(NOTE: If you get to the end of my Midnight Oil history lesson, you will be rewarded with a photo of a hot bikini model — completely Oils-related, I promise. And if you’re looking for some killer insights into the making of Diesel and Dust, read my interview with Jim Moginie here.)
Where are they now, you ask? Are you living under a rock? In Yuendemu? I jest. As we all know by now, Midnight Oil ended a 14-year hiatus in 2016, toured the world twice, recorded two albums, and — sadly — lost a bass player. Yes, much has happened since I first set out to answer this question in 2013.
I present a brief summary, fresh as at September 2024, complete with some photos and videos I took during the European leg of their 2022 farewell tour, as well as some archival content about the members’ solo outings during the hiatus.
JUNE 2024 — The big news is that the Oils have gone Hollywood. Well, not quite. They’ve commemorated themselves in a feature documentary called The Hardest Line that had its world premiere at the Sydney Film Festival in June. Tickets cost A$55 ($37) each, with an additional A$105 if you wanted to attend the after-party. That’s an awful lot of light beers and vegan sausage rolls. Peter showed up with two lovely ladies, daughter Grace and wife Doris. I also spotted Martin and Jim, who either skipped the red carpet or walked in unnoticed.
Reviews so far have been solid, with the Sydney Morning Herald summing up the band’s existence with a rhetorical question – “Who needs sex and drugs?” I have a question: Wouldn’t it be great if we later learned the Oils were all horny little cokeheads, a bit like those squeaky-clean gospel groups of yore who were actually raging gay nymphos? Given its likely hagiographical nature, I’ll probably stick to my Oils on the Water/Saturday Night at the Capitol twofer for now, thanks.
MARCH 2024 — Here’s a good one. Jim Moginie released his memoir, The Silver River. Subtitled “a memoir of a family — lost, made and found,” it details both his rock ‘n’ roll life and his quest to locate his birth family, having found out at the age of 11 that he was adopted. Asked during an interview with ABC News Breakfast’s Michael Rowland whether the Oils would still get together for songwriting or one-off concerts, he replied, “Yeah. Absolutely, yeah. I think we’re all still alive. Losing Bones Hillman was a big part of why we stopped . . . A band is just a fire needing a match, really. For the right thing and right cause, of course we’re going to be there, standing up and doing it.”
OCT. 4, 2022 — That’s a wrap, lads. The Oils have officially stopped burning. They played the last gig of their farewell tour at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion on Monday (3) night, delivering a 3.5-hour show that I’m sure we’ll be able to watch on the couch at some point. Thanks, fellas. You did all right. Here’s a link to their thank you note + pix from that show.
SEPT. 16, 2022 — Six shows to go, and Midnight Oil will be no more. The band’s farewell tour will end at the Hordern Pavilion in their Sydney hometown on Oct. 3. The trek began with a few warm-up shows in Tasmania in January, eventually moved to North America in early June, Europe in late June, and returned to Oz (and New Zealand) in August.
I was fortunate to see three of the shows, in Berlin, Leipzig and Paris. The German shows were in relaxed outdoor settings surrounded by trees and historic buildings.
As a bonus, I bumped into Jim Moginie and his wife while they were strolling through Leipzig. Surely the highlight of their visit.
The show at the Berlin Zitadelle, about 2 km walk from the former site of Spandau Prison, was mildly historic as it included a guest Theremin player on “Short Memory.”
Paris was crazy intense. Hundreds of fans had been lining up in the sun outside the Olympia all day, and they stomped, cheered and sang ferociously during the show. I haven’t seen so much devotion to the cause since French spies blew up the Rainbow Warrior.
FEB. 25, 2022 — The Oils are coming! Our mates just announced a handful of North American and European theater dates for June and July. Maybe they will cross paths with Neeek Cave in Europe? One imagines the lads will add shows to make this financially worthwhile. Nonetheless, this could be a tough ticket. Do NOT mess around. (Can someone save me a Europe ticket? Never mind, I got my Leipzig one easily.)
FEB. 18, 2022 — Ahh, Resist! A canny call to arms that everyone along the political spectrum can relate to. As Ukrainians, with the full force of Kamala Harris, prepared to resist the Russians, Midnight Oil on Friday released an album about resisting the usual villains — governments, corporations, polluters, white Australians, human beings in general. Even the “Chinese empire” gets a mention, in the song Undercover, one of just four on which Peter Garrett showcases his awkward poetry skills as a lyricist. His German wife will make him sleep on the couch for omitting the last syllable of Schadenfreude. The most incendiary lyrics come from the album’s driving force Jim Moginie (We Resist) and multifaceted drummer Rob Hirst (Lost at Sea). It’s a melodic album with Moginie’s keyboards high in the mix, including an organ in the long and winding Barka Darling River. Overall, same ol’, same ol’. Compulsory thumbs up from the Guardian and St. Greta.
DECEMBER 2021 — If you’ve never seen Midnight Oil live, time is running out. The band has just announced a “final concert tour” beginning on Feb. 23, 2022, in Newcastle, NSW. So far there are a leisurely 17 dates scheduled for Australia and New Zealand through May 13 (in Auckland) in addition to a pair of previously announced festival gigs. See the itinerary here.
Worryingly, the band says it is considering just “a handful of international concerts,” subject to the Covid situation. Right now it’s rather difficult for foreigners to enter Australia and New Zealand, so one would hope the Oils raise their ambitions. Never mind your carbon footprint, “the time has come to say fair’s fair,” to quote from “Beds are Burning.”
The “Resist” tour will promote a new album of the same name, due out on Feb. 18. The 12-song collection, which “engages with the issues of today and tomorrow,” such as climate change (shocking!), was recorded with bassist Bones Hillman who died in November 2020. As for the finality bit, here’s the official word:
“The band also announced that this will be their final concert tour while making it clear that this does not mean the end of the Oils. Each of the members will continue their own projects over the years ahead. They remain very open to recording new music together in future and supporting causes in which they believe but this will be their last tour.”
NOV. 6, 2021 — Midnight Oil marked the first anniversary of the death of bassist Bones Hillman by releasing a free tribute single and video. You can watch and download “One Voice” here. The song is credited the Hillmans, featuring the Oils + their longtime producer Warne Livesey and drummer/songwriter Rob Hirst’s daughter Jay O’Shea. Click here for the amazing backstory about Rob and Jay. “One Voice” also features a snippet of the song “Counting the Beat” from Hillman’s previous incarnation in the New Zealand band the Swingers.
DEC. 7, 2020 — Midnight Oil have just announced a 5-date Australia “Makarrata Live” tour, beginning in February, with hopes for a bigger trek through Australia and New Zealand later in 2021! Details here. And since I mention Bones Hillman below, today’s press release refers to their fallen comrade:
Midnight Oil originally planned to play some MAKARRATA LIVE concerts earlier this year including a headlining slot at Splendour In The Grass. Those plans were unfortunately delayed by Covid19 and were then thrown into doubt by the harrowing terminal illness of long-time bass player, Bones Hillman. However, Bones urged his bandmates to proceed with these live shows to help draw focus to the new recordings the group had all made together late last year. In fact, just a few hours before his tragic passing he received confirmation that The Makarrata Project had debuted at the top of the ARIA [Australian] Album Charts. It was Midnight Oil’s first new music #1 since Hillman’s very first record with the band, Blue Sky Mining, way back in 1990. “Bonesy leaves giant shoes to fill, but we’ll need to find a new bass player for this tour,” said drummer Rob Hirst.
DEC. 6, 2020 — Sadly, bassist Bones Hillman succumbed to cancer in Milwaukee a month ago. He was 62. Bones joined the Oils shortly after the band had released Diesel and Dust in mid-1987. He made his name as a member of the New Zealand group the Swingers, which enjoyed a big hit with “Counting the Beat.” Here’s the cool video. Click only if you can count to nine.
The Oils’ latest release, The Makarrata Project, released Oct. 30, 2020, marks Bones’ swan song. He worked on the band’s first album in almost 20 years reportedly without informing his colleagues that he was ill.
As for Makarrata, it’s a seven-track “mini album” spotlighting various Aboriginal artists. It’s hard to believe the Oils haven’t won the Nobel Peace Prize yet. Until then, they will have to make do with the human rights gold medal from the Sydney Peace Foundation. It’s extremely irksome that the Oils’ announcement of the award, on Oct. 23, included a Bones-free photo of the band. Even if he wouldn’t have been able to attend the ceremony, at least show some respect for your dying cobber by using a five-man photo. This is a band that has made a career out of hectoring others for airbrushing history.
Well, moving right along. I’ve spent decades being irked by the Oils, but I still love ’em.
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NOV. 7, 2017 — Midnight Oil are wrapping up a world reunion tour, although I am sure they will be back for more if you missed them. I was lucky to see them at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles in August, when they played about half the songs from 10, 9, 8 …, and Peter graciously tossed his sweaty shirt to a grateful Trump supporter. What an amazing night. Crikey.
I had grand plans to follow Midnight Oil around North America, but the band’s devotion to the welfare of Aborigines and the environment did not extend to its fans. Scalpers swooped in and grabbed most of the tickets as they soon as they went on sale at many venues. It’s easy when you can buy up to seven tickets per order. Does anyone legitimately need to buy seven tickets? Someone posted this message on Facebook as the password-protected L.A. presale for the Wiltern Theatre was underway on Feb. 23:
Just looked at StubHub [an official scalping site, owned at the time by eBay] as of 1:30pm PST for the Los Angeles show at The Wiltern…There are 232 floor tickets, 91 loge tickets, and 96 Mezzanine tickets available from $76-$200 per ticket. That is 419 tickets just from the allocated presale tickets. This scalping is getting so ridiculous. There really needs to be a fix of the whole system.
After the public on-sale for the Wiltern the following day (Feb. 24), someone wrote on the Steve Hoffman music forum:
I just checked StubHub for the LA show. The Wiltern holds 1,850 and StubHub has over 500 of them. That’s just ridiculous.
Someone added: I had another browser tab opened on StubHub and magically at 10:13 when Ticketmaster was sold out, a plethora of tickets suddenly appeared there.
Well, this is the inevitable result when you get into bed with crooks like Live Nation and Ticketmaster, so shame on Midnight Oil for being such hypocrites. They know the system by now, and chose to ignore the practical reality faced by fans.
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MID-2016 — Midnight Oil are reuniting, and the fellas have plenty of individual projects in the works. Among them, Peter Garrett will tour Australia in July/August 2016 to promote a new solo album. His band will include Oils bandmate Martin Rotsey. Sample the album here.
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Here is the Where Are They Now? summary that was current in January 2016, and is still pretty useful in 2024
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Peter Garrett (singer/songwriter) (1975- ) — If he wasn’t quite the Sonny Bono of Australian lawmakers, Peter Garrett endured a rather frustrating stint in Canberra, where his loquacious enthusiasm was often undermined by the country’s brutal political tradition. (American politicians wouldn’t last five minutes Down Under.) If I had been his opponent, my attack line would have been: “Peter Garrett: Too Smart to be a Politician.” Garrett quietly left the national political stage in September 2013, six weeks after resigning as a marginalized cabinet minister in a hopelessly fractured center-left government. Here is his farewell speech:
In 2015 Garrett wrote a memoir, Big Blue Sky, which already seems to be out of print except as an audiobook
Here is an article about the book launch, with a rather silly angle. Do you seriously think he has “regrets” about some of the content? And of course, as part of his promo, he is vaguely holding out the possibility of an Oils reunion.
Garrett does some official promo for the book here via Youtube, talking about LAPD brutality and working in a women’s shoe store (like Al Bundy?):
And, in case you missed it, he and his media-shy, German-born wife Doris sold one of their homes in May 2015 for A$1.3 million. I assume the house is “staged” for promotional purposes and that the décor pictured is not the Garretts’.
I came across fascinating references to Garrett’s born-again Christianity and Midnight Oil’s hypocritical tyranny in articles written by Australian journalist David Leser. Click here for the 1990 article and here for the 2009 one. They really are the best pieces of writing about Midnight Oil. The former article is also published in Leser’s celebrity memoir, The Whites of Their Eyes
Fun fact: Peter is an Aries (passionate, independent, courageous) and the oldest Oil. He will turn 70 in 2023, a milestone denied to both his parents.
Martin Rotsey (guitarist/songwriter) (1976- ) — Joined forces with fellow Oils alumni Rob Hirst and Jim Moginie (and former Violent Femmes bassist Brian Ritchie) to form the surf-rock band The Break. They released their second album, Space Farm
Jim Moginie (guitarist/songwriter) (1972- ) — See my interview, where Jim and I discussed Diesel and Dust in great detail. Also his Reverbarama web site for his prolific music-making.
Rob Hirst (drummer/songwriter) (1972- ) — See his website for latest updates. Wrote a Herculean memoir, Willie’s Bar and Grill
Bones Hillman (bassist) (1987-2020) — The New Zealander lives in Nashville, a touring and session musician. He was selling bass lessons via his web site, but apparently no more. I had been thinking of signing up because my initial attempts to learn bass were not encouraging.
Former Members:
Andrew “Bear” James (bassist) (1972-1979) — Not sure, but he did show up when Midnight Oil were inducted into the Australian music industry hall of fame in 2006.
Peter Gifford (bassist) (1980-1987) — Famed for his aggressive bass playing, useful backing vocals and superior looks, “Giffo” went out on a high note, following the release of Diesel and Dust. This is a screengrab of him in the video for “Beds are Burning.” I often wondered if Pete’s driving was too much for him, but Garrett’s book claims Gifford was “wrestling with his [unspecified] demons and veering to the political right.”
After quitting Midnight Oil, Gifford became a micro-bikini tycoon. His Wicked Weasel company sells tiny pieces of fabric for a huge markup, and diversified into (very) soft porn via the Microminimus Community. I’m thinking of buying a subscription for Peter Garrett (Doris won’t mind). Gifford reportedly sold Wicked Weasel in 2016. As an entrepreneur burdened by red tape, he was a fierce critic (link works now) of center-left Prime Minister Julia Gillard — in whose government Garrett served as a cabinet minister.
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NOTE: If you liked all this, try my fair dinkum rock bio Strange Days: The Adventures of a Grumpy Rock ‘n’ Roll Journalist in Los Angeles, available here
Copyright © 2013-2022 by Dean Goodman.