Angry Anderson: The Rock ’n’ Roll Outlaw Who Made Room for Everyone
Angry Anderson has died at 79. After suffering a cardiac arrest during Rose Tattoo’s European tour, he died on 21 September in Australia, surrounded by loved ones.
When I heard the news, I reached for Rock ’n’ Roll Outlaw. That is what many of us do when a musician who has been with us for most of our lives passes away. We put on the record and, for a while, find ourselves back in the room where we first heard it.
Rose Tattoo arrived in my life when I was playing guitar, trying to make my way in a band and wondering what might happen next. I loved AC/DC, especially Powerage, but this record had a rawness all of its own. The slide guitar, the rhythm section and Angry’s voice seemed to come straight from the streets. Songs such as “Nice Boys”, “Bad Boy for Love”, “The Butcher and Fast Eddy” and “One of the Boys” were full of characters, defiance and the rough edges of real life. Coming from Birmingham, I recognised something in that music, even though it came from the other side of the world.
I never saw Rose Tattoo live, and I wish I had. For me, Rock ’n’ Roll Outlaw remains the record that captures them most completely: loud, direct, unpolished in the best possible way and absolutely alive. It belongs in any serious rock ’n’ roll collection.
The man beyond the image
Angry looked every inch the tough rock frontman. The name, the tattoos and the force of his performances made that image impossible to miss. As I prepared this tribute, people in the Now Spinning Magazine community helped me see more of the man behind it.
One of my patrons (see full tribute below), a lifelong Rose Tattoo fan, wrote to me about the way Angry’s lyrics spoke to working people and their struggles. He also remembered a performer who paid attention to the people in front of him. At shows, Angry would ask those near the stage to make space for shorter fans, women and people using wheelchairs. He remembered familiar faces, spoke to fans between songs and made time for them afterwards. These are the kinds of memories that tell you what somebody was like when the music stopped.
Angry also gave his time and public voice to young people experiencing homelessness, rehabilitation work and men’s health. He worked with the Salvation Army’s youth homelessness services and helped raise awareness of prostate cancer. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for his advocacy for young people. His life included terrible personal loss, including the murder of his son Liam. I cannot claim to know how he carried that grief. I can say that the accounts of his kindness and his work for others deserve a place alongside every tribute to his music.
Why these losses reach so deep
When we see a photograph of a band from our youth and realise that the people in it are gone, we are also reminded of our own old groups of friends: the people we played football with, met in the pub or travelled with before life took us in different directions. Some we have lost. That is part of why a record can bring such a rush of emotion. It holds the people we were, and the people who shared that time with us.
I find these tributes harder to make than I once would have understood. My dad used to hear that an actor he admired had died and say, “Another one gone.” I understand him now. We have also lost people within our own music community. It makes me want to say to the men reading this: pay attention to your health, get checked and do not put off talking to someone if something is wrong.
But I also want to say this: do not wait for sad news to pull an old favourite from the shelf. Run your finger along your records, find one that meant the world to you and give it your full attention. Hear the guitars come in. Remember the excitement. That feeling is still there.
Angry Anderson gave us music that could make a young guitarist in Birmingham feel seen. He also, by the accounts of those who met him, made room for people who might otherwise have been overlooked. That is a powerful legacy for a rock ’n’ roll outlaw.
Thank you, Angry. And thank you to the Now Spinning community for sharing your memories. Let’s keep the music playing.
Phil Aston, Now Spinning Magazine
From Eu Ming Lim A lifelong fan
“As many of you may have heard, Angry Anderson has passed after a heart attack in the middle of the farewell tour in Europe, celebrating 50 years of the band.
As a lifelong fan of the music, the band and the man, it is very hard to put in words to describe my feelings at this time. I grew up with that music, identified with it and the emotions accompanying it, and as a young Asian student in Australia, made me feel more Australian as the years went by.
I have followed the band for more than two thirds of my life and to suddenly realise that someone with so much life and vitality is now no more is very hard to comprehend and process.
We all know of the story of Angry and this career. The early years were very hard personally and has been well documented. In the later years of his life, he did not mind be called Ango, as he continued to evolve into a more gentle, understanding and caring human being that we knew and loved so well .
The music was always raw, loud, powerful but most of all, it was real and honest in every respect. The lyrics spoke of everyday working life, the pain and struggles of the everyday person in Australia of the 1960s and 1970s. It was real music, it was honest music, it was music that came from the heart. Those who loved rock ‘n’ roll music also came to appreciate and identify with the words that came with it.
Whilst the lyrics can be biting and confronting and in between song banter sometimes triggering , and whether you agreed not, it was always said with a strong sense of belief and conviction. Sometimes he spoke about current political issues, sometimes of everyday issues and sometimes it was just plain cheeky banter which would set off the whole audience into an uproar or raucous laughter depending on whether you found it funny or not. You could not remain neutral.
He spoke often of struggles in life and how pain is a constant companion and how we all have to live with pain and by going through it, we will learn the lessons of life. It reminds me of the death of his son in 2018 from the very violence which he struggled so much against in his early life.
He spoke often of his love of Australia and Australian values. He frequently mentioned the notion that freedom was very precious and that freedom was not free, but rather something to be cherished and defended at all times, although, not the freedom to destroy Australian values.
One of his regular lines on stage was ‘ when tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes obligation’ before the band goes on play Rock and Roll Outlaw.
Above everything else, he was Australian to the core and extremely proud of it.
At the shows the band would play for about an hour and 1/2 and there would be no encores. As Ango always said, ‘we give of everything we have in the tank for our shows, and do not leave anything in reserve for encores’.
Anger was always a gentleman when he was performing. Frequently he would pause to ask the audience to make space for people who were small in stature, women or otherwise not able to make it to the front. On many occasions, he will tell the guys to make room for the ladies and others on wheelchairs or otherwise unable to physically make their way closer to the front. He would recognise long time and regular fans and would call them out from time to time and sometimes even have a quick chat with them in between songs.
After shows were always fun for all will will will those of us will knew the band a bit better, and would stay back to say hello, have photographs taken, chat, a drink and generally talk about all sorts of things. In more recent years, I’ve had the opportunity of doing just that and in spite of our differences in age, cultural background and other differences, he was always welcoming and I felt privileged to be in this company every time we managed to catch up.
Although he was taken ill in the middle of the European leg of the farewell tour, it is nevertheless comforting to know that when the end came, he was doing the very thing which all of us hope that we will be doing, having fun and being with those we love doing what makes us happy in life. And above all, staying true to his mantra, ‘Stay Young, Grow Strong’
Goodbye Ango, we will not forget.
