You would half expect any gentleman at the ripe old age of 71, to be winding down, as the sands of time slowly pass through the hour glass of life…. Not so if that gentleman is Angry Anderson. The Rose Tattoo front man is certainly full of beans and sounds as hungry as ever, as The Tatts are nearing the end of a tour that started back in February and has taken them full circle from Australia, around most of Europe and back home for the final leg of the 40th Anniversary tour to celebrate the release of their debut album Rock n Roll Outlaw from way back in 1978. The Rockpit’s Sean Bennett managed to catch Angry at his Sydney home as he rested between shows to discuss memories of studio time with the original line-up, working with Vanda & Young, how the tour has panned out so far and his plans to record a final Tatts album…
Sean: Hey Angry, great to talk to you. How are things going?
Angry: Real good thanks Sean.
Sean: So you and the guys are out on the road celebrating the 40th anniversary of the release of the first album, Rock n Roll Outlaw…
Angry: Yeah, unfortunately we missed the 40th anniversary of the founding of the band – that was two years ago. But things always work out for the best – and I’ve always been the eternal optimist – we have no control over some things really. Having said that I was pretty much ready to retire after my political delineation but I thought the writings on the wall – I didn’t really want to do anything after Mick (Cocks) died. I’m a man who believes in omens and I thought if that wasn’t an omen then I don’t know what is. I basically thought it was time to hang up the rock n roll boots so to speak, and retire gracefully – instead of getting the old tap on the shoulder and the old “Hey Ango, you’re not looking too steady up there son” [laughs]. But as it turns out it wasn’t time yet.
Sean: And looking at the run of shows you’ve played so far this year it definitely wasn’t the time to call it a day. You guys have been everywhere with the band since February of this year.
Angry: Yeah, that’s the thing. I’ve always been very grateful for everything. I went back last year to do an old pal a favour and play a festival – Bang Your Head!!! in Germany. He’s always been very supportive of the Tatts. I thought it would be a nice holiday. Any trip to Europe is great, even more so when someone else is paying the bill and especially when all you have to do is get up and sing rock n roll, which is no big stretch. So we had a week over there and the response was overwhelming. And Thomas, our Tatts management over in Europe said “you’ve seen it, you’ve heard it, you are nuts if you walk away from this”. So I thought I’d wait until my head got back into shape [laughs] and see how I really feel. So I came home and the more I thought about it the more I thought it was fuckin’ nuts – people still want to hear this music – it’s not about the image and the crazy shit we used to do in the old days. I didn’t want to be a fuckin’ circus animal for the rest of my life, don’t’ get me wrong it was fun while we were doing it, but the real reason you get together in a band is to write music. The great thing about these days and what we are doing now is that what we thought we were doing in the early days has come true. You don’t really know at the time if what you’re doing is going to stand the tests of time. You hope and try your best. We knew back then the image and craziness wasn’t going to last, but what we hoped would last was the music. I mean why do I still listen to blues music written in the 20’s, 30’s & 40’s and sing Elvis songs? Because it’s great fuckin music!
Sean: The funny thing about Rock n Roll Outlaw is that it doesn’t sound like a 40 year old album…
Angry: And we don’t sound like 40 year old blokes [laughs] and that’s one of the things with Mark (Evans) and Bobby (Spencer), our two most recent Tatts members, we’ve known each other for so long now. I’ve known Bob since he was 17 years of age. And I’ve known Mark for… well, when Phil (Rudd) left Buster around ’73 to join AC/DC, Mark joined them not long after. When Phil joined AC/DC there was never any animosity. We were all still hanging together and seeing a lot of one another, so that was when we sort of formed our relationship with AC/DC, when Phil first joined. And that was one of the great parts of the story – Mark says in interviews even now that AC/DC’s favourite band was The Tatts and The Tatts favourite band was AC/DC and he considers himself extremely lucky to have got to play in both bands. Bob, quite charmingly said he always wanted to play in the Tatts but knew in his heart of hearts it wasn’t going to happen – and it finally has! Both Bobby & Mark… and I’m speaking on their behalf here… they love playing in the band and I love having them there. They are two of the best players around. Also we still have Dia (Pritchard) who has been with us a while now, as well as our newest member, Jackie Barnes on drums. So it’s a rippa band right now.
Sean: I’m really looking forward to this line-up live. How much longer can we be hoping to keep seeing you and the guys out there doing it?
Angry: Well, I’ve committed to doing 5 years. The thing was I didn’t want to go backwards. I want fresh. I could even say we’re not thinking about recording anything new, but with the new line-up and some new fresh components so to speak… well Jesus, if we write some great songs then why wouldn’t we record another album? So of course, we will! I think we will write some really great songs and I do think we really will record another album – it’s just one of those things that’s going to happen.
Sean: And that would be a fitting finale, especially with such a strong line-up alongside you.
Angry: I genuinely thought the last album was our final statement. But I see things differently now so it needs to happen.
Sean: That will be pretty exciting to watch out for. So taking you back, what are your memories of the band in the early years?
Angry: Do you know what, in recent times there have been plenty of collectors who are fans, who have shared their treasure trove of photos and live recordings, so all of a sudden I’m introduced to a lot of this material that I’d never seen or heard before… I mean there are recordings taken from the mixing desk or from down the front of a show where it’s filmed on an old cassette style camera and the tape runs out… and they have to take it out and turn it over… right in the middle of a fucking great song [laughs]. The point in getting to is that these have triggered off memories of stories of things we got up to back then.
Sean: So, do you remember being in the studio recording Rock n Roll Outlaw?
Angry: I was only talking the other day about this and I remembered how “Stuck on You” was written and recorded. It’s a quirky little song that doesn’t even sound like it should be on a Rose Tattoo album. I remember it was late at night and the boys had finished for the day. I was sitting in the room with George (Young) and he was working on something… marking tape or something like that… I was watching him and I got a bit bored so I went back into the studio and the boys were jamming and playing all kinds of shit really. Peter (Wells) started playing this kind of riff [Angry starts to sing down the phone] and I start humming along [Angry continues to sing down the phone] and I’m trying to find a melody and as it came to the chorus I goes [Angry sings] “Hey babe I’m stuck on you, yeah I’m stuck on you like a Rose Tattoo”, I remember saying to Peter how cool it sounded – I’m a big fan of people like Rod Stewart and a huge fan of Tamla Motown – so I said to Pete about keeping that sound going… as I said that the talk back mic comes on from the next room and it’s George’s voice we hear and he said “keep playing that stuff, keep playing”. Now one of the things about George & Harry (Vanda) was that if they heard you playing something they always pushed record, so then you never missed a fuckin’ pearl of an idea – they knew from their long road of experience that these things just come out of the air. So we went back in to the mixing room and George, god rest his soul, thought it was pretty cool and asked if I had a lyric. Well, we’d just been messing around jamming really so we didn’t have anything. We threw some ideas around and I went next door and wrote some stuff down – the first verse was based on a conversation I had had with a woman. I was fucked for the second verse so I came up with “I had a fish called Sam who lived in a bowl” [laughs] which was all pretty nonsensical. So I came back in the studio and we had a track worked out so I put a vocal on it – I sung it about 3 times through until we got set on the melody. We came in the next day and George had mixed it! So it started as just a jam – if you listen to it on the album that’s why it sounds so amateurish and unfinished because George wanted to capture the moment.
Sean: And now you tell that story I really can picture you guys kicking back at the end of the day having a jam and the studio lights are getting turned off and your all sitting around having a few beers – it really gives that feel.
Angry: To be fair we were all pretty much wasted – we did like a drink amongst other things. So we’d normally be pretty pissed after a recording session. But the thing about George & Harry – and this is what was so genius about them both – they wanted magic. And they could tell when they heard great music that they knew would last… [Angry’s voice wavers slightly] sorry I’m getting a bit emotional thinking about George & Harry – but they just knew what they were creating. You can’t work with the likes of Ted Mulry, The Angels, AC/DC, The Choirboys, The Tatts. We were the Albert’s family. You can’t work with all that talent if you didn’t know you were on to something – and they knew that. They were under no illusions as to their own genius. Part of George’s talent was arrangements and melodies – he knew a magic moment as soon as he heard it. He sat up all night to mix Stuck on You. When we got in the next morning – he used to do this thing where he lent back on his chair with his hands locked behind his head and that Young’s smirk on his face – he would just push the play button and it was like “fuck!” It was just great!
Sean: You can have the best musicians & vocalists but to get the planets to align for that special album it goes to show how important the guys behind the desk can be…
Angry: I’m 71 years of age now Sean, and I still listen to the album and quite honestly it still moves me. I helped make that album… they are my lyrics… it’s my voice… its fuckin’ great. Going back to the live recordings and going back to the boys, I knew I was in a great band. We all knew back then we were doing something important. To us, it really mattered. Don’t get me wrong, we weren’t walking around thinking “how fuckin’ great are we”. But we knew we were making something special. I listen to the live tapes now with Digger (Dallas Royall), Geordie (Leach), Pete & Mick and I think “fuck me I was in one of the greatest rock bands ever”. I’ve been so lucky to have been the singer and to have been there & done it. And that brings us to today… I’m still there cranking it out. I’m still part of this amazing thing that we all created together and for that I’m truly grateful.
Sean: In 2006 Rose Tattoo were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame and sadly all the rest of the guys have passed away since you all received that accolade. Does that make it even more special knowing you were all there to receive that at the time?
Angry: I remember going to see Pete and telling him we were being invited to be inducted into The Hall of Fame. He just looked at me so I asked him what I should say. And he turned to me and said “tell them all to get fucked. If I wasn’t dying this wouldn’t be happening.” I honestly think he was right. Pete was always very astute when it came to the industry. He was always very cynical and suspicious of the industry. It was almost uncanny how he could read the industry. He was always the one that sat back with his arms folded and said nothing, but heard & saw everything. It was his council after whichever meeting we may have been at; whether it was with record company or management or whoever, I would always go to Pete and ask him what he thought. And he would tell me straight exactly what he thought. But even though he said that initially about the award, we were all very grateful to be acknowledged and inducted – and I think it’s right that we were. So I do think there was some truth in what he said. But yes, as you said, it was very special the fact the we all got to be there, and even more so that Pete was there – it was his band initially, he formed it, thought of the name and the whole idea. In his heart of hearts I’m sure he was just as chuffed as I was. What I wish I could have said to Pete at the time, and I’ve not told anyone this, “Pete, your dying. Accept the fact that the industry you’re in and that we belong to, they have finally acknowledged you and your band. Accept the congratulations and honours you so rightly deserve.” But that was Pete.
Sean: He must have been an incredible guy. We’ve touched on the amazing times you all had in the early days. It’s a shame the technology of camera phones and the like weren’t around to capture more.
Angry: I remember Mick coming to me and saying I’ve got a title for a song or maybe just the first line or something. So I said what is it? “Nice boys don’t play rock n roll” he said. And within an hour we’d written Nice Boys. That’s how it clicked with us all. When Mick passed, who was the last of the four from the original five (we always counted Lobby Loyde as a member), they all passed away a few years of one another, so it really felt like an end of an era. So there are some songs we’ve written for Mick because without him we wouldn’t be out there still doing it. The song “Once in a Lifetime” was inspired by my last visits with Peter – I still introduce it on stage with the old “This one’s for Peter”. In my last few visits and even before that, we always spoke like he was gonna survive – and that happens a lot with people dealing with death – it’s important not to sound like you’ve given up on someone, even though you all know it’s coming. So in the final times that he was coherent, we spoke about growing old and smoking fine cigars, drinking damn good bourbon and playing the blues – Long Train Comin’ references and all.
Sean: It fantastic to get to hear these wonderful stories, even more so when I get the privilege to hear it from someone who was there, as these special moments were happening, so thank you for sharing those. So changing the subject slightly but keeping musical, what was the last album you listened to, Angry?
Angry: Well, just before you rang I was listening to John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, one of his live albums called The Blues Collection. But I’ve also had Albert King, Blues for You on recently and Memories of Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer. I have a three stacker in my office and that’s what’s in it at the moment.
Sean: Great collection. So if you could invite three guests for dinner, from the musical world and they can be either dead or alive, who would you want to chat to?
Angry: One of them would have to be Hendrix, only because he would have to be there. John Lennon would obviously have to be there too. Rosemary Clooney for a bit of eye candy [laughs]. Probably my last one would be Robert Johnson, so I could ask him if he really sold his soul to the Devil, amongst other things.
Sean: Great table there Angry. So, is there a song out there from the huge songbook of life that you would wish you could have written?
Angry: Heartbreak Hotel by Elvis or anything Hendrix wrote [Angry suddenly bursts into song] “Excuse me while I kiss the sky”. Not a better line written ever by anyone! [laughs] Excuse me while I kiss the sky. Fuck, what a lyric.
Sean: Angry, it’s been absolutely incredible to get to talk to you and I can’t wait to see you here in WA. We’ll have to do this again soon because there is so much more I want to talk about.
Angry: Thank you brother. Yes, we definitely will. I’ve enjoyed it immensely.
Sean: I’ll be at the Ravenswood gig on 2nd November, so hoping I can come and say hi to you and the guys.
Angry: Make sure you do and we’ll grab a beer & bourbon… or two [laughs]
Sean: That would be fantastic. On behalf of us all at the Rockpit I’d like to wish you and the guys a successful run of dates on the Australian leg of the tour and see you on November 2nd at The Ravenswood & November 3rd at The Charles Hotel here in WA. Safe travels Angry.
Angry: Thanks brother.
