. We were having the time of our life. What you’re going to do? You’re going to see it through.
It’s like I’ve got a reputation. A nation. And the sky’s hanging out and talking.
The dogs are talking. Actually, you know you’ve got to loosen up. The Face Again tour kicks off in Queensland, and you’re going right across New South Wales into Victoria through Tasmania and Western Australia and very appropriately you’re going to wind it all up where it all began for you in Adelaide in early November.
Yeah. I’m excited. And what I like most about it is that you’re playing gigs where your feet stick to the carpet still.
Yeah, there’s a bit of that. And that gig in Adelaide, I’m really proud to say that the lane that surrounds us is now the Angels Lane. The council have named the lane after us and they’ve asked me to be on the panel to choose the artists to do it and so we got Liam Somerville.
The artwork in that lane is just stunning. Adelaide’s our hometown for the Angels so just such an honour. Fantastic.
What a stellar career. You’re still enjoying John Brewster and what an absolute treat chatting with you. Thank you so much for your time and sharing all of your stories.
Australia can’t wait to see the Angels back on the road again and, you know, if you don’t know the chant, get jiggy with it and get practising. Everyone knows that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese dedicated the song to Peter Dutton in the last radio interview and asked if you want to play a song and he said, yeah, I want to play Am I Going to See Your Face Again and dedicate it to Peter Dutton and they did. Well, the thing I want to see you at, as you alluded to in the very beginning of this chat, was you should be at the AFL Grand Final.
It should happen because, you know what, if we did that, no one would ever forget it. It would be huge, you know, they could have Tom Jones there and Tom Jones is great, you know, yeah, but it doesn’t mean I’m being a bit cheeky. That’s all right.
That’s what we like about you, John. Cheeky is good. Cheeky is wonderful.
Yes, yes, it is, particularly with new knees. Hopefully you’ll need nothing else new. Fabulous being with you.
Pleasure for me too. Thanks for having me. Cause it’s a beautiful day.
You’ve been listening to A Breath of Fresh Air with Sandy Kaye. Beautiful day. Hope that you’re going well.
It’s a beautiful day.