Brewster first musical memory is of watching his father play lead cello with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra as a small child.

“My dad had no interest in what I was into, but I remember one day I brought home I Am the Walrus by The Beatles,” Brewster said.

“I handed it to him to listen to, because it was recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra I thought he would enjoy it.

“He pulled out a cigarette and poured a scotch before listening to it three times.

“Then I remember he put it back in the sleeve, and as he handed it back to me said it was bloody rubbish,” he said with a laugh.

Although Brewster’s mother was a regular at gigs, his father never saw his two sons perform live on stage.

“He actually got into The Angels later in life,” Brewster said.

“One day he said to me, ‘I get it, you’ve got great ideas there’, and I said ‘dad you don’t know what it means to me to hear that’.”

The band that would become an Australian household name began in 1970 as the banjo infused, coffee house jamming Moonshine Jug and String Band. 

Within five years the group had quickly shot to fame in Adelaide, gone electric as The Keystone Angels, become mates with AC/DC, and found themselves on stage with the late, great Chuck Berry – the father of rock'n'roll.

“We were very green as a band and my brother Rick is a really good pianist and we had heard from Daddy Cool he never rehearsed with the band he would play with and wherever his hands landed on the guitar would be the key he would play the song in,” he said.

While Brewster was on bass, little did he know Berry had three strings running through a bass amp and three through a guitar amp – he was essentially playing two instruments at once.

“I played a riff on the bass and he turned around and told me to stop,” Brewster said with a laugh.

“He was very difficult, and would often demand more money at shows and he wasn’t the nicest to everyone around him.

“With all that aside, he’s one of the greats, and there’s a bit of Chuck Berry in all the greatest rock bands.”

After over 40 years together, Brewster puts the band’s longevity down to “a sporting team mentality” and shared unity towards a common goal.

“Face the Day was written about the difficulty of it all, burning the candle at both ends, and the days of waking up in the morning and having to play Countdown when you really didn’t want to,” he said.

“We’ve been through some ups and downs, people start getting married and having kids which changes things.

“We write pretty timeless songs, the good thing about rock'n'roll is we’re less fashion based.”

The hard work and relentless touring created a large following outside Australia, in a little cold pocket of North Western America that would spawn the 1990s grunge phenomenon.

“We know Kurt Cobain saw us play in Seattle, so did Mike McCready from Pearl Jam and we heard Dave Grohl was taken to one of our shows by his father,” he said.

Four decades on, and after numerous line-up changes and the recent tragic deaths of Doc Neeson and Chris Bailey, the group has just finished recording yet another full length record.

“It still knocks us out to see how much of the audience is young,” Brewster said.

Brewster’s son Sam has joined the group on bass duties, and alongside Screaming Jets vocalist Dave Gleeson, Nick Norton and Brewster’s brother and fellow founding member Rick, The Angels will hit the stage at Merimbula’s Club Sapphire on April 21 as part of an extensive regional tour.

“I remember having a great time down there, but it was maybe 30 years ago,” Brewster said with a laugh.

“We used to travel in our EH station wagon that never missed a beat.

“Now with mobile phones and Google, modern technology has completely changed touring because you don’t have to wait for anyone, and you know exactly what cafe has a good rating at the next town before you even get there.

“It’s pretty civilised really.”