Angry Anderson has died aged 79, after he was hospitalised following a cardiac arrest while on tour in Germany with the band Rose Tattoo.
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he → die → band
Gary Anderson was not a nice boy growing up.
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Anderson → grow → ?
As one of the founding members of Melbourne motorcycle club the Vigilanties, he initially earned the sobriquet Mouse, on account of his diminutive stature.
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he → found → stature
Determined to prove himself a man, he developed a penchant for taking on blokes twice his size.
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he → prove → blokes
It earned him a new nickname: the Angry Ant.
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It → earn → nickname
Angry – shortened for impact – suited him better.
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Angry → shorten → him
An accomplished rabble-rouser and ferocious rock’n’roll singer, Angry Anderson ended up channelling his energy into a variety of causes, the most successful of which was the Tatts, the balls-out band (there are photos to prove it) he fronted until the end.
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he → end → end
By Anderson’s own admission, the Angry persona was akin to a cartoon character; Buster Brown – his band before Rose Tattoo, with AC/DC’s Phil Rudd on drums – was actually named after one.
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Brown → name → one
In 1974 they cut an album for Mushroom, Something to Say, and built a loyal following among the local sharpies in Melbourne.
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they → cut → Melbourne
Rose Tattoo, formed in Sydney in 1976, were a far meaner proposition.
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Tattoo → form → 1976
Slide guitarist Peter Wells gave their sound much of its switchblade menace and brain-busting volume, but it was Anderson’s voice that cut through everything.
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that → give → everything
In Buster Brown, he had proved himself a capable blues singer.
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himself → prove → Brown
In Rose Tattoo, he rarely bothered with such niceties; nice boys don’t play rock’n’roll.
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boys → bother → rock’n’roll
Tiny, bald and nearly fully illustrated (his upset mother told him he was scarred for life), with mirrored aviator shades and kicked-in teeth, Angry was flanked by much bigger hooligans on stage.
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Angry → illustrate → stage
But there was no doubting who the leader of the gang was.
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leader → be → gang
The first self-titled Rose Tattoo album, released in 1978 – the same year as AC/DC’s Powerage and the Angels’ Face to Face – appeared at the height of the blood-and-thunder Alberts sound defined by producers and former Easybeats Harry Vanda and George Young.
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album → title → producers
Featuring the enduring singles Bad Boy for Love and Rock ’n’ Roll Outlaw, it is a stone classic of the genre.
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it → feature → genre
The butchest of bands, who looked as if they’d just busted out of Pentridge, managed to get temporarily banned from Countdown after Anderson exchanged chewing gum in a kiss with guitarist Mick Cocks.
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Anderson → look → Cocks
Radio ignored them, crowds thinned, and the band lost momentum.
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band → ignore → momentum
Rose Tattoo’s fortunes changed in 1981 when their self-titled debut and its follow-up, Assault and Battery, both reached No 1 on the British heavy metal charts.
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debut → change → charts
At Reading festival in the UK, Anderson’s physicality was terrifying, head-butting the amplifier stacks until blood streamed down his face.
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blood → butt → face
Welcomed home as conquering heroes, the band’s third album Scarred for Life yielded an Australian hit with We Can’t Be Beaten before the lineup split.
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We → welcome → split
What happened after that was one of Oz rock’s most unlikely transformations as Anderson slowly ingratiated himself into the nation’s heart as a youth advocate and all-round rough diamond.
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Anderson → happen → advocate
There were forays into acting – a 1985 appearance as Ironbar Bassey in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome was fully on brand – and social justice; soon he was making surprise appearances on the Midday Show with Ray Martin, then more regular ones on A Current Affair.
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he → be → Affair
But the biggest curveball of Anderson’s career was yet to come.
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curveball → come → career
By 1987, Anderson was the sole remaining member from the classic Rose Tattoo lineup.
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Anderson → remain → lineup
The power ballad Suddenly, a world away from their earlier hellraising sound, was released as a solo single and became a smash when it was used to soundtrack – of all things! –the wedding of Scott and Charlene (Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue) on Neighbours.
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it → release → Neighbours
Suddenly went to No 2 nationally, ironically kept from top spot by Minogue’s debut single Locomotion.
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Suddenly → go → single
It also went to No 3 in the UK.
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It → go → UK
For a while, Angry was everywhere – even headlining the half-time entertainment at the 1991 AFL grand final, arriving in what looked like a Batmobile to sing Bound for Glory in a legendarily off-key performance.
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what → headline → performance
Guns N’ Roses – having covered Nice Boys on their Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide EP – recruited the band to support them on their Use Your Illusion tour in 1993; the same year, Anderson was awarded an Order of Australia.
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Anderson → cover → Australia
In 2006, after two strong comeback albums, Rose Tattoo were inducted into the Aria Hall of Fame.
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Tattoo → induct → Fame
You can trace their lineage through a slew of punk and hard rock bands, from the Cosmic Psychos to Amyl and the Sniffers (even the Veronicas invited Angry on stage to do Nice Boys).
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Veronicas → trace → Boys
In later life, Anderson blended charity, television and music with hard-right politics.
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Anderson → blend → politics
After expressing anti-immigrant views, he appeared in SBS’s Go Back to Where You Came From in 2012.
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You → express → 2012
In the 2013 federal election, he stood for the electorate of Throsby in New South Wales for the National party, switching to the Australian Liberty Alliance in 2016.
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he → stand → 2016
Anderson also suffered significant tragedy in his life.
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Anderson → suffer → life
His work with troubled youth stemmed from his own experience of child abuse; later, he stumped for men’s health after five of his early Rose Tattoo comrades succumbed to cancer.
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five → stem → cancer
The cruellest loss of all was that of his son Liam, killed in 2018 in a case that made national headlines.
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that → kill → headlines
It is both true and a cliche to say Angry Anderson was a survivor.
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Anderson → say → ?
…and 2 more, not listed.
The Aporia
