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THEY live fast and die young, believing that it's better to burn out than fade away.

Now, for the first time, medical scientists have found that rock stars live life in deadly fashion.

Adding weight to The Who's lyric "Hope I die before I get old", a study of more than 1000 US and British rock stars found they were up to three times more likely to die early than other people of the same age.

Researchers from Britain's Liverpool John Moores University found that 100 stars died prematurely between 1956 and 1999.

Drug and alcohol abuse accounted for more than one in four deaths, while car accidents, heart disease, suicide and violence were also big killers.

The average age of death for American rockers was 42 — the age Elvis was when he died of a heart attack — and 35 for European stars.

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Across the Great Divide: Brisbane

Daniel Johns of Silverchair fame, giving the Brisbane fans value for money.

Enlarge photos | View thumbnails

It's no surprise that tickets to the Across the Great Divide tour sold out in Brisbane. Combining two of the greatest Australian rock bands into one national tour to form Powderchair was genius.

And when Powderfinger and Silverchair took to the stage at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, they confirmed the reason they are at the top of their…

SEX changes. Holes in lungs. Voids in heads. Desperate believers. It doesn't exactly scream Australian Idol.

However Silverchair's No.1 hit Straight Lines, home to all those lyrical concepts, became an unlikely and problematic audition piece for this year's Idol cannon fodder.

Anyone's who has heard the song -- and that's plenty considering it's now their biggest single -- knows it's no vocal walk in the park.

"Good luck to them," Daniel Johns, the song's author and voice, says. "I wish I'd seen someone sing the sex-change line! Aren't there a lot of Catholics and Christians on that show?

"I can't imagine many people gravitating towards it on Australian Idol, but good on them. It's probably…

Silver chair

"Young Modern"

Release Date: August 21, 2007

Record Label: Eleven Records

The biggest problem with the new Silverchair album "Young Modern" is that as it plays it is easy to forget that a CD is playing.

Perhaps the reason for this is that the album doesn't use any catchy intros to draw listeners into the music, instead each track comes straight at you with generic vocals and a sound that may be unique. But unique is not always a good thing.

The songs "Reflections of a Sound" and "All Across the World" sound more like show tunes for an upcoming Broadway show than modern rock and roll. Both of these songs seem out of place on the album and drag on for way too long.

While it's hard to compare the new album with any band past or present, the fluctuating vocals and…

Quality opener: Daniel Johns out front of Silverchair as the band's joint tour with Powderfinger kicked off in Newcastle last night

The singer had no such concerns when Silverchair made a triumphant return to their native Newcastle last night.

The Newcastle rockers rarely take second place to anyone, particularly in their home town, but they bowed to age, rather than experience as their older collaborators, Powderfinger, closed the show at the beginning of their joint tour last night.

The crowd of more than 7000 at Newcastle Entertainment Centre was more concerned with the quality of this rare double bill than its running order. In fact, the Newcastle trio will…

Silverchair lead singer Daniel Johns is receiving rave reviews following his performance at the Lollapalooza Festival.

After contracting laryngitis and struggling to get through a performance on the Jay Leno show, publicity for Silverchair’s latest US tour did not get off to the best of starts. But on the final performance of the tour, Daniel Johns could not have gone out on a higher note, receiving rave reviews following a performance at the Lollapalooza Festival in Chicago which saw 'the chair' front man take his shirt off and literally send fans into a frenzy.

The shirtless performance received praise not often seen for Johns with one reviewer stating “shirtless and sporting a headband, leader Daniel Johns embraced his inner rock star”, and even Perez Hilton got in on the action, stating “When did Daniel Johns get so damn hot?” “He's two…