Bound For Glory/Wild Boys/Heaven/Stone Cold/Fire And Water/Born Survivor/Motorbike Song/Love From Ashes/Born To Be Wild/Bad Days
Gary Stephen "Angry" Anderson AM is an Australian rock singer, television presenter/reporter and actor. He is best known as the vocalist with the hard rock band Rose Tattoo since 1976 but he is also recognised for his acting roles and his charity work. On Australia Day, 1993, he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for his role as a youth advocate.
'Biography- Born Gary Stephen Anderson on 5 August 1947 in Melbourne to an Australian father and Mauritian mother, he first came to notice as the vocalist with Buster Brown, a band he fronted between 1973 and 1975. The original line-up also featured drummer Phil Rudd, who left the group in 1974 to join AC/DC, and Paul Grant as guitarist who still plays locally in Melbourne. Buster Brown released an album, Something to Say in 1975, before disbanding the same year.
Rose Tattoo had been formed by Peter Wells of the heavy metal band Buffalo. Anderson replaced the group's original singer Tony Lake and when drummer Michael Vandersluys departed soon afterwards, he was replaced by Dallas Royall, who was Rudd's replacement in Buster Brown.
Anderson joined as a guest vocalist with The Incredible Penguins in 1985, for a cover of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)", a charity project for research on Fairy penguins, which peaked at #10 on the Australian Kent Music Report in December.
Anderson led Rose Tattoo through six studio albums until disbanding the group in 1987, by which time he was the only member remaining from the initial line-up. During 1986, as the group was winding down following the recording of the album Beats From a Single Drum, Anderson joined The Party Boys for an Australian tour, but never recorded with them. The previous year he appeared as the character Ironbar Bassey in the film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. By this time Anderson had established himself as an advocate on social issues and made regular appearances on the Channel Nine program A Current Affair as a human interest reporter.
In 1987, he had his biggest hit, when the ballad "Suddenly" from the Beats from a Single Drum album was used as the wedding theme for the Neighbours episode in which the popular characters Scott Robinson and Charlene Mitchell married. In 2009, in homage to this moment, the song was featured in the final episode of BBC3's comedy Gavin and Stacey, during the wedding of characters Nessa and Dave. The track reached #1 in Australia and #3 in Britain. Beats from a Single Drum had been planned as Anderson's debut solo release, but had been billed as a Rose Tattoo album due to contractual obligations; however, after the success of "Suddenly", it was re-released in 1988 as an Angry Anderson album.
With the dissolution of Rose Tattoo, Anderson pressed on with a solo career, releasing the album Blood From Stone in 1990 that produced the hit single "Bound for Glory". He performed this song during the legendary pre-match entertainment at the 1991 AFL Grand Final between Hawthorn and West Coast, appearing on top of a Batmobile. In 1992, he appeared in the highly successful Australian arena-style revival of Jesus Christ Superstar as Herod.
In the early years of the 2000s, he participated in and organised a string of charity events. In 2002, Anderson played with former members of The Angels at the Bali Relief concert in Perth, Western Australia, held in aid of victims of the Bali bombing. Angry is heavily involved in the work of the Dunn Lewis Youth Development Foundation, which is a lasting legacy of two of the 88 Australian lives lost in the bombings.
In 2003, Anderson appeared in a cameo role as the character Kris Quaid in the independent Australian feature film Finding Joy. At the end of the film, he sings his hit "Suddenly".
Today, Anderson is a single father of four, and lives in Sydney. Having lost five former band mates to cancer (Dallas Royall, Peter Wells, Ian Rilen, Lobby Lloyde and Mick Cocks), Anderson became an advocate for men's health. He currently appears in a TV campaign promoting awareness of prostate cancer.
