The 'Chair & The Aria's
16 September 2002

It was announced in Sydney today that Silverchair has been nominated for three awards at this year's ARIA Awards (Australia's 'Grammys'). The band is one of the five final nominees in the following industry voted categories: "Album Of The Year", "Best Rock Album", and "Best Group".

At the announcement ceremony a number of actual prizewinners were also announced in the so-called 'Artisan Categories' (best producer, best engineer, best video and best artwork). Only specialists in each field vote in these categories and the big news from this was that Daniel Johns was voted Best Producer for his work in Co-Producing "Diorama".

Daniel was unable to attend the presentation because he is still receiving medical treatment in Los Angeles. However, in a statement read by the band's manager, John Watson, Daniel said "given all the work that went into making "Diorama" and the medical problem I've had this year, it's particularly pleasing to win this award".

"Diorama" was also recognised with Darren Glindemann, John Watson, Melissa Chenery and Daniel Johns receiving an ARIA Award for Best Cover Art and Anton Hagop receiving an ARIA Award for Best Engineer. Squareyed Films were also nominated in the category for Best Video for "The Greatest View". This made Silverchair the only artist to receive nominations in all four Artisan categories.

Ben Gillies and Chris Joannou attended the announcement ceremony and were among the first to congratulate Daniel, Darren and Anton. Asked if Silverchair would perform at the Award Night in Sydney on October 15 Ben said that it was "not completely out of the question" although the band had "no plans to do so at the moment".

"If Daniel keeps getting better then we'd be up for doing it but we'll just have to see how Daniel is feeling in the next few weeks", said Ben. "He's doing everything he possibly can to get better and he's definitely improving gradually so we'll just have to wait and see."

In other ARIA news voting continues in the one and only publicly voted category ... Channel V's Artist Of The Year. Silverchair have received this prize for five consecutive years and the band members are on record as saying that this gong means more to them than any other precisely because it's voted for by the general public. To vote for this Award click here.