News Archive
13-12-1996
BUSTED ON THE BEACH
Following is a press release from murmur music regarding the Dec. 6, 1996 encounter between silverchair, Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Dave Navarro, and the Santa Monica, Calif. police:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SILVERCHAIR AND RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS GUITARIST DAVE NAVARRO BUSTED ON THE BEACH IN MALIBU, CA IN RECKLESS DRIVING INCIDENT
The three members of silverchair, along with Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Dave Navarro, were taken into custody by police on Friday, December 6 in Malibu, CA while test driving a vehicle for U.S. magazine Bikini's Test Drive column.
silverchair's Daniel Johns, Chris Joannou and Ben Gillies had been safely piloting a new four-wheel-drive Montero Sport around a Malibu parking lot with Dave Navarro, who was on board to write the article.
When they took the vehicle on to the sand, chaos ensued when three policemen and four Baywatch-style patrol officers appeared from nowhere and ordered Johns, who happened to be at the wheel at the time, out of the vehicle. The police took Johns to the Santa Monica Police Station, planning to charge him for driving without a license and on the beach without a permit. He was briefly placed in a holding cell until representatives from Epic Records, the band's U.S. label, could be dispatched to the hotel to fetch the singer's Australian driver's license and passport.
All was well in the end, however, and after a little friendly negotiation the relieved band members gladly posed with the officers for photographs. Johns was released and all charges were dropped.
The article by Dave Navarro will appear in the April '97 issue of Bikini magazine.
silverchair were visiting L.A. after playing music festivals in Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo with the Sex Pistols, Bad Religion, Cypress Hill and Spacehog. While in L.A. silverchair played a small undercover club show at The Troubadour under the moniker "The George Costanza Trio" and shot a video for Freak, the first single to be released from their forthcoming album. Freak will be at radio from Dec. 31, New Year's Eve, and available at retail from Jan. 13.
silverchair have now returned to Australia. Their next live shows are in Hobart on January 10, Launceston January 11, and the Peaches N Cream Festival in Cobram, Vic. on Saturday, January 25.