After a brief and frustrating solo career in the UK, Suze DeMarchi returned to Australia and formed a rock band with drummer Frank Celenza that would change their name to Baby Animals after the addition of guitarist Dave Leslie & bassist Eddie Parise.

Baby Animals found success in Australia while touring with The Angels (the Australian rock band, not the “My Boyfriend’s Back” American girl group). Their eponymous debut album topped the Australian albums chart in early 1992 (famously keeping Nirvana’s Nevermind from the top spot) and spent 46 weeks in total on it. It was certified multi-platinum, became the second biggest Australian album of the year, and spawned five hits – two of them also charting in New Zealand. The group won three ARIA (Australian Grammy equivalent) awards for Best Debut Single, Best Debut Album and Best Album.

Looking to achieve international success, the band toured Europe with Bryan Adams, then played to packed arenas across the US with Van Halen. But this, combined with an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman, still only gave the band two minor Rock Chart hits with “Painless” and “One Word” in the US. A standalone single “Impossible To Fly” arrived in late 1992 and was a modest hit in Australia.

Their sophomore effort Shaved And Dangerous, which DeMarchi later called “a little bit fancy and a little bit rushed”, was released in the summer of 1993 and debuted at #2 in Australia, spending 19 weeks on the chart. Its three singles found modest success in their homeland, but nowhere else. Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt co-wrote and played guitar on “Because I Can”, and DeMarchi would later marry him and move to the US. The band spent late 1993 touring with Robert Plant.

In 1994, their headlining tour was cut short by DeMarchi’s throat surgery. Then their record label folded, but the band was contractually not allowed to record new music, so they disbanded. DeMarchi launched a solo career with Telelove in 1999. INXS began courting her to be their lead singer in 2000 after the death of Michael Hutchence, but in 2004 they instead held their Rock Star: INXS contest to find one.

All four original members of Baby Animals reunited in 2007, released Il Grande Silenzio (a collection of acoustic recordings of their older songs) the following year and began touring again. Demarchi and Bettencourt separated in 2009, so she moved back to Australia. Celenza & Parise stepped away in 2009 and were replaced by Mick Skelton and Dario Bortolin before the release of This Is Not The End and its lead single “Email” in 2013. The following tour was named Feeding The Birds because it became a regular stage antic for DeMarchi to spit red wine into the mouth of willing front row attendees.

Demarchi released her second solo album Home in 2015. Then the group released the single “Tonight” in 2018 followed by a largely-sold-out headlining Australian tour. Another tour with The Angels in 2019 featured the sale of a split 7" where each band covered one of the other’s songs.