The Courier-Mail masthead

File:Courier-Mail front page 2008-07-25.jpg Front page of The Courier-Mail 25 July 2008
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Tabloid
Owner	News Limited
Publisher	Queensland Newspapers
Editor	David Fagan
Founded	1933
Language	English
Headquarters	Brisbane, Australia 41 Campbell St Bowen Hills QLD 4006
Circulation	224,689 Monday–Friday 326,767 Saturday
ISSN	1322-5235
Official website	news.com.au/couriermail

The Courier-Mail is a daily newspaper published in Brisbane, Australia. Owned by News Limited, it is published daily from Monday to Saturday in tabloid format. Its editorial offices are located at Bowen Hills, in Brisbane's inner northern suburbs, and it is printed at Murarrie, in Brisbane's eastern suburbs. It is available for purchase throughout Queensland, most regions of Northern New South Wales and parts of the Northern Territory.

History[link]

The history of The Courier-Mail is through four mastheads. The Moreton Bay Courier later became The Courier, then the Brisbane Courier and since 1933 The Courier-Mail.

The Moreton Bay Courier was established as a weekly paper in June 1846. It became a bi-weekly in January 1858, a tri-weekly in December 1859 and finally a daily newspaper under the editorship of Theophilus Parsons Pugh from 14 May 1861. The recognised founder and first editor was Arthur Sidney Lyon (1817–1861) who was assisted by its printer, the later mayor of Brisbane and member of Queensland Legislative Council, the hon James Swan (1811–1891). Lyon, also referred to as the "father of the Press" in the colony of Queensland, had previously served as a writer and journalist in Melbourne and he would move on to found and edit journals such as Moreton Bay Free Press, North Australian and Darling Downs Gazette.^[1] He arrived in Brisbane from Sydney in early 1846 with a plan to establish a newspaper, possibly influenced by Rev. Dr. John Dunmore Lang, who had encouraged Lyon to emigrate to Australia. Lyon then persuaded James Swan, a printer who had previously worked on Rev. Dr. John Dunmore Lang's newspaper "The Colonialist in Sydney. The two men established themselves in a garret of a building on the corner of Queen Street, Brisbane and Albert Street, Brisbane (a building later known as the North Star Hotel).

The first issue of the Moreton Bay Courier, consisting of 4 pages, appeared on Saturday 20 June 1846 with Arthur Sidney Lyon as editor and James Swan as publisher. It was published weekly on Saturdays.

However, after about 18 months of working together, Lyon and Swan continually disagreed on many aspects of editorial policy, including transportation of convicts and squatting, and Lyon took over sole control in late 1847. However, Lyon ran into money problems, allowing James Swan to take sole control. Eventually James Swan sold the newspaper to Thomas Blacket Stephens in 1859.^[2][3]

The Moreton Bay Courier was purchased by Thomas Blacket Stephens in May 1861, and he soon turned it into a daily newspaper, The Courier. In 1864 it became the Brisbane Courier. In June–July 1868, he floated the Brisbane Newspaper Company, and transferred the plant and copyright of the Brisbane Courier to it.^[4] He was the managing director until he retired in November 1873, when the paper was auctioned.^[5][6] The Journal was then from November 1873 to December 1880 managed by one of the new part owners, the Tasmanian born former public servant Gresley Lukin (1840–1916), in almost the entire period of which Lukin functioned as 'managing editor' whereas the actual writing and editing was in the hands of the Irishman, William Augustine O'Carroll (1831–1885) with various sub-editors or editors of the 'literay staff' meaning the Queenslander. Most prominat of these were William Henry Traill (1842–1902), the later NSW politician and editor of the famed Sydney journal 'The Bulletin', and the Danish born but English and French educated Carl Adolph Feilberg (1844–1887). Carl Feilberg followed William Henry Trail in the function of political commentator and the de-facto editor of the Queenslander from early January to about 1 January 1881, yet he would later succeed William O'Carroll taking position as the editor-in-chief of the Courier from September 1883 to his death in October 1887. Lukin's part-ownership and managing editorship proprietorship changed hands on 21 December 1880 to the former 'Postmaster General' in the first McIlwraith government, Charles Hardie Buzacott (1835–1918), who had previously served as a journalist on the staff and otherwise had a distinguished career as a Queensland newspaper editor and proprietor. John James Knight (1863–1927) was editor-in-chief of the Brisbane Courier 1906-16 and later managing director and later again chairman of all the company's publications.^[7]

The first edition of The Courier-Mail was published on 28 August 1933 after Keith Murdoch's Herald and Weekly Times acquired and merged the Brisbane Courier and the Daily Mail (first published on 3 October 1903). HWT controlled the paper until 1987 when it was acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News Limited. Murdoch also acquired the outstanding shares of Queensland Newspapers Pty Ltd.

Political position[link]

The Courier-Mail is a right of center newspaper with four editorial endorsements for the coalition to one for Labor in the period 1996-2007^[8]. The Courier-Mail generally supports free market economic policies and the process of globalisation. It supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq^{[citation needed]}.

Circulation[link]

The Courier-Mail has the fourth-highest circulation of any daily newspaper in Australia with 224,689 sales Monday to Friday, and 326,767 on Saturdays (June 2006 figures). Around three-quarters of the paper's readership is located in the Brisbane metropolitan area.^[9]

Although often claimed to be Brisbane's only daily newspaper since the demise of Queensland Newspapers' own afternoon newspaper The Telegraph in 1988, it arguably has had two competitors since 2007. News Corporation itself has published mX, a free afternoon newspaper, since 2007, but mX has a relatively low news content. Fairfax Media has published the online Brisbane Times since 2007.

Editors[link]

• Jun 1846 – Dec 1847: Arthur Sidney Lyon (first editor)
• Dec 1847 – c. 1850: James Swan
• early to mid 1850s: William Wilks
• 1860: Richard Belford (former editor of Ballarat Star and later editor of the North Australian)
• 1860–1863: Theophilus Parsons Pugh (also the creator and publisher of Pugh's Almanac)
• 1864–1866: David Frederick Tudor Jones
• 1867–c. 1869: William O'Carroll (Queensland journalist)
• 1869–1873: George Hall ("the Bohemian")
• 1873–1875: Gresley Lukin (assisted by William O'Carroll)
• 1875 – Dec 1880: William O'Carroll (as the de facto editor, officially edited by the managing editor Gresley Lukin)
• Jan 1881- Sep 1883: William O'Carroll (as the de facto editor, although officially edited by the managing editor Charles Hardie Buzacott)
• Sep 1883 – Oct 1887: Carl Adolph Feilberg
• Oct 1887 – Dec 1887: Edmund John T Barton (later author of the Jubilee History of Queensland)
• Jan 1888 – Jun 1891: William Kinnaird Rose
• Jan 1894 – Nov 1898: Frederick William Ward
• Dec 1898 – Apr 1903: Charles Brunsdon Fletcher
• April 1903–1906: Edmund John T Barton (later author of the Jubilee History of Queensland)
• 1906 – Jun 1916: John James Knight
• Jun 1916 – Jun 1919: John MacGregor
• Jun 1919 – 1932?: R. Sanderson Taylor
• 1932 - Dec 1933: Firman McKinnon
• Jan 1934 - Sep 1936: Reginald Tingey Foster (also Editor-in-Chief The Courier-Mail, The Sunday Mail, The Queenslander)
• late 1936 - 1938: Charles E Sligo (news editor, acting editor)
• Apr 1938 - late 1941: Jack C Waters (also Editor-in-Chief The Courier-Mail, The Sunday Mail, The Queenslander (to 1939))
• 1942 - 1968: Theodor Charles Bray (later Sir Theodor) (after 1953 also Editor-in-Chief The Courier-Mail, The Sunday Mail)
• 1968 - 1969: Alan F Cummins
• 1969 - 1979: John R Atherton
• 1979 - 1984: Kevin J Kavanagh
• Mar 1984 - Mar 1987: David C Smith (Feb 1986 - Mar 1987 also Editor-in-Chief The Courier-Mail, The Sunday Mail)
• Mar 1987 - Apr 1991: Greg Chamberlin
• Apr 1991 - Apr 1995: Des Houghton
• Apr 1995 - Jun 2002: Chris Mitchell (also Editor-in-Chief The Courier-Mail, The Sunday Mail)
• Jun 2002 - Mar 2010: David Fagan (Mar 2010 - Editor-in-Chief The Courier-Mail, The Sunday Mail)
• Mar 2010 - - Michael Crutcher

• Mar 1987 - Apr 1991: Ron Richards (managing editor)
• Apr 1991 - Apr 1995: Jack Lunn (Editor-in-Chief The Courier-Mail, The Sunday Mail)

Journalists[link]

Prominent journalists and columnists include Terry Sweetman and Mike O'Connor. Its current Editor is Michael Crutcher. Editor-in-chief for Queensland Newspapers is David Fagan, who is married to columnist and 612 ABC Brisbane radio broadcaster Madonna King. Deputy editor is Steve Gibbons, former editor-in-chief of the Australian Provincial Newspapers group and a senior editor at The Age and Sunday Age in Melbourne. Its editorial cartoonist is Sean Leahy. For thirty years the paper's senior rugby league football journalist was former Australian vice-captain Jack Reardon.

Change to tabloid[link]

From its inception until recently The Courier-Mail was a broadsheet newspaper. On 14 December 2005 it was announced that the paper would change to a tabloid sometime in early 2006, however the term "tabloid" was not used in favour of the term "compact".^[10] This linguistic choice was probably related to widespread public view that many tabloids, including those published by News Limited, were low quality publications (see tabloid for discussion of this size and quality issue). Much emphasis was made that it was merely the paper size that was changing and not the journalistic quality. The last broadsheet edition was published on Saturday 11 March 2006, and the first tabloid edition was published on Monday 13 March 2006. On the same day, the paper's website was revamped and expanded.

The change to a "compact" format brought The Courier-Mail in line with all other News Limited Australian metropolitan daily newspapers. This followed the change to a tabloid format by The Advertiser of Adelaide—another News Corporation newspaper—some years earlier. Despite the claims that there would be no loss of journalistic quality, The Courier-Mail in its "compact" format is not well regarded for its journalism, e.g. Crikey described it as "one of the contestants in a close run field for worst paper in Australia".^[11] In August 2011, police and the parents of a murder victim criticized the paper for false accusing their son of a child sex crimes.^[12]

The Courier Mail is often used by News Limited to publish news that might be considered controversial in the limited Queensland market, where the Courier Mail holds a virtual monopoly on printed news, before running the same story in broadsheet media nationally against which it may be criticized by rival publications. It is common in government and political circles to discuss if any decision would pass the "Courier-Mail Test", meaning that if the results of the action were to go public, and all the positive aspects removed, how would any potential negative aspects be scandalised by the Courier Mail and thus what risks need to be mitigated early.

See also[link]

• The Sunday Mail
• List of newspapers in Australia

References[link]

• Brisbane Courier 29 January 1895, p2. "The Queenslander: New Series".
• Brisbane Courier 20 June 1896, p7a–8c. Jubilee Issue 1846 To 1896. "Half-a-Century of News Paper Work. A Chequered Career. Genesis of a Daily Paper. The Early Press of Queensland". by J. J. Knight.
• Brisbane Courier 22 June 1926 "Eightieth Birthday Number"
• Browne, Reginald Spencer: A Journalist’s Memories, Read Press, Brisbane 1927, 351 pages & index.
• Cryle, Denis: The Press In Colonial Queensland: A Social and Political History 1845–1875, Brisbane 1995, 191 pages.
• Davies, Alfred G.: "Queensland's Pioneer Journals and Journalists", Historical Society of Queensland Journal (RHSQ) vol 3, No 4, 1936–47, p265–283.
• Ørsted-Jensen: Robert: The Right To Live - the Politics of Race and the Troubled Conscience of an Australian Journalist (yet unpublished manuscript)

External links[link]

• Digitised historic Courier-Mail from the National Library of Australia
• Digitised Brisbane Courier from the National Library of Australia
• Digitised Courier from the National Library of Australia
• Digitised Moreton Bay Courier from the National Library of Australia
• The Courier-Mail online

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Darren Hayes
Darren Hayes, 2006
Background information
Birth name	Darren Stanley Hayes
Born	(1972-05-08) 8 May 1972 (age 40) Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Genres	Pop, pop rock, electronica
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1993–present
Labels	Roadshow Columbia (1996–2005) Powdered Sugar (2006–2011) Universal Music Australia (2011–present) EMI Records UK/Europe (2011–present)
Associated acts	Savage Garden
Website	www.darrenhayes.com

Darren Stanley Hayes (born 8 May 1972) is a UK-based Australian singer-songwriter. Hayes was the frontman and singer of the pop duo Savage Garden, whose 1997 album Savage Garden peaked at No. 1 in Australia, No. 2 in United Kingdom and No. 3 in United States. It spawned the singles "I Want You", "To the Moon and Back", and Australian and US No. 1 "Truly Madly Deeply". The duo followed the success of their debut album with Affirmation (1999), which provided additional hits such as US No. 1 "I Knew I Loved You", and Australian No. 3 "The Animal Song". Savage Garden sold more than 23 million albums worldwide before parting ways in 2001.^[1]

Hayes released his first solo album Spin in 2002. The album sold two million copies worldwide, debuted at No. 2 in the UK and No. 3 in Australia. It delivered the hit single "Insatiable". Hayes' second solo album The Tension and the Spark marked a change of direction for the singer-songwriter, showing experimentation with electronica and darker lyrics. NME wrote about its first single, "Pop!ular" saying it was "A twistered masterclass in career reintervention...This guy is a genius." While The Observer said "This album is no folly and succeeds, often to the point of all out triumph, on its own terms." Hayes parted way with his record label Columbia Records in 2006 and started his own independent record label Powdered Sugar, from which he would release his third solo album This Delicate Thing We've Made (2007).

In mid-2010, Hayes announced the completion of recording his fourth solo album, Secret Codes and Battleships, features 3 songs co-written and produced by Brian West and was mixed by Robert Orton, who is best known for working with Lady Gaga. On 17 April 2011, Hayes signed with Mercury Records' Australian division and in August 2011 with EMI Records in the UK. The album was released in Australia on 21 October 2011, 24 October in the UK and 25 October in the US, with singles "Talk Talk Talk", "Bloodstained Heart" and "Black Out the Sun" released before the album.

Including his work with Savage Garden, Hayes has sold more than 39 million albums worldwide.^{[citation needed]}

Early life[link]

Hayes was born on 8 May 1972 in Brisbane, Australia. He is the youngest of three children. He started performing for his mother in his lounge room from an early age. At Mabel Park High School, Hayes appeared in the school musicals Man of Steel (playing Jimmy Olsen) in 1988 and Bye, Bye, Birdie (playing Albert) in 1989. He also sang at school concerts before graduating in 1989.^{[citation needed]}

Hayes declined an opportunity to attend a performance academy in favour of studying teaching/education at the University of Queensland. He ended up deferring a degree to pursue a musical career.

Music career[link]

1993–2001: Savage Garden[link]

In 1993, Hayes answered an advertisement in a magazine placed by Daniel Jones for a lead singer for a band called Red Edge. Hayes was successful despite his voice breaking in the audition. The covers band broke up in 1994 and Hayes formed a partnership with Jones, which was initially going to be called Crush. However, there was another band in the UK which had the rights to the name so the pair called themselves Savage Garden, after a phrase used by Anne Rice to describe the world through the eyes of the main character in her novel The Vampire Lestat. The Savage Garden is a vision of earth in which the natural laws of the world govern over anything aesthetic or civil.

Savage Garden started recording their debut album in 1995 with producer Charles Fisher. Their first single "I Want You" released in 1996 was the best selling single by an Australian artist that year. The second single "To the Moon and Back" topped the Australian charts at the end of 1996. The third single "Truly Madly Deeply" was their second number one and was the best-selling Australian single of 1997. Their debut album, Savage Garden, was the best-selling album in Australia during 1997 and the duo won ten ARIA awards.

Hayes moved to New York City to promote Savage Garden internationally while Daniel Jones stayed in Brisbane. The move proved to be successful with "Truly Madly Deeply" going to the top of the American charts in 1998. The Savage Garden album sold seven million copies in the US on the back of this success.

In New York City, Hayes wrote Affirmation. He had recently divorced his wife of several years. Parts of the album reflected the pain from the end of the relationship. Affirmation was released in 1999 and proved to be another hit with lead single "I Knew I Loved You" going to number one in the United States and the album selling six million copies by the end of 2000. The pair played the title track of the album at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Hayes moved to Sausalito, California in 2000. He became the public face of the duo doing most of the media. Hayes announced that Savage Garden had broken up in October 2001 during a chat with an Australian journalist. Hayes thought the information would be saved for a later article; it was not. When confronted with this information during the early morning hours, before an unrelated interview, Jones denied the break-up of the band. However, it appears that Jones did not believe the reporter was accurately quoting Hayes and denied what he thought was yet another breakup rumour. Still, the fact that Jones took a back seat in all promotional activities for Affirmation seems indicative that Jones was not content to remain within Savage Garden as it had operated in the past. Savage Garden had sold over 23 million albums by that stage.

In 2005, manager of Savage Garden, John Woodruff confirmed that Jones had announced his intention of leaving Savage Garden prior to the promotion for Affirmation. Woodruff criticised the media for their treatment of Hayes. The duo have never issued a united statement regarding the situation, yet Hayes has guaranteed that the group will "never by any chance" reunite.^[2]

2002–present: Solo career[link]

[edit] 2002: Spin

Hayes recorded his first solo album, Spin, which was released in 2002. The album was produced by Walter Afanasieff, the producer of Affirmation. Spin carried on in the same musical vein as Savage Garden, with a less soft rock sound and more edgy R&B vibe, although the first single "Insatiable" was a ballad, reaching Number 3 in Australia. Other singles "Strange Relationship", "Crush (1980 Me)" and "I Miss You" also performed well in charts. The album reached the Top 5 in Australia at Number 3, and in the UK at Number 2. It also reached the top ten in Denmark, Sweden and Finland. In the United States, the album failed to make the same impact as Savage Garden's previous releases, reaching Number 35 on Billboard. It was later re-issued with a bonus disc consisting of some live and studio tracks.

[edit] 2003–2004: The Tension and the Spark

Hayes spent two years working on his second solo album, The Tension and the Spark. Other than the track "I Forgive You", which was produced with Madonna collaborator Marius De Vries, the entire album was produced by Hayes and Robert Conley (with whom he had previously toured and recorded "Crush (1980 Me)" for Spin and "Do You Believe" for Specificus). The album marked a bold change of direction from Hayes. Conley's production was almost entirely electronic, with acoustic instruments buried under walls of sequenced sounds. Although artistically this was a huge step forward and earned Hayes the strongest praise of his career, it seemed to alienate a large portion of his audience who were expecting another album of radio friendly pop songs. The first single "Pop!ular" was released on 12 July 2004. This single reached Number One on the US Dance Charts, and fared well in the UK. Hayes' follow-up single, "Darkness", charted in the lower regions of the ARIA top 50 charts.

One of his out-takes from the Spin sessions, "When You Say You Love Me", was recorded by Clay Aiken in 2003 for his Measure of a Man album. It was later covered by Human Nature resulting in an Australian top 20 single in April 2004 off their Walk The Tightrope album, and was then re-recorded in 2008 featuring Hayes himself.

[edit] 2005–2006: Truly Madly Completely and parting ways with Columbia

In 2005, Hayes recorded a track he wrote with Robert Conley called "So Beautiful", which is included on the Savage Garden greatest hits compilation Truly Madly Completely: The Best of Savage Garden. The compilation also includes a second track by Hayes called "California". Both of these tracks harken back to Hayes' early sound, although still retaining some of the electronic flourishes from The Tension and the Spark.

On 9 July 2006, Hayes announced that he had parted ways with Columbia Records after ten years and 24 million album sales together.

The tour following this release saw Hayes play the iconic Sydney Opera House, certainly a highlight of his career to date. The performance was recorded and released on a DVD entitled "A Big Night in with Darren Hayes".

[edit] 2007–2008: This Delicate Thing We've Made

Hayes finished recording his third solo album This Delicate Thing We've Made in 2007. The album is a double-disc, with 25 tracks. Many of the tracks were co-written with Robert Conley, and a great deal of the album was written with and produced by Justin Shave, who played keyboards for part of Hayes' Time Machine tour. The album was released on 20 August 2007 on Hayes' own independent record label, Powdered Sugar, while the first single "On the Verge of Something Wonderful" was released in Australia on 28 July 2007 and in the UK and online on 6 August 2007.

On 9 April 2007, Hayes released the album track "Who Would Have Thought?" from This Delicate Thing We've Made as a teaser track on his official website, as well as his MySpace profile. This was accompanied by an animation for the song created by his partner, animator and director, Richard Cullen. Around April 2007, remixes of the album track "Step into the Light" were being played in clubs around the world. The album version of "Step into the Light" was released as a teaser on Hayes' official website and MySpace on 30 April 2007.

During the first half of 2007, Hayes performed selected songs from the album in small exclusive gigs around the world. Tickets for several of these much sought after shows sold out in under ten minutes. In June 2007, Hayes embarked on a small tour of USA and Canada, stopping in New York, Toronto, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, along with the band Temposhark. The shows were well received with very positive reviews.

On 30 June 2007, Hayes headlined the London Gay Pride at Trafalgar Square.^[3] He performed "I Want You" and "On the Verge of Something Wonderful" as well as a medley that included "Pop!ular".

In July 2007, Hayes announced The Time Machine Tour that would start out in the UK, and then move on to Hayes' home country Australia.

On 29 July 2007, "On the Verge of Something Wonderful" was the most selected music video on The Box in the UK.

On 20 August 2007, This Delicate Thing We've Made was released in the UK, America and Australia.

Hayes finished touring this release with 'The Time Machine Tour' in the UK and Australia, where he played venues such as The Royal Albert Hall and the State Theatre in Sydney. His stage was again designed by Willie Williams and included a large bridge that could extend over the first few rows of seats. On the final night at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in Hayes' hometown of Brisbane the performance was recorded in HD for a DVD release. The Time Machine Tour DVD came out in two editions; the special edition which was limited to 2000 copies and contained a four panel, fold out, gleaming white box, a 32 page color booklet with 300 photos and notes from the artist, and the regular edition. The special edition DVD, which was only available from Hayes' website, was shipped to purchasers on 1 July, and the regular edition which was available in shops was released on 22 July.

Hayes did a mini tour in the US in November and December 2007, making appearances at Borders stores and performing two shows in New York City and Philadelphia.

On 18 December 2007, Hayes announced "The Side Two Tour". The show toured the UK in February 2008 and featured Hayes performing songs from This Delicate Thing We've Made that were not featured on "The Time Machine Tour", in a more intimate setting.

[edit] 2009–2010: We Are Smug

On 19 April 2009, Hayes teased via Twitter that he was preparing another album.^[4] On 8 May, Hayes announced, via his MySpace page, that he and Robert Conley had produced an album together titled We Are Smug. The ten-track album, with a fair amount of experimentation with both lyrics and music, was made available via a link from his MySpace page, and was made free to download to gauge acceptability of Hayes' shifting musical styles.^[5] The album is heavily electronic with some heavy beats. It also contains some explicit content. Both Hayes and Conley share vocal duties on this album.

Hayes signed to Sony ATV Music Publishing for a worldwide deal in August 2009. Emma Banks from CAA UK came on board October 2009 to represent Hayes for his touring plans around the new album.

Although the album was completed before the holidays in 2009, Hayes announced in early 2010 that he had more song ideas and he was going back into the studio, which delayed the album another year. Hayes completely finished his fourth solo album in mid-2010, working with top writer/producers from around the world and having the record mixed by Robert Orton.

Darren also recorded a song for the Finn tribute album He Will Have His Way, a cover of "Not Even Close". It was released on Halloween 2010.

[edit] 2011–present: Signing to Mercury Records and Secret Codes and Battleships

On 17 April 2011, Darren announced that he had signed a record deal with Mercury Records/Universal Music Australia and signed to EMI Services UK /Europe. Darren released his fourth studio album on the label on 24 October in the UK and a release date of 21 October for Australia and most of the world and 25 October for USA.^[6][7] The first single titled "Talk Talk Talk" was announced in May and was released on 24 June. The single contains a cover version of Madonna's "Angel" as the B-side.^[8]

It was announced on 20 June via Hayes' Facebook page that his new album would be titled Secret Codes and Battleships.^[9]

Darren announced on Twitter on 22 July that he was shooting a second music video. On 14 August, Hayes revealed in a radio interview that "Black Out the Sun" will be the second single from Secret Codes and Battleships. Since its release in the UK, BBC Radio 2 has selected the track to feature on their A list the week commencing 1 October 2011.^[10] He later confirmed on Twitter that this song will be the single for the UK and other international markets, while "Blood-Stained Heart" would be the second single in Australia.

On 1 September, Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton recommended "Bloodstained Heart" to his followers, saying "Darren Hayes is back with a song closer to his Savage Garden days than anything he's done of late. A beautiful, powerful, emotional, big, sweeping, pop song with meaning!"^[11] He will play key dates on his "The Secret" Tour in the UK and Australia beginning on 15 October in Liverpool.^[12]

Hayes tweeted on 2 March 2012 that he would be shooting another music video the week after.^[13] He later confirmed the music video was being shot for "Stupid Mistake", which was released as the album's fourth single in May 2012.

Personal life[link]

Hayes married a childhood sweetheart, makeup artist Colby Taylor, in 1994.^[14] They were still married when Savage Garden "skyrocketed to fame around the globe in the late 1990s."^[14] They separated in 1998 and were divorced in 2000. Much of the lyrics for the band's second album, Affirmation, dealt with his divorce.^[14] He recorded Affirmation in San Francisco mid-1999 and eventually bought a house there.^[14] He also maintains a base in London since 2004.

Hayes was upset when Simon Amstell, an openly gay UK comedian, asked Hayes about his sexuality before he had actually been out. He was outraged by Amstell's lack of respect for his privacy, but later said that event made him realize that he needed to be honest. Hayes started coming out as gay to friends and the head of his label, Sony in the early 2000s.^[14] He married (via a civil partnership) his boyfriend of two years, Richard Cullen, on 19 June 2006 in London.^[15][16] Though public speculation about his sexual orientation had been present throughout his career, he is famous for keeping his personal life private.^[14] He announced the event the day prior on his official website.^[17] Before the announcement Cullen's name had appeared on the website as the designer of the cover for Hayes' single "So Beautiful". Hayes and Cullen live in London.

Hayes is a well-known Star Wars buff and has been since childhood. He also collects Star Wars memorabilia and he even auditioned for a role in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.^[18]

Discography[link]

Studio albums

• 2002: Spin
• 2004: The Tension and the Spark
• 2007: This Delicate Thing We've Made
• 2011: Secret Codes and Battleships