Feud For Thought: The 11 Greatest Feuds In Australian Music

Ben Lee has posted this Instagram message:

“This whole Drake/Kendrick thing,” Lee noted. “I mean, it’s really got me thinking: Bernard, let’s start shit up again, man.”

The artist also posted this text message on his Insta page: “C’mon @bernardfanning, let’s teach the kids how it’s done.”

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What gives?

If you’re late to the party, you might have been left scratching your head, wondering what Ben Lee was babbling about. But the backstory is a bewdy.

In 1998, the 20-year-old released his third solo album, Breathing Tornados, calling it “the greatest Australian album of all time”. The Powderfinger singer responded by calling Lee a “precocious little c*nt”. Ben Lee would later add the insult to his official range of T-shirts, saying: “I never said he didn’t have a point.”

Who doesn’t love a good feud? They lead to some of the greatest quotes in rock.

Who can forget Sharon Osbourne quitting her job as manager of the Smashing Pumpkins after less than four months: “It was with great pride and enthusiasm that I took on management of the Pumpkins,” she explained. “But unfortunately, I must resign today due to medical reasons – Billy Corgan was making me sick!” She also pointed out: “Billy Corgan has got an ego bigger than my arse.”

Then there’s Liam and Noel. Noel Gallagher called his little brother “a man with a fork in a world of soup”. While Liam believes: “Without my voice, Noel would still be ironing Clint Boon’s knickers.”

We all know about Blur V Oasis, Liam V Noel, and Roger Waters V David Gilmour, but what are the best feuds in Australian music?

Here’s our Top 11:

Skyhooks V Sherbet

This was our version of the Stones and the Beatles, a ding-dong, fair-dinkum Aussie civil war. Skyhooks, the brash young upstarts, took on Sherbet, the knights in tight satin. If you were at school in the ’70s, you were either a Hooks fan or a Sherbet supporter—and never the twain shall meet. The irony was that the two bands were great mates. Sherbet singer Daryl Braithwaite would often go surfing with his Hooks counterpart Shirley Strachan.

Frenzal Rhomb V Kyle & Jackie O

Frenzal Rhomb don’t shy away from a fight.

When they had a run-in with radio presenter Jackie O at a festival in Darwin, the spat spilled over onto the radio the following day. Singer Jay Whalley challenged the radio duo to do more to support Australian talent; Kyle called him “bitter and sad” and told him the band’s music would never be played on his network. Whalley laughed.

“The thing is, Kyle, have you ever played us on Austereo ever before? Are you going to have to actually change your playlist not to play us?” The radio host responded by calling Whalley a “fucking idiot” and said his band was not played on commercial radio because “it’s pretty much shit”. He also added, “I don’t care about Australian Idol or Popstars.” Kyle is now an Idol judge. Frenzal Rhomb are still rocking.

LRB V LRB

One of Australia’s biggest pop exports is now a band based in America with not a single original member. As Little River Band’s founding members and songwriters – Beeb Birtles, Graeham Goble and Glenn Shorrock – exited the band, one by one, guitarist Steve Housden acquired the rights to the name. A bitter lawsuit ensued.

When the American band attempted to celebrate LRB’s 40th anniversary on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show, Shorrock shot off a letter: “If you decide to put them on the show, just pass on my message to the band to go fuck yourselves.” 

Instead of reminiscing, Birtles wrote a savage song called Revolving Door. “Your gift of inheritance has cost you the price of friends,” he sang. “Don’t let that revolving door hit your ass on your way out.” And Goble didn’t hide his feelings in a rather pointed song called Someone’s Taken Our History.

Cold Chisel V TV Week

Cold Chisel dominated the TV Week Countdown Rock Music Awards in 1981, winning seven trophies. They refused to accept any of the awards but agreed to close the show, playing an album track, My Turn To Cry. All seemed to be going well until viewers realised the band had changed the lyrics.

“I never saw you at the Astra Hotel,” Barnesy spat. “I never saw you in Fitzroy Street, and now you’re tryin’ to use my face to sell TV Week … Eat this!” The band then trashed the set.

“TV Week did nothing for any band until you had the number one album and then suddenly you were the pin-up boys,” Barnesy explained. Guitarist Ian Moss went further, claiming: “TV Week is a small, almost offensive TV magazine that decided to jump on the bandwagon of rock ’n’ roll. We saw the whole thing as genuinely phony.” Not surprisingly, TV Week ceased its association with the awards after the Chisel incident.

Clive Palmer V Twisted Sister

Now, this was a heavyweight battle. Clive Palmer likes his music. As well as the never-ending political ads, he helped bankroll Russell Morris’ 2023 live album The Real Thing: Symphonic Concert. But the billionaire businessman is not a fan of American rockers Twisted Sister.

When he adapted the band’s We’re Not Gonna Take It for his 2019 election campaign, turning it into “Australia ain’t gonna cop it”, the band was not going to take it. The Federal Court ordered Palmer to pay $1.5 million for copyright infringement.

Midnight Oil V Countdown 

Ironically, their breakthrough album was called 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. But they never went on Countdown. So why did one of our biggest bands never appear on our biggest music TV show? Well, legend has it they were bumped from the show when they were late for their first rehearsal.

Their manager, Gary Morris, wasn’t happy, snapping: “We don’t fucking need you guys – we’re going to make it without you!” And that’s exactly what they did, wearing their non-appearance on a “pop” show as a badge of honour. “Flown to Melbourne, placed on a studio set and required to mime in front of a crowd of 12-year-old girls certainly wasn’t where we were at,” Peter Garrett explained.

Kylie V Holly Valance

This feud was short-lived. Before she became a right-wing political commentator, Holly Valance had a brief pop career. The UK press dubbed her “the new Kylie” and talked up a fierce rivalry. Valance won the battle but lost the war. Her debut single, Kiss Kiss, hit #1 in the UK in a year when Kylie’s biggest hit stalled at #2. But the scoreboard shows that Valance had three Top 10 singles in the UK; Kylie Minogue has had 35.

INXS V Molly

Post-Countdown, Molly Meldrum ignited a war of words with INXS. Reviewing Live Baby Live on Hey Hey It’s Saturday, Molly called the record “a very boring album”. Then he went further, claiming: “It’s hardly live. Boys, if you are going to give us a live album, give us a live album.” The band considered suing the music guru. Andrew Farriss said: “To see somebody come on national television to say you have not recorded a live album is extremely annoying. It was a grand statement by Molly. It’s not true, it’s offensive.”

Two years later, Michael Hutchence was still angry. “His criticism of Live Baby Live pissed me off a lot, a real lot,” he said. “As a consequence, the album died here. It cost us, purely in money terms, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars – over one stupid statement. And that’s just money.”

Molly later made his peace with Michael and the band. Though Mark Opitz, the band’s producer, clarified there were only two overdubs on the record, Molly stood by his review. “I just didn’t think it was a good album. Michael blamed the album’s failure on me, but that’s simply not true. The album also flopped in the US, where I have no influence.” 

Kate Miller-Heidke V Anthony Callea

It erupted after Kate Miller-Heidke appeared on ABC’s Q&A in 2012. Anthony Callea—Idol runner-up in 2004—believed that the Brisbane singer didn’t add much to the show’s political chat, tweeting: “There is one person on the panel tonight that is a total waste of space … embarrassing rep for Gen Y!”

KMH’s response was short and sharp: “Pot Kettle Fuckwit.”

The feud might have had its origins in a song that Miller-Heidke wrote in 2005, Australian Idol, in which she sang: “I flipped to Channel 10 and before I knew it I was watching a really short guy singing that really annoying song by Craig David.”

Silverchair V Silverchair

Promoters want Daniel, Chris and Ben to put the band back together; Chris and Ben just want to have a beer with Dan. “I wouldn’t even get Silverchair back together for a million dollars with a gun to my head,” Daniel Johns said in 2022.

“I don’t know how something so special turned so toxic,” Chris Joannou wrote in the 2023 book Love & Pain. Ben Gillies added: “Silverchair has been over for a long time now, but because of the way things ended, it still feels unfinished. It’s not what I would have hoped for … it’s sad how things have turned out – what a waste of what could have been, what should have been – but the end doesn’t taint what came before it.”

Dave Gleeson V Shannon Noll

The Screaming Jets singer felt bad after his first encounter with Shannon Noll. “In the Jets, we’ve always said, ‘If you want to come up and say something, come up and say it,’” Gleeson tells The Music. “We’ve always been upfront. We’re not tough guys or anything like that, but we certainly don’t take a backward step. If you want to confront someone, you might as well do it straight-up.”

The two singers had an awkward meeting. Noll confronted Gleeson: “Have you been talking shit about me on stage?”

“Nuh!” Gleeson replied.

Gleeson sheepishly mentioned the exchange to his manager, who said, “Yeah, but you have.”

“I know, I feel like such a dog.”

Looking back, Gleeson admits, “I should have said, ‘Yeah, I have, mate’ and let the cards fall where they may.” 

Gleeson rectified the situation when he found himself on the same bill as the Idol star a few months later. “I went up to him and said, ‘Shann, you know what, mate, you caught me out there: I had been saying shit about you on stage and I’m real sorry about it.’”

Noll accepted his apology, saying: “I was devastated, mate, I love the Jets.”

The two singers now get on well. 

“It was a good lesson,” Gleeson reflects. “If you’re gonna say something, front up. And if you’re not tough enough to front up, don’t say it in the first place.”