''Species Deceases'' is an extended play by

Australian rock Rock music in Australia, also known as Oz rock, Australian rock, and Aussie rock, has a rich history, rooted in an appreciation of various rock genres originating in the United States and Britain, and to a lesser extent, in continental Europe an ...

band

Midnight Oil Midnight Oil (known informally as "The Oils") are an Australian rock band composed of Peter Garrett (vocals, harmonica), Rob Hirst (drums), Jim Moginie (guitar, keyboard) and Martin Rotsey (guitar). The group was formed in Sydney in 1972 by H ...

, released on 26 November 1985 under the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

record label. ''Species Deceases'' debuted at No. 1 on the Australian

Kent Music Report The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music historian David Kent from May 1974 through to January 1999. The chart was re-branded the Australian Music Report (AMR) in July 19 ...

Singles Chart for six weeks from December 1985 to January 1986. Note: Used for Australian Singles and Albums charting from 1974 until

Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a trade association representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies, EMI, Festival Records (Australia), Festival, Sony Music ...

(ARIA) created their own

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent t ...

in mid-1988. In 1992, Kent back calculated chart positions for 1970–1974. It was the first Australian single and/or EP to reach the number-one spot on its chart appearance and remains Midnight Oil's only No. 1 on the national singles chart.

Background

On 26 November 1985, Australian rock music group,

, released a four-track extended play, ''Species Deceases''. At the time Midnight Oil consisted of

Peter Garrett Peter Robert Garrett (born 16 April 1953) is an Australian musician, environmentalist, activist and former politician. In 1973, Garrett became the lead singer of the Australian rock band Midnight Oil. As a performer he is known for his sign ...

on lead vocals and

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica incl ...

;

Peter Gifford Peter Gifford (born 6 April 1955), sometimes known as "Giffo," is an Australian musician. From 1980 until 1987, he played bass guitar, Chapman Stick and sang backing vocals for Australian rock band Midnight Oil. Midnight Oil Gifford is cred ...

on bass guitar and backing vocals;

Rob Hirst Robert George Hirst (born 3 September 1955) is an Australian musician from Camden, New South Wales. He is a founding member of rock band Midnight Oil on drums, percussion and backing vocals (sometimes lead vocals) from the 1970s until the band ...

on drums and backing vocals;

Jim Moginie James 'Jim' Moginie (born 18 May 1956) is an Australian musician. He is best known for his work with Midnight Oil, of which he is a founding member, guitarist, keyboardist and leading songwriter. Career In addition to Midnight Oil, Moginie ha ...

on lead guitar and keyboards; and

Martin Rotsey Martin Rotsey is an Australian guitarist and a member of the rock band Midnight Oil, which was active from 1977 to 2002 and resumed performing in 2017. Career In 2006, he joined fellow Midnight Oil member Rob Hirst's projects Ghostwriters and ...

on lead guitar. It was produced with Francois Kevorkian at Paradise Studios,

Darlinghurst Darlinghurst is an inner-city suburb in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Darlinghurst is located immediately east of the Sydney central business district (CBD) and Hyde Park, within the local government area of the Ci ...

for Sprint Music and distributed by the CBS/Columbia label. ''Species Deceases'' became a big favourite of FM Radio around the world, with all four songs enjoying frequent airplay, sometimes all of them played back-to-back. According to 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 ...

, ''Species Deceases'', with the track "Hercules", featured "a stripped-back pub-rock sound. In terms of sheer sonic firepower, it was one of the band's hardest hitting works". A line from the song "Blossom and Blood" appeared in the message that got flashed on infected computers by the worm WANK: "You talk of times of peace for all and then prepare for war."

Commercial performance

''Species Deceases'' was certified platinum on 14 December 1985, two weeks after its release. The following day, and six years after its release, their second album ''

Head Injuries A head injury is any injury that results in trauma to the skull or brain. The terms ''traumatic brain injury'' and ''head injury'' are often used interchangeably in the medical literature. Because head injuries cover such a broad scope of inju ...

'' was certified gold.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Personnel

;Midnight Oil *

– lead vocals,

– bass guitar, backing vocals *

– drums, backing vocals *

– lead guitar, keyboards *

– lead guitar ;Production work * Producer – Midnight Oil, Francois Kevorkian * Engineer – David Price ** Assistant – Tom Colley * Mixer – David Price, Midnight Oil * Studio – Paradise Studios,

;Art work * Artwork concept – Midnight Oil, Philip Ellett Credits:

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1985 EPs Sprint Music EPs Columbia Records EPs Midnight Oil EPs Number-one singles in Australia Albums produced by François Kevorkian