The Fireman's Curse

The Fireman's Curse was prepared in June and July 1983, Hunters & Collectors had decamped from United Kingdom, where they had been based while touring Europe for six months,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article116421156 |title=Success bid paying off |last=Dempsey |first=Shelley |newspaper=The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 – 1995) |date=3 August 1983 |access-date=6 April 2014 |page=23 |publisher=National Library of Australia }} to Neunkirchen, West Germany. There they recorded their second album, which was co-produced with Konrad 'Conny' Plank (Can, Cluster, Kraftwerk), at Conny's Studio, with Dave Hutchins engineering. It was released by White Label/Mushroom Records and Virgin Records on 5 September 1983.{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop |last=McFarlane |first=Ian |author-link= Ian McFarlane |publisher=Allen & Unwin |year=1999 |chapter=Encyclopedia entry for 'Hunters & Collectors' |chapter-url=http://www.whammo.com.au/encyclopedia.asp?articleid=931 |isbn=1-86448-768-2 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20040829235219/http://www.whammo.com.au/encyclopedia.asp?articleid=931|access-date=6 April 2014 |archive-date= 29 August 2004}}{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120612041801/http://hem.passagen.se/honga/database/h/huntersandcollectors.html |url=http://hem.passagen.se/honga/database/h/huntersandcollectors.html |title=Hunters and Collectors |publisher=Australian Rock Database. Passagen.se (Magnus Holmgren) |last1=Holmgren |first1=Magnus |last2=Warnqvist |first2=Stefan |last3=Bamford |first3=Alan |archive-date=12 June 2012 |url-status=usurped |access-date=6 April 2014 }}

{{blockquote|[Virgin] picked us up because of our commercial potential, because of our image. They saw us as having a groovy tribal funk post-nuclear Mad Max image. In actual reality ... we looked like a football team, like Australian boys. When they heard The Fireman's Curse (the second album), they dropped us because they didn't think it was commercial.|Mark Seymour (27 April 1986) |The Canberra Times{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article118200989 |title=Can INXS Break the International Sound Barrier |last=Sarno |first=Tony |newspaper=The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 – 1995) |location=ACT |date=27 April 1986 |access-date=6 April 2014 |page=42 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}}}

In Seymour's autobiography, Thirteen Tonne Theory: Life Inside Hunters and Collectors (2008), he recalled that their three-record deal with Virgin was broken when he and fellow band members insulted the label's executive, Simon Draper, by telling him that he was "a poncy little blueblood" with no faith in them.{{cite book |title=Thirteen Tonne Theory: Life Inside Hunters and Collectors |last=Seymour |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Seymour |year=2008 |location=Melbourne, Vic |publisher=Penguin Group Australia |isbn=978-0-670-07165-4 }}{{cite news |url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/music/how-one-curry-might-have-cost-a-melbourne-band-superstar-status/2008/02/29/1204226991503.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1 |last=Webb |first=Carolyn |title=How one curry might have cost a Melbourne band superstar status |date=1 March 2008 |access-date=5 April 2014 | work=The Age |publisher=Fairfax Media }} While in the UK and attempting to enter the local market, the group's members "were doing odd jobs, illegally, to keep afloat and getting steadily more miserable in the process".{{cite news | work = The Australian | url = http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/export-quality/story-e6frg8qf-1111115651343 | title = Export Quality | publisher = News Corp Australia | date = 1 March 2008 | access-date = 6 April 2014 }} In the book, Seymour also describes this album as "an unmitigated disaster; an awful collection of tuneless songs full of twisted invective (mine, mostly) and apocalyptic moaning... The whole exercise was excruciatingly juvenile and a tragic waste of what could easily have been an international breakthrough record."

The album did not reach the top 50 in Australia, peaking at No. 77 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart but it did reach No. 46 on the New Zealand Albums Chart.{{cite book|title=Australian Chart Book 1970–1992|last=Kent|first=David|author-link= David Kent (historian)|publisher=Australian Chart Book|location=St Ives, N.S.W.|year=1993|isbn=0-646-11917-6}} NOTE: Used for Australian Singles and Albums charting until ARIA created their own charts in mid-1988.{{cite web|url=http://australian-charts.com/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Hunters+%26+Collectors |title=Hunters & Collectors discography |publisher=Australian Charts Portal |access-date=26 November 2008 }}{{cite web |url=https://charts.nz/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Hunters+%26+Collectors |publisher=New Zealand Charts Portal (Hung Medien) |title=Hunters & Collectors discography |last=Hung |first=Stefan |access-date=4 April 2014 }} Its lead single, "Judas Sheep", released in August, reached No. 35 in New Zealand but did not chart in Australia. They had supported their releases with an eight-week tour of Australia during August and September. After the second single, "Sway", released in November, failed to chart in both markets, the group disbanded briefly.

In July 1991 it was re-issued on CD by Mushroom Records and was subsequently re-mastered and re-issued by Liberation Music on 11 August 2003.

{{Music ratings

|rev1 = AllMusic

|rev1score = {{Rating|2|5}}{{cite web | url = http://www.allmusic.com/album/firemans-curse-mw0000460007 | title = Fireman's Curse – Hunters & Collectors | publisher = AllMusic | access-date = 6 April 2014 }}

}}

Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, felt The Fireman's Curse was "overly ambitious and cluttered, and generally suffered from a lack of fresh ideas". Fellow music journalist, Mark Dodshon of The Sydney Morning Herald, predicted that it was "a likely winner" with their new material showing "there are no radical departures in musical style".{{cite news | url = https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1301&dat=19830817&id=w4ZWAAAAIBAJ&pg=2756,5179443 | title = Fireman's Curse a Likely Winner for the Hunters | last = Dodshon | first = Mark | work = The Sydney Morning Herald | publisher = Fairfax Media | date = 17 August 1983 | access-date = 6 April 2014 }}

{{Track listing

| all_writing = John Archer, Geoff Crosby, Doug Falconer, Martin Lubran, Greg Perano, Robert Miles, Mark Seymour, Michael Waters.{{cite web | url = https://www.ascap.com/home/ace-title-search/index.aspx | title = ACE Title Search | publisher = American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) | access-date = 6 April 2014 }} Note: User may have to enter details e.g. at 'Titles' enter Prologue/Curse; or at 'Performers' enter Hunters & Collectors

| title1 = Prologue

| length1 = 0:32

| title2 = Curse

| length2 = 5:45

| title3 = Fish Roar

| length3 = 3:17

| title4 = Blind Snake Sundae

| length4 = 6:10

| title5 = Mr. Right

| length5 = 3:37

| title6 = Sway

| length6 = 5:54

| title7 = Judas Sheep

| length7 = 4:04

| title8 = Eggheart

| length8 = 5:01

| title9 = Drinking Bomb

| length9 = 4:49

| title10 = Epilogue

| length10 = 0:55

}}

Credited to:

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;Hunters & Collectors members

• John Archer – electric bass
• Geoff Crosby – keyboards
• Doug Falconer – drums
• Martin Lubran – guitar
• Robert Miles – live sound, art director
• Greg Perano – percussion
• Mark Seymour – guitar, lead vocals

{{col-2}}

;Horns of Contempt members

• Jack Howard – trumpet
• Jeremy Smith – French horn
• Michael Waters – trombone

{{col-end}}

;Production details

Producer – Konrad Plank, Hunters & Collectors

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Category:Hunters & Collectors albums

Category:1983 albums

Category:Mushroom Records albums