John and Rick Brewster, founding members of legendary Adelaide rock band The Angels, have been slammed by Doc Neeson’s son for the “incredibly wrong” information contained in the brothers’ new book about the band.
Taking to Facebook yesterday, Kieran Neeson expressed his disappointment and frustration at the new book, titled The Angels, released yesterday. In his post, Kieran claims that the book gets details about Doc Neeson’s life wrong, including the name of his own mother.
“I’ve been reading the recently released book on ‘The Angels’ and have been contemplating whether or not to share mine or my family’s thoughts on it given our heavy featuring in the book,” he began. “Heavier than I thought it would, and while I won’t go into detail about that right now, I am somewhat baffled.”
“Chapter 3 titled ‘Bernard Neeson’ talks about my father’s life in the early years and more importantly about his parents “Barney” and “Maureen”. I’m baffled at how they could get that so incredibly wrong? My father’s mother, my grandmother, her name is certainly not Maureen. It’s Kathleen. Kitty to those who knew her well. Either one of them would have been fine! Dad’s sister is Maureen, my aunty.”
Kieran goes on to state while the book makes small errors, it also includes a number of things that his father would not have wanted published, before conceding that “this is the world we live in”.
“There are many things in this book that were, are, private to Doc and his family, my family. Things which he wouldn’t have wanted published in a book for the world to see that’s for sure. Sadly, as we all know, he’s no longer here to defend himself, or give certain situations and events context and perspective from his side, but this is the world we live in.”
“Best front man I’ve ever seen and more importantly, a fantastic and loving father, which I don’t feel was portrayed very well at all throughout this book. Other personal things sure were, but not that. I guess we’ll have to write another book at least to get my grandparents name’s right!”
Doc Neeson sadly passed away in 2014 following a lengthy battle with brain cancer. Despite numerous personnel changes over the years, Neeson, along with the Brewster brothers are considered the core members of the group. The Angels still perform live today, with The Screaming Jets’ Dave Gleeson performing vocals, a role he has inhabited since Neeson left the group for a final time in 2011.
The Brewster brothers are set to kick off a book tour later this month, but it’s unclear at this stage whether they will respond to or amend any of the incorrect information contained within the book.
