"The
mood of this
record is a good
expression of
what I've been
through in some
ways. It shows
the side of me
that I usually
keep hidden
behind the
flat-out
rock'n'roll
energy. So it's
been a great
album to record,
to listen back
to and say,
yeah, that's me
as well."
Doc Neeson has
lately found
time to reflect.
The Angels, the
band he fronted
for 25 years
with a menacing
volatility with
few peers in
rock'n'roll,
were torn apart
by his
shattering road
accident of '99.
Doctors told him
he'd never
perform again.
They were wrong.
But not even Doc
expected this.
"The Angels
derived a lot of
their power from
very tight
riffing and very
tight rhythm
patterns," he
acknowledges.
"So the first
challenge was,
'How do I get
that power, a
different kind
of power, in an
acoustic mode?'"
He glimpsed an
answer in the
Liberation Blue
back catalogue.
Struck by the
imaginative
feels and warm
muscularity of
the Church's El
Momento
Descuidado CD,
Doc called on
that album's
drummer/
producer, Tim
Powles.
"Tim's
production
method is very
organic in that
he wouldn't
allow people to
overdevelop an
idea, to get
what they were
playing too
organised," he
says. "Quite a
few times, when
I thought I was
running through
an idea, he was
actually taping
it with the view
of 'This is the
take'!"
This intuitive
method of
"letting the
songs speak for
themselves"
began to work on
Doc, guitarist
Dave Leslie and
bassist Jim
Hilbun "like
osmosis," he
says. Subtle
swirls of
strings and
organ; a
rockabilly slap
here; a sax solo
there; an
ethereal piano
note all fell
in place more by
fate than
design.
The opening
trilogy Be
With You, Out of
the Blue, Love
Takes Care is
an almost
languid
invitation to
reappraise the
melodic
subtleties and
compelling
atmospheres of
the Angels'
early classics.
Recalibrated
versions of
Shadow Boxer, No
Secrets and Face
the Day find
Doc's naked
lower register
vibrating like
an unsettling
thought, where
choruses once
pounced and
throttled.
"Some of it is a
case of
internalising
the songs, in a
way," he says.
"It was very
interesting from
a performance
point of view.
I'm almost
letting the
listener be a
fly on the wall
to what l'm
feeling and that
creates
intimacy."
There's gallows
wit, too, in the
degenerate
glam-rock sleaze
of Take A Long
Line and the
Bastille Day fog
of Marseilles
and a perfectly
realised air of
lament to the
song that
started it all,
Am I Ever Gonna
See Your Face
Again.
"Rather than
hitting people
over the head
with a
sledgehammer,
this is more of
a CSI approach,"
Doc chuckles.
"It actually
opens up the
songs to a lot
of
interpretation.
As a songwriter,
I'm really
pleased it was
possible to do
that."
Doc Neeson
Timeline
1971 Doc
joins Moonshine
Jug and String
Band in Adelaide
1974 Band
electrifies as
the Keystone
Angels
1976 Am I
Ever Gonna See
Your Face Again,
first Angels
single, produced
by Harry Vanda
and George Young
1977 Debut
album, The
Angels
1978 Classic
Face to Face
album hits #16,
sells four times
platinum
1979 No Exit
another
multi-platinum
success after #8
debut
Out Of The Blue
EP
1980 Dark
Room hits #6;
first US release
1983 Never
So Live EP
1981 Night
Attack continues
US tour assault,
hits #11 at home
1983 Watch
The Red hits #6,
widens band's
sound palette
1984 Two
Minute Warning
recorded in LA,
reaches #2 in
Australia
1986
Revamped band
triumphs with #6
hit Howling,
which spawns
smash cover of
We Gotta Get Out
Of This Place
1987 Double
live album,
Liveline, goes
to #2
1990 Beyond
Salvation, made
in Memphis, is
band's first #1
album
