ANGEL CITY - Doc Neeson's Quiet Return
by Martin Popoff

One of the classic hard rock front men of all time, Doc Neeson of Angels fame (Angel City in North America) is with us again. For those not familiar with the band, their big years in North America corresponded with their classic albums for Epic back in the low '80s, namely Face To Face, Darkroom, and Night Attack, the first two superlative, the last, a slight falter, even if 'Fashion & Fame' became quite a hit for the boys on these shores. As Max Webster is to Rush, Angel City were essentially the baby AC/DC, a Vanda and Young property with a similar sound to the Australian juggernaut, although slightly smarter of arrangement and more literary.

But things had turned very bad for this Australian treasure - a 1999 car accident, in which Doc was rear-ended by a large truck while jockeying for position at a toll booth, nearly killed the athletic front man. It certainly ended his tenure leading The Angels, and it also certainly caused Neeson a painful recuperation period - punctuated with depression, drink and drugs - of fully seven years, an event that Doc now calls his "Bob Dylan motorcycle accident."

Fortunately, however, a comeback is in the works, featuring an innovative collection of live shows, and eventually, a new electric studio album under the moniker of Doc Neeson's Angels. But for now, a new acoustic album of Angels classics called The Acoustic Sessions is on the launch pad.

"I won't dwell on it," says Doc, asked about that fateful day as well as what he's going to do to erase the memory of it. "But it took me quite a time to recover. I had whiplash injuries and some residual spinal damage. Spinal tap, isn't it? And I've still been recovering from that. Things have really improved a lot lately, and we're about to go out on tour in several weeks time."

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