The reunited line-up are DeMarchi, Leslie, Dario Bortolin on bass guitar and Mick Skelton on drums and percussion.
[4] Woodruff later recalled "I'd seen [DeMarchi] in London performing some bad Stock Aitken and Waterman tunes on television late one night.
"[5] The band's first performance was in November 1989 at the Kardomah Café in Sydney, where they were billed as Woody's Heroes, then they worked the city's pub and club circuit.
[3] Baby Animals were assisted by the Angels including one of their demos, "Break My Heart", on the B-side of the established band's single, "Dogs Are Talking" (April 1990).
After attending a gig, Terry Ellis, president of newly formed Imago Recording Company, signed them to his label, funded by BMG.
[1] Ellis described the performance, "the band was great, the songs were terrific and to me Suze clearly had that indefineable magic that separates one artist from the crowd and makes them a star.
[9] DeMarchi said of the production process: "He very rigidly made us pull things back and just concentrate on the essence of the song rather than being fancy.
Like Early Warning - that tag at the beginning 'too young to know too old to listen' - Mike said 'I'm going to take that part of the chorus, let's put that at the front; that's the hook'.
I thought if I can then convince him to work with a young rude engineer, which turned out to be [Shirley], and you couldn't get much younger or ruder than that, then I'm going to end up with a record that has an edge to it, that has some tone to it, that has some rock and roll and that has some feel to it that's as edgy as she is but with great songs.
[1][9][12] It remained the highest-selling debut Australian rock album until the release of Jet's effort, Get Born (September 2003) – twelve years later.
[13][14] Australian musicologist Ian McFarlane felt it "showcased the band's confident and melodic brand of hard rock and, in particular, highlighted DeMarchi's provocative vocal growl.
[15] By Christmas that year the band were back in Australia for more national touring, and the release of two more singles, "Painless" (November) and "One Word" (February 1992); the latter peaked at No.
In 1993 Baby Animals returned to Bearsville Studios,[19] to start work on their second album, Shaved and Dangerous (August 1993), with two weeks of pre-production.
They went to the Bahamas and spent two months recording at Compass Point Studios with Ed Stasium producing (Ramones, Living Colour, Hoodoo Gurus).
[1][2] Next, they travelled to Los Angeles, where they worked with Nuno Bettencourt (of Extreme); he provided song writing and guitar on "Because I Can" and produced "Life From a Distance" and "Be My Friend".
Daniel Gioffre of AllMusic felt that "For the most part, the songwriting here is topnotch, with most of the songs showcasing fairly sophisticated harmonic and rhythmic ideas.
[16] In August 1994 Baby Animals shared the stage with Extreme in a concert on the Azores island of São Miguel.
[25] The band appeared live on Australian breakfast TV program, Sunrise, three days later, and confirmed local tour dates for that year.
[17] In April that year Demarchi and Leslie continued the group with Matt Cornell on bass guitar and vocals, and Mick Skelton in drums.
[17][29] In April 2013 the Baby Animals line-up of Bortolin, Demarchi, Leslie and Skelton released their first new single in 20 years, "Email".
In February 2018, Baby Animals released "Tonight"[34] which lead singer Suze DeMarchi wrote after her father died suddenly.
[37] In 2020 the Baby Animals were part of the Red Hot Summer Tour series of outdoor shows around Australia, alongside Boom Crash Opera, Killing Heidi, The Angels, The Living End, James Reyne and headliner, Hunters and Collectors.