Neon Ballroom On Fire Around World

Newcastle Herald

Saturday March 27, 1999

NEWCASTLE rock exports silverchair are lighting up record charts around the world with their latest album Neon Ballroom.

Neon Ballroom debuted at No 1 last week in Australia.

More than 500,000 copies of the long-player were sold around the world in seven days.

It went straight to No 8 in New Zealand, No 13 in Germany, No 23 in France and No 29 in the UK.

Although still early days, results in Europe have already bettered that of silverchair's first two releases, Frogstomp (1995) and Freak Show (1997).

Written almost exclusively by singer-guitarist Daniel Johns, Neon Ballroom waltzed to No 5 in Canada and has been certified gold in that country.

In the all-important US market, the album has broken into the top 20 of the rock airplay charts and is No 50 `with a bullet' in overall listings.

Strong sales figures for Neon Ballroom were reported this week in Brazil and Japan.

Johns, Ben Gillies (drums) and Chris Joannou (bass) are in the middle of a sold-out North American tour.

They have a run of European concerts for next month.

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