Baby Animals

Baby Animals
Origin	Perth, WA
Genres	Hard rock
Years active	1989 - 1996, 2007 - present
Labels	imago, Liberation Blue, BMG
Associated acts	The Boys, Swingshift, Red Phoenix
Website	http://www.thebabyanimals.com
Members	Dario Bortolin, Suze Demarchi, Dave Leslie, Mick Skelton
Past members	Frank Celenza, Eddie Parise

Band members

• Current Line up
  • Dario Bortolin (bass)
  • Suze Demarchi (vocals, guitar)
  • Dave Leslie (guitar)
  • Mick Skelton (drums)

• Former members
  • Matt Cornell (bass) 2009
  • Frank Celenza (drums) 1989 - 1996, 2007 - 2009
  • Eddie Parise (bass) 1989 - 1996, 2007 - 2009

Band information

Baby Animals play strongly melodic and strikingly heavy hard rock. The band was formed by Suze Demarchi after her return to Australia following a stint in the UK where she recorded a number of singles. Eddie Parise and Frank Celenza were drawn from Perth pop-metal act The Boys and Dave Leslie was a long-time member of Sydney band Swingshift, that had originally been a Cold Chisel tribute act before eventually switching to original material.

Baby Animals gained notice almost immediately with a commercial-sounding heavy rock laced with a sublime pop sensibility. After winning a national audience enjoyed a meteoric rise which saw them gain worldwide attention and success until the musical climate shifted and the collapse of their record label finally broke them apart.

After a brief formative period the band won the support of The Angels who put a Baby Animals demo track on the B-side of their "Dogs are Talking" single and took them on part of a national tour. Following this the band played several shows with Jimmy Barnes and released the single "Early Warning". Heavy touring followed the release of the album, which began as a sleeper but eventually got to #1 on the national albums charts almost a year after it was released, eventually selling over half a million copiesand becoming the biggest-selling debut album ever by an Australia artist, a title it held until 2003’s Get Born by Jet overtook it.

Picking up support in the US, the Baby Animals worked there extensively, touring with the likes of Van Halen, Robert Plant and Extreme, won several ARIA awards and returned victorious to Australia to record the second album.

Shaved and Dangerous displayed little variation from the successful formula of the first album and gained considerable local success, however a tour in early 1994 to support it had to be cut short when DeMarchi experienced voice trouble. In August she married Nuno Bettencourt from Extreme A few months later writing began for a third album but in early 1995 the Imago label collapsed when its distribution label BMG released them. With DeMarchi now living in Los Angeles, it was decided to put Baby Animals on ice. She released the solo album Telelove in 1999.

Baby Animals reformed in 2007 to record an acoustic album of their previous hits for Liberation Blue's Acoustic Series. Celenza and Parise were replaced ahead of a national tour in 2009 by Mick Skelton and Matt Cornell; Cornell was soon replaced with Dario Bortolin. The group has toured sporadically since, most frequently during 2012 and 2013 as they geared up for the release of a long-anticipated come back album, This is Not the End, which has the band moving in a bluesier direction. It peaked at #19 on the ARIA Album Chart.

Discography

Albums:

	1991	Baby Animals	imago
	1993	Shaved and Dangerous	BMG
	2008	Il Grande Silenzio	Liberation Blue
	2013	This is Not the End	Social Family

Singles:

	1991	Early Warning	imago
	1991	Rush You	imago
	1991	Painless	imago
	1992	One Word	imago
	1992	Impossible to Fly	BMG
	1993	Don't Tell Me What to Do	BMG
	1993	Lights Out at Eleven	BMG
	2013	Email

EPs:

	1992	Ain't Gonna Get	imago
	1992	At The End of the Day	BMG

Compilation tracks:

	Year	Track Title	Album Title	Label
	1992	"Rush You"	Hits 4U 92	BMG