Silverchair poster, 1992

While the closure of BHP’s Newcastle steel-making plant in the late 1990s signalled the end of an era, Newcastle was starting to be seen by the rest of the country as about more than coal and heavy industry. One of Newcastle’s biggest exports has been the alternative rock band Silverchair.

They released their breakthrough album Frogstomp in 1995 when the band members were still in high school. The album went to number one in Australia and New Zealand and reached the top 10 on the US Billboard charts, ultimately selling more than 2.5 million copies worldwide. One song on the album, ‘Faultline’, references the 1989 Newcastle earthquake.