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silverchair started off as friends since they were 5 years old in primary school. They used to go to the beach, play pool, video games and surf. The started a band because they were bored. Daniel started writing short rap songs when he was 8 with Ben. The named themselves "Short Elvis" because they played covers of Elvis tunes. They decided that they sucked without a bassist so asked Chris to learn and to join them. Soon the trio were called "Innocent Criminals". They had a fourth member, Tobin Finnane but moved over seas. He probably played the rhythem guitar. They started to play as a band in Ben garage covering tunes by Deep Purple (who Daniel had an obsession with at the time), Led Zepplin and Black Sabbath. They thought they sounded good, according to Ben but was just basically loud and heavy and everything was on 10. They first had a hard time getting gigs because they were too young and had to wait 'till they were old enough to drink. The "Innocent Criminals" sent out demo tapes to record companies to get noticed. The first gig that they played was at a street fair in which they got $10 each to play. This old person said that he would call the cops if they didn't stop playing, so they stopped.
In 1994, a neighbour told them about a national demo competition called the "Pick Me" demo contest sponsered by Nomad. The first prize was a free video shoot and an afternoon at Triple J recording studio. So Ben, Chris and Daniel bought a spot in a cheap studio for $75 and recorded the 6 min version of "Tomorrow". It was soon chosen out of more than 800 entries as first. What was also included in the prize was that Nomad would produce a video for them and Triple J studios would air "Tomorrow" once. But after "Tomorrow" was released on the airwaves requests poured in for the song. They soon landed a record deal with Murmur after a mini-bidding over the young band. Still called the Innocent Criminals the decided to change their name to silverchair because the record company didn't like the name. They thought people would look down on them due to the fact they were teenagers and were named the Innocent Criminals. The name was chosen when Daniel and Chris was over at Ben's house and making requests on Triple J. Ben wanted "Sliver" by Nirvana and Daniel "Berlin Chair" by You Am I. As a joke they requested sliverchair. Chris wrote it down wrong that said silverchair. The agreed that it was a good name. Just a note, silverchair isn't capitalized (countless mags make it mistake eventhough it's so simple) because they thought that it looked stupid. Other names that they considered was Warm Fish Milkshake and Grunttruck (which was taken by a group in Seattle). The name 'Frogstomp' came from an old '60s album name that Daniel really liked. As for the recording of Frogstomp, it took 9 days with the basic necessities. silverchair liked the fact that it sounded kind of like a live album. They wanted people to know what they were like, what they sounded like and to prove that they could play these songs live. It was quick and inexpensive. Some problems did occur though. The band was pretty much sick of some of the songs due to the fact that they were so old and they were tired of playing them, especially Cicada as silverchair will often mention how much they hate it. It was even voted by Daniel as the "offical crap songs of our times' in Kerrang!. Daniel lost his voice half-way through the recording. Most of the songs were influenced by the stuff that Daniel was watching at the time and old Black Sabbath and Led Zepplin tunes that he listened to. On January 6, 1995 the "7 vinyl of Tomorrow was realased in Australia where it spent 6 weeks at number one and over three monthes on the charts. Frogstomp was released on March 27, 1995 in Australia and sold over 4 million copies world wide with 250 000 units sold in Australia alone. When released on June 13, 1995 in North America, 1.4 million copies was sold in the United States and over 100 000 copies (I'm guessing here) in Canada. silverchair toured as much as they could for Frogstomp (6 weeks alternating off and on for school), They played their first European show at the Astoria in London where they played recently and later their first show in the United States at the Atlanta Roxy Theater where they also played recently on June 21, 1995. While touring with various bands strange events occured with almost every band that they were with. While promoting 'Frogstomp', they have toured with The Red Hot Chilli Peppers in which Daniel got arrested with ex-member Dave Navarro when driving on the beach (Dec. 1996). He was bailed out due to the fact that one of the officers daughter was a silverchair fan. While touring with the Peppers strippers were sent on stage on one of the performances (Feb. 1996). They also toured with Everclear where a doll was blown up on stage. When they perfromed at the Big Day Out in 1995 they played the what is knowed to me as the second stage where local acts play. Daniel wanted it that way. silverchair was so hyped up then (and still now) that people were literally on roof tops, poles, virtually on anything that they could see them. It was also the day that Daniel had a strange encounter with Courtney Love. Daniel said that she met him back stage and stared at him for a while. When asked what she wanted by him Courtney just left. Later on stage she stated, "So this is the young man from silverchair that looks like my dead husband Kurt and sings like Eddie Vedder...how lame." That ought to get some silverchair fans pissed off. Now Daniel just jokes and laughs about that situation saying how badly Courtney wanted him. They haven't associated since, well until this year probably at EdgeFest 1999 where Hole and silverchair are a couple of the acts. The other Santa Monica incident (Sept. 1995) where they held a free concert for about 10 000 people. Nothing worked and the power shorted out. People were beginning to get frustrated and started to throw stuff on stage. A beer bottle hit Daniel when he was singing "Isreal's Son". He went to the hospital to get stitches where as Ben and Chris thought that it was hilarious and thought if Daniel would get his eyebrows shaved off. Then there was an incident about the "Isreal's Son" murders (Jan. 1996). When two teenage boys committed a first degree murder on their siblings after listening to the song. Charges were laid but the record denies that the song was the cause of the suicide. The song was about a documentary about war. Because of this incident the origional version of the video was editied which silverchair was disappointed by. A prostitute from New Zealand (Feb. 1996), Paula Gai Knightly, accused Daniel of stalking her, calling out, "I love you", asking her to make love to her and threatning to kill her. She tried to press charges but the police discovered that Daniel wasn't even in the same country with her. He was touring with silverchair over seas. She soon left for New Zealand. And that is that by the way. The rest is self-explaintory. They recorded "Freak Show" in mid 1996 for about 3 weeks and toured during the most of 1997. They finished off their 1997 Freak Show tour in Perth, Australia with the memoriable performace with Magic Dirt. As some people would remember the part where Adalita (the lead singer) adledgly "raped" Daniel who quickly changed into a "lovely dress" leaving him in is grey underwear. silverchair took a year off in 1998. Well, Ben and Chris did while Daniel worte what is now "Neon Ballroom" in a house by the beach that he rented. After suffering through several conditions, silverchair went back into the studio in June of 1998 for 2 months. They started the Neon Ballroom tour at Newcastle posing as a silverchair cover band. It was well received with Sam the new keyboardist. silverchair toured most of Europe, North America and Australia to sold out crowds. I noticed at EdgeFest this year that most came to see silverchair and was most excited when they came out and a lot of people left after they performed. But they touring Europe again and finished another round of dates in Australia. Neon Ballroom produced 2 hit singles, "Ana's Song (Open Fire)" and "Anthem for the Year 2000" with "Miss You Love" on the way. During this time, Daniel's eating disorder contorversy hit the media with massive coverage in music mags and MTV with an interview with Daniel on eating disorders in mid July. Their cd debuted at #1 is Australia and #50 in the U.S. Billboard charts. So far it sold way over 500 000 copies world wide with 200 000 in Canada and Australia put together. Daniel says that he won't be doing too many albums but rather enroll into art school and wants a well deserved year off completly without writing.
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