PMP Records

Supersonic were together for five remarkable years. In that time the same line-up of Mark Wells on guitar and vocals, Xanders on bass guitar and vocals, Matt Plummer on guitar and vocals and Tim Russell on drums, remained at the core of their hard-working crew. Supersonic played to large audiences at innumerable gigs up and down the East Coast of Australia, including many all ages venues, as well as appearing on bills at the Newcastle and Sydney Entertainments Centres. While their own shows were always highly anticipated affairs they also supported bands like Motor Ace, Pacifier (formerly Shihad), Lo-Tel, the Screaming Jets, Waikiki and the Whitlams.

While they were together Supersonic released three EPs and an album of original tunes. They sold out the first two pressings of their debut CD with the second one cementing their position as a great recording as well as live act. Their music and live performances garnered them a batch of highly favourable press reviews and they had a television news story and feature broadcast about them. Supersonic appeared on Channel 9's Cool Room show and were guests on a number of network radio shows. They made personal appearances on NXFM, 2NURFM and 2NC as well as flying to Melbourne for an interview with Francis Leach and a live performance on Triple J. They had a number of tunes on general programming on ZZZ in Brisbane and their show stopping tune, ‘Grey Skies End’, went to number one on KaosFM, an internet based radio narrowcaster with a global reach. Their first two videos were aired nationally on RAGE on ABC TV with a third shown a year after that. George Davias from the Sound World record retail group, like a lot of other music industry notables at the time, was very enthusiastic about Supersonic saying that they “are definitely one of the biggest selling local acts. They are always playing and promoting so they are selling a lot more than other local acts and when they do in-stores for us their sales are often more than current singles.”

In their time together Supersonic also won five significant competitions, including the prestigious National youthweek.com RockIT song competition as well as the Future Rock 2002 band comp. After winning Future Rock 2002, a national band competition run through the Hard Rock Café chain, the band entered Sony Music Studios with Paul Begaud, noted for his production work with Human Nature, and engineer Todd Deeley, who had worked with Midnight Oil. The album that resulted, Waking Hour, was released that year and Supersonic undertook a tour of South-Eastern Australia, through to Melbourne and back to Newcastle, to promote the Waking Hour album. They then ventured north to Brisbane. Their music was getting them attention from notable music industry players. Music journalist Jeff Apter, who had been writing for Rolling Stone - Australia, caught the band performing live in Sydney and was bowled over by them. He was convinced of their broad appeal and said so in the press. He was particularly enthusiastic about the song ‘Rock n Roll’. At the same time a music video director from Los Angeles, Keir McFarlane, offered to make a video of the song ‘Sucker Punch’ while he was in Australia. McFarlane had been selected for the Cannes New Director Showcase and had won an MTV Video Award for his work on Tom Petty’s ‘Mary Jane’s Last Dance’.
To cap off a very successful period in Supersonic’s brief musical life the highly exciting single, ‘When You Fall’, was heard right across the country on high rotation on national broadcaster Triple J. After being named as finalists in both the pop and rock categories, they were awarded Group of the Year at the ABC 1233 Newcastle Music Awards in 2002.