Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns has released a statement addressing the recent controversy surrounding the Australian Story documentary featuring his former bandmates Ben Gillies and Chris Joannou. The two-part documentary, titled A Silver Lining, focuses on Gillies and Joannou’s experience in the band and coincides with the pair’s memoir, Love and Pain, which will be released on Wednesday, 27th September.
The first part of A Silver Lining went to air last week, but the episode was pulled from the ABC’s streaming site, iview, due to “rights issues” (as per the website). In a statement today, Johns said he wanted to put an end to the “unhelpful speculation” around the situation.
Australian Story: A Silver Lining
“I would have preferred to say nothing but here are the facts,” Johns wrote on Instagram. “Australian Story reached out to me via my team ‘as a courtesy’ on Aug 11 to let me know that they were doing a story on Ben Gillies and Chris Joannou. I was and remain incredibly supportive of them telling their story.”
Johns said he was asked, at the end of filming, to be interviewed, but declined as he wasn’t involved in the writing of Love and Pain and isn’t aware of its contents. “I’ve asked on many occasions to read the book but haven’t been sent a copy, consequently I was uncomfortable being interviewed to help promote it,” Johns wrote.
The songwriter was asked by ABC and Sony to allow the use of seven songs to soundtrack the series. “One particular use related to ‘Ana’s Song’ being featured as they discussed my battle with anorexia,” Johns explained. “I said to Sony and ABC that I would be open to approving all songs provided I received a copy of the book to ensure I wasn’t having my songs used to promote something I had no visibility on.”
According to Johns, Ben and Chris “would not give me a copy to read”. “That’s why the iview use was denied,” Johns confirmed.
The singer went on to say that ABC featured the story on iview without a license in place, and it took three days to remove it. “At which point most people had already viewed the story,” he said.
“I’ve also been affected by Silverchair rights not being approved, I re-recorded my own compositions for many applications including my podcast because the recordings were denied by another band member,” said Johns.
“As always, I wish Ben & Chris nothing but success and happiness. I have never sought to block their book, I merely asked to receive a copy in advance to fact check it. I was concerned about my personal health records being discussed, I don’t think that’s unreasonable.”
The second part of A Silver Lining will air on ABC TV at 8pm on Monday, 25th September.
Further Reading
Daniel Johns Opens Up About Health Struggles Around The Time Of Silverchair’s ‘Diorama’
