Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again

"Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again" is an Australian rock song written by Doc Neeson, John Brewster and Rick Brewster, and performed by their group, the Angels. The song was initially recorded as a ballad in March 1976 but subsequently re-released as a rock song. The song reached number 58 on the Australian charts and stayed on the charts for nineteen weeks.

A live single was released in January 1988 as the lead single from Live Line. The live version features the expletive-laden audience response, "No Way, Get Fucked, Fuck Off". This chant has been described by The Guardians Darryl Mason as "one of the most famous in Australian rock history". The single peaked at number 11 on the Kent Music Report.

In January 2018, as part of Triple M's "Ozzest 100", the 'most Australian' songs of all time, "Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again" was ranked number 11.

History
Neeson said that the song was originally written as an acoustic ballad about grief and loss. The girlfriend of Neeson's friend was killed in a motorcycle collision, and the two friends were discussing life after death. The conversation inspired Neeson to write the lyrics. References to subjects like Santa Fe and Renoir came from Neeson's own experiences.

After British band Status Quo discovered numerous similarities between the song and one of their own ("Lonely Night"), the two bands reached an agreement in lieu of a lawsuit that saw Status Quo receive royalties from "Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again". Status Quo bassist Alan Lancaster was friends with members of the Angels at the time of the incident, and lived next door to John Brewster. In 2015, Brewster recounted having asked Neeson whether the song could've been based on "Lonely Night" and recalls a non-committal response: "I might have heard it at a disco".

Call and response

The famous response to the question posed in the chorus "Am I ever gonna see your face again?" is "No way, get fucked, fuck off". The response was not developed by the band. Neeson recalled that he first heard the response at Mount Isa in 1983 and was "a bit shocked." Thinking it was a criticism of the band, he asked audience members about it. They responded that the chant had its origins at a blue light disco in Sydney where the DJ would turn down the volume to encourage the audience response. The discos were a community initiative for teenagers by the police.

Although it is a famous audience chant in Australian rock music history, the exact origins of it are lost. In May 2014 Rick Brewster opined, "I don't think it will ever be solved because too many people put their hand up and said 'I started it' and we don't believe any of it. We just think it's funny, it's the bush telegraph really. The whole country was doing it and then we found when we went overseas the people in America were doing it too." Neeson noted that "it's become the audience's song, it doesn't belong to the band anymore".

The song and its response have become an iconic part of Australian culture, such that the song may be played by any band anywhere in Australia with the chant sung by whatever crowds are present.

In 1999, Neeson performed the song during a "Tour of Duty concert" for Australian troops in East Timor. The audience responded with the chant while Australia's then commander of the INTERFET forces in East Timor, Peter Cosgrove, East Timorese spokesman Jose Ramos Horta and Roman Catholic Bishop Belo were in attendance. When asked by Bishop Belo what the crowd was singing, Cosgrove responded "Well Lord Bishop I really can't quite make it out," adding in a retelling of the story, "Then Ramos Horta looked at me and I could tell that he could make it out!"

Track listing

Personnel 
The Angels
 Chris Bailey – bass guitar
 Buzz Bidstrup – drums
 John Brewster – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
 Rick Brewster – lead guitar
 Doc Neeson – lead vocals

Charts

References 

1976 debut singles
1988 singles
The Angels (Australian band) songs
Song recordings produced by Harry Vanda
Song recordings produced by George Young (rock musician)
Songs written by Doc Neeson
Songs written by John Brewster (musician)
Mushroom Records singles
Albert Productions singles
1976 songs