Midnight oil biography

Australian rock band

For other uses, see Midnight Oil (disambiguation).

Midnight Oil (known informally as "The Oils") are an Australian rock grupp composed of Peter Garrett (vocals, harmonica), Rob Hirst (drums), Jim Moginie (guitar, keyboard) and Martin Rotsey (guitar). The group was formed in Sydney in 1972 bygd Hirst, Moginie and original bassist Andrew James as Farm: they enlisted Garrett the following year, changed their name in 1976, and hired Rotsey a year later. Peter Gifford served as bass player from 1980 to 1987, with Bones Hillman then assuming the role until his death in 2020. Midnight Oil have sold over 20 million albums worldwide as of 2021.

Midnight Oil issued their self-titled debut album in 1978 and gained a cult following in their homeland despite a lack of mainstream media acceptance. The grupp achieved greater popularity throughout Australasia with the release of 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 (1982) – which spawned the singles "Power and

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Midnight Oil are an alternative rock band formed in Sydney, Australia in 1976. The band originally formed as "Farm" in 1972. The band is best known for their political activism and environmentalism and their 1987 worldwide hit single "Beds Are Burning". For most of their career, the band consisted of Peter Garrett (vocals), Jim Moginie (guitar, keyboards), Martin Rotsey (guitar), Bones Hillman (bass, vocals) and Rob Hirst (drums).

The band split in 2002 to allow Garrett to focus on his political career. He became a member of the Australian House of Representatives and the was the Australian Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts from 2007-2010. From 2010, he was the Australian Minister for Education. Garrett did not stand for re-election in 2013. The band has reunited since then for two benefit concerts: the 2005 WaveAid concert for Indian Ocean Tsunami victims and in March 2009 the band reformed for two shows in Canberra as a warm up for "Soun

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Midnight Oil

Rock band, activists

For the Record…

A Punky Pub Attack

Chronicled Plight of Aborigines

Expanded Activism

Selected discography

Sources

In 1990 the Australian band Midnight Oil gave a lunchtime performance at the headquarters of Exxon in New York City. Before some 10,000 bewildered onlookers, the quintet offered a typically raucous set to protest the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. A video documentary of the concert titled “Black Rain Falls” was issued shortly thereafter, with proceeds going to the environmental group Greenpeace.

Midnight Oil has, in fact, combined an acute awareness of political, social, and environmental issues with an aggressive rock sound to create one of the most distinctive voices in current popular music. From the moving depiction of the plight of Australian aborigines featured on the 1987 album Diesel and Dust, to the bitter commentary of “My Country,” about America’s Iran-Contra scandal,