Boom Crash Opera are a pop-rock band formed in early 1985. Initially they were based around the songwriting partnership of Richard Pleasance on guitar, bass guitar and vocals; and Peter Farnan on guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, and vocals. Pleasance left in 1992 to pursue a solo career. The group includes Dale Ryder on lead vocals; Peter 'Maz' Maslen on drums, percussion and vocals; Greg O'Connor on keyboards and guitar; and from 1992 Ian Tilley on bass guitar and vocals.

Their top 20 albums are Boom Crash Opera (September 1987), These Here Are Crazy Times (October 1989), and Fabulous Beast (March 1993). Their top 20 singles are "Great Wall", "Hands up in the Air" (both 1986), "Onion Skin" (1989) and "Gimme" (1994). In the United States "Onion Skin" reached No. 8 on the Billboard component chart, Modern Rock Tracks. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, noted that the group had a "strong visual image and the uncanny ability of its principal songwriters to pen catchy, commercial songs ensured a string of successful releases".