Rose Tattoo

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For the Wildstorm Comics character, see Rose Tattoo (Wildstorm). For the Tennessee Williams play, see The Rose Tattoo.

Rose Tattoo are an Australian blues/hard rock band, led by Angry Anderson and slide guitarist Peter Wells. Among their best known songs are "We Can't Be Beaten", "Scarred for Life" and "Bad Boy for Love" (co-written by Ian Rilen.) Their first four albums were produced by Harry Vanda and George Young who also worked with AC/DC. Along with AC/DC and The Angels, Rose Tattoo helped establish an Australian rock sound in the 1970s that was copied around the world.

Guns N' Roses and L.A. Guns have both covered Rose Tattoo songs.

[edit] History

Rose Tattoo was formed in Sydney in 1976 by ex-Buffalo bassist Peter Wells (on slide guitar); with the additions of former Buster Brown vocalist Angry Anderson, guitarist Mick Cocks, bassist Ian Rilen and drummer Dallas "Digger" Royal, the group made their public debut on New Year's Eve at the local club Chequers, which several years earlier launched the career of AC/DC.

Chiefly inspired by The Rolling Stones and the Faces, Rose Tattoo's hard-rocking sound quickly earned a devoted following in the Sydney area. Among the band's fans were the members of AC/DC, who recommended them to Albert Productions; the band's debut single "Bad Boy for Love" was written by Rilen, who left the lineup prior to the record's release.

Anderson's onetime Buster Brown bassist Geordie Leach was recruited for Rose Tattoo's self-titled debut LP; after nearly three years of extensive touring, during which time Leach temporarily left the band to be replaced by Lobby Lloyde, they issued the follow-up, Assault and Battery, in 1981.

Rose Tattoo toured Europe that year where they featured at the Reading Festival and were hailed as the loudest band to play London's Marquee Club since Led Zeppelin.^{[citation needed]} Returning to Australia, the band began work on their third album; with new guitarist Robin Riley replacing Cocks, they issued Scarred for Life in 1982, subsequently touring the US in support of Aerosmith and ZZ Top. The band's US visit was not a major success but proved to be extremely influential on the underground sleaze metal scene in Los Angeles, with bands such as Guns N' Roses later citing Rose Tattoo as favourites.^{[citation needed]} That group went on to record a version of "Nice Boys Don't Play Rock N Roll" and issue it on the GNR Lies album.

After the US tour, Wells, Royal and Riley all left the group, with the remaining duo of Anderson and Leach recruiting guitarists Greg Jordan and John Meyer along with drummer Scott Johnston to record 1984's Southern Stars. Leach then exited to join Wells, Royal and Riley in the short-lived Illustrated Men. Anderson also took time out to play the character 'Ironbar' in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985). Anderson and Johnston continued on as Rose Tattoo, enlisting guitarist Tim Gaze and bassist Andy Cichon for 1986's Beats from a Single Drum.

Anderson finally mounted a solo career soon after, as did Wells. After a long battle with cancer, Royal died in 1991. In 1992, Anderson was approached by Guns N' Roses to reform Rose Tattoo in order to support them on an Australian tour. Anderson, Wells, Cocks, Leach and new drummer Paul DeMarco from Wells' solo band reunited for the 1993 tour. The reunion proved brief, however, and each then member returned to his solo endeavours.

The same lineup, with original bassist Ian Rilen replacing Leach, reformed yet again in 1998 for the "All Hell Breaks Loose!!" tour, however Rilen remained with the band only for the duration of this tour and by the following year, Leach had returned to the fold once more, although his place was taken by Steve King in 2000. Since that time Rose Tattoo has toured regularly around Australia and throughout Germany and France. In 2000, the band appeared at the Wacken Open Air festival as part of their European tour. These shows formed the basis of the 25 to Life live album. 2002 saw the release of Pain, the band's first studio album in 16 years.

Peter Wells died from prostate cancer on March 27, 2006. In August that year, the band was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. A new album featuring Wells will also be released this year. Founding member Ian Rilen passed away on October 30, 2006 after a battle with bladder cancer. One of Rilen's last public appearences was at Rose Tattoo's ARIA Hall of Fame induction.

In October 2006, a number of Rose Tattoo songs were voted upon and ranked in the Triple M Essential 2006 Countdown of songs, including:

"Bad Boy for Love" (voted 1060 out of 2006)
"We Can't Be Beaten" (voted 397 out of 2006)

In the same month, Rose Tattoo were also one of 55 acts voted and played in Triple J's Impossible Music Festival of 2006, with their live recording of a gig performed on New Year's Day 1980 at Mount Druitt, New South Wales being selected out of over 1000 Live at the Wireless recordings produced over the radio station's 31 year history.

[edit] Discography

Rose Tattoo (1978)
Assault & Battery (1981)
Scarred for Life {1982)
Southern Stars (1984)
Beats From A Single Drum (1986) – Later released as an Angry Anderson solo album
Nice Boys Don't Play Rock N Roll (1992) – Compilation
25 to Life {2000) – Live album
Pain (2002)
Best of Rose Tattoo (2005) – Compilation