Once Melissa Ruggieri's Jan. 1 column was posted on silverchair's web site, the band's fans began to rise to its defense and innundate Melissa with mail. A few of those letters follow:

To: Melissa Ruggieri
From: Kelli Gagnon
Subject: silverchair

I am a member of the Faultline Mailing List, a silverchair fan mailing list. Recently, your article was introduced to the list, and I felt the need to comment on it. Most of these bands, yes, their glory days are over, but silverchair (lowercase "s", I might point out) is still going strong! They've just now found their own style of music, and Daniel has abandoned his Eddie Vedderesque style of singing. They just finished a huge concert in Australia, their album was number one over there... now, for a band who's career is over, that's pretty good! Just because they abandoned their radio-friendly style of music from frogstomp and went heavier does not mean they're not popular. They still have a long way to go, and if you ask me or anyone on the FML, they've only improved over time!

To: Melissa Ruggieri
From: Kim silvermassacre
Subject: Ditto

Um, I don't mean to be rude or anything, but how can you possibly say that silverchair are over? Look at all the other bands out there that are way old and practically beaten into the ground before you consider silverchair has-beens. I mean really! REO Speedwagon is from the '70s! They and almost all the other bands you mentioned no one has heard anything new from in ages! silverchair just put out a new album this year and it's sold almost 2 million copies! Look around! Do a net search! silverchair webpages are in abundance! There's more than you could ever count in a million years! They have one of the most supportive devoted groups of fans on the entire internet, not to mention people who don't even own computers! silverchair are still young and have a bright future in front of them! You can't go around comparing them to bands who have already lived a full life of music! Please re-think what you've said!

To: Melissa Ruggieri
From: Lexy Davies
Subject: Ditto

I'm really sad to see that you think that silverchair should "rest in peace." I agree with your comments on R.E.M. R.E.M.'s albums have become less innovative than they once were, and have now become boring drivel. I was never really fond of Genesis, Jon Secada or 10,000 Maniacs. However, silverchair has had great success since its debut album, frogstomp. Earlier this year the band put out its second album, Freak Show, and that album was well recieved all over the world. Not only did hte album go gold in the United States, but it went platinum in Canada and double platinum in Austrailia. The band also recently wrapped up an Australian tour and before that a North American tour. Nearly all shows were sold out. So I think silverchair can hardly be told to "go to college for something to fall back on." I can also give you a list of thousands of fans all over the world who adore this band. Take a little jaunt on the Internet and you can see evidence of this large fan base. There are hundreds of silverchair fan sites. This fan base is always growing. Now I hope you would reconsider your comments on silverchair, but if you still feel the same way, then each to his own. I just wanted to make sure you were aware of the facts.

To: Melissa Ruggieri
From: Pete Walton
Subject: Ditto

Part of your column summing up the year in music was passed along to me, in particular the last paragraph. I then read the whole column at your paper's web site, and once I saw that you like Squirrel Nut Zippers and Missy Elliott, I began to understand a bit more, but then again, there's no accounting for taste!

I suppose I can't be as objective as you about silverchair, since I take care of the band's official Internet site, www.chairpage.com. But old habits die hard, and as a newspaper reporter and editor since Led Zeppelin was a "new" band, I try to view things as objectively as possible. I feel I should let you know that silverchair are more popular than they really want to be. These kids never set out to be rock 'n' roll stars, and still don't consider themselves as such. It all happened for them by accident, as you might already know or if not could easily find out. They would be just as happy (and have a nice little nest egg) if the music thing ended tomorrow.

That's not likely to happen, though, because they have an incredibly loyal and devoted fan base. I've recently returned from Australia where I attended eight silverchair shows. If you'd been there, I'm sure you would have seen evidence to contradict your assessment of the status of the band's career. I also went to many of the shows on their three U.S. tours in 1997 and the atmosphere was the same. Though 1997's Freak Show sold fewer copies than frogstomp, 2 million is pretty significant, I think. These guys have no desire to be Oasis or Bon Jovi. Believe me, they won't cry if they never have another Tomorrow! Fortunately for their fans, they will be doing another album for Sony. After that, who knows?

[Thanks to Amanda Jenkins for the transcript.]