Edgefest Official Tour Guide
By Lesley Slavik
Oh, you lucky fans on the western leg of Edgefest: you get silverchair! For those who don't know the vital stats of the trio, we're talking about Ben Gillies (drums), Chris Joannou (bass) and Daniel Johns (guitars and vocals), who formed the group in 1992 over in Newcastle, Australia.
In early 1995, they entered a demo of the song Tomorrow into
the Nomad "Pick Me" competition in Australia. Shortly after winning, they began
recording their first album, Frogstomp. Tomorrow became the album's first single, and it quickly generated much airplay and media hype, not to mention a few criticisms for sounding too much like "a few other" popular rock icons.
Pure Massacre and Israel's Son were the singles that followed, which pushed sales of Frogstomp to over 3 million copies worldwide, including double platinum status (200,000 copies) in Canada. It was an incredible feat in itself, but to accomplish this by the young age of 15 puts the silverchair boys in a class by themselves. The follow-up album, Freak Show, was released this past February. Abuse Me, Freak and the newest hit
Cemetery all proved to be strong singles, expressing more maturity and variety than the previous effort.
Canadian fans got an up-close look at silverchair back in February when the band
performed a special "Intimate and Interactive" for MuchMusic. The three brought the
house down running through their adrenaline-pumping new material, which fans will now be able to experience for themselves at Edgefest.
