No secrets: The Angels hit 50 years of rocking and rolling with it

The Angels are on the road again, celebrating 50 years as a band, through thick and thin.

The band that blasted a string of hits like Take a Long Line, No Secrets, Marseilles, Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again, Shadow Boxer, and No Exit from a career that began as the humble Moonshine Jug and String Band in Adelaide in 1970 before morphing into the Keystone Angels in 1974 and eventually, just The Angels, is not done yet.

This week they released Ninety Nine, their 14th studio album, full of blazing, guitar-driven rock songs, all new.

Original members brothers John and Rick Brewster still play leading roles on guitars. Now, they are joined by Tom and Sam Brewster, sons of John, on drums and bass guitar. Nick Norton, the band's drummer for 13 years, is now lead singer, also playing guitar.

The Angels 50 Not Out tour, with Mi-Sex playing support hits the King St hotel in Newcastle on Friday, July 5, and the Doyalson RSL on Friday, July 12.

"It's been an amazing journey," John Brewster says during a phone interview last Friday. "It hasn't always been great. There's been ups and downs like you would expect, but we've survived.

"I can tell you that the band is both playing brilliantly and I'm very proud of the album we're just releasing."

Brewster, age 74, sounds re-energised. He's back from a spell of health issues, and excited to have his sons in the band, especially since they contribute significantly.

"I'm proud to say the young guys have really stepped up," Brewster says. "My son Sam who is playing bass. My son Tom is playing drums. And particularly Nick Norton, who's written the lyrics and melodies for most of the songs."

Norton has been with the band since 2011, playing the drums until 2023 when Dave Gleeson stepped aside as lead singer.

"Doc Neeson was wonderful. Dave Gleeson came into the band and he was fantastic. He's moved on, no acrimony. He's got too many things on his plate," Brewster says.

"We've always known about Nick Norton. I knew Nick from way when he was in school. He was in school with my son Sam. I knew what a great songwriter and singer he was, so it was very easy for Rick and I to make that decision that he should step up the front."

The new album includes a couple of stunning saxophone riffs by Jode Brewster, Rick's son, and an absolutely monster harmonica line by John Brewster on Hue and Cry.

"The origins of that song go way, way back into the mid-70s," Brewster says. "I used to play a bit of harmonica then, I still do. Playing live I'll play Devils Gate, which is off Dark Room. That's just a thing I do every now and then. I actually have to get talked into it, rather than talked out of it."

While they loved cutting a new album, Brewster acknowledges the fans at live shows are there to see the greatest hits.

"It's really hard to come up with something new," he says. "Because really, when we play live, you're playing a show that has got to have those songs that people paid the money to come and see you for.

"So if you try and re-educate our audience to a whole bunch of new songs, it just doesn't work.

"So maybe one of these days we'll do a special show and first set we'll do the [new] album and second set we'll do some well-known songs.

"Right now, we're doing more of a 50-year celebration."

The band will never forget the support from this region in its early days.

"Newcastle was definitely the most major breakthrough for us back in 1977-78," Brewster says. "The funny is, I don't what it is about Newcastle but I love it. It's always been a rock 'n' roll town."

Brewster tells a keen anecdote from their first shows at The Ambassador in Newcastle.

"When we first played there, we were booked to play the whole week, from Tuesday through Saturday night. And after the first night, the manager sacked us. And I completely freaked out. We were just so close to the edge financially we couldn't afford to lose the income.

"So I went to the manager and I said, 'What is it? And he said, 'It's too damned loud.'

"We played Tuesday night and there weren't too many people there, and I said, 'What if we turn our amps around so they're facing the back wall?'.

"He said, 'We'll give it a try and see how we go.' So we got them down as far as we could, turned them to the back wall, and the audience was twice as many as the first night on Wednesday.

"By the time we got to Thursday night, the place was packed, and I went to the manager and I said, 'We turning 'em around the right way now'. And he said, 'Yeah, go ahead, go ahead'.

"It's absolutely true. By Saturday night the place was overflowing, you couldn't move in there."