Longtime TISM Roadie Andy Sutherland Passes Away

TISM

Andy Sutherland, the longtime, hard-working roadie of Melbourne outfit TISM has passed away, the band have announced.

News of Sutherland’s passing was announced on Sunday, April 12th, with a post from the band’s official Facebook account sharing the news.

“At 9:30 last night the TISM family, and that includes all of you, lost roadie extraordinaire, Andy Sutherland,” the post read. “Andy died after a brief but devastating battle with cancer.”

Sutherland first began working with the band around 1990, joining TISM’s road crew alongside fellow roadie Kevin ‘Yahn Wildebeest’ O'Donnell, who previously passed in late 2020.

Together, the pair were known as two of the hardest-working members of the Australian music scene, being tasked with taking care of TISM’s live show, and protecting band members as they invariably stage-dived or entered the crowd.

Sutherland and O'Donnell were often seen following members of the band (typically vocalist Ron Hitler-Barassi and dancer Les Miserables) into the audience, protecting them from injury and/or the wayward hands of fans intent on ripping the band’s masks off.

As such, both men were frequently seen with replacement masks in their back pockets, ready to ensure the band members’ anonymity continued at any given moment.

“Many of you will know and remember Andy fondly,” the band’s post continued. “He has been a staunch warrior for TISM since the early 1990s.

“Armed only with a fistful of balaclavas, Andy would launch himself fearlessly deep into the mosh intent on not only retrieving Ron, Les, or occasionally, Humphrey, but doing so as gently as possible so as not to harm fans who were frantically intent on ripping a balaclava off a band member’s head.”

Sutherland’s final appearance with the band reportedly took place on Sunday, March 29th during their secret show at Melbourne’s Howler. He was absent from the group’s performance at the Sydney Opera House on April 10th, with the band altering lyrics to their Old Skool TISM song at last night’s Opera House show in honour of their late roadie.

“Tonight, when TISM get to the chorus of Greg! The Stop Sign!!, we ask that you bellow it out so loudly that if there is an afterlife, and Andy is standing at the Golden Gates, St. Peter will take look aghast at Andy and ask ‘What the fv<k was that!?!?’” TISM urged fans ahead of yesterday’s headline performance.

“Andy passed away peacefully in the arms of his wife surrounded by love,” they concluded. “He will be greatly missed.”