Dave Gleeson
Encyclopedia
Dave Gleeson made his stage debut in 1978, with his school choir at the Abermain Eisitedford.
At 11 years old he won $10 in a talent contest at Cardiff Worker's Club singing Monster's Holiday with a friend.
Dave Gleeson formed his first rock band, Aspect, in 1985, with school
pal, Grant Walmsley. They wrote their own songs from the beginning, but
built up a popular live show filled with covers of Australian rock
classics by bands like The Angels and AC/DC. But a 1987 support slot at
Cessnock Supporters Club forced Aspect to bring more of their original
songs into the live show, and to hurriedly write a whole bunch of new
ones. The support slot was opening for The Angels, who, not
surprisingly, were none too keen on the idea of the opening band playing
The Angels biggest hits an hour before they themselves hit the stage.
Two weeks before their biggest live show, opening for The Angels, Aspect
had 15 minutes of original songs they could play. By the night of the
show, they'd written enough to fill an hour.
By 1989, Gleeson, Grant Walmsley, Paul Woseen, Richard Lara and drummer
Brad Heaney had formed The Screaming Jets and within twelve months had
clocked up more than 280 live shows, as they quickly established a
reputation for being one of the best young live bands in Australia,
winning the praises and support slots of The Angels, The Choirboys and
The Radiators.
By late 1989, The Screaming Jets had won youth radio station JJJ's
National Band Competition. They signed a recording deal with the leading
independent label rooArt.
The Screaming Jets moved from their hometown Newcastle to Sydney's
notorious Kings Cross district in early 1990, and recorded their debut
album All For One in mostly midnight to dawn sessions at a local studio,
after playing live shows seven nights a week.
During the second half of 1990, Dave Gleeson, in his own words, "went to
war" with the record company rooArt, over their pleas to drop the live
favourite Fat Rich Cunts from the The Screaming Jets debut album, due to
be released in early 1991 (Gleeson won and FRC was included on the album).
When The Screaming Jets held a series of sold out, raucous launches for
their debut EP in December 1990, Gleeson's fears about how devoted their
record company was to the band seemed to have been confirmed. "Printing
delays" saw The Screaming Jets launching an EP that didn't yet exist as
a CD. It wouldn't be released in record shops until weeks after the
'official launch.'
By May 1991, The Screaming Jets debut album All For One had reached
number two on the national charts, and the first single Better had
stormed to number 3.
Between 1990 and 1992, The Screaming Jets toured Australia seven times,
and took their 'Something Wicked This Way Comes' tour to UK, Europe and
the United States.
In 1991, Dave Gleeson published a 'friends only' limited edition
collection of his poetry, Maintain The Rage. The poetry captured his
horrified, disgusted reactions to the brutal gangland criminality of his
new Kings Cross neighbourhood. In a 1991 interview with music magazine,
On The Street, Gleeson described the poetry collection as "rage-oholic.
I'm blown away by the filth and depravity of Kings Cross, but I've
decided to stay and study it further."
The Screaming Jets live shows becam notorious through 1991, not only for
the volume and intensity of their rock, and the crowd fights, but for
Gleeson's onstage rants, where he'd routinely unleash on whatever had
troubled him that day, from the Gulf War to the Pope to then Prime
Minister Paul Keating, or leading music industry figures like Mushroom
Records' Michael Gudinski.
The Screaming Jets were kicked off a national tour with The Divinyls in
May 1991 after only a handful of shows, when the management of venues
the tour was due to take in complained in advance about Gleeson's
infamous profanity-laden tirades. The Screaming Jets responded to
getting booted off the tour by announcing their own headlining tour the
next day. The first show at Sydney University turned into a riot and
invading fans collapsed the stage. By the end of 1991, The Screaming
Jets were banned from performing in dozens of pubs and clubs around Australia.
In 1993, Dave Gleeson was cast as a mercenary in the Ralph Ziman film,
Hearts And Minds, and left for a month of on-location shooting in South
Africa. Gleeson had never acted before and, by his own admission, soon
found himself out of his depths. The movie remains unreleased.
Through the 1990s, Dave Gleeson toured Australia relentlessly with The
Screaming Jets and recorded three Top 10 charting studio albums, one top 20 charting album, three EPs and two live albums with the band.
In 1998, Gleeson contributed to a tribute album in honour of one of his
childhood idols, Slim Dusty. He met Dusty in a North Sydney pub for a
beer, after the recording, appeared on the This Is Your Life episode
dedicated to Slim Dusty and the two exchanged letters during the last
months of the legendary Australian songwriter's life.
In 2001, Dave Gleeson was offered the chance to sing the theme for a
national TV advertising campaign for a new ute. He recorded a demo, and
when asked what his fee for the ad using his voice would be, Gleeson
replied "Whatever you think is a fair thing." He got $500 and the ad was
broadcast around the country for two years. Since that incident, Dave
Gleeson has not used the phrase "Whatever you think is a fair thing"
during business meetings.
In 2002, Dave Gleeson recorded his first solo album, the blues-country
flavoured Wanted Man. In 2003, he took his album to the Tamworth Music
Festival.
From 2002 to 2005, Dave Gleeson could be seen most Thursday nights
across Australia fronting the house band on Channel Nine's The Footy Show.
Between 1999 and 2009, Dave Gleeson added guest vocals to albums by Troy
Cassar Daley, The Nevilles, the Totally Average Band (made up of
Australian cricketers like Brett Leigh and Gavin Robertson) and sang
live with a variety of Australian recording artists, including Lee
Kernaghan and Casey Chambers.
In 2006, Gleeson appeared as the vocal coach for actress Kate Fischer
Kate Fischer
Kate Fischer, aka Katie Fischer, is an Australian model and actress. She attended the Canberra Girls' Grammar School....
in the televised celebrity singing competition It Takes Two
It Takes Two (Australian TV program)
It Takes Two is the Australian version of UK series Just the Two of Us, currently in its third season. The first two series aired in 2006 and 2007. The third season began on Tuesday 12 February 2008 at 7:30 pm on Seven. The show was "rested" by Channel 7 in 2009 and will make a 2011 return...
. He returned to the show in 2007 partnered with TV host Julia Zemiro
Julia Zemiro
Julia Zemiro is an Australian television presenter, radio host, actor, singer and comedian.- Early life :...
.
Gleeson returned to the stage with The Screaming Jets intermittently
through 2009 and 2010, but was also hitting the road with "salute shows"
to two of his primary musical influences, Led Zeppelin and Bon Scott-era
AC/DC.
In early 2011, Dave Gleeson was offered a radio show with the MMM-FM
network. By mid-2011, Gleeson was hosting two shows, Access All Areas
and Rock Of Ages, interviewing everyone from Jimmy Barnes to Don McLean
and giving his inside view of the music industry.
In May, 2011, Dave Gleeson joined The Angels' Rick and John Brewster
onstage in Adelaide for a few songs.
Within days of that first show together, Rick and John Brewster had
invited Gleeson to join a new line-up of The Angels. Within two weeks,
the band was recording new songs with Gleeson at Sydney's Albert Studios
and played their first full live shows together as Rick Brewster's
Angels at the end of June.
In October, 2011, Dave Gleeson and The Angels began recording an album at Alberts Studios in Sydney.
In November, 2011, The Angels announced that Dave Gleeson was their new, permanent lead singer and began a national tour in support of the Waiting For The Sun EP.
External links
Access All Areas With Dave Gleesonhttp://www.noise11.com/news/dave-gleeson-really-is-the-new-lead-singer-for-the-angels The Angels Announce Dave Gleeson Replaces Doc Neeson As Lead Singer