Beginnings (1994–1996) The Living End were formed in 1994 by
Chris Cheney and
Scott Owen, who had met years earlier in primary school through their older sisters and began performing together from 1990 while attending
Wheelers Hill Secondary College in Melbourne. That group were named after a track, of
the same name, from the Stray Cats
self-titled debut album (February 1981). The Runaway Boys initially played in the local rockabilly music scene but expanded their audience by performing in regional towns and supporting Melbourne cover band Mercury Blue at the Wheelers Hill Hotel. By 1994, Cheney and Owen were writing their own material and decided to change the band's name to The Living End – a reference to the film,
Rock Around the Clock (1956). According to Cheney "It's an old '50s term, meaning 'far out', 'the greatest' ... We were still into the whole '50s thing, but we wanted a neutral name, one that didn't suggest any one style of music". Cheney considered Piripitzi to be ideal due to his charismatic appearance. The group sent a T-shirt and demo tape to
Green Day guitarist and lead vocalist,
Billie Joe Armstrong, and landed a support slot for Green Day's 1995 Australian tour. After that tour, The Living End recorded additional tracks for their debut extended play,
Hellbound, which received moderate support from community radio stations. and was certified double-platinum by ARIA for shipment of 140,000 copies. At the
ARIA Music Awards of 1998 it won the Highest Selling Single category; and eventually became the highest selling Australian single of the 1990s. It was later featured in the game,
Guitar Hero World Tour. "Second Solution" was used in the soundtrack for the 2002 movie,
Cheats, which starred
Trevor Fehrman,
Matthew Lawrence, and
Mary Tyler Moore. Early in 1998 "
Prisoner of Society" was issued as a separate single in the United Kingdom and, the following year, in the US. The single appeared in the top 200 of the UK Singles Chart, and peaked at No. 23 on the
Billboards
Alternative Songs Chart. The band signed with
Modular Recordings for the release of their
debut self-titled album, which appeared on 12 October 1998, and was co-produced by Gravina with the trio. Their next Australian single, "
Save the Day" with accompanying video directed by Joel Noble, was issued in September 1998, a month ahead of the album. It made the top 30 on the ARIA Singles Chart. It became their highest charting hit on the New Zealand Singles Chart, where it reached No. 10. At the ceremony they were also nominated for Album of the Year and Highest Selling Album.
Roll On (2000–2001) The Living End's second album,
Roll On, was recorded during July 2000 with
Nick Launay (
Midnight Oil,
Models,
Silverchair) producing and appeared in November that year. Although
Roll On was a more creative work, Nimmervoll mentioned that they had "broadened their musical scope while keeping in tact [sic] what made them unique - the instrumentation and the socially-aware lyrics". Despite this, fans consider it to be as strong as the self-titled album; "[it's] an absolute scorcher! That's what years of live honing can do for a band that was already white-hot". Much of the style was comparable to 1980s hard rock and pub rock, as well as many tracks being obscure mixes of many ideas, resulting in 'procrastinating' structures. This defined the album's creativity. The album's first two singles, "
Pictures in the Mirror" and the
title track, peaked into the top 20 on the ARIA Singles Chart. In February 2002, The Living End's line up changed as Demsey left and was replaced on drums in April by
Andy Strachan (ex-
Pollyanna). in August that year he joined Fez Perez, "
Who's Gonna Save Us?" was issued a month earlier, as the lead single, which reached top 40 in Australia, The CD featured two new tracks: "I Can't Give You What I Haven't Got" and "Bringing It All Back Home". They also issued a compilation DVD,
From Here on In: The DVD 1997–2004, which collated their music video clips and live performances of the groups at festivals:
Splendour in the Grass and
Big Day Out in Sydney, and from
Summer Sonic in Japan. following the band's appearance at Splendour in the Grass. The recording and the artwork was completed in mid-December 2005, and the album was released on 4 February the following year. On 20 June 2006 the band received four
Jack Awards: Best Live Band, Best Live TV Performance, Best Performer (Cheney) and Best Drummer (Strachan). Thereby the group achieved the most awards in a year and, at eight overall, the most by any artist. During the 2006 State of Emergency tour, the Living End's show in
Milwaukee was cancelled, so it was rescheduled on 2 December as a support act for
+44. On 6 October Cheney left the band because he felt burnt out, he was sick of the constant touring, as well as experiencing
writer's block. After Cheney overcame his writer's block and was convinced not to leave the band, The Living End released their fifth studio album,
White Noise, on 19 July 2008. The trio had performed at
The Ages Entertainment Guide's EG Awards in Melbourne in December 2007. Two new songs had been premiered, "Raise the Alarm" and "How Do We Know". During February the following year they played gigs as The Longnecks to test out more new material prior to recording. Brendan O'Brien mixed the record at Silent Sound Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. The first single issued from the album included
the title track. Another song, "How Do We Know", was simultaneously released as a radio-only track on Triple J, and was heard on other radio stations, such as Nova 969. The tracks formed a double A-sided single, which was issued both physically and digitally in July 2008. It reached No. 12 on the ARIA Singles Chart, In September that year a second single, "
Moment in the Sun", was released to Australian radio; it was physically and digitally released a month later. In December "
Raise the Alarm" was released to radio as the third single. A music video had been issued containing footage of live performances during the White Noise Tour and some others. In February 2009 the band made a secret appearance in Melbourne supporting the
Stray Cats on their Farewell Tour. In the wake of the
Black Saturday bushfires in regional Victoria, the band traveled to relief centers in
Yea,
Alexandra, and
Kinglake, playing acoustic sets for communities and giving away shirts and other merchandise to affected community members. They also performed as part of the Australia Unites bushfire relief telethon, contributing $10,000 themselves, and the song
White Noise was included on the charity compilation album
Bushire Aid. In May The Living End started the Raise the Alarm Tour.
The Ending Is Just the Beginning Repeating (2010–2015) , England, August 2009.Owen plays his double bass while Cheney clambers atop. Strachan is behind his drum kit. During September and October 2010 The Living End performed under another alias, Safety Matches, testing new material, similar to the previous usage of The Longnecks, for their sixth album,
The Ending Is Just The Beginning Repeating. The tracks vetted included "United", "Universe", "Away from the City" (then-titled "Black and White"),
the title track, "Resist" and "Heatwave". In the January 2011 edition of The Living End's News, Cheney revealed "[h]aving spent all of 2010 writing album 6 we have amassed something in the vicinity of 40+ songs to choose from... There are some really different ideas kicking around this time but the emphasis has been on creating a cohesive album that is heavy, melodic and overall very anthemic". The title track was premiered as the lead single in early June 2011 on national radio stations. The album appeared on 22 July that year, it was produced by
Nick DiDia (
Powderfinger). On 17 July Triple J played tracks from the album with further tracks played through the week prior to its release. The Living End also allowed fans on their mailing list a 24-hour stream of the record on 18 July. Fans could listen as many times as they wanted and were able to comment on the stream. In support of the album a live stream of a performance occurred on YouTube on 19 July. This featured an additional guitarist as well as Cheney playing rhythm guitar. From 2011 the band has employed Adrian Lombardi (ex-Mid Youth Crisis,
Blueline Medic) on stage as their second guitarist. In July 2012 Cheney announced on Triple J that throughout November and December of that year, as part of The Retrospective Tour, they would perform each of their six studio albums over a week, in each of five Australian state capitals (Perth, Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne). The Living End played in the UK and Germany throughout August and September 2013, and headlined at the Summernats 27 in Canberra in 2014. The Living End also played at the 2014
Soundwave Festival in Australia as a replacement for
Stone Temple Pilots who had to pull out due to scheduling conflicts with the recording of their next album. The Living End supported
Cold Chisel in their One Night Stand tour, with shows at Townsville, Darwin, Perth, Macedon Ranges and Sydney.
Shift (2015–2017) The Living End announced they finished their seventh studio album in 2015. On 15 March 2016, the band released a song called "Monkey" as a taste of the album. "Monkey" is not the first official single off the album but was played live at the Decades Music Festival in 2015, along with another track called "Death". On 21 March 2016 the band officially announced the new album,
Shift with a release date of 13 May 2016, alongside a national tour and the release of the single, "Keep on Running". "Staring Down The Barrel", the final single from the album, was released in October 2016. The song was inspired by Cheney's battles with alcohol.
Wunderbar (2018–present) On 22 June 2018, The Living End released a new song, "Don't Lose It". The band played two special pub shows in Sydney and Melbourne to launch the new single. On 10 July 2018, the band officially announced their eighth album,
Wunderbar, with a release date of 28 September 2018. Following this announcement, a video was launched for the previously released single "Don't Lose It". The video is a parody of reality talent contests, such as
The Voice and
Idols, and features cameos from many Australian musicians and personalities, such as
Jimmy Barnes,
Jane Gazzo,
Molly Meldrum,
Daryl Braithwaite and
Murray Cook.
Wunderbar was recorded over a six-week period in February 2018, in Berlin, Germany, with producer
Tobias Kuhn. Kuhn was brought on as producer after being recommended by German punk band,
Die Toten Hosen.
Wunderbar peaked at No. 3 on the ARIA charts. ==Musical style and influences==