‘‘NO one has a clue who started telling us to get f***ed,’’ Angels guitarist Rick Brewster said. ‘‘I mean people have come forward, but I don’t believe any of them.’’
Everywhere The Angels perform their most famous track Am I ever going to see your face again? the crowd call back was always the same.
‘‘No way, get f***ed, f*** off!’’ the audience would chant.
‘‘For some years it wrecked the song to the point where I didn’t want to do it,’’ Brewster said.
The guitarist said he found the chants to be ‘‘crass’’ considering it was about the death of someone the band knew.
‘‘Ever since Dave (former Screaming Jets frontman) joined the band, it’s kind of grown on me.
‘‘It’s a bizarre one-off piece of subculture that’s come to be part of the Australian psyche.’’
The Angels are one of the longest and most commercially successful rock bands in Australian history.
Since forming in Adelaide in 1974, the group came to influence other bands such as Guns’N’Roses, Nirvana and Pearl Jam.
But in 1999, the lead singer Doc Neeson departed from The Angels following a spinal injury.
In 2014, Neeson died from a brain tumour and Brewster kept the band alive.
He reflected on how Neeson’s death affected him.
‘‘Sometimes I’ll have the occasional morbid thought — it happens when a friend passes away,’’ Brewster said.
‘‘In your teens you feel invincible but as I get older I think about how I’m going to go.
‘‘I’m not ready, it’s too early. There are so many songs I want to write.
‘‘I don’t have a big list — it’s little goals, really — but the list only ever gets longer, never shorter.’’
He said his legacy was his music, and for the most part they’ll endure long after he goes.
‘‘We agreed — between myself, Doc and my brother — that we’re going to write songs which would be relevant years and years from now,’’ Brewster said.
‘‘We all said for years our songs are bigger than the band.’’
■ Their A-Z tour will be swinging by Penrith Panthers on August 7 and Wenty Leagues on August 9. Tickets are $41.55 at Penrith and $40 at Wentworthville shows. Details: penrith.panthers.com.au or wentyleagues.com.au.