Welcome to A Breath of Fresh Air with Sandy Kaye. Hello, my friends. Thanks so much for your company today.
Do you know how I often shout out, asking you to let me know who you’d like to hear interviewed? Well, this week we have one of your picks in tow, and he’s a real beauty. He’s hard rock singer, Australian television personality, actor and all-round legend, Gary Angry Anderson, who’s best known as the front man for those original rock and roll outlaws, Rose Tattoo. Now, I’m aware that if you grew up in Australia, you’ll know these guys well.
You may not like their sound, but you’ve certainly heard it, because Angry Anderson and Rose Tattoo have been belting that sound out religiously in pubs and clubs all over the country since the late 70s. If you’re not a native and haven’t heard of Angry Anderson yet, strap in now and get set for a fast introduction to the world of Aussie blues-infused hard rock that’s delivered so loud it’s likely to send you deaf. I’m not sure I should be really thanking you, Brian, from the Sydney suburb of Cronulla, for requesting Angry, but here we go.
Yes, let’s go. Angry Anderson, you are now 77 years old. Are you still angry? Yeah, well, yeah, now that’s an interesting, very interesting question.
I don’t think I’ve been asked that for 20, maybe 30 years. I remember in the early days, it was more about, well, what makes you angry? The thing that got me the nickname in the early days was the fact that I seemed to be, particularly to the person that gave me the nickname, I was, we were best mates and we used to share flats and houses and stuff for quite a few years. He thought I was disproportionately, for my size, aggressive in manner.
Well, it’s so much in actuality, because contrary to popular belief, I was never a seasoned street fighter and I’ve never been a person that’s been prolifically physically violent. And I think that was because of my upbringing, but that’s another story. What makes me now angry is the things, the injustices.
And this has been a common thing with me for many, many, many years. And I remember the two things you find out once you leave Australia to travel the world is how much you appreciate having been born in Australia and living the lifestyle. So the things that make me angry now have changed over the years, but yes, I still am.
I get that you’re into a whole lot of social issues and you have been for quite some time and I do want to talk about those. I don’t want to play those down at all. And what you’ve done for this country in terms of making a stand can’t be discounted at all.
But I do want to wind the clock back. You said that your family called you Gary. You got the nickname angry.
It seems to me that you kind of started out with a bit of short man syndrome. Is that what would have happened? Ouch! Absolutely. A hundred percent.
So tell us a little bit about how you grew up. I know you had a difficult childhood. I’m not asking you for a whole lot of detail around that.
But how did it impact you and how did you find your way to music and to expressing everything that you had inside of you as a result? I think I’ve now embraced the philosophic view of the journey because I’m old enough now to do that. I’m at an age now where looking back is a greater distance than looking forward. And that’s a very interesting perspective or a very interesting place to be in.
And I hate to use the term one’s life. It sounds so pompous. But having said that… I think we can all relate to what you’re saying.
Yeah, I’m doing a book at the moment. I’ve been writing stuff for years about my life. So a lot of it’s going to come out in the book.
I mean, I can talk about these things, obviously. You can. I’ll promo the book when that comes out too, I promise.
And perhaps have another chat. I grew up in a Melbourne suburb called Pascoe Vale. The first six years of my life, we lived with my biological fathers, my mother and father.
After six years, we moved out of my grandparents’ home. It was a very rough area that I lived in. But when I say rough, it was hard because it was working class to the bone.
There were no middle class people. I was resisting to become one of the more violent or the more tough or the more physical boys because I was little. Getting back to you pointing that very, very infrastructural dynamic, if you’re little, you see the world from a different perspective.
Absolutely. How tall are you now? Well, I used to be 5’2″. So you’re a little guy at school.
You’ve gone into the big school. You try not to be one of the tough guys. You’re looking up at everybody trying to kind of hang back.
But I feel like you’re still reeling inside. There’s stuff that’s got to come out of you. How do you find music? I was brought up with music.
The difficult thing to talk about is that when my father brought mum here from Mauritius, and he was still then competitive and riding. He was a jockey. So he was away a lot.
And his younger brother, Ivan, was a full-time musician. I spent a lot of time with Ivan, who was largely responsible for the abuse that took place. So Ivan introduced me to music, and it was where I went.
To escape. Yeah. What artists on the radio started influencing you most? The music that changed my whole life, which was, of course, rock and roll.
But I still to this day, when I hear Begin the Begin, I cry. You begin the begin. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
When they begin the begin, it brings back the sound of music so tender. It brings back a night of tropical splendor. It brings back a memory ever green.
I’m with you once more under the stars. Down by the shore, an orchestra’s playing. Even the palms seem to be swaying when they begin the begin.
It was where I went to hide. It protected me. And later on, as you quite rightfully pointed out, it was the way that these things that were welling up inside me, emotions, it was a way to express that.
You set out wanting to be a blues guitarist, though, didn’t you? I did, because one of the earliest influences, apart from the rock and roll guitar players, Elvis, Carl Perkins, Gene Vinson, Ricky Nelson, I was obsessed with Ricky Nelson for many years because of his wonderful country, easygoing style. I’m a travelling man and I’ve made a lot of stops all over the world. And in every port I own the heart of at least one lovely girl.
I’ve a pretty senorita waiting for me down in old Mexico. If you’re ever in Alaska, stop and see my cute little Eskimo. I loved the early songs of those early rockers, Eddie Cochran and those kind of people, because they had that swing.
So from wanting to be a blues guitarist, you ended up in a band with three possible guitarists and you ended up being the singer. Oh, I feel so exposed. What happened was, and this goes back to school, I started listening to a singer that recorded the soundtrack for Porgy and Bess.
And his most famous song is called Old Man River. Old Man River Old Man River, that old man river He must know something, but don’t say nothing He just keeps rolling, he keeps on rolling along The guy who sang Old Man River was Paul Robeson. Bingo! And when he sings, see, I can’t even talk about it without getting emotional.
But it led me to other older singers of colour. I started to discover this world of blues singers. So when did you discover that you could actually sing? I don’t know.
The two people who damaged me the most, which was Ivan and Colin, my biological father, also gave back in a sense, because they were musical. But, Andrew, you started working as a fitter and turner. You joined this group from 1971 called Peace, Power and Purity And now suddenly the singer.
You’re not a blues guitarist anymore. No. Well, one of the blokes that became a member of that first band, and we were struggling, the four of us.
We all had guitars. And I couldn’t play. So anyway, we needed a singer.
Groups had singers. So we picked two songs, and one was Twist and Shout, which had just come out. And they said, no, no, you’re the best at it.
And I think what got me across the line was the Twist and Shout because I’ve always had that gravelly voice. I don’t need lots of people Telling me what to do I don’t need a long-haired lady To love me true as true All I need is a rock I’m a rock and roll outlaw I’m a rock and roll outlaw I never needed anyone From Peace, Power and Purity, you came to the wider public notice and you became the lead vocalist with a band called Buster Brown, right? Yes. And if I’m correct, in Buster Brown, Bill Rudd was on drums and he left in 1974 to join ACDC, right? Yeah.
Then Buster Brown disbanded and all of a sudden, up comes Rose Tattoo. It’s now 1976. Tell me about the formation of Rose Tattoo.
Well, the thing was that Mick answered an ad in the paper to join Buster. And he had this wonderful backbeat feel, which of course is signatory as far as the real ACDC line-up. That’s when they got young Johnny Leach.
I think he was like 16 at the time. So we were struggling to find members and we came to Sydney to look for players. And in the meantime, they were having trouble finding a singer.
I’m trying to do Buster Brown, you know, because I wanted to continue where Buster had left off. So over the next few months, what happened was the drummer was arrested trying to rob a bank, so they needed a drummer. And the name Rose Tattoo had already been established, hadn’t it? Yes, yes.
Any idea why that name? Absolutely. The Rose Tattoo is a story. I think it’s Tennessee Williams.
We were sitting around one day at the pub and it came up. What are you going to call the band? Who would have ever thought that from those beginnings emerged this really hard rock band that takes Australia and much of the world by storm? Certainly you wouldn’t have ever thought that, would you? I don’t think any of us did. I envisaged somewhere between the Rolling Stones and Sweet.
The Rolling Stones component, charisma and also but the roots in music, the blues roots music, you know, because it was just a plodding blues up until then. When they renamed the album for Overseas, the first album, they called it Rock and Roll Outlaws, not Rose Tattoo, because that’s what we looked like. The sound was that outlaw sound.
Mick and I wrote most of the songs on that album, Assault and Battery, and it just fell into place. It was taken on a life force of its own. The charge was Assault and Battery The judge said there’d be no bail The charge was Assault and Battery Took no notice You guys had turned into the hard rock equivalent of these Outlaws and, as you said, the direction of the band had taken on a life of its own that nobody could have really predicted.
Bad Boy For Love was your most popular single in 1977, wasn’t it? It peaked at number 19. You say that Outlaws was your signature tune, but I think if I had to look back at Rose Tattoo now, I would remember you for Bad Boy. Yes, Outlaw came out after Bad Boy.
I know that we all hoped that Outlaw would be a bigger single, and it just wasn’t, because it didn’t have that romping, carefree… I’m a bad boy Bad boy for love I’m a bad boy A bad boy for love Harry Vander and George Young, known as Vander and Young, had produced Rose Tattoo’s first four albums and had selected Bad Boy for the very first single. The pair were a whiz kids songwriting and production duo who also worked with other prominent Australian rock bands like ACDC and The Angels. The two played a pivotal role in shaping the sound of Aussie rock music through the 70s and 80s.
George and Harry were magical in the studio at arrangements. George Young, older brother, to Malcolm and Angus. So how did you meet George and Harry? How did Rose Tattoo come together with Vander and Young? I remember being at the Station Hotel in Prahran.
Melbourne was the scene then. That was the first time ACDC met Phil and saw him play with Buster. So some time later, Buster was falling apart.
They were looking for a drummer. You know, he went with everyone’s blessing because we just knew that it was going to work. Not long after that, in Sydney, the record companies in those days were signing any new band that showed any promise.
The one band that no one wanted was the Tats. They all passed. Couldn’t get a root in a brothel, as they used to say.
This is a breath of fresh air with Sandy Kaye. It’s a beautiful day. ACDC and Rose Tattoo were both a huge part of the Australian hard rock scene and shared a connection through their record label.
While they were both successful, the two bands had different approaches and rarely shared the stage despite their similar sounds and influence. The connection between Phil and Bon, they introduced… Malcolm and Angus were aware of us, but they’d never been to gigs, so they brought it along. They’re the only members of another band that have ever jammed live at a Tats gig.
They’d got up and jammed with the band. Bon got up a few times and sang. You were the same sort of ilk, weren’t you? I mean, ACDC and Rose Tattoo had loads in common.
Absolutely. Not musically, but character-wise. We were all more a blues band.
They were a blues-based rock and roll band. Coming along one night, George said to Malcolm, you’ve got to come and see the band. We were both really enamoured with one another.
The first time I ever saw them, like I said, they had the wrong bass player, the wrong drummer. They had the brothers playing guitar, and Bon had just joined the band. And I thought, this is sensational.
This is where it’s going. I felt like I was part of that too. So we had that mutual respect and love for one another’s music, but also for one another as people.
And so George and Harry came along to a couple of gigs, and they said, come in to Albert’s and we’ll give you some down time, which was like from midnight to like six in the morning. They just said, look, record everything. Every cover we ever knew and any original songs, of course.
They would come in the next day. We’d gone home, obviously, and they’d come in the next day and listen to what we recorded. We did that for three or four nights in a row.
So then they called us in and they said, we’d like to work with you. Being acknowledged by George and Harry, who were already the rock and roll institution. I mean, you know, like Easybeats, you’ve got to be kidding.
You know, like it was every, you know, every, that was like pop rock at its best. I give you love. Give you loving all the time.
Give you kissing just like wine. Does it less taste sweet than mine? No, no, no, no, no. I’ll make you happy.
Just like your mama wants. I’ll make you happy. Just like your daddy said.
I’ll make you happy. Just like your mama said to me. Yeah, so they said, we’d like to work with you.
And initially not to sign us. And they said, so we’ll work on some music with you. And that’s what happened.
We went into the studio. We worked with George and Harry running the machinery. And we recorded stuff.
Our first single was going to be a cover of Street Fighting Man, the Stones song, the Rolling Stones song. And they said, yeah, it’s just like, this is the most accessible thing. So we’ll put this out as a teaser.
But then in the ensuing sessions, we started to write some tracks. Bad Boy and Snow Queen and Astro Wally. Most of those songs, Nick and I wrote.
You’re obviously not feeling like a temporary member of the band anymore. Not anymore, no. You go off to tour Europe in 1981.
And I believe you went pretty apeshit there. You were repeatedly head-butting the amp stacks until your head starts bleeding. What was going on for you there? I got no idea.
Simply out of it and just out of it and into it? Out of it and into it. Beautifully put. So poetically beautifully put, yes.
Absolutely out of it. That’s great. Why don’t I write that down? Out of it and into it.
Because I won’t remember these things. You and me both. I don’t demand the writing credit for that one.
So if it pops up in a lyric in a song. You can have it. Thank you so much.
That would be awesome. I think what happened was in those days, again, going back to Mangy Mick, who was the guy that nicknamed me Angry, one of the aspects of my personality was my aggressive approach to singing. And I would be physically aggressive.
I would stalk, walk up and down the stage. In those days it wasn’t fashionable. The singer stood in one place, maybe moved around a little bit, but, you know, was usually a bit of a dancer.
Like The Temptations. Yeah, well, yeah, yeah, exactly. They were wonderful dancers.
But I was more prowling and growling. You certainly gave them an awesome stage show. Wherever you went there was something to look at.
And as you said, it wasn’t the time. It had been all about the music until that point and there was nothing to actually see. Rose Tattoo were amazing to go and see out live, predominantly because of the character that you were playing.
I mean, yes, you were, and you still are, Angry Anderson, but you played that right up. You hammed it up and you gave the crowds something not only to hear but something to really get their eyes into. Thank you for that.
A singer that used to excite me the most, Janis Brown. First time I ever saw Janis Brown. I remember saying, having this conversation with Tina Turner, and I said, I couldn’t believe Janis Brown the first time I saw her.
I just thought, what is this man is possessed in the most wonderful way. Yeah, the energy. And I said to Tina, I said, and the same thing was, you know, like I heard her sing before I saw her.
And I said, I got the same feeling. It was, these days it’s called, it’s described as being in the zone in the moment, obviously. Any performer worth their salt is always in the moment.
So you live every word. So every word’s got its own life. So you try and inject and pull out of that word, let alone, you know, in a line in a song.
Yeah. So I’ve always been a demonstrative singer. I’ve always, going back to my blues roots, I’ve always believed that if you’re sitting on a stool, Jumbie Hooker, you know, you’ve got to boogie baby.
Yeah, I got to boogie. Oh, feels so good. Well, mama likes to boogie.
Mama likes to boogie. Everybody chillin’, likes to boogie, boogie, going to boogie, boogie. To have that become alive, he put something into that.
And he was non-animated. The only movement was the slight movement of his mouth, but it was his guitar playing. That was all the thing.
And anyway, so part of what Angry Anderson became was living in the moment in the sense that I was trying to draw as much out of every word, every performance as I possibly could. When you’ve taken it, or you feel you’ve taken it so far, but you want to take it further, what do you do? We used to finish the set with Suicide City, and I would wrap a mic cord around my neck and choke myself till I passed out. Or, so deprived of oxygen, that I would swoon.
I would just, I could not retain my balance. And it was a way of taking it that extra distance. Getting back to Redding, the sound on stage was just sensational.
We never got a sound check like we do these days. We got a line check. But we were used to playing in a certain balance, like stage balance.
So we knew our own balance. And I remember the fallback system was just extraordinary. I could hear everything in the band.
It was the perfect storm. There was vodka involved. I did all my tricks.
I spun them like the Rudd’s adultery thing with the mic cord. And I’d done my James Brown stuff with the mic stand, except I didn’t do the splits. And it just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger and the crowd would just go off their heads just with us.
Halfway through the set we did Butcher, that slow burning blues. Yeah Gangs of short-haired boys from the streets Get out of their way Cause they’re out to get their shit Now Butcher, he was a leader Had a reputation for being tough but fair Life was just a gamble So he lived from day to day Without a care Steady It wasn’t only the crowd at the Reading Festival that loved you. It was the whole British rock press that had totally fallen in love with you.
One critic described you guys saying they were swaggering rock and roll desperados with hearts of gold. Another one said Roast Tattoo make Motorhead look like a chorus line in a ballet. They couldn’t get enough of Roast Tattoo.
You took the UK by storm. Yeah, yeah. Amazing, amazing.
I mean, Australian bands are not known for that. No. Australian bands are not known for having that energy that you guys had.
You just blew it out of the water completely. You actually led Roast Tattoo through five studio albums until the group disbanded in 87. Why did it come to an end? We’ve been on and off again.
It’s almost like, and I remember Pete once saying, you’ve got to have something new to say, which is why we’ve only got five or six studio albums in all that time. So it’s one every 10 years. So we’re not prolific.
But the other thing too was that when you think about the chemistry, there was a volatility in the band that produced not only those performances, the head-butting of the guitar. I did this thing with Peter very, very early on, where I would head-butt the guitar and he would play, he would use that and play off the sound that my head made hitting the strings. And of course, after you’ve done it a couple of times, the strings cut through your skin.
Oh, God. So, yeah, really. It gets worse.
There was this time where, and he was playing a solo, and I was standing beside him between him and his amps. And it was at one stage where I reached up and grabbed the amp and it’s fallen off because there was stacks, right? He had two up top. And it’s fallen over and it’s hit me on the bridge of the nose and apparently there’s a little blood vessel in there.
And the grow crew run out, right, to pick the box up because it’s fallen on me. I’m down on the ground. Pete’s out the front soloing his heart out and the crew pick me up and they drag me to my feet and there’s blood pissing out of my head.
And then it was time to go back to the song, see? So that’s where the vodka and the adrenaline meet up and marry and become this perfect storm. So I’ve gone out to Pete and he sort of looked at me and he’s just gone, you know, like, look at you. And I didn’t realise I had blood all over me.
You’re covered, right. So I’ve sort of brushed it away and I realised I’ve got blood all over my hands and stuff. And that’s when those photos were taken.
That was that moment. Did you ever come off stage or the next day with a severe hangover going what the hell am I doing, I’ve got to give this up, this is not a way to live? Numerous occasions, yeah, yeah. I remember there was one particular performance in America.
We were on tour with Aerosmith and when we did Suicide City, something that was a bit more dramatic and I stole it out of a movie because in Suicide City at the end when the band’s playing out, I would put the mic cord around my neck and choke myself. And then I saw this thing in a movie where someone put a plastic bag over someone’s head to suffocate them. And the visual was extraordinary, the mouth opening, trying to get gasp air.
So I’ve got this plastic bag and I’m out on the lip of the stage and I pulled it tight around it and I’m, you know, glaring down at the front row, seeing this look of sheer horror on all the groupies’ faces because they’re all down the front waiting for Aerosmith. Anyway, I pass out, I fall into the pit. The security guys put me back on stage and they drag me off stage and it just went over like huge.
It was a real James Brown moment, you know, where he used to stagger off and collapse and then they put him back to his feet and he’d put a towel around him and he’d go, no, no, no, and then he’d go back on stage and sing again. I loved that theatre. Anyway, Aerosmith had a doctor.
He said to me, don’t do that, don’t suffocate yourself, he said, because you could cause brain damage. I think it has. He said, if you keep doing that, it’ll kill you.
So you gave it up? Yeah, I did it a couple more times. Of course you did. I had no recollection, none whatsoever.
Yeah, no, I did. I gave it up sometime after that.
This is a breath of fresh air with Sandy Kaye. It’s a beautiful day. The band broke up during that last tour of America because it was like done in two parts and my daughter had just been born and I wanted to come back to Australia to meet her.
The band were exhausted mentally and physically but the real explanation is that always, the periods that we’ve spent away from one another is because of the volatility of the characters in the band. You get to the point where, and I remember Peter saying this to me, don’t worry about it, it’s okay, it’s all good. We need time away from it, it being the band.
The entity, yeah. And, you know, we’ll get back together down the track. It was always wonderfully optimistic or prophetic, if you like, about the fact that it’s okay.
Particularly those early line-ups, up until present line-up, they’re an absolute delight to work with this mob. It’s not that the others weren’t, it’s just that we just drove one another mad. Like, you put us on stage and I’ve listened to some of those live recordings so I can say this in hindsight, as in my late 70s, that we were a fantastic rock and roll band on stage.
Off stage. There were moments where we couldn’t stand the sight of one another. I think that’s a familiar story.
I mean, a lot of bands say the same. Yeah. Of all of the Rose Tattoo songs, Angry, which would you say was your favourite? Title track for Scarred for Life, which was the album we toured America with.
I think as a songwriter, as a lyricist, I’m not a songwriter, I’m a lyricist, I remember saying to a rock journalist, imagine how we’re talking about the very thing about songs. And I said, if you wrote Walking on the Moon, apart from the fact it became a huge hit, it’s such an amazingly good pop song. That’s how I feel about Scarred.
I think it was the right song at the right moment. I think my performance is as good as it could be had, or even to this day. I think there’s one other song which is my absolute favourite song and it’s off the last album, the Blood Brothers album, and it’s a song that I wrote in dedication to Pete.
It’s called Once in a Lifetime. I think that’s my favourite vocal performance and it’s also my favourite lyric. I think that was me at my best, is me at my best.
But I think Scarred, because like Outlaw, and Outlaw has to be right there too. To me, Outlaw and Scarred for Life, that’s the band. I started working cross streets First thing I learned was life don’t come cheap Technical school, it was a waste of time Making robots for some factory line Got my first tattoo when I was sixteen The rebel had lost his teenage queen I’m taking a stand for an outlaw’s life My Mars words kept ringing, you’re scarred for life Said you’re scarred Yeah, baby, you’re scarred Scarred for life Scarred for life Oh, we’re scarred You know, I’ve had so many requests from listeners right around the world wanting to hear your story and hear you telling it in your voice.
I had a request from Damian, who lives in Randwick in Sydney, probably just around the corner from you actually, who wrote me and said, get angry to tell you about Suddenly, that uncharacteristic ballad that he did in 1987 that became your biggest hit, that went on to totally have a life of its own. Can you tell us a bit about that? The first thing I need to tell you is, is that album should never have been released as a Rose Tattoo album. It’s not.
And it was that I joined Mushroom as a solo artist after the most recent breakup of the band. And we’d done the Southern Stars thing and Mark Opus was working with some Mushroom acts in those days, some of the biggest acts Australia’s produced. He was one of the few people that said to me, I said, I think we’ve got to try and get the best out of you as a writer and a singer.
And he said, no offence, it’s not worth the task because there’s another side to you. Right. So we did that album, Beats from a Single Drum.
I signed to Mushroom as a solo artist and the first collaboration with some beautiful, wonderful gifted musicians, Andy Shishon, who now plays bass and has done for the last 400 years with Billy Joel. He also did all the major tours with Shania Twain. He co-wrote Suddenly.
He was the bass player in the band, the Angry Anderson band, along with some wonderful players. And we were doing that album and what happened was that the American producer that was over here, thinking like a Californian, he saw potential. He thought that I should be singing soul.
That’s my other favourite music is Tamla Motown’s Soul. Yeah, yeah. He said, I think we’ve got to work towards having you write and sing some soul songs.
And I said, okay. So we were writing songs for the album and he said, we need some ballads. To properly establish yourself, getting back to this R&B thing, a lot of those songs are about love.
So I want some songs out of you. And he said to Andy and I that I love songs. So I wrote Winnie Mandela, which is after I’d read her book.
It’s a great love story. He said, no, no, no, no. Yeah, okay.
It’s a great song. We love Winnie Mandela, which is a beautiful track. It’s a great track.
But it’s written from a young woman’s point of view who fell in love with this champion of the people who goes away very early in the marriage. He’s off to jail for the rest of his life and she’s got a battle on her own. So she wrote this book and I wrote this love song called Winnie Mandela, obviously.
And no, no, no. So I was writing this other lyric. And the story about Andy was he was playing bass in the band.
So we were just sitting in the studio and trying to write a love song. And I said, well, I’ve got this lyric that I wrote when Roxanne, the first of our children, was born. I wrote about the emotions that I went through when I first saw her, this perfect child, this perfect human being, this blemish-free.
And I remember the first time she looked at me. And I talk about it sometimes when I do public speaking about that moment for any father whose first child is a daughter. God, this has happened.
She’s 40-something now. And it still brings you to tears. It’s unbelievable.
You are the most sweet man, the most emotional, passionate person. Who knew this? It’s lovely. Yeah, really.
Mum used to say, the heart is the best part of you in some instances, how you feel about stuff. And her and I went through a lot of stuff together. Anyway, getting back to Roxanne.
So I wrote down how I felt as a new father, as a man, as someone realising in that moment I was saying goodbye to my past life. I remember saying to myself, my life’s never going to be the same. And I was saying goodbye to everything, all the bad habits, whatever.
And I’d finally found something in life, someone in life to fulfil me as a person and took on a role as her father with the respect and the consideration that this perfect human being deserved. Every child deserves a best mother and best father. A chance to talk, a chance to grow I’ll take the risk, let my feelings grow I’ve found the words I need to say Either it’ll be, and I know that you’re the key Over the next few days, I wrote down what I felt about that first moment.
And it’s that moment, suddenly you’re seeing me just the way I am. Because children aren’t judgemental. Babies have no preconception of what their parent is or is their personality or whatever.
That will all be revealed to them. And I knew through my own early years that my responsibility was to try and give her what I never had. So that’s where the lyric came from.
So beautiful, Angry. So beautiful. And of course, for anybody who doesn’t know, that song was used as the wedding theme for The Neighbours episode, the Australian soap opera television series in which the popular characters Scott Robinson and Charlene Mitchell married.
And that was, of course, Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue before both of them became absolutely huge. It reached number three on the UK Singles Charts. That must have blown you out of the water also.
Kylie told me years later that she chose the song, which I was absolutely chuffed that she did. And she was given a bunch of songs. And she fell in love with Suddenly I Thought, because there’s another love song on that album called Falling, which I think was a better song.
So years later, Kylie tells me that she was adamant. She said they were trying to convince me maybe you should have a song. There was a couple of female artists that they offered to her.
Yeah, yeah. She said, I’ve listened to them, but I want this one. God bless you, Kylie.
She made the right call, didn’t she? Angry, you’re absolutely incredible. You and I have been chatting for almost two hours. You take the award for the longest interview and I’ve enjoyed every second of it.
Thank you, as I have. My mum used to say to me, you know, you can talk under cement, but having said that, I got it from her. I’m just blown away by the person that you are, Angry Anderson, and I think you probably go back to being called Gary because I don’t reckon there’s too much angry left in you.
I’m angry about the war on humanity. There’s definitely a lot to be angry about. In this world today.
Absolutely, which is why I refuse to give up the name. Angry, I love you. I have discovered who you are for the very first time in my life, having been listening to your music.
Don’t tell anyone. I promise. Thank you so much for your time today.
Thank you. It’s a beautiful day. You’ve been listening to A Breath of Fresh Air with Sandy Kaye.
Beautiful day. Oh, baby, any day that you’re gone away. It’s a beautiful day.