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Silverchair have had more top 20 hits than any other local artist. They have sold six million albums worldwide, making them Australias most successful contemporary rock band. All 3 of the band members, Daniel Johns, Ben Gillies and Chris Joannou were born in 1979 in the suburb of Merewether in Newcastle on the East coast of Australia. Daniel and Ben first began making music together when they were in primary school, they used to press the 'demo' button a on keyboard and sing raps over the top. Later when Chris joined the band they called themselves the Innocent Criminals and played mainly hard rock due to the Black Sabbath and Led Zepplin records of their dads that they listened to.
In 1994 they entered a national demo competition run by Triple J and Nomad, with a song called "Tomorrow". After winning the demo competition they recorded the song in a studio, made a film clip and was quickly offered a recording contract. After a name

change to "silverchair" they released their first single from the album which only took them 9 days to record.
Their first album "Frogstomp" Went number one in Australia and was the most played song on U.S modern rock radio. It was also the first Australian album since INXS to make it to the top 10 in the United States.
In early 1997 the band released "Freakshow" which sold over 1.5 million copies worlwide and had 3 top 10 singles in Australia.
After graduating from high school, the pressures of touring and being in the public eye had caught up with Daniel, he suffered from depression and anorexia, using these exeriences he wrote a new batch of songs which became their third album "Neon Ballroom" Amuch more melancholy album than the first 2. It was acclaimed by many as their best album yet, they had proven that they could write music that didn't just follow the current trend and that they were here to stay.
After their Neon Ballroom tour they took a year off. They had finished their contract with Sony music and signed on the their new label Eleven: A Music Company in Australia and Atlantic Records in the U.S. Their one and only show in 2000 at the Falls Festival sold out and their next show in January 2001 at Rock in Rio they descibed as their career highlight, playing in front of 250,000 people.
In June 2001 Silverchair went into the studio to begin recording their fourth album, later to be titled "Diorama". They secured record producer David Botrill as well as Van Dyk Parks and Larry Moherberac to work on the orchestral arrangements. At the beggining of the recording it was obvious that Diorama was going to be like nothing they had created before. Diorama is a much more uplifting album than they had previously recorded. The lyrics are more positive and the music is full of melodies and orchestrations. The album was recorded in Sydney studios in Australia then mixed in a Los Angeles Studio.
Their first single from the album was released in January 2002 titled "The Greatest View" which went to number 3 on the Australian charts.While mixing the album Daniel had started getting symptoms of reactive arthritis, just before they were due to Appear at the Big Day Out Festivals his condition worsened and he was forced to take a multitude of painkillers just to make it through their set. After the release of their album Diorama which made it to number 1 on the Australian charts they scheduled an extensive tour, it was at this time that Daniels arthritis began to once again worsen. It became so bad that the band were forced to cancel their world tour.
The boys took some time off the give Daniel a chance to fully recover and made a spectacular come back at the 2002 ARIA Music Awards in Australia. They performed "The Greatest View" on the night and picked up "Best Group" and "Best Rock Album" as well as the Channel [V] Artist of the year award for the 6th year in a row.
Shortly after the ARIA awards they announced that Daniel had recovered enough for them to schedule a limited amounts of shows worlds-wide. Their Australian shows sold out, some selling out in under 10 minutes. For more information and photos on this tour see the 'Tour' and 'Photo' sections on this site.
Currently, Chris had been doing some producing for a band called "The Mess Hall" and Ben has been dabbling in some acting, making appearances in some independent films and Daniel is taking some time off before his new project "The Dissociatives" releases their album and new single (Somewhere down the barrel) in February. He also got married to fellow Aussie and singer/actress Natalie Imbruglia on New years eve in Queensland Australia.

Dates and figures from Chairpage.com