[craiggy@ozemail.com.au]

>From the outside looking in I've come to these conclusions (probably wrong):

Peter Garrett is the most active in the non-music world. Perhaps this is why Rob Hirst, Jim and Bones have searched out their own splinter groups and projects to fill the time between albums/tours. 

The last year of touring was the biggest tour undertaken since ESM, and was probably started as part of a return to being a full time band, and through doing this the individual members found out what they each truly wanted. Peter wanted to do the green stuff more and the band wanted to do the music full time. 

Irreconcilable differences really. 

Having a 12 month hiatus between each album is just not doing justice to Midnight Oil's music and has lead to inconsistent performances. Seeing them on this last tour, after 12 months playing, well they were just shit hot. But keeping that level of commitment to the band was beyond Peter because of his outside work. 

I truly hope that the rest of the band keep producing music because the Jim Moginie/Rob Hirst song writing collaborations are a legend in themselves, but to pretend in anyway shape or form that this is still Midnight Oil is ridiculous. The risks here are obvious: playing old oils songs without Peter present, writing protest songs, keeping the same name, but at the same time the opportunities are endless: working with new singers and new song forms, reinventing and taking risks and not having to answer to Oils fans and be Oils-like in the music, working outside the traditional album/tour sphere, say in movies or instrumental work, moving into more electronic/experimental music, the possibilities are endless. 

I suppose they have to go away and meditate on it, come back together, as four, and see if it works and take it from there

Craig

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