Midnight Oil

Australia's Midnight Oil infused pop music with fresh political and social urgency, as tracks such as the fiery “Beds Are Burning” and “Blue Sky Mine” spotlighted the struggles of the country's indigenous communities and its working-class citizens while the band backed its words with tangible action. Benefit concerts staged for Greenpeace and Save the Whales formed part of that commitment, and years later frontman Peter Garrett entered the Australian House of Representatives as a Labor member. The band's early recordings favored rugged hard-rock textures laced with punk energy, a style captured on the 1979 album Head Injuries, before the musicians embraced bolder melodic shapes and angular structures that remained intelligent without veering into pretension, achievements best heard on 1983's 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and 1984's Red Sails in the Sunset. A more approachable stance and fluid arrangements arrived with the 1987 international success Diesel and Dust, a direction the group sustained across the less confrontational Blue Sky Mining in 1990 and Earth and Sun and Moon in 1993. Capricornia, released in 2002, restored some sonic heft before the ensemble paused its activities, resuming live performances during the 2010s. When studio work resumed later that decade, the same purposeful outlook resurfaced: The Makarrata Project, issued in 2018, served as a concept album addressing Australia's treatment of Indigenous peoples, while Resist, arriving in 2022, emphasized urgent environmental protection.

The ensemble originated in Sydney in 1971 under the name Farm, its founding lineup consisting of guitarists Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey, drummer Rob Hirst, and bassist Andrew “Bear” James. Law student Peter Garrett, already recognized for his seven-foot stature and shaved head, took over vocal duties in 1975, prompting the group to adopt the Midnight Oil moniker the next year. After a period of occasional performances, the musicians approached local record labels and, following repeated refusals, established their own imprint, Powderworks, to release the self-titled debut in 1978, a concise and fervent set of guitar-driven songs that defined the band's core sound.

Having asserted independence from the mainstream industry, Midnight Oil grew more visible and vocal in political matters, beginning with protests against uranium mining, extending support to the Tibet Council, and later challenging monopolistic practices within the Australian music business by creating their own booking agency. The 1979 follow-up Head Injuries yielded the band's first hit single, “Cold Cold Change,” and earned gold certification. Health issues forced bassist Andrew “Bear” James to depart the next year, after which Peter Gifford joined in time for the EP Bird Noises, another commercial success.

Place Without a Postcard, recorded in 1981 with producer Glyn Johns, attained platinum status thanks to the breakthrough track “Armistice Day,” securing an American contract with Columbia Records. Its successor, 1983's 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, remained in the Australian Top 40 for more than two years. Following Red Sails in the Sunset in 1984, Garrett campaigned for the Australian Senate under the Nuclear Disarmament Party banner, falling short by a slim margin. Involvement with the Artists United Against Apartheid initiative heightened the band's focus on Indigenous Australian causes, leading to the “Black Fella White Fella” tour alongside the Warumpi Band.

Indigenous issues shaped much of Diesel and Dust, the 1987 breakthrough whose momentum was ignited by “Beds Are Burning”; the album entered the U.S. Top 20 and elevated the group to household-name status. After Dwayne “Bones” Hillman, formerly of the Swingers, replaced Peter Gifford on bass, the band issued Blue Sky Mining in 1990 and staged a protest concert outside Exxon’s Manhattan headquarters to condemn the corporation’s response to the Alaskan oil spill, footage later compiled as the film Black Rain Falls with proceeds directed to Greenpeace. Earth and Sun and Moon appeared in 1993, followed three years afterward by Breathe.

Redneck Wonderland marked the next studio return in 1998, and the Australia-only collection The Real Thing arrived in 2001, gathering fresh material alongside live recordings from a celebrated run at Sydney’s Metro Theatre. Capricornia, released on Liquid 8 in spring 2002, became the band's fourteenth album. That December, Garrett announced his departure after twenty-five years, exiting on amicable terms to pursue politics full-time. He won the Kingsford Smith seat in New South Wales in 2004 as a Labor candidate and received appointment as Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Reconciliation and the Arts in 2005. Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd named him Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts in 2007, a role Garrett maintained in various capacities until retiring from public office in 2013.

During Garrett’s government service, the remaining members explored separate projects, most notably Ghostwriters, the outfit featuring drummer Rob Hirst and guitarist Martin Rotsey. A 2009 reunion with Garrett produced three concerts, the final one benefiting Sound Relief. In 2016 the band revealed plans for a 2017 return, launching the 77-date Great Circle Tour in April of that year and closing with a Sydney performance on 11 November—Armistice Day—later documented on the 2018 release Armistice Day: Live at the Domain, Sydney. European and U.K. dates followed in 2019, after which the musicians reentered the studio. The single “Gadigal Land” emerged in August 2020 as the first result, and inspiration drawn from the Uluru Statement from the Heart informed the twelfth studio album, The Makarrata Project—whose title roughly means “treaty” in Yolngu—which appeared at the close of 2020.

Bassist and backing vocalist Bones Hillman died on 7 November 2020, one week after the album’s release, at the age of sixty-two following a cancer diagnosis. October 2021 brought the premiere of the video for “Rising Seas,” a direct call for worldwide climate action timed to the United Nations Climate Change Conference and containing a quiet tribute to Hillman through an empty bass stand onstage. The track opened Resist, an urgent collection centered on environmental concerns, issued in February 2022. An extensive world tour ensued, which the group described as its final major outing while leaving open the possibility of future recordings or benefit performances for supported causes.