ANGEL CITY - Doc Neeson's Quiet Return Page 2
by Martin Popoff

"In the meantime, yes, I've been very pleasantly busy with doing an acoustic album of Angels classic songs. There's a record company over here called Liberation, which you may know is a spin-off of Mushroom Records here in Australia. And they invited me... they're doing a whole series with various Australian artists, doing songs from the catalogue, in an acoustic way. So I heard some of the albums of some of the artists, and they took it, it seems to me, very literally, like acoustic means they picked up an acoustic guitar and sort of strummed the songs. I've tried to use a broader idea of what acoustic meant; we've got pianos, violins, cellos - I know that all sounds very grand (laughs). But we've also got very weird instruments like a Buddhist meditation ball, that makes this weird sound that you're supposed to focus on while you're meditating. And we've just gone as far away from being electric as we could. And that's been going on for about the last month. And as a matter of fact, I just got my very first copy of that record today. So it's a very timely interview where having. But yes, although the songs are so changed, it's wonderful. I love the new beauty that is in those songs."

Prompted to name a few of the tracks worked up, Doc says there are 13 in all, including, "'Take A Long Line', 'Marseille', 'Be With You', 'Shadow Boxer', 'I Ain't The One'. One that came out really well was 'Out Of The Blue'. There's 'Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again', 'Face The Day', 'No Secrets', a new song called 'Big Star'. It's a very listenable album - quite rich in textures. We changed the keys so it wasn't just sort of strident rock 'n' roll. What I wanted was something that reinterpreted the songs in a way where you might actually listen to them, rather than just put them on for... you know, in Australia, you probably put our albums on for a barbecue, or when you want to get off your face."

Further plans, as stated, include a second album. "Yes, that's right. I've got a collection of other songs which might come out this year, or might come out early next year. So really, I've got two albums ready to go. And my band is called Doc Neeson's Angels, which very nicely becomes DNA, the DNA of rock. Although I'm actually not calling it DNA. But it's suggested. Then, here in Australia, for a long time there has been a show called Countdown, which might be like Dick Clark's American Bandstand. So what they've done for this Countdown is they've gathered artists together for live shows which are touring the country. And we're having Martha from The Motels coming over, Plastic Bertrand, Rick Springfield, an ex-Aussie, who is coming over. I can't remember all the artists, but it's going to be a huge show from the era. I guess you could say it's a show aimed at the baby boomers. And last time they did one of these, it just absolutely stormed the theaters. They couldn't print enough tickets. And I'm going out on that this year, which will be happening September, early October. And then I'm actually taking the band to the Middle East, to play. We'll be going to Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, to play to Australian and American troops over there. I don't know what they call it, but it's like the Bob Hope tour."

ANGEL CITY - Doc Neeson's Quiet Return Page 3