A wild ride with Brothers, Angels and Demons
Music
The Brewster brothers’ 40-year music career has been a wild ride – from touring with AC/DC to getting pelted by missiles during The Angels’ infamous gig in Sydney in 1979. But Brothers, Angels and Demons reaches further back than that.
In fact, the December 19 show at the Goodwood Institute will begin with the performance of a symphonic poem called Australia Felix, composed by John and Rick Brewster’s grandfather, pianist Hooper Brewster-Jones.
Brewster-Jones died of a heart attack backstage at the Adelaide Town Hall in 1949 after playing Mozart’s D minor piano concerto with the Adelaide String Orchestra, which was being conducted by his son, Arthur.
“I guess he kind of started this musical family,” John Brewster says, reflecting on how he and his brother came to form their first group, The Moonshine Jug and String Band, which Doc Neeson later joined.
“Rick was playing classical piano while I was singing [Bob] Dylan songs but somehow we came together in the Moonshine Jug and String Band, which we just did for a bit of fun but it became quite successful here in Adelaide.”
Brothers, Angels and Demons, a bigger version of a show presented at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival several years back, will feature music and stories from the four decades of the Brewsters’ music career – including a few Moonshine numbers with Rick playing the washboard and original member Spencer Tregolan on banjo. The show will be emceed by The Electronic Swagman, Raymond Hawkins (The Angels’ original lighting guy), with John’s sons – Sam (bass), Tom (drums) and Harry (guitar) – joining them on stage.
Still rocking: John and Rick Brewster with John’s sons.
“They’re not just there because they’re my sons – they’re great players,” John says.
“It’s an incredible experience to be on stage with my sons.
“This is a show that just talks about how it all happened for me and Rick, and in a way we hand the baton to the younger generation … but we’re still in the race!”
The Moonshine Jug and String Band.
It was a song John wrote for Moonshine called “Keep You on the Move” which encouraged the band to make the switch from playing old-style jazz and blues to rock. More contemporary than jug, it did well on radio.
“So we made this decision to buy electric guitars and amps and stuff and from there on things got very difficult,” he says of their second band, The Keystone Angels.
“Our very first show [as Keystone Angels] was opening for Cheech & Chong at the Thebarton Theatre, but they had wanted a jug band … the audience hated us and threw Minties. We were terrible.”
But The Keystone Angels went on to become The Angels, which enjoyed huge success in Australia and overseas. Audiences at Brothers, Angels and Demons can expect to hear some of the rock band’s biggest hits – including “Take a Long Line”, “Marseilles” and “Face the Day” – as well as music from John and Rick’s side project, The Brewster Brothers.
Among the “hairier moments” the musicians will be sharing – complete with video footage – will be The Angels’ gig on the steps of the Sydney Opera House in 1979, when members of the large drunk and unruly crowd starting throwing things.
Even today, John Brewster describes it as “one of the most terrifying experiences of our lives”.
“Basically, it just escalated into what I thought would have turned into a full-scale riot if Doc and our bass player Chris Bailey had not been knocked out by flying missiles.
“The funny thing – although none of it was really funny – was that after Doc and Chris were carried off, everyone else left the stage except for one person who just played on. That was my wonderful brother Rick, who was completely oblivious.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7gKQBF4X-g
John, who parted company with The Angels in the mid-1980s when he joined The Party Boys, says he and Rick are having a great time these days touring with the latest incarnation of The Angels, which includes his son Sam on bass and Dave Gleeson as lead singer.
Get InReview in your inbox – free each Saturday. Local arts and culture – covered.
Thanks for signing up to the InReview newsletter.
“The word retirement doesn’t come into the equation … what we do, we love. The band’s going really well.”
He adds: “The wonderful thing about doing this show is that we don’t have to be The Angels; we don’t have to be The Brewster Brothers; we don’t have to be The Moonshine Jug and String Band – we can be all of it.
“It’s almost like we’ve come full circle.”
Brothers, Angels and Demons will be at the Goodwood Institute in Adelaide for one night only on December 19. There will also be a show at Sydney’s Foxtel Studios on January 14, with Glenn A. Baker as master of ceremonies, which will be filmed live.
Support local arts journalism
Your support will help us continue the important work of InReview in publishing free professional journalism that celebrates, interrogates and amplifies arts and culture in South Australia.
Donate Here
Comments
Show comments Hide comments