Gary Stephen "Angry" Anderson (born 5 August 1947) is an Australian rock singer, songwriter, television personality and actor, best known as the lead vocalist and the longest-tenured remaining member of Australian hard rock band Rose Tattoo since 1976. He is also a past member of rock bands Buster Brown and the Party Boys.
As a solo artist, he is best known for his debut single "Suddenly" (1987), which achieved international success—peaking at number 2 on the Australian Music Report, number 31 on the Belgian Ultratop 50, number 11 on the New Zealand Singles Chart, number 3 on the Irish Singles Chart, number 69 on the Netherlands Singles Chart, and number 3 on the UK Singles Chart, respectively.
On Australia Day 26 January 1993, Anderson was made a Member of the Order of Australia for his role as a youth advocate. According to rock music historian Ian McFarlane, "over the course of a lengthy career, [the] gravel-throated vocalist ... has gone from attention-grabbing, rock'n'roll bad boy to all-round Australian media star." Rose Tattoo were inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame in 2006.
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Biography
Gary Stephen Anderson was born on 5 August 1947 in Melbourne, Victoria, to an Anglo-Australian father and Mauritian mother. He has a brother Rodney living in Melbourne. Anderson's nickname of "Angry Ant" developed "during his youth after his aggressive and volatile nature got the better of him." According to Anderson, his father "was a deeply troubled man... I've dealt with my rage, my pain... I was a very angry boy... When he was around he was a very explosive person."
Anderson used his uncle, Ivan, as his role model: a cigarette-smoking, beer-drinking, leather jacket-wearing, motorcycle-riding drummer in a swing band. Anderson grew up in suburban Coburg and attended Coburg Technical School before working as a fitter and turner in a factory. Initially he wanted to be a blues guitarist, "I wanted to be like all the great blues guitar players, then I wanted to be like Bob Dylan, then of course... John Lennon." Anderson found himself in a band with three possible guitarists and "[t]he other two were much better than me, so the only other thing we needed was a singer... [we] had to sing 'Twist and Shout' without accompaniment. I just happened to be the best one at it."
From 1971 to 1973, Anderson led rock group Peace Power and Purity and came to wider public notice as the lead vocalist with Buster Brown. He fronted the hard rock and blues rock band from its foundation in 1973, the original line-up included Phil Rudd on drums, who left in 1974 to join AC/DC. In 1975, Buster Brown released an album, Something to Say, on Mushroom Records/Festival Records before disbanding in November that year.
In 1976 in Sydney, Rose Tattoo was formed by Peter Wells of the heavy metal band Buffalo. Anderson had relocated to Sydney and replaced the group's original singer Tony Lake. When their drummer Michael Vandersluys departed soon afterwards, he was replaced by Dallas Royall, who had been Rudd's replacement in Buster Brown. Their most popular single on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart was "Bad Boy for Love" from 1977, which peaked at No. 19. Rose Tattoo's 1981 tour of Europe included an appearance at the Reading Festival, where Anderson repeatedly head butted the amp stacks until his scalp started bleeding.
In 1983, Anderson's debut as an actor was a minor role in Bullamakanka. Later, he appeared as the character Ironbar Bassey in the film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985). Filmink magazine later wrote that Anderson "appeared in surprisingly few acting roles for someone with such renown as a presenter."
Political views
In July 2007, Anderson was criticised by some after espousing his views on Muslim immigration to Australia when he told the Sydney Daily Telegraph:
It's not ill-conceived to look at certain people and question when they come out here what they bring with them ... We have strict quarantine laws and it should be the same when it comes to cultures that do not want to integrate. We should be very careful about where certain Muslims come from and what they believe. If you come here, you should behave yourself—it's as simple as that... If people come and live in any country and their way of life is so different they need their own special laws, then possibly they have to pick somewhere else to live. The idea of any Muslim being photographed for a passport or a licence with one of those shrouds on—sorry, it just can't happen.
On 1 March 2010, he told a Federal Parliamentary Committee into the impact of violence on youth that life experience has taught him "Aussies use their fists" when they fight and that "weapons were introduced by other cultures." In March 2011, Anderson declared he was a supporter of conservative politician Tony Abbott and his views against a tax on carbon dioxide emissions. He announced in October that year that he was joining the conservative National Party, and was interested in standing for a seat in the next Australian federal election.
In January 2012, when asked whether his more 'leftie views' might be gagged (he supports same-sex marriage, for example) he replied, "maintaining some sort of order and balance is about agreement, compromise, setting rules as the head of the house. I've learnt to be a part of the family. So I'm not going to say things in public that are going to embarrass the party." He was selected as the National candidate for the Division of Throsby in New South Wales under his birth name, Gary Anderson. Although he did not win, his preferences helped the Coalition net a four-percent swing in the seat.
In 2012, Anderson participated in the SBS doco-reality show Go Back to Where You Came From, in which six Australians, each with differing opinions on Australia's asylum seeker debate, were taken on a journey to which refugees have taken to reach Australia. At the outset of the series Anderson says that "boat people" who arrive in Australia illegally should be sent back to their countries of origin: "If you come here illegally, I don't care about your story, first thing you do is you turn around and go back."
Personal life
In Angry Anderson's 1994 biography, Angry – Scarred for Life, the author Karen Dewey describes his life as "Sexually, physically and mentally abused he broke the brutal family pattern to become a besotted, devoted father of four." Anderson described how "[t]here was physical and emotional violence in the family" and a family friend began sexually abusing him from the age of five.
In 1982, prior to one of Rose Tattoo's European tours, Anderson met Lindy Michael. The couple's daughter, Roxanne, was born in 1983. Anderson and Michael married in January 1986 and have three sons, Galen, Blaine and Liam. In 2002, Anderson and Michael divorced. Anderson is a single father and lives in the Sydney suburb of Beacon Hill. On 4 November 2018, his son Liam was killed in an attack in a park.
Although he does not believe in an omniscient god, he attends the Baha'i temple regularly, saying: "the spirituality I have given myself over to is the divine." Having seen cancer claim the lives of five of his Rose Tattoo bandmates, Anderson has become an advocate for men's health. He appeared in a 2007 TV campaign promoting awareness of prostate cancer.
In August 2026, Anderson was hospitalised following a cardiac arrest.
Discography
See also
"You're Not Alone" (Australian Olympians song)
Filmography
At Last... Bullamakanka: The Motion Picture (1983) – Senator's Aide
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) – Ironbar Bassey
Scuff the Sock (1987, TV movie) – Plasterer
Finding Joy (2002) – Kris Quaid
Fat Pizza (2003) – Bikie
Pizza (2005, TV series) – Bikie Leader / Tattooist / Captain / Vietnam Vet
Swift and Shift Couriers (2008–2011, TV series) – Aaron 'Agro' Smith
Suite For Fleur (2011)
Housos vs. Authority (2012) – Angry
Go Back To Where You Came From (2012, TV series documentary) – Himself – Participant
Housos (2011–2013; 2020, TV series) – Angry
Fat Pizza vs. Housos (2014) – Angry
Bogan Hunters (2014, TV series) – Himself – Celebrity Judge
Dumb Criminals: The Movie (2015) – Angry
Fat Pizza: Back in Business (2019–2021, TV series) – Angry
Darradong Local Council (2023, TV series) – Patto
Awards
Mo Awards
The Australian Entertainment Mo Awards, commonly known informally as the Mo Awards, were annual Australian entertainment industry awards. They recognise achievements in live entertainment in Australia from 1975 to 2016. Angry Anderson won one award in that time.