ANGEL magic with the music

ANGEL magic with the music

“Sometimes people think that we’re the opposite of Kiss, you know, they’re black and evil and we’re white and good, that’s just not true,” the members of Angel told me with a look of concern on their faces. I told them I didn’t think it made much difference as long as their music was their own.

“Exactly,” they said, “but still we didn’t form this band to have those kind of comparisons made.”

The truth is that Angel is one of the new wave rock bands who, like Kiss, have decided that a theatrical approach to rock can enhance the band’s music and the audience’s good time without detracting anything. The Angel line-up, Punky Meadows, Gregg Guiffria, Frank Dimino, Barry Brandt, and Felix Robinson are trying for something different, however, than the fire and brimstone theatrics that has become the Kiss trademark.

“We have two illusions, one to begin and one to end the show,” they explained, promising me to a vow of secrecy as we talked about how they were done. Where Kiss and P/Funk use their stage sets as backgrounds in front of which they present their show and music, Angel has come up with a unique approach which has yet to be duplicated by any other band. They literally appear onstage at the beginning of their show and disappear when it ends. The secret: illusions built by the fellow who creates illusions for such master magicians as Doug Henning.

Angel’s staging goes beyond their opening and closing illusion. They dress in white with many of the props onstage done in white such as Frank Dimino’s mike stand. They also have a huge head logo of an angel that rises up and produces incredible effects using holographic principles. But as much as they enjoy using these effects as part of their presentation, the band is quick to point out that it would all be useless if they didn’t have their music together.

Musically the band is a combination of various influences. When they were formed in March 1975 at a Washington, D.C. club most of the band members had up to tqn years of experience as rock performers. They’d tried all the routes to the top and it was only this magic combination that they felt could really launch them. “Some of us had played together in bands and we had all seen each other play,” remembers Punky Meadows. “It all just seemed to come together at the right time.”

When we first played, it was such a powerful thing, we seemed to generate an amazing amount of energy among ourselves and it’s been that way ever since,” Frank adds. The energy of Angel resulted in their recording contract with Casablanca Records and a series of albums that has demonstrated that the band while sticking to their rock core throughout can reflect many different moods with their music.

“The best thing about this band is that nobody’s holding anyone back; in fact, we all have to strain to keep up with each other. As long as we keep changing and keep growing, we’ll be getting stronger and stronger as a unit,” adds Frank.

The combination of a magical show and a musical originality is the key to the Angel experience. But as Punky points out, “We know that we’re entertainers as well as musicians, but at the same time, we don’t want anything to interfere with the music.”