Midnight Oil

Midnight Oil
Midnight Oil live
General information
Genre (s)	skirt
founding	1976, 2017
resolution	2002
Website	www.midnightoil.com
Founding members
singing	Peter Garrett
guitar	Martin Rotsey
Keyboard , guitar	Jim Moginie
Drums	Rob Hirst
bass	Andrew James (until 1979)
Current occupation
singing	Peter Garrett
guitar	Martin Rotsey
Keyboard, guitar	Jim Moginie
Drums	Rob Hirst
bass	Dwayne "Bones" Hillman (from 1987)
former members
bass	Peter Gifford (1979–1986)

Midnight Oil , also known as Oils , is an Australian rock band . The band, founded in 1976, celebrated their international breakthrough with their sixth album Diesel and Dust , which was released in 1987 . In 2002 the group broke up after the exit of their singer Peter Garrett , who was aiming for a career in politics. After reuniting, the band announced a tour with over 50 concerts for 2017.

history

1971 to 1981

In 1971 the rock band The Farm was formed in Sydney , which was founded by musicians Jim Moginie (keyboard, guitar), Martin Rotsey (guitar), Rob Hirst (drums) and Andrew James (bass). James was initially replaced by Peter Gifford in 1979. When he retired ten years later for health reasons, the New Zealander Dwayne "Bones" Hillman (born as Dwayne Stevens) joined the band.

The repertoire of The Farm at that time consisted mainly of cover versions of groups such as Led Zeppelin , Cream and Creedence Clearwater Revival . Their appearances were mainly limited to the summer vacation of the universities, when they performed along the coast and built a small fan base among the surfers.

Peter Garrett

In 1976 Peter Garrett joined the band as lead singer. The Farm had advertised for a singer, for which Peter Garrett from Canberra applied. Garrett graduated from law school and then moved to Sydney. Now he was able to devote himself full-time to music together with the band. At that time the group renamed itself to Midnight Oil . The name is based on the song Burning of the Midnight Lamp by Jimi Hendrix . The song title or the variation Burning of the Midnight Oil is a common saying in English and means something like working late into the night ( Midnight Oil means the lamp oil that was used in the past).

The music style of the "Oils", as they are often called by their fans, was probably best associated with progressive rock in this early period . Up until the first album recordings, the music became more aggressive and Midnight Oil turned into a hard rock band at times . Over time, the music became softer and more catchy and thus accessible to a wider audience.

1981 to 1993

In their native Australia, the band achieved their first breakthrough in 1982 with the album 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, which included the hits Power and the Passion (reached number 8 in the Australian Singles Chart) and US Forces . It was also the first Midnight Oil album that was released outside Australia - but received no further international attention. During these years - as the title US Forces shows - the content of the group's music became increasingly political. Topics such as environmental protection and military disarmament regularly found their way onto the group's albums. The less catchy Red Sails In The Sunset followed in 1984 , and the EP Species Deceases in 1985 . Especially the four tracks on this EP, especially the concert favorites Progress and Hercules, pointed with their mixture of catchiness and political message to the direction that Midnight Oil should pursue in the coming years.

In 1986 (in the USA and Europe: 1987) Diesel and Dust was released, by far the most successful Midnight Oil album. It contained the band's best known and most successful single, Beds Are Burning . The piece, like the also very successful predecessor single The Dead Heart, dealt with the fate of the Aborigines .

After the longest break in the band's history, in which Garrett became more politically active and Hirst released the first side project under the pseudonym Ghostwriters , the successor to Diesel and Dust did not appear until 1990. Nevertheless, Blue Sky Mining seemed to pick up where the previous album left off had - which was not least due to the production of Warne Livesey , who had also produced the predecessor. Critics and fans received the album very benevolently, and the sales figures for the album and the first single, Blue Sky Mine, were more than satisfactory, if they lagged behind those of Diesel and Dust .

Released in 1993, again three years after its predecessor, Earth and Sun and Moon, which was also well received by fans and critics. The album had, not least thanks to producer Nick Launay (who also directed for Nick Cave and others worked) a much more organic sound than Blue Sky Mining, which is why it seemed logical that Midnight Oil as part of the tour to Earth and Sun and Moon also was invited by MTV to record an unplugged session at Sony Studios in New York as the first (and still only) Australian band . The political commitment showed with the cover version of the East Timorese battle song Kolele Mai by Francisco Borja da Costa . With this, the Australian band showed their solidarity for the liberation struggle of the country occupied by Indonesia since 1975.

1994 to 1998

The long world tour that Midnight Oil undertook in 1993 and 1994 did not leave the band unaffected. For a long time it was unclear whether there would be another album together. Finally, they sat down and tried out a more acoustic, less elaborate production style together with producer Malcolm Burn (from Daniel Lanois's environment ). The result was the 1996 album Breathe. The pieces on this album were not only produced much more reduced than Earth and Sun and Moon , but also composed much more calmly. The album brought another innovation in Oils history - for the first time, Emmylou Harris , who contributed additional vocals on Home , invited a well-known guest musician to the studio.

While the production and composition of the album had been slowed down and quieter than its predecessors, Breathe also marked a change in other respects. There was almost no promotion for the album in Europe (it still reached number 33 in the German charts), and tour activities outside Australia were also severely scaled back. Midnight Oil played three concerts in Germany, only one in Great Britain. The entire tour outside Australia (USA and Europe) comprised 13 dates, all of which were completed between October 9th and October 29th, 1996. Further appearances in Europe, mainly at festivals, were scheduled for 1997, but these were canceled again at short notice. Until the band split up in December 2002, the three concerts in Cologne, Berlin and Hamburg in October 1996 were the last live performances of Midnight Oil on German soil.

In 1997 Columbia / Sony Music released the band's first best-of collection with 20,000 watts RSL . The title alludes to the band's powerful live performances as well as the Australian Returned Servicemen's League (RSL) clubs, where Midnight Oil began their careers and where they performed repeatedly until the band left. At the same time, a collection of almost all of the band's video clips appeared under the same name on both DVD and VHS ( Truganini is a noticeable omission), supplemented by interviews and live video recordings of numerous pieces. In addition to the greatest Midnight Oil successes, the CD also contained two new tracks, What goes on and White Skin Black Heart. The latter in particular was a direct attack on right-wing conservative Australian politician Pauline Hanson . Both titles were found in slightly revised versions on the studio album Redneck Wonderland the following year . While the best-of album and video sold very well in Australia, overseas sales, especially in Europe, remained largely below expectations. On the one hand, this was due to the fact that Sony Music showed little commitment in marketing, and on the other hand, because the band itself was increasingly withdrawing to its home market. Appearances scheduled for 1997 in Europe were canceled at short notice, while Australia toured extensively after the album Breathe, as in 1996/97 .

The following year, Redneck Wonderland, the band's tenth studio album, was released. To a large extent, the album was an angry reckoning with the political situation in Australia at the time, and a reaction to the success of Pauline Hanson. Due to the influence of the Regurgitator producer Magoo, the album sounds very aggressive and in terms of sound quality. When asked about the powerful and aggressive tone of the album, especially compared to Earth and Sun and Moon and Breathe , drummer Rob Hirst said: "Midnight Oil is at its best when we're pissed off." (Like: "Midnight Oil are best when we're mad.") The album was very successful in Australia and gave the band one of their highest chart positions in almost ten years. In Europe and the USA, however, sales of Redneck Wonderland were disappointing , and even the single Cemetery in my Mind , which was only sent to radio stations (the most "classic" Midnight Oil-sounding piece on the album) only found its way into the night programs of some German stations . As a year before, the band preferred to tour Australia extensively instead of playing concerts overseas. On the one hand, this attitude did little to help sales in Europe and the USA, on the other hand, the disappointing sales outside of their home country - despite the fan base that is still loyal overseas - did little to convince the band to play gigs abroad.

1999 to 2001

After the extensive Australian tour to Redneck Wonderland, the band took a longer break, a time that singer Peter Garrett used to serve a second time as President of the Australian National Conservation Foundation from 1998 (until 2004).

In 2000, Midnight Oil occurred during the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games in Sydney and played a half playback version of Beds Are Burning , which was renamed for the ceremony in "The Time Has Come". Especially in Australia, the performance caused a sensation, as Midnight Oil appeared in black clothes with the word Sorry printed on them in large, striking white letters . The present Australian Prime Minister John Howard was reminded that it was the duty of the government to apologize for the injustice that had occurred to the Aborigines , something Howard always refused to do.

That same year, The Real Thing was released, a collection of ten recordings from the 1993 Earth and Sun and Moon acoustic tour , including some tracks recorded for MTV Unplugged . The album also contained four new tracks, including the eponymous The Real Thing, a cover version of an Australian hit from the 1960s. This album was also supported by a tour in Australia, while there was no tour outside of Australia and sales were limited. In retrospect, drummer Rob Hirst was also disappointed with the somewhat crude composition of the album. On the occasion of the release of the sampler Flat Chat , which was only released in Australia , he spoke of “unsatisfying The Real Thing [album], which was anything but” (for example: “the unsatisfying The Real Thing [album], which is anything but 'the real thing') was ").

Surprisingly, it was announced in early 2001 that they would tour the USA from May 28 to June 27, 2001 together with the two Australian bands INXS and Men At Work . This tour was advertised as The Great Australian Bite Tour due to the origins of the bands . Barely a month before the tour was due to start, on April 17th, 2001, Midnight Oil announced on the band's website that they would withdraw from the tour due to unforeseen circumstances Tour was de facto canceled. Although neither INXS nor Midnight Oil commented further, there were apparent differences between the management of INXS and the manager of Midnight Oil, Gary Morris, who is known as a notoriously tough negotiating partner, the reason for the cancellation of the tour. (Morris was the manager of the band throughout his career and had already in the early 1980s banned journalists who wrote unfavorably about the band from attending Midnight Oil concerts.)

Men-at-Work frontman Colin Hay said after the cancellation: “I'm actually surprised it got this far, to be honest […] It didn't smell right from the start.” ("To be honest, I am surprised that we got this far at all [...] Somehow it smelled something fishy from the start.")

Along with the tour cancellation, Midnight Oil announced on their website that they were planning to go on a comprehensive tour - including performances in the US, Europe and South America - in October and November instead "with other guests" (according to the explanation).

Instead, only the first North American tour followed since the few appearances in 1996; between October 8 and November 17, 2001, the band played a total of 29 gigs in the United States. Dates in Europe were originally in preparation (tickets were already on sale for a concert on November 28th in Oberhausen), but shortly before the official announcement of the tour, the band's management withdrew the plans one more time; Catch-up appointments were initially promised for spring 2002, but were never booked. Dates were also never announced for the announced South American tour.

This confusion about announced tours showed on the one hand that the management found it increasingly difficult to book appointments at the desired conditions, but on the other hand also that there were different trends within the band. Drummer Rob Hirst in particular had said in an interview a few years earlier that he thought it was “long overdue” for Midnight Oil to “get back on the plane” and perform outside of Australia, while Peter Garrett was the most hesitant, longer To take tours.

2002 and dissolution

With The Real Thing , the band's contract with Columbia Records (part of Sony Music ) had expired. For Capricornia , which was completed in 2001 , manager Gary Morris had to negotiate new record deals, which is why the release was delayed until 2002. In Australia, where the band was still very successful, Morris concluded a follow-up contract with Columbia / Sony Music Australia relatively quickly, while in the USA the newly founded label Liquid 8 was awarded the contract. In the USA and Australia, Capricornia was released at the end of February 2002. In terms of content and title, the album was based on the 1954 book Capricornia by the author Xavier Herbert , a fictional story that takes place in the first years of European settlement in Australia. Warne Livesey, who had already produced Diesel and Dust , was once again the producer . The sound of the album as well as its overall atmosphere were again more melodic than on the aggressive Redneck Wonderland and the sound of the album was often associated with the band's most successful period, between 1986 and 1993. Despite this return to the group's most successful creative period, sales also fell short of expectations in their home country - Capricornia only reached number 8 on the Australian charts, which was the lowest ranking for a Midnight Oil album since Place without a Postcard in 1981 .

Shortly after the album was released in Australia and the USA, they embarked on another North American tour on March 18, 2002, barely four months after the end of the last USA tour. With a scheduled interruption about halfway through the tour, Midnight Oil played a total of 40 concerts in North America until July 17, 2002. On the way back from the first part of the US tour, Midnight Oil played a concert in Paris on May 31st and one at the Fierce Festival in Great Britain on June 2nd . As it turned out later, these were the last concerts of the band on European soil.

At that time the new album had still not been released in Europe and Gary Morris stated in an email in April 2002 that Sony Music Europe was currently evaluating its offer and that if the European radio stations responded positively to the new album, a European tour was planned for November 2002. On September 19, 2002, Midnight Oil began their Australian tour for their new album, during which they played 39 concerts until November 21. At this point in time, including some warm-up concerts at the beginning of the year, over 80 concerts had already been played or firmly booked, more than had been played in a year since 1993.

In October 2002, before the album was released in Europe, a total of around 15 tour dates for Germany, Great Britain and France were announced on the band's website. The dates were in early to mid-December 2002. Sony Music Europe announced around the same time that Capricornia would be released on November 18, 2002 in Europe. The European edition of the CD contained two additional tracks. It was A Pub with No Beer (a cover version, previously released as B-side in Australia), and Kiss that Girl, a previously unreleased track that is still only available on the European version of Capricornia . The album was not overly successful in Europe, but sold better than its predecessors Redneck Wonderland and The Real Thing. The announced tour should give Midnight Oil a stronger profile in the European market again. Only a few days after the release date of the CD and the European tour dates were announced, the concert dates were suddenly “due to unforeseen circumstances”, the same reason as the US tour with INXS was canceled a year and a half earlier . Inquiries to management regarding the sudden cancellation were rejected on the grounds that there were legitimate reasons for this.

The final declaration was published on December 2, 2002, a good two weeks after the end of the Australian tour, on the band's website. Singer Peter Garrett had decided to leave the band to pursue other interests that had been neglected in recent years. One separates "in friendship and respect" from one another, the statement continues. After 25 years this meant the end of the band Midnight Oil.

2003 to 2016

Even after the official end of the band Midnight Oil , there were still releases under their name; all members of Midnight Oil were also active in various musical projects of their own in the following period (see chapter on side projects ). The only exception is singer Peter Garrett, who categorically ruled out returning to the music business solo or with another band.

The other band members had announced in the press release on the dissolution of the band that they would probably continue to work together under a different name in the future, but this has not been fully realized since then and is becoming increasingly unlikely due to the planned move of bass guitarist Bones Hillman to the USA in early 2007.

In January 2003 a DVD-Audio version of the last studio album Capricornia was released in the USA (later also in Europe) . A few months later, drummer Rob Hirst published his first book in early 2003, Willie's Bar and Grill, in which he recounted his experiences on the Midnight Oil Tour in the USA shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

In June 2004 the Australian Labor Party announced that Garrett would stand for election as MP for the Kingsford-Smith constituency. On October 7, 2004, he achieved a relatively easy victory in this traditionally laboratory-facing district and has been a member of the Australian Parliament since then. After the Labor Party won the general election in Australia in 2007 , he was appointed Minister for the Environment, Cultural Heritage and the Arts.

With the help of the band themselves, the biography Beds Are Burning: Midnight Oil - The Journey by Mark Dodshon was published by Penguin Books in Australia . The band also released the double live DVD Best of Both Worlds, which included two full Midnight Oil concerts from 1982 and 1985. This DVD - also only available in Australia - is the first release of a full Midnight Oil concert live recording (the 1992 live album Scream in Blue contained recordings from various concerts from different years).

As a result of the tsunami in Southeast Asia at the end of 2004, an Australian benefit concert entitled WaveAid was organized for January 29, 2005 . Announced were performances by Nick Cave and Silverchair . Early on there were rumors - which were officially confirmed relatively quickly - that the politically and socially committed Midnight Oil would get together again for the occasion. Before WaveAid itself, the band played a secret warm-up concert at the Manly-Warringah RSL Club in Sydney.

Since WaveAid there have been no more joint appearances. The band was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame on October 29, 2006 . For the occasion, Silverchair played a cover version of the 1981 Midnight Oil track Don't wanna be the one. After a brief address by drummer Rob Hirst, the band accepted the award personally, but did not play together again. At the same time as the Hall of Fame admission, the compilation Flat Chat was released in Australia on October 28, 2006 , which brings together some of the band's favorite faster and harder pieces.

There were rumors or plans to reunite the group for an appearance at the Australian part of the Live Earth concert. However, these turned out to be incorrect. However, Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst performed with his group Ghostwriters , which also includes Oils guitarist Martin Rotsey. However, Peter Garrett was also present and moderated the last act of the evening, Crowded House . During the song Weather With You he came on stage with other artists.

On February 24, 2009, Peter Garrett announced that the group would perform on March 14 at a benefit concert at Melbourne's Cricket Stadium.

On March 14, 2009, at around 9:50 am local time, Midnight Oil headlined the Sound Relief benefit concert for the victims of the devastating bushfires in Victoria 2009 on the stage of the Melbourne Cricket Ground and played a set of approximately 40 minutes.

On May 4, 2016, the band announced on their homepage that concerts overseas and Australia are planned for 2017 and an album is under discussion. In addition, the first solo album by Peter Garrett was released on July 15, in which Martin Rotsey is also involved.

Reactivation in 2017 and the following years

On February 16, 2017 (February 17th in Australia) the band gave a press conference on a boat in Sydney Harbor, which was broadcast live on Facebook . Concerts in America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, as well as an extensive tour in Australia have been announced for the summer and autumn months with the original cast. The pre-sales started hours later.

The band will tour Europe again in 2019.

Side projects

During their more than 26-year band history - and also after the group split up in 2002 - the members devoted themselves to various side projects.

Peter Garrett

Main article: Peter Garrett

Garrett was always involved in political issues. He was one of the founders of the Nuclear Disarmament Party and ran unsuccessfully for the Australian Senate in 1984 . He was also President of the Australian Conservation Foundation from 1989 to 1993 and again from 1998 to 2004 . In 2004 and 2007 he won a seat in the Australian Parliament as a candidate for the Australian Labor Party for the constituency of Kingsford-Smith . On November 29, 2007, he was appointed Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts under Prime Minister Kevin Rudd .

Rob Hirst

Rob Hirst was already the most productive member outside of the main group during his time with Midnight Oil, which got stronger after the band split up.

Between 1991 and 2007, Hirst recorded four albums with Rick Grossman (former bassist of the Hoodoo Gurus ) under the band name Ghostwriters :

• Ghostwriters (1991),
• Second Skin (1996),
• Fibromoon (1999),
• Political Animal (2007).

In 2003, Hirst published his first book, Willie's Bar & Grill, in which he recounts the tour of North America that Midnight Oil undertook shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

In addition, Hirst has been the drummer for the Australian blues group The Backsliders since 2002 . He can be heard on the following albums:

• Hanoi (2002),
• Live (2005),
• Left Field Holler (2007),
• Throwbacks (2009),
• Starvation Box (2011),
• Dark Side (2014),
• Heathen Songbook (2016).

In 2005 he released the album In the Stealth of Summer together with the Australian Olympian and songwriter Paul Greene under the name Hirst & Greene, which also contains a reworking of the title World is almost at Peace from the first Ghostwriters album. At the same time the live DVD Hirst & Greene Live at the Basement was released.

In 2004 Hirst founded another project called The Angry Tradesmen. This rock band, which he founded together with Dom Turner (who also plays with the backsliders), is the musically toughest Midnight Oil follow-up project to date. In September 2006, the former Midnight Oil guitarist Martin Rotsey also joined the project. In 2008 the album Beat the House was released.

With U. a. He plays Martin Rotsey and Jim Moginie in the instrumental surf rock band The Break, which have released two albums. Church of the open Sky (2010) and Space Farm (2013).

In 2014 he released the solo album The Sun becomes the Sea.

In 2014 the album Crashing the same Car twice followed with Sean Sennett. Another EP is announced for September 2019.

In 2018 the 5 song EP Powerful Owls was released, a project of the same name, which he runs with Oils producer Lez Karski.

Jim Moginie

In 1996 Jim Moginie and producer Nick Launay released an EP of the same name with four tracks under the name Fuzz Face (after a guitar effects device). In addition, Moginie was often active as a studio musician; Among other things, he could be heard in 1999 as a keyboardist on the Silverchair album Neon Ballroom . After the end of Midnight Oil, Moginie founded his own label, Reverberama, on which his first solo CD was released in July 2006, entitled Alas Folkloric . The limited first edition comes with a press of the out of print Fuzz-Face EP. None of Mogini's solo side projects have appeared outside of Australia to date.

Bones Hillman

Born in New Zealand, Hillman was a member of various groups before joining Midnight Oil, most of which had little success. Only The Swingers landed a minor hit in New Zealand in 1981. In 1996 he recorded an album with Martin Rotsey under the project name The Hunting Party . After Midnight Oil ended, he moved back to Auckland , New Zealand, and worked mainly as a live and studio musician for other artists, including brothers Neil and Tim Finn, formerly heads of Crowded House , and on the album in 2005 My Hand, My Heart by actor Russell Crowe and his band The Ordinary Fear of God, with whom he also toured in 2006. Hillman moved with his wife to Nashville , USA, in January 2007 to work in the comparatively more active music scene. Hillman is currently undertaking his first musical activities there with the former Counting Crows drummer Steve Bowman .

Martin Rotsey

Martin Rotsey, at the Souths Leagues Club in Brisbane, 2007

Martin Rotsey only recorded an album in 1996 with bassist Bones Hillman under the project name The Hunting Party . In addition, he appeared as a guest guitarist at several concerts by Rob Hirst's band Ghostwriters . Since September 2006 Rotsey has been a regular ghostwriters guitarist as well as a member of Hirst's new project The Angry Tradesmen.

Peter Gifford

The second Midnight Oil bassist, who left Midnight Oil in 1987 for health reasons and was replaced by Bones Hillman, has completely retired from the music business. For several years he has been the head of Wicked Weasel , a manufacturer of bikinis that are sold through the company's website and a shop in Byron Bay .

Discography

→ Main article : Midnight Oil / Discography

Studio albums

• 1978: Midnight Oil
• 1979: Head Injuries
• 1981: Place Without a Postcard
• 1982: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
• 1984: Red Sails in the Sunset
• 1987: Diesel and Dust
• 1990: Blue Sky Mining
• 1993: Earth and Sun and Moon
• 1996: Breathe
• 1998: Redneck Wonderland
• 2002: Capricornia

Web links

• Official website Midnight Oil (English)
• midnight-oil.info - Current information about the band
• The Dead Heart. Fansite
• Midnight Oil at Musik-Sammler.de
• Midnight Oil at laut.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Monika Schlicher, Maria Tschanz: Die Kraft der Musik: Resistance and Poetry , in the magazine Südostasien, December 8, 2019 , accessed on December 11, 2019.
2. ↑ Rob Hirst - Flat Chat Liner Notes ( Memento of the original from May 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ Midnight Oil Back Out Of Tour With INXS, Men At Work . VH1
4. ^ Peter Garrett leaves Midnight Oil . ( Memento of the original from October 20, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. midnightoil.com 
5. ↑ "Midnight Oil" - Rockstar becomes Environment Minister . n-tv
6. ^ ARIA Hall of Fame. Australian Recording Industry Association , accessed August 6, 2017 . 
7. ^ Sydney to kick off Earth concerts . Sydney Morning Herald
8. ^ Oils bring down house at Sound Relief . ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 9News 
9. ^ Garrett rocks out with Oils at Sound Relief . ABCNews
10. ↑ Midnight Oil announce dates for 2017 world tour . The Sunday Morning Herald