Today marks the 25th anniversary of the release of The Living End's iconic self-titled debut full-length.
Released on the 12th of October 1998, The Living End has gone on to become the second-highest-selling debut by an Australian rock band, reaching 5x platinum status in Australia alone.
Topping the ARIA charts, The Living End spent 83 weeks in the top 100, powered by a staggering four top 30 singles (Prisoner of Society, Second Solution, Save The Day, All Torn Down) and a collection of sleeper hits (West End Riot, Monday, Trapped). The band's brand of rockabilly-infused punk rock found favour with not just the youth of the nation, who voted five songs from the record and its associated singles into the Hottest 100 across 1997 and 1998, but seemingly everyone else in the country as well.
The Lindsay Gravina produced record's excellence was recognized at the 1999 ARIA awards when the band took home the Best Group and Best Breakthrough Artist - Album adding to their 1998 nod for Highest Selling Single for Prisoner of Society/Second Solution.
Having built their name off being one of the most explosive and enjoyable live acts in the Australian underground, the band went on to send audiences around the nation and ultimately the world into raptures as they made the most of the frenzied response to the record.
The impact of The Living End on the Australian music landscape has only grown since the initial fanfare of 1998, with Rolling Stone acknowledging the record's profound cultural impact and staying power by listing it as the 37th-best Australian album of all time. In the feature article, Rolling Stone's Brittany Jenke offers "This wasn’t an album that, like many of their peers, was focused on relatively superficial topics, this was one that meant something: music with a message. While it’s true that The Living End had delivered a powerful, resonating record for their debut effort, it was hardly any surprise for dedicated fans of the band. After all, for these relatively young artists who felt wiser beyond their years, it made sense that fame was coming their way at some point, but the chances are good that no one knew it would be so soon."
The general public concurs with the critical acclaim with The Living End taking position number four in triple j's Hottest 100 Australian Albums of All Time poll. The love affair with the record continues today with the record's singles staple of rock and classic rock radio and live performances anchored by the record's most beloved anthems. Proof of its enduring legacy can be found in the immediate sell-out of Melbourne's Festival Hall for the upcoming, one-off 25th-anniversary show.
The impact of the album on the next few generations of Australian punk rock can not be understated,; arguably the record and the band's most notable fan overall is none other than Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day. A fan of the band since they scored a support slot with Green Day in 1996 by sending him a demo tape in 1995, Armstrong has proclaimed his love for the band both on and off stage for the better part of the last 30 years, frequently inviting guitarist Chris Cheney up for guest spots on Green Day tours, slotting the band in as support on numerous tours and releasing 2006's State of Emergency on his own imprint Adeline Records.
Reflecting on The Living End's success on a retrospective podcast for Listnr Cheney states "“I think unknowingly our destination was always this; this album right here. All songs led here. All the gigs and all the songs we’d written and rejected over the years, all the lessons we’d learned had been building up to this….our first album.”
"Ultimately what we captured was a melting pot full of our influences but not to the extent that we sounded confused. The way we played glued it all together. Stylistically, it had punk (‘West End Riot’), metal (‘Growing Up Falling Down’), pop (‘I Want a Day’), rockabilly (‘Second Solution’), hillbilly thrash on steroids (‘Prisoner of Society’), jazz (‘Fly Away’), ska (‘Trapped’ and ‘All Torn Down’), swampy surf twang (‘Bloody Mary’), country pickin’ and anything else we thought we could throw at it.”
In addition to the sold-out show at Festival Hall, the band is marking the 25th anniversary of the album with a commemorative vinyl release which comes in two formats and will be released tomorrow.
The 2LP variant and CD variant offer the original self-titled album with a rare triple j 'Live at the Wireless' recording. Recorded in front of a live audience just as the breakthrough album was released, it captures a band on the cusp of greatness, the energy and raw emotion can be felt from the first note. The recording has not been heard since it was played on the radio only once in the late 90s. It was thought to be lost until discovered on a fan site in 2022. Remastered in 2023, it perfectly encapsulates the spirit of one of Australia’s greatest live bands. The package also comes with a deluxe 32-page booklet complete with liner notes penned by Chris Cheney and rare photos from the period.
All variants are available for pre-order now in the Warner Music Australia store and select other retailers.
Listen to The Living End
