-From The Sunday Mail,
March 9, 1997, page 29.
A Logan city pop duo are about to do to their town what the Beatles did to Liverpool and Nirvana did to
Seattle - put it on the map. The duo, Savage Garden, looks set to become the next big thing. Two weeks
ago they released their first single, I Want You in the United States where it debuted in Billboard' s Top
20. Today it sits at number 16 with a bullet. In Australia, the single went platinum and became last year's
biggest selling single. Their second single, To The Moon and Back quickly became No 1, while the latest,
Truly Madly Deep;y, is waling out of the shops. The two Logan lads who make up Savage Garden,
Darren Hayes, 24, and Daniel Jones, 23, are about to release their debut self-titled album later this month.
"How did two boys from Logan end up writing songs like this?" Asked Gary Beitzel. Beitzel runs
Woody's, a record shop that nestles itself next to K-mart in Logan, an area where heavy metal and grunge
still dominate CD players. Beitzel knows Hayes almost better than anyone. For five years, the Mabel Park
State High School student worked at Woody's, where he developed a love of music. "I would say that the
biggest influence on Darren would have to be Michael Jackson," Beitzel said. "Not only did he love his
mysic, but he loved the approach Michael took to the whole industry."
Friends of the boys both remard on how deserving they are of their success. But already they are getting
caught up in the publicity machine that absorbs and then spits out pop stars like chewing gum. Last year,
Jones was unable to address the graduation Year 12 students at his old high school, Shailer Park State
High, because he had to be in New York for a photo shoot.
Their record company, Roadshow Music, would not allow The Sunday Mail to interview Savage Garden
last week because of prior exclusive arrangements. But their number one fan, Anna Nilme, 24, who met
Hayes at QUT's Kelvin Grove campus where they both studied to be teachers, said the boys would keep
their feet firmly on the ground. "They are pretty down to earth," she said.
Coming from Logan helps. Both grew up in the area, but because of the geography they never met and
went to high schools separated by freeways and shoping strips. They met when Hayes answered and ad
Jones had placed in a music magazine looking for a singer. For two years they played in a covers band
called Red Edge, until they ditched the band and formed a pop duo. Hayes who loves Anne Rice novels,
named the duo Savage Garden after a reference in the book Lestat.
"They are chalk and cheese," Ms Nilme said. "They are great friends, but because they work so close
together they never socialize together."
School girls at Mabel Park State High talk about Savage Garden in the same breath as Take That. "They
are better then Take That," They scream. "And they are bigger babes!"
By Darren Lovell
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