Doc Neeson
Northern Irish-Australian singer
Bernard Patrick "Doc" Neeson OAM (4 January 1947 – 4 June 2014) was an Australian singer-songwriter and musician. He was the front man for the hard rock band The Angels from its formation in February 1976 through to 1999. The band then split up and reformed in 2008 after a lengthy legal battle where Doc resumed his place as front man. For the group, Neeson was the main singer-songwriter and was the driving force behind the band being propelled into stardom for a period spanning over three decades. Their top 20 studio albums on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart are Face to Face (June 1978), No Exit (June 1979), Dark Room (June 1980), Night Attack (November 1981), Watch the Red (May 1983), Two Minute Warning (November 1984) and Howling (October 1986). Their number-one album, Beyond Salvation, on the ARIA Albums Chart appeared in February 1990 and was followed by another top 20 album, Red Back Fever (November 1991). The group's top 20 singles on the related Australian charts are "No Secrets" (1980), "Into the Heat" (1981), "Never so Live" (1981), "We Gotta Get out of This Place" (1987), "Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again" (live, 1988), "Let the Night Roll On" (1990) and "Dogs Are Talking" (1990). On 20 October 1998, at the ARIA Awards the group were inducted into the Hall of Fame.
In early December 1999, three weeks prior to his performance at the Tour of Duty - Concert for the Troops in East Timor, Neeson had a car accident on the Sydney M4 Motorway, which led to years of pain and rehabilitation. Against all medical advice, he returned to the stage to carry on his legacy and resumed performing in 2006.
“Doc Neeson” enters the record as northern Irish-Australian singer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Neeson, Northern and Irish-Australian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Doc Neeson” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Neeson, Northern and Irish-Australian provides the most credible route into that argument.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5287099. The first chronological checks are 1947, 2014, 1976 and 1999.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Doc Neeson”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Doc Neeson primary sources, Doc Neeson archive and Neeson research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Doc Neeson”?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Doc Neeson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.