formed Innocent Criminals

Silverchair’s founders, Ben Gillies and Daniel Johns , attended the same primary school in the Newcastle suburb of Merewether . At “age 11 or 12”, singer-guitarist Johns and drummer Gillies rapped over an electronic keyboard ‘s demo button under their first band name, The Silly Men . As teenagers, they started playing music together more prominently—in one class, they built a stage out of desks and played rap songs for their schoolmates. When they moved on to Newcastle High School , fellow student Chris Joannou joined the pair on bass guitar. In 1992, they formed Innocent Criminals with Tobin Finnane as a second guitarist but he left early 1994. He had planned on staying with Ben’s family while his parents were away but choose to go to England with his parents. When he returned he was told the band wanted to be a trio. They played numerous shows around the Hunter Region in their early teens; their repertoire included cover versions of Led Zeppelin , Deep Purple , and Black Sabbath . In 1994, Innocent Criminals entered YouthRock—a national competition for school-based bands—and placed first ahead of older competition. The band recorded demos of “Acid Rain”, “Cicada”, ” Pure Massacre “, and ” Tomorrow ” early in the year at Platinum Sound Studios.