50 Fun Facts About Australian Music

In which city was AC/DC formed in 1973?

Sydney is where the band took shape in late 1973, under a name the founders' sister is said to have spotted on her sewing machine.

What is the surname of the two brothers who founded AC/DC?

Angus Young first wore his schoolboy uniform on stage in 1974 at his sister Margaret's suggestion, while brother Malcolm held down rhythm guitar.

Which AC/DC singer died of alcohol poisoning in 1980, months after Highway to Hell?

Bon Scott's death nearly finished AC/DC: the band thought about quitting until his family urged them to find a new singer and carry on.

Which 1980 AC/DC album became one of the best-selling albums of all time?

Back in Black wears its all-black cover as a sign of mourning for the singer the band had lost months earlier.

Which singer fronted INXS for 20 years?

Michael Hutchence sang with INXS until his death in 1997, and in 2005 the group picked a successor, J.D. Fortune, through the reality TV show Rock Star: INXS.

Which INXS single was the band's only US number one?

Need You Tonight began as an idea that hit the band's keyboardist as he left for the airport, so he kept his taxi waiting while he taped a demo.

Which Australian band started out in 1977 as The Farriss Brothers?

INXS dropped the family name at the urging of Midnight Oil's manager, Gary Morris, after touring as that band's support act.

Which role did Kylie Minogue play on the soap opera Neighbours?

Charlene Mitchell made Kylie a household name, and her pop career began when she sang 'The Loco-Motion' at a football club benefit with her castmates and was signed by Mushroom Records.

Which Kylie Minogue hit has a 'la la la' hook?

Can't Get You Out of My Head was turned down by S Club 7 and Sophie Ellis-Bextor before Kylie recorded it.

Which Midnight Oil frontman later served as an Australian federal government minister?

Peter Garrett sang against uranium mining with Midnight Oil, yet as environment minister in 2008 he approved the expansion of a South Australian uranium mine.

Which 1987 Midnight Oil album produced 'Beds Are Burning' and 'The Dead Heart'?

Diesel and Dust grew out of the band's 1986 Blackfella/Whitefella tour, months spent playing remote Aboriginal communities alongside the Warumpi Band.

Who is the Scottish-born frontman of Men at Work?

Colin Hay was 14 when his family left Scotland for Melbourne in 1967, and Men at Work grew out of the acoustic duo he formed with guitarist Ron Strykert.

A 2010 court ruled that the flute riff in 'Down Under' was based on which song?

Kookaburra's copyright owners won 5 per cent of the song's royalties dating back to 2002, far less than the share they had asked the court for.

Which album was number one in America in January 1983 while its single 'Down Under' also topped the chart?

Business as Usual spent 15 weeks at number one in America, even though the band's US label had twice refused to release it.

Who wrote and sang lead on Crowded House's 'Don't Dream It's Over'?

Neil Finn formed Crowded House in 1985 with drummer Paul Hester after their previous band, Split Enz, broke up.

In which city was Sia born and raised?

Adelaide's acid jazz band Crisp gave Sia her start as a singer in the mid-1990s, before she moved to London and sang with Zero 7.

Which child dancer starred in Sia's 'Chandelier' video and its follow-ups?

Maddie Ziegler was an 11-year-old star of the reality show Dance Moms when Sia, a fan of the show, tweeted to ask her to dance in the video.

Tame Impala is essentially the studio project of which musician?

Kevin Parker writes, records, performs and produces the music alone in the studio; only on tour does Tame Impala become a full band.

In which city did Tame Impala begin in 2007?

Perth is where much of the second album, Lonerism, was made: a record about isolation, recorded at home and almost single-handed.

Silverchair formed in which New South Wales city?

Newcastle schoolmates Silverchair won a national demo competition in 1994, and the winning song, 'Tomorrow', went on to spend six weeks at number one.

Where were the Bee Gees' Gibb brothers born?

Isle of Man was only the first stop: the Gibb family moved to Manchester, where the brothers first sang in local cinemas, and then in the late 1950s to Queensland.

Which band has Nick Cave fronted since 1983?

The Bad Seeds found a mainstream audience with 'Where the Wild Roses Grow', a murder ballad Cave sang as a duet with pop star Kylie Minogue.

Who was the lead singer of 1960s folk-pop group The Seekers?

Judith Durham walked away at the height of the group's fame in 1968 to go solo, a year after all four Seekers were named Australians of the Year.

Which 1986 John Farnham album became the biggest-selling album in Australia by a local artist?

Whispering Jack only got made because Farnham's manager, Glenn Wheatley, mortgaged his own house to pay for it after the major labels passed.

Which Olivia Newton-John single was Billboard's highest-ranking Hot 100 song of the 1980s?

Physical topped the US chart for ten weeks and swapped Newton-John's clean-cut image for a far cheekier one.

Which pub rock band did Jimmy Barnes front before his solo career?

Cold Chisel's debut single 'Khe Sanh' follows a Vietnam veteran who can't settle back home; it peaked at just number 41 in 1978, yet APRA later voted it one of the ten best Australian songs.

In which city was Jimmy Barnes born?

Glasgow was home until he was five, when his family emigrated to Australia; born James Swan, he later took the surname of his stepfather, Reg Barnes.

Powderfinger formed in 1989 in which city?

Brisbane's Powderfinger split in 2010, then reunited online a decade later for One Night Lonely, a livestreamed show played from four separate locations.

Who were the two members of Savage Garden?

Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones met on Queensland's covers band circuit in the early 1990s, then broke away to record demos of their own songs.

What were Wiggles founders Anthony Field, Murray Cook and Greg Page studying at Macquarie University?

Pre-school teaching students Field, Cook and Page built the first Wiggles album on early childhood ideas, with Field's old Cockroaches bandmate Jeff Fatt drafted in on keyboards.

Which British star hosted the first ARIA Awards in 1987?

Elton John warned the industry never to put the awards on television if it wanted them to stay fun, and the first five ceremonies went unbroadcast.

Which radio station runs the annual Hottest 100 listener poll?

Triple J's first two polls, in 1989 and 1990, were open to songs of any era, and both were won by Joy Division's 1980 single 'Love Will Tear Us Apart'.

Who wrote the lyrics of 'Waltzing Matilda' in 1895?

Banjo Paterson wrote the words during an 1895 stay in outback Queensland, setting them to a tune played for him by Christina Macpherson.

In 'Waltzing Matilda', what animal does the swagman steal?

A sheep, a 'jumbuck' in the song's slang, goes into the swagman's tucker bag, and when three troopers ride up he drowns himself in the billabong rather than be caught.

Which anthem did 'Advance Australia Fair' replace in 1984?

God Save the Queen was not dropped altogether: it became the royal anthem, played when the monarch or a member of the royal family is present.

Keith Urban grew up in Queensland, but in which country was he born?

New Zealand's Whangārei was his birthplace, and his taste came from home: his parents loved country music, and he was given a ukulele at four.

Which 1957 Slim Dusty hit was the first Australian single to earn a gold record?

A Pub with No Beer grew out of a 1943 poem by Queensland cane farmer Dan Sheahan, written after his local hotel ran dry.

Gotye, of 'Somebody That I Used to Know' fame, was born in which country?

Belgium was home only until he was two, when his family moved to Australia; 'Gotye' comes from Gauthier, the French form of his Flemish name Wouter, a pet name his mother used.

Which Yothu Yindi song charted on the US dance charts in 1992?

Treaty was written in protest after Prime Minister Bob Hawke's 1988 promise of a treaty with Aboriginal Australians went unfulfilled.

What was Delta Goodrem's 2003 debut album, which topped the ARIA chart for 29 weeks?

Innocent Eyes was only months old when Goodrem, then 18, was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in July 2003 and had to put her career on hold.

Which former Neighbours actress had a 1997 hit with 'Torn', an Ednaswap cover?

Natalie Imbruglia's version was not even the first: Danish singer Lis Sørensen had recorded the song in 1993, two years before Ednaswap's own release.

Which Australian soft rock duo had a worldwide hit in 1980 with 'All Out of Love'?

Air Supply's two singers met in 1975 as cast members of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.

Which Little River Band single reached number three in the US in 1978?

Reminiscing was guitarist Graeham Goble's tribute to the era of Glenn Miller and Cole Porter, both name-checked in the lyrics.

Which 1966 Easybeats single took Australian rock into the British and American charts?

Friday on My Mind came from a band of new arrivals: its five founders, all migrants from Europe, met at the Villawood Migrant Hostel in 1964.

Which Jet single topped the 2003 Hottest 100 and helped the band win six ARIAs?

Are You Gonna Be My Girl reached a far wider audience after Apple picked it to soundtrack an iPod commercial.

Which sport did Vance Joy play before his song 'Riptide' launched his music career?

Australian rules football was a serious pursuit: as James Keogh he played in the VFL for Coburg, where he was named best first-year player in 2008.

Which singer's 'Dance Monkey' spent 24 weeks at number one in Australia?

Tones and I wrote it about her days busking in Byron Bay, where pushy crowds kept demanding she perform for them.

Which pop star features on The Kid Laroi's 2021 chart-topper 'Stay'?

Justin Bieber's duet partner takes his stage name from the Kamilaroi people, the Aboriginal nation of his mother's family.

Which grunge band played the very first Big Day Out in 1992?

Nirvana were booked as mid-level support for headliners the Violent Femmes just before Nevermind came out, and that one show became the first Big Day Out.

The yidaki is the Yolngu name for which Aboriginal instrument?

Didgeridoo players hold the drone without a break by circular breathing: drawing air in through the nose while pushing it out from the cheeks.