In those days one of the biggest draws of the carnival "particularly in North America" was its Freak Show where people who looked 'different' were put on display and 'normal' people paid to view them. The more different the "freak" seemd to be the, more the "marks" came to gawk.

A boy with claws for hands, Siamese Twins, bearded ladies and other such unusual looking people were particularly popular as were the very tall, very short and the obese.

These people were usually encouraged to make themselves appear as odd as possible and this sometimes resulted in deceptions. For example, one man with a large tumor on his forhead painted facial features onto the growth and billed himself as "The Two Faced Man". Another, otherwise 'normal' person was so desperate to join the Freak Show that he had huge black stipes tattooed across his entire body and became widely renowned as "The Great Omi" (aka "The Zebra Man")

The public didn't seem too upset by all this so long as the "freaks" looked really weird. So with typical Carnival chutzpah, these 'fakes' were often exhibited alongside people of naturally unusual appearance. One of the few things that they all had in common was the experience of traveling from town to town and coming face to face with audiences who paid their money and therefore expected to see somethng bizarre in time the "performers" all learned that, for some reason, many people had an almost primal need to look at other people who weem weirder then themselves...And the weirder the better!

silverchair are a rock band from Newcastle.

Its members are Ben Gillies (drums), Chris Joannou (bass), Daniel Johns (guitar & vocals).

The group formed in 1992. They messed around n Ben's garage for a while before releasing their debut album "frogstomp". In 1995 lots of people bought it and the band played gigs all over the world.

Then they came home.

Over a three week period in mid-1996 silverchair recorded their second album. It's called "Freak Show". It has thirteen songs, and it was released in this year 1997.

The album was produced in Sydney by Nick Launay and mixed in New York by Andy Wallace.

silverchair like "Freak Show" more than "frogstomp" mainly because it has more musical variety and distinctiveness. The band also enjoyed trying some different sounds this time around with a few of the new songs featuring violins, timpani drums, and even obscure Indian instruments.

The band would like you to know that the title and artwork of the new album was inspired by some similarities they noted between the old traveling carnivals and today's traveling bands. They are not in anyway showing disrespect for the carnival performers of yesteryear.

They simply think it is interesting that human appetitie for "the bizaree" seems to be timeless.

In case you're ever interested, silverchair are generally happy about everything that's happened to them over the last couple of years.

Their life is good although sometimes it's a...bit...well... freaky.