Silverchair bandmates celebrate debut album’s 30th birthday without Daniel Johns

Two members of Silverchair spill on their teen shenanigans as they mark the 30th anniversary of their global smash hit debut.

EXCLUSIVE

Check in on your Gen X mates who may be struggling with the reality check that Silverchair’s seminal debut album Frogstomp turns 30 this week.

Daniel Johns, Chris Joannou and Ben Gillies were just 15 and playing local band competitions in Newcastle when they signed a record deal with the Sony “indie” imprint called Murmur.

The three teenagers from Newcastle were at the centre of a global record label bidding war after their song “Tomorrow” won an SBS and Triple J unsigned band competition.

While some industry moguls tried to impress them with offers of flights on private jets, it was free CDs of an unreleased new album by their heroes Pearl Jam which sealed the deal.

Silverchair in 2008 after releasing their last record Young Modern. Picture NCA.

“Like a private jet sounds great these days, but at 15, all we wanted was to get the CDs of our favourite bands,” Gillies said.

Bassist Joannou and drummer Gillies fronted the 30th anniversary celebrations for Frogstomp at Sydney rock nursery the Metro on Wednesday night.

Frontman Daniel Johns was absent and remains estranged from his former bandmates. He shared his side of the Silverchair story on the successful Who Is Daniel Johns? podcast in 2021 while Gillies and Joannou told their tales in the best-selling memoir Love & Pain in 2023.

Joannou said the Frogstomp anniversary celebrations, including new vinyl and CD versions, were steered by Sony.

MORE: Daniel Johns scores huge $2.75m Silverchair bonus

An iconic early 90s shot of Daniel, Ben and Chris by famed rock photographer Tony Mott. Picture: Supplied.

“It’s an incredible achievement and a great moment in time to look back on and celebrate,” he said.

“And yeah, look, it is still sad and disappointing that we find ourselves in certain situations with current relationships. And do I wish it could be different and better? For sure. And maybe it will one day. Who knows?

“But for us, it was about celebrating that incredible time of our lives with a lot of people in the room that were there back in the day as well.”

The pair shared that Silverchair’s ascent to the world stage may never have happened had they not allowed legendary record producer Nick Launay to do a brutal edit on the epic six and a half minute demo of “Tomorrow.”

Silverchair took Aussie grunge to the top of the charts. Picture: Tony Mott / Supplied

The boys were influenced by their fathers’ “prog rock” record collections and the trio wanted to write their own “rock odyssey.”

“We were definitely leaning into that ‘soft/loud’ trend of the Seattle sound but we also wanted to be prog, and the more prog the better, so ‘Tomorrow’ was six and a half minutes, which was completely unnecessary,” drummer Gillies said.

“When Nick Launay got his hands on it and did the radio edit, I remember hearing his version for the first time and thinking ‘You’ve butchered our song!’

“But after I lived with it, I realised it was cool, and the energy was way more packed into it, so Nick did some good work on that edit.”

Silverchair enlisted their idol and mentor You Am I’s Tim Rogers to play with them at the 1995 ARIA awards. Picture: Tony Mott.

Frogstomp, released in March 1995, went on to sell more than four million copies.

It was recorded by producer Kevin Shirley over late December 1994 and January 1995 at the old Festival Studios in Pyrmont, Sydney, which is now an apartment block.

The band won five awards at the 1995 ARIAs for “Tomorrow” and Frogstomp.

When the trio weren’t putting down their parts to album tracks including “Israel’s Son” and “Pure Massacre,” they were competing in the Corridor Cart Championships which involved them pushing each other in road cases at speed through the hallways.

“We absolutely destroyed the walls of that place, unfortunately, while we were locked inside a padded box,” Joannou said.

Silverchair drew huge crowds at the 1995 Big Day Out as Frogstomp exploded around the world. Picture: Tony Mott

While their ascent to the top of the charts - they were the first Australian act to go straight to No.1 with a debut single and album - their minders John Watson and John O’Donnell made sure they paid their dues.

There were no private jets or luxury tour buses when Silverchair headed overseas to tour for the first time.

Both musicians suspect their manager and label boss stitched them up on that tour.

“I remember doing this horrible 27-hour flight in economy and our tour bus at the other end had two rows of airplane economy seats in it, with all our gear in the back,” Joannou said.

“They were literally the identical seats we had just sat in for 27 hours and we were stuck in that transporter van for the next couple of months. We reckon it was a stitch-up from the Johns.”

Alongside soft drink, Gatorade, water, Allen’s snakes and frogs, the most ridiculous request on the teenagers’ tour rider in those early days was packets of tube socks so they didn’t have to do laundry on the road.

“We didn’t realise the potential. If we’d known what Mariah (Carey) was getting up to, maybe we would have ordered a dozen puppies or something like that,” Gillies said.

And while they didn’t indulge in any cliche rock star behaviour while on tour for Frogstomp, they did amuse themselves with pranks.

Their most audacious caper was to turn every piece of furniture in their tour manager’s room upside down.

The teen stars adopting the classic grunge rock pose. Picture; Tony Mott / Supplied.

“We never threw a TV out of a window but we got really creative at entertaining ourselves,” Gillies said.

They were also inducted into the Secret Wall Tattoo club, which is believed to remain in operation even now.

It involves band or crew members removing the artwork in their hotel room and drawing or painting their own work on the wall, which is then hidden behind the original print.

“There was a thrill in vandalising a hotel room and getting away with it,” Gillies said. “But a lot of the hotels we did them in have been renovated, so it’s cool someone must have discovered it, but now it’s probably been painted over.”