Midnight Oil

If you had to name "the" most "Australian" rock act of all time (without resorting to cork hats and lagerphones) it's hard to go past Midnight Oil. They emerged from a cultural scene unique to Australia - the Sydney surf scene; they made their name in a musical genre unique to Australia - the pub rock scene; and they tackled lyrical content unique to Australia.

The nucleus of Midnight Oil - drummer Rob Hirst, guitarist/ keyboards player Jim Moginie, and bass player Andrew "Bear" James - started playing together in Sydney in 1971. By 1972 they had become Farm, their repertoire largely consisting of cover versions of the likes of Led Zeppelin, Cream and Creedence Clearwater Revival. In those days gigging was mainly confined to University summer holidays with coastal tours where they built up a modest following with the surfing community. In 1976 Farm advertised for a lead singer and found Peter Garrett, formerly of Canberra group Rock Island Line. They added the influences of Yes and Focus.

The band remained a part-time affair until Garrett could complete his law degree and move to Sydney, when Farm changed its name to Midnight Oil (from the Jimi Hendrix song, 'Burning Of The Midnight Lamp'). That same year the band also hooked up with Gary Morris - a golf pro, used car salesman, martial arts exponent and student of surf culture. Morris became the band's offstage sixth member, their manager.

When the band embarked on their full-time career in 1977, they did it with all the tenacity and fire "The Oils" would come famous for. Within a few short months of their first few city gigs, Midnight Oil had developed an awesome live reputation. Although their fan base was almost exclusively confined to Sydney, by the end of the year they had played 200 gigs - including tours of Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra.

Record companies saw "something" but Peter Garrett's unconventional performing style, thrashing and prancing like a deranged madman, gave them no reference point to fall back on. One record company even suggested that Garrett could tone down his act by dressing up as Spiderman. The Oils where underwhelmed by what the record companies were offering and opted to form their own independent record label, Powderworks. In June 1978 Midnight Oil entered Sydney's legendary Alberts Studio (AC/DC, The Angels) and recorded their first album in 10 days.

'Midnight Oil' was released on November 1, 1978. The album itself gave no indication of the political stance the band would take, but their actions did. A mere 10 days after the release of that first album Midnight Oil played their first-ever anti-uranium mining benefit show at Sydney Town Hall. The second album, 'Head Injuries', was a vast improvement musically, but lyrically they were still a long way from where Midnight Oil would make their mark.

In 1981 the group travelled to London, performing a couple of gigs at the Marquee Club, while the recording with legendary British producer Glyn Johns (The Rolling Stones, The Who) at his farm and studio complex in Sussex. Johns had a production agreement with A&M Records internationally. The songs being recorded ('Armistice Day', 'Burnie', 'If Ned Kelly Was King') spoke about the Australian experience and when A&M asked the band to go back into the studio to record songs the company could release as single, The Oils refused. In Australia the 'Place Without A Postcard' album was received enthusiastically.

After a year of touring Australia, the band returned to London in September 1982 with a set of songs which combined their social conscience and their focus on things Australian. They were also ready to take risks musically, and found an ally in up-and-coming hot-shot producer Nick Launay. They finished this second British adventure with one night supporting The Who. The headliners were so impressed they immediately offered the Oils a support on their forthcoming 56-date U.S. tour. Pragmatically, Midnight Oil couldn't see the sense. They didn't have an American recording deal, and instead, the band returned to Australia to support the new album, '10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1".

They'd turned their back on the world, but achieved superstardom at home. The album was in the Australian Top 40 for the next two years. The next album, 'Red Sails In The Sunset', recorded in Japan, returned to the similar anti-nuclear disarmament themes, and saw many more politically motivated benefit concerts. The Oils were passionately sincere about the issues they sang about.

In 1986 the band launched itself at the heart of Australia with a tour of remote aboriginal communities and the 'The Dead Heart' EP which included contributions from their Koori tour support group Warumpi Band, and another aboriginal outfit, Coloured Stone. For their part Midnight Oil came back from The Outback with the songs for 'Diesel And Dust'. That album took a while to take shape, but the end result is arguably one of the best Australian albums of all time. The single 'Beds Are Burning' gave the band their first American hit. The songs were unmistakably about Australia, but now the whole world was listening and watching. As part of the performances for the follow-up album, 'Blue Sky Mining', Midnight Oil protested the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska with an unannounced performance in front of Exxon's New York headquarters.

Along the way Midnight Oil lost a couple of members to ill health and tour schedules. Although the world beckoned the group were inclined to keep the world at arms length, touring and promoting their records, but preferring to live with their families and friends in the Australia they write about with such passion. They took time off to work on outside interests and marked the twentieth anniversary of the original core coming together with a live album, 'Scream In Blue'.

In 2000, having agreed to contribute a track to an East Timor benefit album Midnight Oil sat in a circle in the studio to start work again. To loosen up, as bands often do at soundchecks, they decided to have a go at an old favourite, and someone suggested Russell Morris’ ‘Real Thing’. They were so pleased with the result, it was released as a single, and ‘The Real Thing’ became the title of the album which included four songs recorded during that recent session, combined with previously unheard selections from the Oil’s 1993 MTV Unplugged session and subsequent 1994 acoustic tour, recorded at The Metro Theatre in Sydney. The three sessions seems to have synergy. Those studio sessions inspired Midnight Oil to record their next album the same basic way. ‘Capricornia’ found Midnight Oil going back to their beginnings, making music purely for the enjoyment of it.

Nine months after the release of 'Capricornia', in December 2002 Midnight Oil announced its demise. Peter Garrett had decided to move on to other things. Fittingly the final Oils session 'No Man's Land' was earmarked for the Gaia project - aimed at educating people about environmental consequences. The track was not written or produced by the group. Rob Hirst went on to join both the Backsliders and the Kelly Gang. Peter Garrett's long-known political ambitions were realized when he announced his candidature in June 2004 to run for Parliament as a member of the Labor Party in the NSW seat of Kingsford Smith.

That was supposed to be it. The individual band members went their separate ways. But they couldn't stop their activist hearts from beating. On 29 January 2005 after a warm up gig the previous evening at the Manly-Warringah Leagues Club the band, including Garrett, reunited to perform at the Wave Aid concert to raise funds for the victims of the 26 December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Once the Labor Party was voted into power in December 2007 and Pete Garrett assumed the role of Minister for Environment, Heritage and Arts his rock and roll days were surely over. Then devastating fires in Victoria in February 2009 inspired the mounting of an all-star concert event to be held simultaneously in Melbourne and Sydney for the Black Saturday Bushfire Appeal. Midnight Oil was asked to join the line-up and agreed. Minister Garrett asked PM Kevin Rudd for permission to gyrate in front of the microphone just one more time.