Boom Crash Opera

Boom Crash Opera are an Australian pop rock band formed in late 1984. Initially based around the songwriting partnership of Richard Pleasance and Peter Farnan, the band was later joined by Dale Ryder (vocals), Peter 'Maz' Maslen (drums) and Greg O’Connor (keyboards). Pleasance developed tinnitus from constant exposure to loud live music and left in 1992 to pursue a solo career as an artist and producer. O’Connor departed in 1994. Current line-up includes Dale Ryder (vocals), Peter 'Maz' Maslen (drums), Peter Farnan (guitar) and John Favaro (bass). Their highest-charting albums are Boom Crash Opera, These Here Are Crazy Times! and Fabulous Beast. Their top 20 singles are "Great Wall", "Hands up in the Air" (both 1986), "Onion Skin" (1989) and "Gimme" (1994). In the United States "Onion Skin" reached No. 8 on the Billboard component chart Modern Rock Tracks. Australian musicologist Ian McFarlane noted that the group had a "strong visual image and the uncanny ability of its principal songwriters to pen catchy, commercial songs ensured a string of successful releases". Boom Crash Opera were formed in late 1984 in Melbourne with a line up of Peter Farnan (ex-Urtle Urtle Urtle, Serious Young Insects) on guitar, keyboards and backing vocals; Peter 'Maz' Maslen (ex-One Hand Clapping) on drums, percussion and backing vocals; Greg O'Connor; Richard Pleasance (ex-Government Drum, Bang, One Hand Clapping) on bass guitar, guitar and backing vocals; and Dale Ryder on lead vocals. Serious Young Insects had formed in 1980 with Peter Farnan on vocals and guitar, Michael Vallance on vocals and bass guitar and Mark White on vocals and drums. Australian musicologist Ian McFarlane described Serious Young Insects as a "quirky, three-piece Melbourne new wave band". They issued an album, Housebreaking (May 1982), and three singles. Lisa Perry of The Canberra Times praised the album: "several times I had to check the cover to see if there were not also some session musos or others contributing to the sounds I was hearing. For a three-piece combo, these lads sure make a good sound". Pleasance, a classically trained guitarist, was a fan and briefly joined the group before it broke up in the following year. In September 1985 three Australian journalists, Paul Gardiner, Jane Gardiner and Toby Creswell, listed twelve groups as The Next Big Thing, with Boom Crash Opera described as "[o]ne name that stands out ... a Melbourne band that has every A-and-R man and his dog salivating. There are some other bands which, if not attracting the same sort of frenetic endorsement, are nevertheless on the minds of the scouts". Farnan described his bandmates, other than Pleasance, to The Canberra Times' Pollyanna Sutton in May 1986 "[t]he others are sort of from nowhere ... Drummer Peter "Maz" Maslen, has and still does a lot of recording sessions, in early 1984 he met Richard in this avante-garde band called One Hand Clapping, then played together with Venetta Fields in the time just before Boom Crash Opera. Dale came out of the blue, he has done some singing with bands but never had a serious crack at it until now." Boom Crash Opera were signed to WEA and in April 1986 they released their debut single "Great Wall", which was produced by Steve Brown. "Great Wall" reached No. 5 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart in the next month. The track was written by Ryder, Pleasance and O'Connor. According to Farnan: "Richard wrote the music and Dale helped him finish the words, but they did not know what they wanted to write about so I suggested they write about the Hume Weir. Like, it isn't specifically about the Hume Weir but they used the idea about a dam wall that dams up fear and prejudice, it is also the wall that shores up relationship". McFarlane described it as an "exuberant" single, which "established the hallmarks of [their] sound: the tight, funky rock of the music, the boom-like crack of the drums and the work song chant of the vocals". The group toured the Australian pub rock circuit promoting the single. Their second single, "Hands up in the Air", followed in August, which peaked at No. 16. It was written by Pleasance, Ryder and Farnan; and was produced by Brown. A music video was directed by Kimble Rendall (ex-XL Capris, Hoodoo Gurus). At the ARIA Music Awards of 1987 the group were nominated for three awards: Highest Selling Single for "Great Wall", Best New Talent for both singles, and Best Video for "Hands up in the Air". At the Countdown Music and Video Awards of 1986, held in July 1987, "Great Wall" won Best Debut Single. A self-titled debut album, followed in September 1987, which was recorded in London and produced by Alex Sadkin (Grace Jones, Duran Duran, James Brown, Simply Red, Talking Heads). Both "Great Wall" and "Hands up in the Air" were remixed for their album versions. After recording the album Sadkin travelled to the Bahamas to work, where he died in a car accident in July. Boom Crash Opera reached No. 19 on the Kent Music Report Albums Chart, and was certified as a gold album.[citation needed] Stuart Coupe of The Sydney Morning Herald reported there were "impressive notices" for the album and that the group had "been tipped for mega-stardom". Follow-up singles were "City Flat" (June 1987), "Her Charity" (September) and "Love Me to Death" (March 1988), which were "minor hits". Coupe felt that "City Flat" was "[o]ne of the more outstanding tracks" and it "appears to paint a fairly bleak picture of [their] home town". AllMusic's Kevin Hayes compared their sound to Tears for Fears, Icehouse and INXS. He felt it was an "impressive debut. Pete Maslen's drumming keeps pulse. A pensive guitar leads into the most brilliant of bridges and a lilting melody underpinned by Richard Pleasance's strong bassline". However "Hands up in the Air" was "musically strong but weak in its lyrics ... It's a wonder it made the album, let alone became a single ... [it has a] teeny naïveté". In August 1989 they released a single, "Onion Skin", ahead of their second album These Here Are Crazy Times (October), which was produced by Jimmy Iovine, Pete Smith and Pleasance, and mixed by Nick Launay. The album reached No. 10 on the ARIA Albums Chart, it spent 40 weeks in the Top 50, and achieved a double platinum certificate. Allmusic's Jonathan Lewis opined that "[it was] slick, commercial pop. As in previous outings, lead singer Dale Ryder's effortless (although somewhat limited) vocal delivery and Richard Pleasance's skillful guitar work helped disguise the fact that underneath the catchy melodies and slick production, there wasn't a lot of substance to [their] music". "Onion Skin" peaked at No. 11 on the ARIA Singles Chart and was followed by four more singles, "Get Out of the House!" (September), "The Best Thing" (December), "Dancing in the Storm" (April 1990) and "Talk About It" (July). "Dancing in the Storm" also featured in the 1990 Australian comedy film The Big Steal. In 1990 they released a compilation album, Look! Listen!!, which featured remixed versions of songs from their first two albums plus two new songs. At the end of that year Pleasance was diagnosed with tinnitus and was unable to perform with the group. He was temporarily replaced on bass guitar by former bandmate from Serious Young Insects, Vallance. During his break from the band, in 1991, Pleasance released his debut solo album, Galleon. Late that year Boom Crash Opera released a four-track extended play, Dreams on Fire, with both Pleasance and Vallance aboard. The EP was produced by Keith Forsey and the band; it appeared on the ARIA Singles Chart Top 50, and featured the track, "Holy Water". In 1992 they travelled to Los Angeles and began work on a follow-up album, Fabulous Beast. However, during early writing sessions, Pleasance left the band and returned to Australia; he was temporarily replaced by Dorian West on bass guitar (ex-Wildland). It was during the recording of Fabulous Beast that the band found