A-Z Playlist
Saturday 11th from noon
Join Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst as he walks you through the band’s impressive A-Z clip countdown.
Oils on the Water
Sunday 12th from 2pm
At what some say was the zenith of their career, The Oils played a historical gig on Sydney Harbour’s Goat Island in 1985 for the tenth anniversary of Double Jay, the radio station that supported them from day one. Hirst introduces the band’s electric 1985 Goat Island concert - a pivotal moment in Aussie rock history.
Midnight Oil are known for their driving hard rock sound, electric live shows and overt activism. The band are essential forces in Australian rock and roll. Not just talented musicians, they used their arresting music to propel the big issues to the forefront; to speak (to shout, to scream) for those that have no voice, from the Aborigines to the asbestos workers.
The band made their breakthrough in 1982 with 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 – their fourth LP, created with Brit wonder producer, Nick Launay. Power and the Passion burst with furious energy and threw the Oils on the radar, both here and around the world.
Overtly political tracks like US Forces (denouncing the American military’s heavy handed interference) and Short Memory (lamenting government corruption worldwide) illustrated their commitment to making statements about the hard issues through their music.
In 1986 they were commissioned to write a song for the owners of Uluru, the grand, sacred rock of Australia’s red heart. They wrote Beds Are Burning, Wakakurna and The Dead Heart, the latter chosen. Later that year, the band declared the Blackfella Whitefella tour with the Aboriginal Warampi Band, and toured remote indigenous communities.
In 1990, the band embraced another contentious issue with Blue Sky Mining, bringing to light the emphysema affected asbestos workers left out to dry by their employers, the mining companies.
To protest the disastrous oil spill caused by Exxon Valdez, the Oils played a gig at the Exxon headquarters in New York, in the back of a truck. The concert was an effective tool in drawing attention to the grievous negligence of the corporation and a video of the performance was sold, all profits going to Greenpeace.
The Oz rock icons played the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games wearing shirts emblazoned "SORRY," one of their most high profile middle fingers to the man - in this case John Howard and his refusal to apologise to the Stolen Generation. Garrett left in 2002 to pursue his political career, but they did play the Tsunami relief concert, WaveAID.
In a fitting postscript for all their hard work musically, the band were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2006.
