Being in a rock band isn’t easy, according to rhythm guitarist John Brewster; and he was quoting The Angels’ lead singer, Doc Neeson.
It sounds a bit trite, but after seeing The Angels – Kickin’ Down the Door, you take their point.
Directed by Madeleine Parry – the young talent behind the Emmy-award-winning Hannah Gadsby documentary Nanette – this behind the scenes documentary of the iconic Australian band starts on safe ground.
It starts with the story of how The Angels came about on the inspired whim of Adelaide-based Brewster who convinced his brother Rick and their Irish friend Doc to give it a try.
Their early evolution was conventional: From a jug band at Adelaide’s Sussex Hotel, they transitioned to electric and lost their fans, only to win over a new pub crowd as The Keystone Angels and then The Angels.
Through the 1970s they slowly tightened their sound into The Angels’ hallmark frenzied, thrumming wall of hard rock that fed off a beer-can crowd and was somehow very Australian.
From these beginnings, The Angels produces some of the most recognisable Australia rock songs of the 1980s, including Take a Long Line, Shadow Boxer and Am I Ever Goin’ to See Your Face Again?.
They were a band who had a lot of luck, and a lot of bad luck.
After a shaky start and with the bills mounting, they took off almost overnight and by the late 1970s were packing pubs whose owners didn’t care if the furniture was smashed.
They sacked the drummer and brought in Chris Bailey on bass, which freed Neeson to develop his frontman persona, inspired stylistically by his love of German expressionism but increasingly fed by his own demons.
Parry and producer Peter Hanlon, a lover of punk music, accessed archival material, much of it from the band’s own records and most never seen before. We hear their music grow tighter and more powerful; guitars perfectly tuned and Neeson out front shredding himself as he channels possessed energy into the night.
All that was expected, and presented engagingly with animation breaking up the talking heads and sometimes-degraded music footage.
What was a surprise was the drama. From the start, tensions were in play between John Brewster, the good-looking older brother and control freak who took care of things and did the accounts, and Rick, who was quieter and probably nicer. Then there was Doc.
Tensions simmered as the band lived in each other’s pockets, working to pay off a huge debt run up when they recorded in America. Doc was drinking and threatened to leave eight times, marriages were crumbling, they were on the verge of breaking into the US market but were kicked off a major tour with The Kinks, apparently because Ray Davies was jealous.
They came home without capitalising on their growing American fan base, which was a mistake. In doing so, they encouraged other bands like INXS to break into the US, but they were left feeling their potential was never reached.
Then everyone ganged up on John Brewster and kicked him out; at one point there were two bands touring, each with a Brewster in the line-up.
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The Angels: Kickin’ Down the Door opened the Adelaide Film Festival, which runs from October 19-30. It will be available in ceinemas around Australia from December 1
The article first appeared in InReview. Read the original here.
