The Living End are an Australian punk rock band, which formed in 1994. Since 2002 the line up consists of Chris Cheney (vocals, guitar), Scott Owen (double bass, vocals) and Andy Strachan (drums). The band rose to fame in 1997 after the release of their double A-sided single, "Second Solution" / "Prisoner of Society", which peaked at No. 4 on the ARIA Singles Chart. They have released six studio albums and two reached the No. 1 spot on the ARIA Albums Chart: self-titled album (12 October 1998) and State of Emergency (4 February 2006).

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. Cheney and Owen had their first public gig at The Rob Roy in Melbourne in 1991. Cheney was a fan of rockabilly group Stray Cats and this prompted Owen, who originally played piano, to switch to double bass. The pair formed a cover band, The Runaway Boys, which performed Stray Cats and The Clash material. 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. Cheney later recalled "[w]e played to all the jivers and rock 'n' rollers ... And we slowly drifted into Melbourne's rockabilly scene". As Cheney and Owen persevered, the band went through several drummers, while they were still attending school. 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". With Cheney on lead guitar and lead vocals, and Owen on double bass and backing vocals, the group settled on Joe Piripitzi as their drummer. Cheney considered Piripitzi to be ideal due to his charismatic appearance. During that year they recorded a track, "Headlines", which had been co-written by Cheney and Owen. 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 the 1995 Australian tour by his band, Green Day. After that tour, The Living End recorded additional tracks for their debut extended play, Hellbound, which received moderate support from community radio stations. It was produced by the group and included "Headlines" from the previous year. Ed Nimmervoll, an Australian musicologist, described the EP's sound: "they turned their back on '50s rock revivalism and adapted that instrumentation to original songs steeped in UK punk". In November 1995, the trio recorded their second EP, It's for Your Own Good, which appeared in the following June. The six-track EP was co-produced by Lindsay Gravina (Underground Lovers, Cosmic Psychos), Mike Alonso (Jericho) and The Living End for the Rapido label. It included their first radio airplay hit, "From Here on In", which was placed on high rotation by national youth radio network, Triple J. Shortly after, Piripitzi was fired as his lifestyle choices were holding back the band. He was replaced on drums by Travis Demsey (later in The Knockout Drops). With Demsey the group appeared at major festivals: Pushover and the Falls Festival. Demsey's drum style was compared with The Who's Keith Moon. "From Here on In" was used on the soundtrack for the 1998 film, Occasional Course Language. CANNOTANSWER

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