"Nuclear Device (The Wizard of Aus)" is a 1979 single by British band

The Stranglers The Stranglers are an English rock music, rock band formed in 1974. Scoring 23 UK top 40 singles and 20 UK top 40 albums to date in a career spanning five decades, the Stranglers are one of the longest-surviving bands to have originated in the ...

. The second single from their album ''

The Raven "The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. First published in January 1845, the poem is often noted for its musicality, stylized language and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a distraught lover who is paid a visit ...

'', it peaked at No. 36 on the UK Singles Chart.

Hugh Cornwell Hugh Alan Cornwell (born 28 August 1949) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and writer, best known for being the lead vocalist and lead guitarist for the punk rock and new wave band the Stranglers The Stranglers are an English ro ...

stated in ''Song by Song'' that the song was written about the then

Premier of Queensland The premier of Queensland is the head of government in the Australian state of Queensland. By convention the premier is the leader of the party with a parliamentary majority in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The premier is appointed ...

Joh Bjelke-Petersen Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen (13 January 191123 April 2005) was an Australian politician and farmer who served as premier of Queensland between 1968 and 1987, for almost 20 years, as state leader of the National Party (earlier known as the C ...

. It also makes references to

gerrymandering Gerrymandering, ( , originally ) defined in the contexts of Representative democracy, representative electoral systems, is the political manipulation of Boundary delimitation, electoral district boundaries to advantage a Political party, pa ...

, and genetic

mutation In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, ...

in animals. It was later released on the compilation ''

Singles (The UA Years) ''Singles (The UA Years)'' is a compilation album by The Stranglers. It was released by EMI, who had acquired the Strangler's back catalogue from United Artists and Liberty. The compilation was a collection of all the singles released by the b ...

'', with a live recordings on ''

Live at the Apollo 2010 The Stranglers are an English rock band formed in 1974. Scoring 23 UK top 40 singles and 20 UK top 40 albums to date in a career spanning five decades, the Stranglers are one of the longest-surviving bands to have originated in the UK punk sc ...

'', ''

All Live and All of the Night ''All Live and All of the Night'' is the second live album by English rock band the Stranglers, released on 8 February 1988 by Epic Records. The release peaked at No. 12 in the UK Albums Chart in March 1988. Background By 1986, the band were ...

'' and '' Saturday Night, Sunday Morning''.

References

{{Authority control The Stranglers songs 1979 singles 1979 songs Song recordings produced by Alan Winstanley United Artists Records singles