"Poison Pen" was a single by iconic Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 group Hoodoo Gurus

Hoodoo Gurus

Hoodoo Gurus are an Australian rock band, formed in Sydney in 1981, by the mainstay Dave Faulkner and later joined by Richard Grossman , Mark Kingsmill , and Brad Shepherd...

. It was released on Big Time

Big Time Records (label)

Big Time Records was an independent record label based in Sydney, Australia. The label was owned by Lance Reynolds and Fred Bestall, who managed Air Supply in their early days among others. From 1979 up until 1981 Big Time was distributed by Wizard Records, who were purchased by EMI Ltd...

 Records in September, 1986; and was written by Dave Faulkner

Dave Faulkner (musician)

Dave Faulkner is an Australian rock musician who also performed as Dave Flick. Faulkner is a singer-songwriter, guitarist and keyboardist; he has performed with several bands, but is best known as a member of Hoodoo Gurus...

.

It had two B-sides: "In the Wild" / "Teenage Head". Both were live tracks recorded at Selina's, Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 on 17 and 18 February 1986. A 12" extended version of the single included "Death Ship" as a third live track from the same sessions. "Death Ship" was an early song written by Faulkner, Roddy Radalj

Roddy Radalj

Roddy Radalj is a rock musician and singer-songwriter who grew up in Perth, Western Australia...

 (founding member of original Le Hoodoo Gurus) and Alan Sharples.

"The Gurus first manager, Stuart Coupe, wrongly thought that "Poison Pen" was written about him, probably because of his notoriety as a Rock Journalist (often an oxymoron) and he had also be recently replaced... The song was about the fallout from a relationship that had turned bitter (with no 'sweet') attached)." - Dave Faulkner.

"... "In the Wild" was recorded in concert in my home city of Perth

Perth, Western Australia

Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

, Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

 (the band formed in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, contrary to popular myth)... Originally titled "In The Dry", as in Dry season

Dry season

The dry season is a term commonly used when describing the weather in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which oscillates from the northern to the southern tropics over the course of the year...

, I altered the lyric so that people who didn't know about the weather in the tropics would 'get it'. I shouldn't have worried." - Dave Faulkner.

Track listing

7" version

1. "Poison Pen" (Dave Faulkner) — 4:06
2. "In the Wild" (Faulkner) — 3:29
3. "Teenage Head" (Cyril Jordan, Roy Loney) — 3:02

12" version

1. "Poison Pen" (Faulkner) — 4:06
2. "In the Wild" (Faulkner) — 3:29
3. "Teenage Head" (Jordan, Loney) — 3:02
4. "Death Ship" (Faulkner, Radalj, Sharples) — 2:42

Personnel

Credited to:

• Clyde Bramley — bass, backing vocals
• Dave Faulkner
  Dave Faulkner (musician)
  Dave Faulkner is an Australian rock musician who also performed as Dave Flick. Faulkner is a singer-songwriter, guitarist and keyboardist; he has performed with several bands, but is best known as a member of Hoodoo Gurus...
  
   — lead vocals, guitar
• Mark Kingsmill — drums, cymbals
• Brad Shepherd
  Brad Shepherd
  Brad Shepherd is an Australian rock musician. Shepherd is a guitarist, singer-songwriter and harmonica player; he has performed with several bands, especially the Hoodoo Gurus...
  
  — guitar, backing vocals

• Producer — Charles Fisher
• Engineer — John Bee
• Mastering — Don Bartley