Moonshine and Angels, a 50-year journey through rock
A jug band formed for “something to do” eventually morphed into one of Australia’s most beloved rock bands. Nathan Davies spoke to John Brewster-Jones to find out how.
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The Moonshine Jug and String Band were so popular in the early seventies that the Sussex Hotel sacked them. Apparently too many glasses were being smashed.
“I don’t think any of us had the brains to tell the publican that he should just employ someone to clear up the empties,” Moonshine co-founder John Brewster-Jones says.
Of course the Moonshine Jug and String Band went on to become The Angels, one of the most successful and loved rock bands in Australia. Now, on the eve of the band’s 50th anniversary and with a new record slated for release next year, Brewster-Jones looks back on those early years with affection.
“My brother Rick, Peter Thorpe and I started the Moonshine Jug and String Band as something to do on the weekend,” he recalls.
“I used to go surfing with Pete and we’d go to parties and I’d take and acoustic guitar and sing songs. Pete said, ‘I’d love to play with you, but I don’t really play any instruments’. I said, ‘Why don’t we start a jug band like The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band, and then you can play the washtub bass or tea chest bass’.
Following the band’s unceremonious dumping from the Sussex, Brewster-Jones jumped in the car and drove the length of North-East Rd, stopping at every pub and asking if they needed a house band. The Modbury Hotel was the only one that said yes, and soon the band was bringing in crowds of 400-plus on a Thursday night.
When energetic and enigmatic frontman Doc Neeson joined the band the musical direction began to change from traditional jug music to rock ’n’ roll.
“I wrote a song called Keep You on the Move,” Brewster-Jones says.
“We recorded that with the jug band, but it was really a rock song. Gradually Rick and Doc and I started to write these contemporary songs and we realised that we had to learn how to play electric instruments and become a rock band. The Angels started in 1974, then we met AC/DC in ‘75 and they introduced us to Harry Vanda and George Young and the whole thing changed and the rest is history.”
History indeed, with The Angels going on to record a swag of genuine Aussie classics including Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again, Mr Damage, Take a Long Line, No Secrets and Marseilles.
Along the way they lost two key members to cancer – bass player Chris Bailey in 2013 and frontman Neeson in 2014. The band regrouped with Screaming Jets lead singer Dave Gleeson taking over microphone duties.
“The band is doing brilliantly now,” Brewster-Jones says.
“There’s obviously been some changes, some good times and some bad times. Dave has been in the band for eight years, believe it or not, and my son Sam is playing bass. We’re just a very proud Adelaide-based band.”
The Angels, The Governor Hindmarsh Hotel, January 10, with Boom Crash Opera. Tickets at www.thegov.com.au