Angry Anderson has died aged 79, after he was hospitalised following a cardiac arrest while on tour in Germany with the band Rose Tattoo. Gary Anderson was not a nice boy growing up. As one of the founding members of Melbourne motorcycle club the Vigilanties, he initially earned the sobriquet Mouse, on account of his diminutive stature.
Determined to prove himself a man, he developed a penchant for taking on blokes twice his size. It earned him a new nickname: the Angry Ant. Angry – shortened for impact – suited him better.
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. 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. In 1974 they cut an album for Mushroom, Something to Say, and built a loyal following among the local sharpies in Melbourne.
But that was a mere dress rehearsal. Rose Tattoo, formed in Sydney in 1976, were a far meaner proposition. 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.
In Buster Brown, he had proved himself a capable blues singer. In Rose Tattoo, he rarely bothered with such niceties; nice boys don’t play rock’n’roll. Then there was the small matter of Anderson’s appearance.
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. But there was no doubting who the leader of the gang was. 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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