The Australian music industry presented silverchair with an Outstanding Achievement Award at the 10th annual ARIA (Australian Record Industry Association) Awards Sept. 30, 1996 in Sydney. It was the first time since 1990 that the association has presented an Outstanding Achievement Award.
Because they were traveling between shows in Adelaide and Melbourne, Chris Joannou, Ben Gillies and Daniel Johns were not able to be present to accept the award in person. However, they recorded a thank-you message for playback at the ceremonies:
Ben: G'day. We're really happy to be collecting this award on behalf of Josh Shirley. Sorry we can't be there to pick it up in person, but we're on tour at the moment.
Chris: A lot of people have helped us out over the last couple of years, and we'd especially like to thank our families, our manager Watto, Brett Oaten, and our crew. And we'd also like to thank, umm, John, Denis and Susan and everyone else at our record company.
Daniel: Most of all though, I'd like to thank anyone who likes our music or has come to any of our gigs. And last of all I'd like to say Triple J has helped out Australian music and bands a lot over the past few years so please don't mess with Recovery or Triple J. Thanks a lot. Goodbye.
[The people mentioned by Chris are manager John Watson, lawyer Brett Oaten, Sony Music Australia chief Denis Handlin, and John O'Donnell and Susan Robertson of murmur.]
In 1995, silverchair were nominated for eight ARIAs and won five: Best Australian Single, Best Australian Debut Single and Highest Selling Australian Single for Tomorrow; Best Australian New Talent and Best Australian Debut Album for Frogstomp.
Consistent with their desire to stay out of the media spotlight, silverchair didn't accept any of the awards on stage, sending Josh Shirley, the young son of Frogstomp producer Kevin "Caveman" Shirley, to pick up their honors. Last year's ceremonies were highlighted when silverchair teamed up with You Am I lead singer Tim Rogers for to cover the Australian punk classic New Race by Radio Birdman.
The 1996 awards covered the period from July 1, 1995 through June 30, 1996. Even though silverchair did not put out a record of their own during that time, the band was nominated as Best Australian Group on the basis of the release of Blind, which was re-recorded for the motion picture soundtrack of The Cable Guy. The band did not expect to win in that category (Regurgitator were named best group for 1996), but according to manager John Watson, silverchair were honored just to be nominated.
[Thanks to Melinda Simons for the transcript.]
