By MICHELLE HERBISON
WHEN the members of Boom Crash Opera get together they rock like they’re still on tour 20 years ago with something to prove, according to frontman Peter Farnan.
He told the Independent the band was back to establish and reinforce its legacy.
“We’re very much on our front foot. We were always striving to get somewhere and we kind of still feel like that.”
Other creative endeavours have taken centre-stage for the band’s members since their heyday in the ’80s and ’90s when they produced hits such as Onion Skin, Hands Up In The Air and Her Charity.
Farnan has been busy composing for theatre and feature films, while drummer Peter Maslan plays with Mark Seymour’s band.
“We can go for three months without seeing each other,” Farnan laughed.
But the fire still burns for Boom Crash Opera’s unique sound, with Farnan and Maslan being joined by Greg O’Connor, Dale Ryder, Ian Tilley and occasionally, Richard Pleasance.
“There’s such a legacy of hits there and a band ethos and communal energy that only happens when that group of people come together,” Farnan explained.
“I think the name of the band is really well known and we’ve got a few songs in the repertoire that people will recognise but they won’t necessarily realise it was our song.”
The band is now taking advantage of industry changes by rereleasing its first three albums in a boxed set alongside a new album of rare material previously recorded but never released.
“Everything was vetted,” Farnan recalled of the days of what he termed “corporate rock”.
“You’d write and record an album of material then that would be scrapped and you’d write and record another album. This often happened and we copped it a lot.
“We look back now and go, ‘These songs are fantastic’.”
Farnan also wrote two new songs for the album boxed set, inspired by friend and cancer sufferer Connie Johnson whose brother Samuel recently unicycled around Australia in the Love Your Sister campaign.
Boom Crash Opera will feature alongside a string of local and visiting acts at Geelong Showgrounds’ inaugural Motor City Music Festival on 7 to 9 March.
