Dave Gleeson: The Screaming Jets, Better and 12 years in The Angels | Ultimate Aussie Pub Rock Reunion

Why fans still care

DAVE GLEESON sings like the pub is about to close and he’s not leaving yet. The SA Music Museum credits him with “gritty vocals and electrifying stage presence”. Better made triple j’s Hottest 100 of Australian Songs in 2025, and he has kept two bands’ songs alive on stage.

Early life

Dave Gleeson grew up in Newcastle. The Angels got him early: seeing them at Narara in 1983 “ignited” it, he told The Rockpit. In Mushroom Music’s band biography he says their songs are “more ingrained in me than even Jets songs”.

Career chapters

1. 1989The Screaming Jets form in Newcastle
2. 1991Better reaches number 4; All for One reaches number 2; ARIA Best New Talent nomination
3. 1994Helping Hand nominated for APRA Song of the Year
4. late 2000smoves to Adelaide
5. 2011becomes singer of The Angels
6. 2019They Who Rock tour with Baby Animals
7. 2022Triple M Nights begins
8. 2023announces departure from The Angels; Professional Misconduct debuts at number 3
9. 2025Better in the Hottest 100 of Australian Songs

The Screaming Jets 1989 onward

He started the band in Newcastle in 1989 with Grant Walmsley, Richard Lara, Brad Heaney and Paul Woseen, ABC News records. Better, written by Walmsley, was a top-five single in 1991, and the debut album All for One was a top-two album, as Newcastle Herald and Noise11 coverage in the research record. C’Mon earned them an ARIA nomination for Best New Talent in 1991, and Woseen’s Helping Hand was up for APRA Song of the Year in 1994, The Music records. In 2023 Professional Misconduct debuted at number 3 on the ARIA Albums Chart.

The Angels 2011 to 2023

In 2011 he became singer of The Angels, after Doc Neeson, Who’s Who number 4, stopped fronting the band, Noise11 reported. He sang on Take It to the Streets in 2012 and toured with Baby Animals, the band of Suze DeMarchi, Who’s Who number 17, on They Who Rock in 2019. His departure was announced in 2023, with a final run of shows planned through the Gympie Muster. “It’s been an honour and a pleasure to be part of The Angels’ continuing legacy,” he said in the statement reported by Hot Metal.

Radio

He returned to Triple M Nights from 31 January 2022, Mediaweek reported. “Triple M is the home of rock in Australia,” he told B&T.

Craft, sound and style

Taking from Doc

“The thing I most took from Doc was the energy,” he told The Rockpit in 2022. Rick Brewster put it this way in The Rockpit in 2019: “Dave does it in his own way and is always so respectful of Doc.”

Covers that fit

The Jets cut a hard version of Shivers, written by Rowland S. Howard and recorded by The Boys Next Door, the early band of Nick Cave, Who’s Who number 28, as The Music notes.

Stories people still tell

“All of them.” At a gig in the Adelaide Hills in 2011, the Brewster brothers asked which Angels songs he knew, Mushroom’s band biography says. “All of them,” he answered.

1. From support act to singer.

   In 1987 his Newcastle band Aspect supported The Angels at the Cessnock Supporters Club, The Music says. Twenty-four years later he was out front.

2. Just inside the 100.

   Better made the Hottest 100 of Australian Songs at number 100, Music Feeds reported, 30 votes ahead of Kylie Minogue at 101.

Legacy

Rick Brewster thanked him for 12 years and hundreds of gigs in the band’s departure statement.