The Living End - Fri Feb 02, 2007 Latest Information
Thw whispers have been brewing online for months and we can now happily confirm that Fender Guitars are indeed producing a Chris Cheney Signature Series Gretsch 6126CC Guitar. Chris has been working closely with Fender refining the design, most recetly visiting the Gretsch company in Nagoya, Japan, where the prototype had been finished just one evening earlier. We'll report more on this exciting news, including details as to where one might find one of these prized guitars might be found over the next months report.www.thelivingend.com website won the 2006 Hitwise Online Performance Award in the category of Music - Bands and Artists. It was the #1 website in that category amongst the 2006 internet users.The boys were in the studio recently recording Cold Chisel's 'Rising Sun' for the upcoming tribute album. So happy with the results a video of the performance has been produced. Catch it on JTV, Video Hits, or the TLE website.
www.thelivingend.com website won the 2006 Hitwise Online Performance Award in the category of Music - Bands and Artists. It was the #1 website in that category among Australian internet users in 2006.
The boys were in the studio recently recording Cold Chisel's "Rising Sun" for the upcoming tribute album. So happy are all with the resut, that a video is in the works to support the release.
Once again nominations were bestowed on The Living End boys from the Jack Awards. This year it's for Best Guitarist, Best Bassist and Best Drummer.
The Living End head to Toronto, Canada in mid February to play a one-off show with Silverchair, after spending a few promo days in New York in support of State of Emergency. This will be followed up by a couple of festival dates back home including The great Escape in Sydney, before setting to work on a new album.
Finally, on Australia Day the guys celebrated being the only band in the world to have 10 years of songs voted into the Triple J Hottest 100. (The Livign End Website)
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The Living End are an Australian punkabilly band, based in Melbourne, Victoria. To date, they have released four studio albums in Australia, with two going to the number 1 position on the ARIA charts. They have also gained notable success in the United States and Europe. The band recently won awards for Best Drummer, Best Male Performer, Best Live TV Appearance and Best Band, in the 2006 Jack Awards.
The Living End formed in 1994 after Chris Cheney met Scott Owen. The two boys first were introduced to each other by their older sisters at Wheelers Hill Secondary College in Melbourne. Cheney was obsessed with 80s rockabilly group the Stray Cats, having a major influence on their style of music. Owen decided to learn the upright-bass in favour of the piano and they started playing gigs. They formed a cover band under the name Runaway Boys in 1992; named after the title of a Stray Cats album.
However, by 1994 Chris and Scott were writing their own material. The group went through a procession of drummers before settling on Joey Piripitzi that same year, forming The Living End.
The Living End got their first big break in 1995 when, after sending a t-shirt and a demo tape to Billie Joe Armstrong, they landed a support slot in Green Day's upcoming Australian tour. After the tour, the group went into the studio to record their debut EP Hellbound which received moderate support from community radio stations.
In November 1995, the band went back into the studio to record their second EP It's for Your Own Good which they released several months later. This recording yielded their first major radio airplay with the song From Here On In, which was placed on high rotation on the youth radio network Triple J. Shortly after the release of the second EP, drummer Joe Piripitzi left the band for reasons unclear, and was replaced with Travis Demsey who was soon playing with the band at major festivals such as Pushover and the Falls Festival.
After a year touring Australia, The Living End again headed into the studio to record something new to sell at their now very popular shows. The result was the Second Solution/Prisoner of Society double single.
Second Solution/Prisoner of Society quickly became a national hit, the double A-side becoming the highest selling Australian single of the 90's, charting #1 and receiving the 1998 ARIA Award for Highest Selling Single.
The band signed on to Modular Recordings for the release of their debut self titled album. The album was an instant hit with Australian audiences. The Living End was at the time the highest-selling debut rock album in Australian music history, now 5 times platinum, and charted at #1. During this period 6 singles were released including the previously stated double A-side, and in addition 'Tainted Love (live)', a cover, was released as a radio-only single on Triple J. The Living End's breakout was the most successful part of their career so far.
The Living End were awarded 2 more ARIA awards in 1999 for Best Group, and best New Artist.
The Roll On album in 2000 was a more creative work, but did not manage to achieve the status of their earlier album. Cheney later stated that he was trying to prove to critics that The Living End were not a band simply defined by their hit Prisoner of Society, and the album showed this by displaying other influences, as well as their traditional fast-paced rockabilly music. The album even garnered comparison, by a few critics, to seminal punk band The Clash's creative breakthrough, London Calling [citation needed]. Much of the style was comparable to 80's hard rock, as well as many tracks being obscure mixes of many ideas, resulting in 'procrastinating' structures. This defined the albums creativity.
During this period, relative success was achieved in addition in the USA, with the band receiving America-wide coverage by playing on both Conan O'Brian and David Letterman's major late-night variety shows.
However, singles and success for Roll On was limited due to a twist of fate. In 2001, the band hit a quiet period due to Chris Cheney's car accident on the Great Ocean Road, rendering him unable to play for a significant period of time. He had been on the road to the house of a member of fellow Australian band Bodyjar.
In 2002 after drummer Travis Demsey left the band shortly after Chris's recovery, so he could spend more time with his family, supported by a developed dislike of heavy touring. The Longnecks were formed to test out new drummer Andy Strachan and new material to be on the MODERN ARTillery album, without attracting too much public attention.
At this time the band made a comeback, releasing "One Said to the Other" and "Who's Gonna Save Us?" in 2003, and getting air play once again. This was followed by heavy touring (including Big Day Out) and the release of MODERN ARTillery.
The MODERN ARTillery album in 2003 was a return to musical simplicity in most tracks (the rock anthem "The Room" being an exception), but was certainly of a different style to the hard rock and punkabilly of the self-titled album, and the jazzy punkabilly of Hellbound and It's For Your Own Good. Instead, Punk Pop, computer-generated sounds, country music, and 60's style rock'n'roll had their share on Modern Artillery, among other styles.
In late 2004, the band released a singles collection as well as a DVD, which included all video clips and a "supergig", collections of the band's most famous songs performed in Australia, Japan and the USA. The DVD also featured the band's history - documented in interviews and home footage.
Chris performed at the 2004 ARIA awards as part of the group The Wrights, featuring members of many other Australian bands. Chris Cheney and Scott Owen won the Best Guitarist and Best Bassist awards for 2004 and 2005, in the Jack Awards. There were more Jack Awards to come.
The Living End's fourth album, titled State of Emergency, was recorded in Byron Bay after they played in the Splendour in the Grass festival. The recording and the artwork was completed in mid December 2005, and the album was released on 4 February 2006, debuting at #1 on the ARIA Albums Chart. The Living End again played gigs under the name The Longnecks prior to recording the album, to test out new material.
The album's tracks are even simpler then Modern Artllery's tracks, but with a more raw sound, so as to assimalate even further with the early releases and the self-titled album. Nevertheless, the new styles and other styles experienced in Modern Artillery remain in State of Emergency; arguably most dominantly Punk Pop, rockabilly now being a less met blend of The Living End's punkabilly style.
The single "What's on Your Radio?" was released on 20 November 2005, and debuted at #9 on the ARIA singles chart. The second single, "Wake Up" was released on 19 February and went straight to number #5. The third single from the album "Long Live the Weekend" was released 20 May, but did not enter the top 20, whilst the other two singles had entered the top 10. The fourth single, "Nothing Lasts Forever" was released in Australia on 19 August and was also unsuccessful, considered by many fans to be a bad choice for a single. Nevertheless, State of Emergency continues to hold onto its position as a generally very successful album, enhanced by the great success of the first two singles. A fifth single (rumoured to be We Want More) may be released September-November. The album has also been nominated for the 2006 J Award.
The album was released in the United States through Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong's Adeline Records along with Eastwest Records on 11 July 2006. Further releases in support of the album was the DVD "Live At Festival Hall" on 30 September, which captured a Melbourne performance of the State of Emergency Tour, featuring many songs from the album, and many classics.
In 2006 the band took out 4 Jack Award; Best Live Band, Best Live TV Performance, Best Performer (Chris) and Best Drummer (Andy). This means that The Living End has easily being awarded the most jack awards each year and overall so far.
The band will be touring New Zealand in support of the State of Emergency album in October/November 2006. The dates are: Christchurch 31 October, Wellington 2 November, Auckland 3 November & 4 November.
The Living End are also heading back over to the States and Canada in November and December to promote their new album more extensivley. They also hope to head back over to Europe next year.
