Serious Young Insects were a short lived Australian

pop rock Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre and form of rock music characterized by a strong commercial appeal, with more emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than standard rock musi ...

band formed in 1980. The group released one studio album and three singles.

History

Serious Young Insects formed in 1980 with

Peter Farnan Peter Farnan is a composer, sound designer, musical director and guitarist from Melbourne, Australia. He is one of the founding members of the band Boom Crash Opera and the 1980s pop rock band Serious Young Insects. He currently produces music ...

on vocals and guitar, Michael Vallance on vocals and bass guitar and Mark White on vocals and drums. Australian musicologist,

Ian McFarlane Ian McFarlane (born 1959) is an Australian music journalist, music historian and author, whose best known publication is the ''Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop'' (1999), which was updated for a second edition in 2017. As a journalist ...

, described Serious Young Insects as a "quirky, three-piece Melbourne new wave band".McFarlane
'Boom Crash Opera'
entry. Archived fro
the original
on 19 April 2004. Retrieved 8 December 2013. All three members of Serious Young Insects wrote and sang lead vocals on their songs. The group's first single, "Trouble Understanding Words", was written and sung by Farnan and was issued in 1981. Despite production by Peter McIan (who was guiding

Men At Work Men at Work are an Australian rock band that was formed in Melbourne, 1979. They were best known for breakthrough hits such as " Down Under", " Who Can It Be Now?", " Be Good Johnny", " Overkill", and " It's a Mistake". Its founding member and ...

to chart success at this same time), the song didn't chart. In May 1982, they released the album, ''Housebreaking'', which featured two singles; lead single "Be Patient" was written and sung by White and made the lower reaches of the Australian charts, peaking at #63. The album's second and final single, "Faraway Places", was written and sung by Vallance and did not chart. Lisa Perry of ''

The Canberra Times ''The Canberra Times'' is a daily newspaper in Canberra, Australia, which is published by Australian Community Media. It was founded in 1926, and has changed ownership and format several times. History ''The Canberra Times'' was launched in 1 ...

'' reviewing the album in May 1982 noted that "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".

Richard Pleasance Richard Arnold Pleasance is an Australian rock musician and producer. He was a founding member of Boom Crash Opera on guitar, bass guitar, vocals and as a songwriter in 1985; they released three albums before Pleasance left in 1992. Their hit Au ...

, a classically trained guitarist, was a fan and briefly joined the group before it broke up in the following year. Pleasance and Farnan went on to co-found the group

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 ...

, which had 10 top-40 hits in Australia in the 1980s and 90s. Vallance was also a member for a short time in 1991-92.

Discography

Albums

Singles

References

{{Authority control Australian pop music groups Musical groups established in 1980 Musical groups disestablished in 1983