Here is the usual prologue.

My blogger pal Deke over at Thunder Bay had a cool Northern Hemisphere Summertime Series between July and August.

Each week, he wrote about albums he spun during the summer.

Well, the real Earth summer is between December, January and February in the Southern Hemisphere.

So the good act that Thunder Bay is, boarded a Qantas plane, landed in Sydney, survived 14 days quarantine in a Sydney hotel and is finally here to present the “Thunder Bay Down Under Summertime Series”.

I’m sure you’ve all heard their song “Am I Ever Gonna See Your Fave Again”. If you haven’t the live version of the song has the following words;

Am I Ever Gonna See Your Fave Again
No way, get fucked, fuck off

It came out in 1977, but it really became it’s own beast in the 80s and when it appeared on their live album “Live Line” released in 1987, it’s legendary status within Australia was certified and it re-entered the charts.

Their earlier albums had production from Young and Vanda. The same dudes who worked with AC/DC and the same dudes from The Easybeats and of course George Young is the older brother of Angus and Malcolm.

After the success of “Live Line”, the Australian market was primed for a new album.

“Beyond Salvation” was released in Australia in early June 1990 and reached No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart.

The first single “Let the Night Roll On” came out six months prior to the album’s eventual release.

The second single “Dogs Are Talking” had tracks from young bands who would be touring in the support slots as the B Sides. What a brilliant idea to promote other acts. That’s how I came across Baby Animals.

The U.S. version of the album, released under the name “The Angels From Angel City” (seriously I never understood why US label reps would do that to Aussie bands), featured a vastly different track listing.

It’s made up of 4 songs from this album, “Dogs Are Talking”, “Rhythm Rude Girl”, “Let the Night Roll On” (the only 3 songs to also appear on the Australian edition), and “Junk City” (Australian single B-side to “Let the Night Roll On”).

And re-recordings of 5 classic Angels songs, “City Out of Control” (Night Attack, 1981), “Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again” (The Angels, 1977), “I Ain’t the One” (Face to Face, 1978), “Who Rings The Bell” (The Angels’ Greatest, 1980), and “Can’t Shake It” (No Exit, 1979).

But the album that survives today is the Aussie edition.

But the album divided the fan base.

Lyrically they switched to writing about loose women and the rock and roll spirit, which was a far cry from their more political/social consciousness and punk style lyrics from earlier albums.

For me, they filled the void in between AC/DC albums.

And if you want to hear rock in the vein of AC/DC then check out “Let The Night Roll On”, “Back Street Pick Up” and “Dogs Are Talking”.

“Rhythm Rude Girl” still has that pub rock spirit but it’s a bit more mature musically within the blues. There is this bass and drum groove in the song with some slide guitar licks. Its excellent.

The band still does the rounds these days with Dave Gleeson from The Screaming Jets on vocals after Doc Neeson passed away in 2014.

Check em out.