An Exciting New Era For The Angels…

As the book The 100 Best Australian Albums highlighted,” The Angels can lay claim to being Australia’s longest-lasting band.” And with the band closing in on their 50th anniversary in 2024, they are embarking on an exciting new era, with the announcement of a brand-new lead singer.

The band’s new front man is a name very familiar to Angels fans. Stepping out from behind the drum kit to take centre stage is Nick Norton, who has been a member of the band since 2011. Anyone at the recent Brewster Brothers Electric shows, where the band performed Angels rarities with Nick out front, will attest that he’s ready to assume one of the greatest gigs in Australian rock – fronting The Angels, the band responsible for some of the most unforgettable songs in Australian music.

Nick replaces Dave Gleeson, who is stepping down from the role to focus on his Triple M commitments as well as The Screaming Jets, the band he formed in 1989. Nick Norton talks further with Hi Fi Way about the exciting new journey ahead for The Angels.

It must be a really exciting time for you with the changing of the guard with The Angels?
Yeah. It’s been kind of coming one way or another for a long time, I think. I’ve known John since high school and I’ve known Rick since just after leaving high school, been in the band twelve years and I’ve played music on and off with John and Rick, written songs with him forever so it feels like it’s just a natural evolution. It’s definitely exciting and a new chapter in the band’s ever, ever changing and dramatic history.

Have the conversations, particularly with Dave, have they been sort of ongoing for a while? For fans it might seem like a huge surprise but was this inevitable at some point in time?
That’s probably a good way of putting it. I think post Covid, Dave has the Triple M gig, which is not a full-time gig, but it almost may as well be because he’s interviews get syndicated every day around the country and that’s like a big deal thing. Then the Jets have gotten so busy with the demand has just kicked up so much after Covid, they’ve been touring non-stop. I think that those things are the main things ones. Conversations for the better part of a year have been going that way, but not in a political way.

It was just in the end one of those things where The Angel’s fiftieth anniversary coming up, it was only getting busier for us again, and it’s only staying as busy for Dave. I think it was just this irresistible thing that went that way. So, he called it when he did, but it was even a surprise for me, I mean if you asked me six months ago, I would’ve said, nah, that’s not going to happen. It only really became sort of a reality I guess in the last two months. So yeah, still a surprise for all of us, but definitely the fans more so.

Did it take much convincing to step up and be the front man for The Angels?
I’ve done front man gigs for the band here and there, mainly for off Broadway sort of gigs, mainly private and corporate gigs. John and Rick have always really liked my singing, songwriting and guitar playing. Obviously I’ve The Brewster Brothers gig on and off for fifteen to twenty years. I probably didn’t expect they’d just shoehorn me straight into a front man role. It was in a way natural or just felt fairly normal. They’re like, you are the guy now. I just went, oh, okay, yeah, sure! Rather than having to put my hat in the ring, they just, they just put me on standby and then suddenly the gig was mine.

Does that leave the door open for a new drummer?
Well oddly enough with John being sick the last five weeks, on this tour we’ve just finished, we’ve had Dave out the front, and I’ve been filling in for John on rhythm guitar and backing vocals. I’ve been loving doing that role. We’ve had a guy called Matt McNamee from Adelaide who’s done a lot of fill in gigs for the band during Covid when I was locked down in Sydney. We’ve also had Tom Brewster, who is John’s son and Sam’s brother, Rick’s nephew and he has been doing a bunch of those gigs too. We had to do a quick photo shoot the other day and Tom was the guy for that.

I think Tom being, having it in his DNA and having the music around, having those Marshalls downstairs blaring away in the basement since he was a baby. Tom’s great, he’s already got that, already got that eight note swing that The Angels need and just knows what’s required. He’s been doing fill ins way back, I did three drum fill-ins for the band way back in 2008. Around that time Tom and I were both occasionally filling in for Buzz Bidstrup the original great drummer of The Angels. We’ve all had our sort of time to prepare for these roles over the decades.

Do you think these last few shows with Dave will be a little bit emotional?
The tour we just did was five weeks and I was having a blast with that because it was just good to be back doing pubs. Dave seemed to be having a lot of fun probably because he knew that it was probably the relief that a decision had been made and it was announced halfway through that tour. We have some big shows coming up and I think Dave probably will be a bit more emotional for the whole band as well as Dave just because they’re big shows and there’s this realisation that there’s only so many left. I think we’re all very fond of Dave, he’s definitely very fond of the band and the role in the band. Emotional is definitely the word, it’s going to be a bit tough I reckon on all of us, but times will move on and I’m sure it won’t be the last time he’ll jump up and do a guest spot with the band.

What do you think Dave’s legacy will be?
He’s the career front man who came in and naturally assumed Doc’s role and did an unbelievable job of it in the sense that at the time there was a lot of push back because there’s all those hordes of fans weren’t really ready for someone that wasn’t Doc in the role. He’s probably the only guy that could have done it. I mean, if someone like me had stepped in, in my early thirties and done that role, a relative unknown, I would’ve probably been glassed on stage and glassed to death on my first gig. Dave did it so well that he became the guy who carried The Angels on for another twelve years. The whole younger generation with Sam on bass, myself on drums and Dave on vocals, it’s kind of given the band a total new lease on life.

At the time they were only, John and Rick were doing some dinky little gigs around the country and The Angels had just reformed with Doc, but that all kind of went pear shaped after a couple of years, two to three years. Dave really gave The Angels another twelve years of not only great live shows, but a whole new branding really because we put out three albums and went overseas a bunch of times. It’s all been brilliant really. I think that’d be his legacy.

With the changing of the guard what do you think you bring to The Angels?
It’s not really for me to come in and attach a lot of ego to it and try to be an epic front man. I’m coming in to service the role as a vocalist and a guitarist. I think Rick having seen me up the front the last tour doing John’s role, he had the big light bulb moment and t was a big revelation for him. I can bring that and the songwriting thing as well being a bit of an asset for them. I’ve been coming at it more like that and not trying to be as amazing a front man as obviously Doc or Dave because that’s what they did. A lot of it comes down to the punters reacting so well to the press release and I think that’s partially because they’re not expecting Another Day. They just want to pay their forty bucks a ticket to come and see the band live and rock out. There are only so many years left and they’ll still get a chance to do that and hear the songs. It seems for them it’s a natural fit because the drummer will just step forward after twelve years of doing his service and be that guy now.

That’s something that still amazes me how Rick and John are still going strong at the best part of seventy and don’t look likely to slow down any time soon?
Yeah, John’s seventy-three and Rick’s seventy. I’ve been saying it for ten years, I can’t believe, the dynamos they are, they’ve still got that hunger which amazes me. A lot of guys would hit middle age and be a bit more philosophical and laid back about things, but they still feel that drive to do what they do and push that Angel’s thing forward. Like all musicians, they will literally do it till the day they either fall over or can’t physically do it anymore.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch The Symphony Of Angels on the following dates…