Silverchair’s Ben Gillies and Chris Joannou bare all in joint memoir Love and Pain

Together, they formed the rhythm section of Silverchair, one of the nation’s greatest rock bands, and their interweaving perspectives make for an unusual and compelling format for a biography.

Silverchair’s Chris Joannou and Ben Gillies. Picture: Maclay Heriot

When the three members of Newcastle rock band Silverchair learned debut single, Tomorrow, had reached No. 1 on the ARIA chart in October 1994, they were at Pizza Hut, celebrating drummer Ben Gillies’ 15th birthday.

Being teenage boys, they were far more interested in raiding the dessert bar than reflecting on the astounding nature of their groundbreaking achievement.

When the band announced its break-up in 2011, bassist Chris Joannou was taken aback: he first heard the news on the radio.

These are just two details unearthed in Love and Pain, a memoir written by Gillies and Joannou and published on Wednesday.

Together, they formed the rhythm section of one of the ­nation’s greatest rock bands, and their interweaving perspectives make for an unusual and compelling format for a biography.

“This is a world first,” Gillies, 43, told The Australian with a laugh.

Formed with childhood friend Daniel Johns on guitar and vocals, all five of Silverchair’s albums reached No. 1 on the ARIA chart, and the trio won a record 21 ARIA awards, more than any other band.

Yet it all ended with a whimper rather than anything resembling a victorious roar: Silverchair’s final performance was in May 2010 at a Darwin music festival, and nobody in attendance knew it was the last time they’d be on stage together.

A year later, a carefully worded press release called the break-up an “indefinite hibernation”. Initiated by Johns, the decision had been made without the three men being in the same room, looking one another in the eye and coming to an agreement. This sour end has haunted his bandmates, who have generally kept their own counsel on such matters – until now.

“Silverchair broke my heart,” writes Joannou, 43. “I had so much love for the band that the pain of the end was immense. It’s particularly hard to think of the fans. They’d given us so much since the very beginning, and all we gave them back was a press release. That sucks. They deserved better; we deserved better.”

This honesty and vulnerability shines throughout the book, co-written with journalist Alley Pascoe. While both men are clear in their admiration for Johns’s songwriting, they also detail their failed attempts to reconnect with their childhood friend in recent years.

“There was three people in Silverchair, so obviously we were going to speak about our time in the band, and that includes Daniel,” said Gillies.

“There was some tough times for all three of us – but I think the book is very respectful, and it’s a celebration of the band.”

Those tough times include Gillies revealing substance abuse issues with alcohol, cannabis and cocaine, which led to a psychotic break he kept hidden from almost everyone.

Joannou, meanwhile, laid bare his private health troubles, including a cancer battle in 2019, followed by a heart attack and two surgeries to put stents in his heart.

To coincide with the publication, the pair will speak at book events in Newcastle (September 30), Sydney (October 3), Brisbane (October 9), Melbourne (October 11) and Hobart (October 12).