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Pool Of Rock

(by Peter Mitchell)

A BLOND surfer from Melbourne and a dreadlocked hipster from Sydney are in the running to score music's dream job with rock hellraiser Tommy Lee.

Toby Rand and Andre Kaman have been revealed in the US as two of the 18 singers short-listed for the new series of reality TV show, Rock Star.

In its debut season last year, Rock Star unearthed Canada's JD Fortune for Australia's INXS.

In the latest series, Supernova, a new band formed by Motley Crue drummer Lee, Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke and Metallica bassist Jason Newsted, will try to find an unknown frontman.

Rand, a 28-year-old surfer from St Kilda, and Kaman, a hip 31-year-old from Bondi, auditioned with hundreds of other Australians in Sydney in March and have spent the last week in LA with Lee, Clarke and Newsted. The 16 other hopefuls are from the US, Canada and Iceland.

"It is the chance of a lifetime," Rand, who quit his regular job at a Melbourne carpet company and is the lead singer of Melbourne rock band Juke Kartel, told reporters at a $US20 million ($27 million) mansion in the Hollywood Hills that will be home for the contestants.

Kaman, who migrated to Australia from Sri Lanka with his family when he was three, has fronted popular Sydney cover band Funkstar and TEN-1.

"I am so pumped about this," said Kaman, who could not hide his excitement.

The show will be filmed in Los Angeles.

Lee, Clarke and Newsted will cut the 18 hopefuls to 15 before the show goes to air in Australia and around the world in July and the trio said there was a real chance a woman could be the winner.

Of the 18, eight contestants are female.

Magni Asgeirsson, a well-known male singer in Iceland, also made the 18.

"The winner could be male, female, from Australia, Iceland or wherever," Newsted said.

The winner of the new series will record an album with Supernova and tour the world in 2007.

Lee, Clarke and Newsted said the tour would include Australia.

• Rock Star will be shown in Australia on pay-TV's Fox8 channel and in primetime in the US on America's most-watched TV network, CBS.

RST - I think we're seeing a groundswell of support for Tyler on OBINXS - it will be very interesting to see this drama unfold. I wasn't too sure if I wanted to watch or not, after the ups and downs of RS:INXS - but now I think RSII:Supernova will be exciting to watch, and I'm looking forward to it.

That commercial doesn't really spell it out, does it?