POWDERFINGER

"It just made us realise how small the market is, and how easy it is to get to number one," says Bernard Fanning, whose band Powderfinger was catapulted out of obscruity late last year when its EP, "Transfusion", bolted straight to the top of the ARIA alternative music chart, dislodging Nirvana's "Heart-Shaped Box" from No. 1 position.

Despite the achievement, the frontman of the Brisbane guitar rock five piece is keen to underplay its signifigance. "I'm not saying we didn't care," he explaines. "It was really good but its not something we're concerned about. All it did was make us aware of how few people buy records."

Fanning estimates that it takes approximately 1,000 sales to top the alternative charts. " It's prety weird, but I don't think the general public would look at it like that," he says.

Regardless, Fanning hopes that on the strength of this success, the band will be placed on the bill for the fourthcoming Big Day Out gigs across Australia. "It would be like doing a national tour," says the singer, chuckling. "It'd be great playing on the same bill as the Ramones and Soundgarden. It would expose us to a whole new group of people."

Powderfinger will follow up the five-track "Transfusion" with an album to be recorded in early 1994, for release mid year.

-Mathew McPherson.

(Rolling Stone: January, 1994 pg. 23. By Mathew McPherson)