Artist · chart history
Triffids
Band Perth Australia Active 1978–1989 Australian rock band
Triffids formed in 1978 in Perth, Australia and was active until 1989. Triffids has 5 chart appearances on 5 radio countdowns from 3 stations on RockLists, spanning 1987–2018. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Wide Open Road”, which appears on 4 lists with a best position of #49. The station that charted Triffids most often is Triple J (Australia (national)), with 3 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1987.
The Triffids came out of Perth, Western Australia, about as far from the rest of the rock world as a band can start, and David McComb wrote songs that turned the distance itself into the subject. He sang, wrote, and moved between guitar, bass and keyboards, and the band grew up around him: Alsy MacDonald and Robert McComb early on, Martyn P. Casey and Jill Birt in the early '80s, Graham Lee by the middle of the decade.
Born Sandy Devotional, from 1986, is the one. "Wide Open Road" rolls out of it on a slow, aching pulse, all heat haze and heartbreak, and the whole album is melancholy, stark and gorgeous, full of the isolation and quiet dread of the empty Australian country. They did well enough at home, but the UK and Scandinavia took to them harder. Calenture followed in 1987 with "Bury Me Deep in Love" as its centrepiece, and Rough Trade was among the labels that carried them.
The band called it a day in 1989, and Born Sandy Devotional's standing has only grown since: SBS television featured it in its Great Australian Albums series in 2007, and a 2010 book ranked it fifth among the 100 best Australian albums.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Triffids on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wide Open Road | 4 | #49 | – | – | |
| 2 | Bury Me Deep in Love | 1 | #23 | – | 1987 |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Every countdown appearance
| Year | # | Song | Countdown |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 64 | Wide Open Road | Triple M Ozzest 100 (2018) |
| 1991 | 52 | Wide Open Road | Triple J Hottest 100 of All-Time (1991) |
| 1990 | 49 | Wide Open Road | Triple J Hottest 100 of All-Time (1990) |
| 1989 | 68 | Wide Open Road | Triple J Hottest 100 of All-Time (1989) |
| 1987 | 23 | Bury Me Deep in Love | Studio Brussel De Eindafrekening 1987 |
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