Rose Tattoo are for many including myself ‘the’ great Aussie Rock band. Sure AC/DC made it bigger and burned brighter but the Tatts kept it dirtier, grittier and had the real passion and fury that few could match. Their story has had more than its fair share of twists and turns and continues to do so with long time drummer DeMarco currently serving a little ‘time’. The one constant has been Angry Anderson the man with the pipes to keep the fires burning. If you’d asked him a few years back if Tatts would be on the road again you might have got a different answer, but today he tells us he’s committed to a ‘five year plan’ that will take the band on the road in Europe later in the year. We even ask about the potential for a new album, but you’ll have to read on to find out about that. One thing I will say is that when you talk to Angry you get a real sense of the man and he makes you feel like you’ve known him forever. We also get to chew the fat on topics like the chance of a new AC/DC with Axl Rose and one of my favourite bands and Angry’s also – The Faces.
Mark: Angry, how are you this morning?
Angry: Hello, I’m good but I’m told I should be wearing a headset.
Mark: Better safe than sorry, you never know what we’ll find out about mobile phones in years to come?
Angry: Well I remember years ago I bought this, well when I say bought it, I bought the spiel and bought a kit that immobilized your phone, there was this adhesive thing to it and you stuck it on the back of your phone and it was all about magnetism and stuff. And then some time later someone told me it was just a scam. It had been on TV and been exposed so when they sent me a reminder that I needed to buy another one I didn’t reply.
Mark: Perhaps a wise move. It’s always good to see you back in WA.You were recently in Perth to kick off the Rose Tattoo Australian Tour, which we covered.
Angry: And it’s always a pleasure to be there in the West.
Mark: and I personally got to see you at the ‘Blood Sweat and Beers’ show late last year.
Angry: Yeah, yeah that’s a great show, when we first put the idea together or the concept if you like, the authenticity has always been our strong point and I think that transposes to the audience, I think they get that but it evolved very quickly from pretty much being a two band horse race (Rose Tattoo and AC/DC) to four (adding The Screaming Jets and The Angels), and that’s great as it made a complete picture. ‘Cos in the early days it was just all about AC/DC and Rose Tatts but now it’s a four part show it now showcases equally four of the great Alberts bands. It’s been a great experience for me to, and it’s not like I didn’t see this coming, but in my band Angry Anderson and co. the bass-player Dario plays bass with the Baby Animals and he was the first person to introduce me to our new manager Scotty Crawford, I’d heard about him from other people that he was this ‘Young Turk’ new on the block and that he was doing good things and great things for our people, he started out with James Reyne and then the Baby Animals and he’s now picked up Mondo Rock. First he wanted to talk tome about what I wanted to do solo-wise but within ten minutes it was like “So what’s happening with the Tatts?” (laughs) and I said “Well, not much!” So he said “Well can we talk about it” and I said “Yeah, yeah sure,but the book’s gone quiet so I put it down, well not quiet really, I closed it so to speak.” So he said “Well do you want to go on with it?”, and at the time it was “No” but with hindsight I think I was ready to, I was refreshed and out of mourning, so I thought let’s talk about doing something with Rose Tattoo. And I’m very grateful that that happened because the concept was that we had a line-up but it was fluid Johnny Watson who was playing drums didn’t play at the weekend because he wasn’t available, and Peter Heckenberg is playing drums in Angry Anderson and Co. but that’s only until DeMarco gets out when he comes out he’ll sit on the stool and that’s a given and what I said to Dai and DeMarco was when he gets out and he ca platy in the band then we’ll think about forming a permanent line-up. Now that may or may not happen because one of the things Dai and I are enjoying about this line-up is we get to play with some great people – Mark (Evans) is great to play with and great to work with and so is Bobby Spencer. The second half of this year, because there’s an Australian Tour and a European Tour later in the year…
Mark: Yeah,so not only have you put the band back together, but you’ve jumped in with both feet!
Angry: Well, you know it’s all or nothing with me and when we went over and did ‘Bang Your Head’ last year Thomas who runs Wakken who first took us over in the early 90’s and introduced us to management over there, and back into Europe where we toured every year for years up until 2008. But to cut a long story short he came to see us when we did ‘Bang Your Head’ and said “Look ever since ‘Bang Your Head’ was announced and that you were coming to play just this one show, all the promoters want the band and I said no to more shows that year, it was just a one-off and he said “Well what about next year then?” And I said ‘Well what do you think could come of next year?” and he said “Well everyone wants the band so take your pick.” So I said OK, we’ll come over for a month make sure it’s not a one off or just a novelty, and make sure we can last the distance let alone there’s the interest there. So for the first part of this year we’re doing April through Australia and June through Europe and then later on in the year we’re doing September through Europe, and the UK, and then we come back and do October through Australia.
Mark: Wow, that’s a big year and you’re taking in some of the other biggest Festivals too. This year you’ve got the biggest in France ‘Hellfest’ and the biggest in Sweden ‘Sweden Rock’
Angry: Well it’s in keeping with what Thomas said, he said look once it was announced that you were coming to do Bang Your Head, and people saw Thomas as a point as reference for us as he let it be known he was co-managing the band, all the interest he had around that, all the promoters asked when I said we were only doing the one gig,if they could get in early and book for next year, which is this year. So what he did was ask what I could give him, and as I’d been talking to Scotty Crawford about other things I told him I’d give it some serious thought . I was pretty much ready to retire really and just concentrate on my Angry Anderson and Co. and ‘Blood, Sweat and Beers’ and maybe just balance the two. So I had a long hard think about what I wanted to do so I basically said to Scotty “Look this is what’s happening over there. We’ve got management here, management there, why don’t we look at the classic (laughs) five-year plan” So I told him I’d give him five years,so I’ve basically committed to that. Because within that five years DeMarco if he has to serve full tie gets out 2020, and if he gets parole he may be out earlier so I encompassed that and even if he serves his full sentence we’ve still got a couple of years to get him back playing here and there. So it’s ‘in for a penny, in for a pound.’
Mark: You’ve done it now.
Angry: (laughs) So let’s go for it!
Mark: So you know what I have to ask you now, in that five-year plan does an album fit in there?
Angry: Well that won’t happen, and basically I’ve not said no, but it won’t happen until DeMarco’s out. I won’t record, when I say I won’t write I’ve got some great ideas and I’ve got some good tunes and Bobby Spencer’s a good writer, he’s just released an album and he sent me some songs years ago when I was looking for songs for me so I think if Bobby stays in the line-up and Dai and I have knocked tunes together since he joined the band, in fact he got a tune on the last album ‘Blood Brothers’ called stand-over man that’s a highly charged song. So I know there’s material there and I’m always writing lyrics. So I’m not saying yes there’ll be an album, I’m certainly saying there’s a very strong distinct possibility, but we’re just waiting for DeMarco to get out and record and we can all come up with an album.
Mark: I know you’ve always said in the past that you hoped there’d be a swan song in you.
Angry: Oh you know I’d hate to think that we didn’t have another album. It’s like when do you say it’s over? I mean it’s still happening when a couple of years ago I thought “You know what, I think the writing’s on the wall.” Maybe I’ve just got to start listening to the whispers on the wind, so to speak, and maybe it’s saying “Ango, you’ve had your day now go away.” And I was quite happy I thought well if that’s what the divine has planned for me there are other things I wanted to do. I mean I want to complete what I started to do with (the book) ‘Scarred for Life’ – it was a coffee table book and that was pretty much what was needed at the time,but there’s a large book there, a more complicated, more complex book to write under that title. Then there’s the solo stuff, I’ve always wanted to do something very traditionally Blues.
Mark: That would be great.
Angry: I think so, so there’d be other things to do musically. I wasn’t planning on doing this though, but then I don’t plan things, but I’m not a fatalist either, it’s not ‘any way the wind blows’. But there is something purposeful behind what I refer to as ‘the wisdom’ and the best way to explain that is that a couple of years ago I was about ready to sell up and move out of the City, which I desperately want to do and move onto a country property or into a country town where life is just quieter and simpler. That’s the utopian thing, the sea change which I really intend to do because the City is driving me nuts, I don’t feel like I belong here again, I don’t fit in, it aggravates me, people don’t indicate when they fucking drive, (laughs) I guess that’s a pretty small example! But the whole thing’s changing and I kind of think “You know what? There’s so much change I can accommodate and there’s so much I just fucking can’t!” So it’s not gonna change so I have to, I’ve gotta get out. But long story short I saw Scotty Crawford and said let’s go!
Mark: Europe’s excited too and a pretty exciting place to be and play as a rock band, huge Festivals and still a great appetite out there and it is translating at least over there to the younger generation. To a lot of fans it’s also exciting to get the chance to also see a band like Rose Tattoo again.
Angry: You see what it’s about, and I think we touched on this once before when we spoke, the whole thing has evolved anyway,these days it’s not about the ‘band’ band those days when we were a bunch of bothers and we were taking on the world, it’s still like that in essence but it’s not about the image anymore it’s not about breaking new ground or making great new music. When we first started touring overseas they loved the music but they also loved what the band looked like because that was new, these days its not about the image. These days any line-up that goes out under the name Rose Tattoo I can guarantee that it will be a group of musicians who will put their hear and soul into the songs and they will be more than capable of playing the music authentically. Because what it’s about now is playing the music, they don’t want the antics of old because there’s no more Pete Wells, there’s no more Mick Cocks, and Robin Riley is still alive but he’s not in the line-up, so what they want, and America too is desperately wanting us to go back but that would have to make financial and profile sense, what they’re wanting to hear is the songs. It’s all about the music we made.
Mark: You’re right people are listening to that great music again, listening to Rose Tattoo, AC/DC, Zeppelin, it’s all coming round again, kids are rediscovering great music.
Angry: Exactly, I was talking to Angus earlier last year when we were doing the encores and we were opening for Guns ‘n’ Roses but Angus and I were asked to do the encores and I said to him “What are you going to do?” and he said “Mate I’m writing a new album.” I thought “Cool” so I asked him who was in the band and he said “Axl.” Brian’s not there, Phil’s not there, Cliff’s not there, sadly Malcolm’s not there. And there are these people, and yes it’s sad that the original line-up aren’t there anymore but it’s the songs, people who have supported them all the way through their career they want to hear the songs. And in a sense we owe that to people, so really it’s a debt of gratitude and what we’re saying is you’ve stood by us, we’ll stand by you. So Angus, and let’s face it he doesn’t need the money, he acknowledges that there are still millions of people around the world that want to hear AC/DC songs played live. In the same way, though on a much lesser scale obviously there are plenty of people around the world who want to hear the songs that made Rose Tattoo famous. They want to hear those songs played live. And this is a line-up that can do that.
Mark: You’re right they can.
Angry: I loved the way Dai when we first started rehearsing, and I had to go and do something so the boys stayed back and ran through some tunes, I called him up the net day to see how it had gone and he said that they ran through the whole set they all just wanted to play and play and play. They were all running around like dogs with two dicks (laughs) And that’s what I mean there’s so much joy and energy in this line up and the second half of the yea sadly Watto can’t do as he’s off with James Reine and also he plays with his wife Vika Bull. But the good thing is we have a fluidity in the line up that allows us to do that. And once we put the word around,one of the things Dai and I have found in a very flattering way, some of the people who have put their hands up, you think wow that’s as good as it gets.
Mark: I’ve been talking to a lot of old Blues players recently trying to get to the heart of their love of music and find the songs that really struck a chord with people. Is there one song for you that really exemplifies all you love bout music, a song that stops you in your tracks every time you hear it?
Angry: That… is difficult. The first song that actually brought a tear to my eye then and still does now is ‘Heartbreak Hotel.’ My favourite Rolling Stones song which interestingly enough I’ve never covered it is ‘Gimme Shelter’ but the other song of there’s that I have covered ad-nauseum is ‘Jumping Jack Flash’ which is one of the greatest rock songs ever written. Then there’s certain things that Zeppelin have done and anything by The Faces.
Mark: Such a great band and a real rock and roll band as well.
Angry: They are my favourite band of all time, and people say what about The Stones? And I love the Stones, looove the Stones but I fucking LOOOVE The Faces.
Mark: What I love about The Faces is that they got it on every level, they understand that music has to move people, but it also has to mean something, it has to be communicated and revered, but it’s also fun and also about the party. It didn’t hurt that they were also insanely talented musicians.
Angry: Oh absolutely! I just got a new system, well when I say new I just got two Bose columns I bought at a garage sale and I just had them rebuilt o they’re s good as they would have been when they were first built so I’m playing all my favourite records. And when you think of Roddy Stewart The Faces never did a bad album and his early music like ‘Every Picture’ and ‘Maggie May’ but in recent times I’ve been playing stuff like ‘Beckola’ and ‘Cosa Nostra’ and Jeff Beck has gone on to be something ethereal as a guitar player but he started out with Ronnie Wood and ll those guys playing Yardbirds blues, real English Rock and Roll. It’s the music that gave American Rock and Roll, a music that was whimpering and simpering at that time, after the genius of greats like Buddy Holly and Gene Vincent and Bo Diddly, stuff got watered down as Pete always says, “Mediocrity is best seller” and it is. But anyway one of the things the English bands did is take American Blues and they gave it back it’s grunt, The Kinks did it, The Stones did it and Rod Stewart and The Face when you think about The Faces, and I’ve got a lot of videos of them, that stuff still gives me the shivers. And when you listen to the stuff he did with Jeff Beck it’s just fucking extraordinary.
Mark: One of my favourite bands The Faces, and I think it was the reverence that bands like that had for the material and their influences that set them apart. As you say, America took something great and tried to water it down while those guys took it and held it up high.
Angry: Absolutely. I think what I used to feel was that the real rockers of the 50’s were so raw and outrageous and then the industry took that and changed it and watered it down, but it had to do that to make it into the huge industry it came to be.But one of the things I loved about the British bands was that they gave Rock and Roll back it’s edge and that started with the Beatles, they gave it it’s danger again. But it was the bands that I loved like The Stones and The Faces that the went back again to Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard, they went back and recreated that danger.
Mark: I’ve just got one final question…
Angry: Now keep that in mind because one thing just popped into my mind. When I was in Buster (Brown) a song that we did, and one of my favourite Faces songs is a song called ‘Borstal Boys.’
Mark: Great song, definitely in my Faces Top 5.
Angry: I fucking love that song. Now go!
Mark: It’s an easy one to close, what is the meaning of life?
Angry: (exhales) In a spiritual sense, and this goes way back and it’s a public thing, maybe 30 or so years ago I found a breakthrough in my life, I came to realise that I am a spiritual being, it’s the other half of me and I’ve worked very, very hard to develop that and I’m still working on that. there’s my physical side as well, but once you realise that you are this other being you can then get in touch with it, so to speak. So you look at nature and I’m looking out the window now, I’m looking at the trees and looking at the flowers and I’m looking at the moody sky and I’m watching the wind go through there and I realise that the beauty of the divine is manifest everywhere. And the meaning of life for us as individuals is to do that – it’s to manifest in any way we can with whatever tools we are given to understand the beauty of the amazing gift that we are alive. We are a creation of the creational process. we are just here to do the best we can with the time that we’ve got and the energy that we’ve got and the talents that we’ve got.
Mark: That’s a really nice answer. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to The Rockpit. I for one hope that you will do that Blues album, I hope you have a great tour in Europe and most of all I hope to hear a cover of ‘Borstal Boys’ fro you one day.
Angry: (laughs) mate, I said to the boys when we do that Angry Anderson and Co, we always start out doing a favourite bunch of covers so you never know.
Mark: It’s been an absolutely pleasure talking to you today Angry, look after yourself and have a great tour.
Angry: Thank you brother. See you next time.
Rose Tattoo European Tour 2018
