Biography
Suze DeMarchi fronted the Australia-based cover outfits Photoplay and the Kind during the early 1980s and later served as lead vocalist for Baby Animals in the 1990s, yet her subsequent solo efforts have never replicated that earlier level of achievement. Baby Animals earned an ARIA Award for Best New Artist in 1991—the Australian equivalent of the Grammys—and collected three more ARIAs the next year for Best Debut Album, Best Single, and Best Album, but her independent career has instead been defined by extended stretches of silence and drawn-out litigation.
Born in Perth as the youngest of four children, DeMarchi left home at seventeen, propelled by her admiration for the driving rock of Free and Led Zeppelin. After her time with Photoplay and the Kind, which included her sister Denise, she stepped away from music in 1983. The following year she joined Kevin Peek and Trevor Spencer to co-write and record an album.
She relocated to London in 1985 and secured a contract with EMI, issuing a strong solo debut that spawned the singles “Young Hearts,” “Big Wednesday,” and “Dry Your Eyes.” The label, however, blocked her attempts to move away from dance material toward rock. Frustrated, she returned to Australia in 1989. A brief run with Dee & the Rockmen led to the formation of Baby Animals that October, when she teamed with the group’s drummer Frank Celenza, bassist Eddie Parise, and guitarist Dave Leslie. The quartet built a loyal audience through intense club, theater, and arena shows across the country before releasing their self-titled debut on the new American label Imago in 1991.
Her career and private life shifted when she began a long-distance relationship with Extreme guitarist and producer Nuno Bettencourt. Although she first rejected his proposal, delivered at Wembley Stadium in December 1992, the couple married in Portugal’s Azores in August 1994. Since then she has divided her time between homes in Boston and Australia.
Further setbacks followed. A 1993 tour ended prematurely after she underwent throat surgery, and a string of lawsuits arose once Imago declared bankruptcy. She contributed to her husband’s 1995 solo album Colorblind and recorded “God Took a Picture” for the soundtrack of Highlander III: The Final Dimension, yet kept a low profile until the legal disputes were finally resolved in 1997.
Free of those constraints, DeMarchi signed with Australia’s Mushroom label. The single “Satellite” appeared in October 1998, followed by the album Telelove in March 1999.
Born in Perth as the youngest of four children, DeMarchi left home at seventeen, propelled by her admiration for the driving rock of Free and Led Zeppelin. After her time with Photoplay and the Kind, which included her sister Denise, she stepped away from music in 1983. The following year she joined Kevin Peek and Trevor Spencer to co-write and record an album.
She relocated to London in 1985 and secured a contract with EMI, issuing a strong solo debut that spawned the singles “Young Hearts,” “Big Wednesday,” and “Dry Your Eyes.” The label, however, blocked her attempts to move away from dance material toward rock. Frustrated, she returned to Australia in 1989. A brief run with Dee & the Rockmen led to the formation of Baby Animals that October, when she teamed with the group’s drummer Frank Celenza, bassist Eddie Parise, and guitarist Dave Leslie. The quartet built a loyal audience through intense club, theater, and arena shows across the country before releasing their self-titled debut on the new American label Imago in 1991.
Her career and private life shifted when she began a long-distance relationship with Extreme guitarist and producer Nuno Bettencourt. Although she first rejected his proposal, delivered at Wembley Stadium in December 1992, the couple married in Portugal’s Azores in August 1994. Since then she has divided her time between homes in Boston and Australia.
Further setbacks followed. A 1993 tour ended prematurely after she underwent throat surgery, and a string of lawsuits arose once Imago declared bankruptcy. She contributed to her husband’s 1995 solo album Colorblind and recorded “God Took a Picture” for the soundtrack of Highlander III: The Final Dimension, yet kept a low profile until the legal disputes were finally resolved in 1997.
Free of those constraints, DeMarchi signed with Australia’s Mushroom label. The single “Satellite” appeared in October 1998, followed by the album Telelove in March 1999.
Albums