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Savage Garden
1996 - 2001
In October, 2001, the news came out. The great Australian duo, Savage Garden had split.
The band whose music had touched thousands of hearts had disintegrated.
During the creation of their second album, Affirmation, Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones lived on separate sides of the globe. Daniel in Australia, and Darren at his new home in San Francisco, USA. Most of the album was written over the internet, with Daniel writing music and then sending it to Darren, who added the melody and wrote lyrics to go over the music.
Just before the release of Affirmation, the boys were in Japan taking part in interviews and small gigs. Just before they were due to leave for Australia, where they would be for the launch of the CD, Daniel Jones quit Savage Garden.
According to Darren, he pleaded with Daniel to not quit the band at least until after the planned world tour.
"I remember sitting there saying 'What do I do? Where do I go?' I couldn't understand why anyone would want to walk away from Savage Garden, especially just after making Affirmation, which I thought was such an artistic triumph." (Darren Hayes, 2002)
Daniel agreed to stay with Savage Garden until the end of the world tour, but made it clear that he did not want to be a part of the media and public scene anymore. He effectively became just a member of the band who was a blurry face in the photos and publicity shoots. Darren was then given the full load of interviews, meet and greets and other publicity jaunts. He became the front man of Savage Garden.
Many people began to criticise Darren on his 'taking over' of Savage Garden at that point, accusing him of depriving Daniel of his limelight.
After the "Superstars and Cannonballs" tour, as it was called, Darren began to work on his solo album, and Daniel with his new band, Aneiki.
In October 2001, Darren was talking to an Australian reporter in the US, and let it slip that the group had split up. The reporter then rang his colleagues in Australia and the news was out. Unfortunately, Darren had not had enough time to organise anything with Daniel or their managers to make ready for the sudden outbreak of media attention, and so controversy spread.
Many rumours flew that week about who broke up the band and why. I watched the West Australian news that evening, and the story they put forward was so far from the truth, that when I found out the real story, I was completely amazed. The reporter said that Darren had not consulted Daniel about the issue, and that he had broken away from the group, surprising everyone. As we now know, this wasn't the case at all.
Once the media hype had died down, both Darren and Daniel got together and discussed what was to happen. They decided to officially split, and in a press conference a few days later, the pop group, Savage Garden was officially ended. | 
