Doc Neeson, the charismatic frontman of the Australian rock band the Angels, during a recording session. Photo: Catalyst/APDoc Neeson, the charismatic frontman for the seminal Australian rock band the Angels, has died from brain cancer. Bernard ‘Doc’ Neeson died in his sleep at his family’s Sydney home, his friend and publicist Catherine Swinton said.
“He has battled with a brain tumour for the last 17 months and sadly lost his fight this morning,” Neeson’s family said in a statement.
Neeson was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1947 and migrated with his family to Adelaide, South Australia, at 13.
He was studying to become a teacher when he was drafted into the Australian army in the late 1960s. But he avoided the Vietnam War when the army became aware of his education training and he was sent to Papua New Guinea to teach the Pacific Island Regiment.
Neeson later took advantage of a returned soldiers’ scheme to study film-making in Adelaide. He met musicians there and formed the Moonshine Jug and String Band, which morphed into the Keystone Angels and then the Angels.
The Angels became Australia’s highest-paid band by the late 1970s and continued with a string of hits into the 1990s, with Neeson as singer/songwriter.
The Angels’ first single, Am I Ever Going to See Your Face Again, released in 1976, became a youth anthem. Neeson is survived byhis partner Annie Souter and four children.