This record, Darkroom, actually had a bigger hit than the song I came to blog about today way back in 1980. WCOZ and WBCN in Boston were both playing "No Secrets" around that time by a band (then) called Angel City. "No Secrets" had a great refrain and melody and it was ultra radio friendly. Today it has to be considered a true lost classic from the early eighties. As opposed to a "lost classic" you hear 95 times a year on your local classic rock station. Angel City was an Australian band that apparently was recommended to their local label by none other than Bon Scott and Malcolm Young of AC/DC in 1975. Nice endorsement. They were formed in 1970 and it took nearly a decade before they hit the big time and major label executives at Epic took a chance on them. I don't know about album sales, but this was a fun record and a rockin' good time...at least in my tiny slice of the world.I think by now you all know I have a problem with bands that change their names, most of the time by legal force or record company pressure, after their initial surge into the marketplace, and then try to change it back after the conflicting band disappears. Today this band apparently goes by The Angels, but you'll never hear me refer to them as anything but Angel City. I made the transition from "California" to "Anaheim" regarding baseball's Angels, but I'll be damned if I'm going to call the current Angels the "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim." Who are they kidding? Anaheim was so much cooler and the city that actually houses the ballpark deserves sole billing in my book. Geesh. Back to Rock & Roll; if I understand the situation this band only went by Angel City to avoid confusion with the Washington, DC area glam rock band Angel who were famous in the late 70's. You may remember Angel as the band that had that great holiday classic "The Winter Song" from their 1978 album White Hot. No offense to either band or their respective fan bases intended, but they both ended up being a footnote in rock history. Apparently they are still both recording in various personnel configurations to this day, but I don't think they are getting much in the way of terrestrial radio airplay.
Angel City's Darkroom had a cut called "Face The Day" that some of you might remember was eventually covered by the band Great White, who are famous for being the band that had the misfortune of performing the night of the deadly 2003 fire that killed 100 people at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, RI six years ago. That's kind of ironic because Angel City and Great White have both had a myriad of personnel changes that make you wonder why they still want to use their respective band names. I'll give Great White props for covering Ian Hunter's "Once Bitten Twice Shy" as well as "Face The Day" though. These are two great tunes. "Face The Day" is a blitzkrieg of awesome driving sound. I love the guitar work and it's on my own personal list of great forgotten one hit wonders (yes, I'm aware that "No Secrets," at the very least, disqualifies them from that distinction, but I'm going with it just the same). Every time I load someone's iPod or change the music on my gym device "Face The Day" seems to get the nod. It may sound dated to some of you, but I've always loved this track to death. It kicks some serious butt. In my own personal band rating criteria all you need is one great song to take your place in rock history. Since my vote is the only one that counts relative to this blog; welcome aboard Angel City. Job well done.
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4 comments:
This was the first band I ever saw back in 1979 at Brisbane's Festival Hall, I was 13 years of age. They were one of the best Australian live acts back in the early 80s.
They started out as a jug band back in Adelaide then changed their name to The Keystone Angels, and then to The Angels. As far as I know the only place they were called Angel City was in the U.S. but over here in Oz they were always known as The Angels.
But hey, what's in a name?
Thanks Margaret (Alana?). How nice of you stop by read our blog. I enjoy the heck out of writing in it, but truthfully we don't really know how many folks are stopping by. I'm sure we should have some kind of tracker going, but I guess I have bigger fish to fry. I really appreciate your comment. Thank you so much. It means a lot to this blogger.
Darkroom was a great record. No Secrets was a top 10 hit in Australia as was the record.
Some in the US may remember the follow up Night Attack with the single Fashion & Fame or the 1st US record Face to Face which contained Marseilles and Take a Long Line.
A change of US record companies from Epic to MCA (1985) delivered the brutal Two Minute Warning with the excellent yet forgotten single Underground.
After this you really needed to be in Australia or NZ to appriecaite how popular this band was downunder in the 70s/80s/90s. Multi Platnium sales for records Howling, Liveline, Beyond Salvation & Skin and Bone.
They have recently stopped legal action on each other and like all great rock bands they have reformed still playing hard rock the way their fams always loved it.
Today I booked my tickets to see them live in Melbourne, Australia on a December tour. I have seen most of the worlds great rock bands live and Angel City / The Angels are the best.
If you are interested in seeing one of the many videos on YouTube I suggest you search' The Angels Doc Neeson'.
Also for the blogger who wrote about Darkroom you may want to go to Guitars 101 and check out the live bootlegs from this era. A live BBC FM recording from Denver 1980 , one from Canada 1980 and one from Australia 1980 contain a lot of the Darkroom record including Face the Day and No Secrets.
Great blog.
oh, one last thing.
Go to Portlands KGON FM website they have an interview with Angel City from 1980 and during the interview they play many of the songs you mention including a live version of Face the Day.
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