For many AC/DC are the biggest and most successful band to ever come out of Australia. But in their shadow are many others that have reached international fame and some that came close, but only achieved success on a grand scale domestically.

Here is a list of other rock and metal bands living in the shadows of Australia’s favourite sons AC/DC. Apologies to other well known Oz acts such as the Little River Band, Men At Work and Air Supply who all went on to have enormous American commercial success, but since I’m dealing with rock and metal bands in this article per se, I’ve left the those bands out of the equation.

Maybe at a later date, I will address these acts in another article.

The Easybeats: The very first Australian band (though comprised of European born members) to achieve international success and one of the country’s finest rock bands of the 1960s. The group’s biggest hit across the pond (and the U.S) was their 1966 classic hit ‘Friday On My Mind� which has been covered by numerous artists since, including a blistering version by Gary Moore.

The band also have an incestuous link with AC/DC due to the fact that Glasgow born rhythm guitarist George Young is Malcolm's and Angus's older brother. George and Netherland’s born lead guitarist Harry Vanda form part of the successful Vanda and Young songwriting partnership. Aside from the instigators of bringing AC/DC together, the pair were also behind some of the biggest Oz bred hits of the past thirty years working with acts such as Stevie Wright (ex-Easybeat vocalist) and John Paul Young all of whom are housed on the famous home grown label Alberts.

Midnight Oil: Were one of the hardest working and hardest hitting acts to ever come out of Australia. Originally called The Farm in the early 1970s, they later changed their name to Midnight Oil.

Led by the spasmatic and dome-headed (and former law student) Peter Garrett and fueled by political and social issues close to the group’s heart, the group were one of the most controversial acts to come from down under due to their outspoken views on native land rights. Their lunch time live performance in front of the Exxon Oil building in Manhattan back at the turn of the 90s forms one of the pinnacle moments where rock and roll and politics collided on such a grand scale. And their appearance at the closing ceremony at the 2000 Olympics also caused much controversy. The Oils later split in 2002 after Garrett left to pursue a political career forcing the band to splinter.

Silverchair are one of Australia’s most successful contemporary rock bands with more top twenty hits to their credit during the last decade than any other local artist and have sold over six million albums worldwide!

Nevertheless, in the early days the band frequently dodged accusations of being Nirvana copycats, and at one point being labeled by critics as “Nirvana In Pygamas� due to the members very young ages.

The three piece outfit led by waif singer and guitarist Daniel Johns were Australia’s contribution to the then popular grunge musical climate dominated by Nirvana and Pearl Jam.

At the time of their international breakthrough with their debut album "Frogstamp" the average age of each member was only 16. On January 21, 2001 the group played their biggest show of their career in front of 250,000 people at the now famous Rock In Rio concert. Until recently the band was in hiatus but 2006 will see the band make a welcomed return to the stage.

The Berzerker are one of the country’s favorite extreme metal bands and only identified on all their albums and promotional material simply as The Vocalist, The Guitarist, The Bassist, and The Drummer and distinguishable on stage only by the wearing of mutant masks. The band's first video, for the track "Reality," was banned by MTV for its horrific and epilepsy-inducing imagery. They have released two albums, The Bezerker (2000) and Dissimulate (2002) with a third titled World of Lies, was released late last year. For those unfamilar with the band's music, it can be best described as an intense cocktail of noisy techno grindcore metal and fast-paced industrial slashing. March, 2006 will see the band undertake a UK tour which will form their first ever shows unmaksed.

INXS next to AC/DC, would easily come in as the second most successful act to make it overseas hailing from the land of Oz. Having first formed back in 1977 in Sydney by brothers Andrew, Tim and Jon Farriss they were later joined by school friends, the ever charismatic showman Michael Hutchence, Garry Gary Beers and Kirk Pengilly.

The band reached their worldwide peak of popularity, and breakthrough with 1987's hugely successful Kick, album a punchy, confident set of pop-rock gems that yielded four top-ten US singles for the group, including the number-one smash "Need You Tonight". The group would continue to score success in the US and Europe until November 22, 1997 when the things would come to a tragic end after Hutchence was found dead in his Sydney hotel room.

Rather than calling it a day though, the band decided to soldier on with numerous replacements with the likes of Terence Trent D'Arby, former Baby Animals vocalist Suze DeMarchi and Jon Stevens. None could capture the essence of Hutchence’s larger than life personality and talent. Today the band are enjoying a second wind of success after they hit paydirt via their reality based television show titled Rockstar which saw the band successfully find a new singer in the form of J.D. Fortune.

Rose Tattoo with their pub bluesy hard rock may not be as successful as AC/DC, but certainly have etched their own place in history by being name-checked by numerous bands such as Guns & Roses who covered the group’s "Nice Boys" on G N’R Lies. Led by the impish, heavily tattooed and scarred Angry Anderson the band still tour Europe regularly due to their popularity and strong following. In fact, nowadays, the band is probably better known in Europe than in their native Australia. But back in day, the bad boys of rock with pub anthems such as "We Can't Be Beaten", "Scarred for Life" and "Bad Boy for Love� were every mothers (and fathers) nightmare when they hit town. And a tour of Europe in the early 80s saw them hailed as the loudest band to play London's Marquee Club since Led Zeppelin.

Jet who hail from Australia’s number one rock and roll capitol, Melbourne, have since gone on to become the biggest rock group to come from down under since Silverchair’s success in the mid-1990s.

The group’s debut album Get Born, with its Stonesy swagger and AC/DC infused sound was released in 2003 to critical acclaim and has so far sold over two million copies throughout the world. Currently in process of recording the album’s follow-up, the group’s hit “Are You Gonna Be My Girl� was also recently used by I-POD for their advertising, all helping to further increase the band’s healthy bank account. The band’s much anticipated sophomore album is due sometime this year.

The Divinyls: Led by the dynamic and sultry front woman Christina Amphlett who dressed in school girl outfits and stockings, and her partner in crime, guitarist Mark McEntee, the group signed to Chrysalis worldwide. They would reached a career pinnacle in the mid-80s with the slick outing of What A Life. Later they would top this by garnering their biggest commercial success to date, which came in the form of 1991’s "I Touch Myself", a song about masturbation that gave censors around the world a field day and the band a top 5 hit in the U.S. In fact rumour has it Amphlett wasn’t shy about performing the act onstage on several occasions all to the pleasure of the males in attendance but to the displeasure of feminists everywhere.

With the band no longer an ongoing concern, these days Amphlett lives in New York and is involved in theatre and last year released a tell all book about her life titled Pleasure & Pain.

Related Links

AC/DC
The Berzerker
The Divinyls
EasyFever - The Easybeats Fan Site
INXS
Jet
Midnight Oil
Rose Tattoo
Silverchair