"Everything's on Fire" was the third single from Australian pub rockers,

Hunters & Collectors Hunters & Collectors are an Australian rock band formed in 1981. Fronted by founding mainstay, singer-songwriter and guitarist Mark Seymour, they developed a blend of Pub rock (Australia), pub rock and funk, art-funk. Other mainstays are John ...

' fourth studio album, ''

Human Frailty ''Human Frailty'' is the fourth studio album by Australian rock band Hunters & Collectors, which was released on 7 April 1986. It was a commercial and critical success. The album peaked at No. 10 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums C ...

''. It was released after the album on 18 August 1986 in both 7" and 12" formats. It peaked in the top 100 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 enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to January 1999. The chart was re-branded the Australian Music Report (AMR) in July ...

Singles Chart and No. 44 on the

New Zealand Singles Chart The Official New Zealand Music Chart ( mi, Te Papa Tātai Waiata Matua o Aotearoa) is the weekly New Zealand top 40 singles and albums charts, issued weekly by Recorded Music NZ (formerly Recording Industry Association of New Zealand). The Music ...

. "Everything's on Fire" was co-written by band members John Archer, Doug Falconer, Jack Howard, Robert Miles,

Mark Seymour Mark Jeremy Seymour (born 26 July 1956) is an Australian musician and vocalist. He was the frontman and songwriter of rock band Hunters & Collectors from 1981 until 1998. Seymour has carved a solo career, releasing his debut solo album in ...

Jeremy Smith Jeremy Smith may refer to: *Jeremy Theron Smith a man charged with aggravated assault for wounding three women in Koreatown Dallas on 17 May 2022 *Jeremy Smith (Royal Navy officer) (fl. 1660s), British sailor * Jeremy C. Smith (born 1959), British b ...

, and Michael Waters.

Background

Australian pub rockers

released "Everything's on Fire" on 18 August 1986 after their fourth studio album, ''

'' which had appeared in April. The track was co-written by band members John Archer on bass guitar, Doug Falconer on drums, Jack Howard on trumpet, Robert Miles on live sound,

on lead vocals and guitar,

on French horn, and Michael Waters on keyboards and trombone. "Everything's on Fire" was released in both 7" and 12" formats on White Label/

Mushroom Records Mushroom Records was an Australian flagship record label, founded in 1972 in Melbourne. It published and distributed many successful Australian artists and expanded internationally, until it was merged with Festival Records in 1998. Festival Mu ...

and, as with the album, was co-produced by Gavin MacKillop with the band. The single reached the top 100 on the Australian

Singles Chart and No. 44 on the

. It appeared on the group's first compilation album, '' Collected Works'' (November 1990). Andrew de Groot directed the music video for "Everything's on Fire" and its following single, "Is There Anybody in There?". Both appeared on the VHS compilation also titled, ''Collected Works''. A live version of "Everything's on Fire" appeared on ''Living ... In Large Rooms and Lounges'' (November 1995) from a pub gig.

Reception

In October 2010, "Everything's on Fire" was described in the book, ''

100 Best Australian Albums 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...

'', by the three authors, John O'Donnell,

Toby Creswell Toby Creswell (born 21 May 1955) is an Australian music journalist and pop-culture writer. He was editor of ''Rolling Stone'' (Australia) and a founding editor of ''Juice''. In 1986, he co-wrote, with Martin Fabinyi, his first book, ''Too Much ...

, and Craig Mathieson: "Seymour's lyrics all relate back to the ''folie à deux'' in the blue bed-sit. 'Dog', 'The Finger' and 'Everything's on Fire' are all songs of lust and obsessions".

Track listing

Personnel

Credited to: ;Hunters & Collectors members * John Archer –

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

* Doug Falconer –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

* John 'Jack' Howard –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

* Robert Miles –

live sound Live sound mixing is the blending of multiple sound sources by an audio engineer using a mixing console or software. Sounds that are mixed include those from instruments and voices which are picked up by microphones (for drum kit, lead vocals an ...

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...

–

vocal The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production i ...

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

* Jeremy Smith –

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

* Michael Waters –

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

;Recording details * Producer – Hunters & Collectors, Gavin MacKillop * Engineer – Gavin MacKillop **Assistant engineer – Doug Brady, Michael Streefkerk * Recording/mixing engineer – Robert Miles * Studio – Allan Eaton Sound, St Kilda (recording); AAV Studio One, Melbourne (mixing) ;Art works *Art director – Robert Miles

Charts

References

External links

Video of "Everything's on Fire"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Everything's on Fire 1986 singles 1986 songs Hunters & Collectors songs Mushroom Records singles Songs written by Mark Seymour