Midnight Oil

[Powderworks] Oils fired up

Miron Mizrahi mironmizrahi@yahoo.com
Mon, 29 Jul 2002 12:55:54 -0700 (PDT)


Oil fired up
July 30 2002
The Sun-Herald




After 25 years and 14 albums, Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett is
still
being driven by the power and the passion.

Fans expecting to see Peter Garrett in full flight at the upcoming
one-day
rock festival M-One in October, should perhaps avoid the main stage
- and
check out the wrestling sideshows.

Garrett, with his looming stature and iconic bald head, is tempted
to go up
against a sneering Billy Idol, a fellow M-One act, in the wrestling
ring.

"It's a scary thought, isn't it?" Garrett said, roaring with
laughter. "One
man spouting constitutional law and the other guy reciting the
number of
nightclubs he's been dragged out of."

Despite their shared 1980s music heritage, Garrett hasn't had the
pleasure
of meeting Idol in the flesh.

"I only know him by the way he manipulates his upper lip," Garrett
said.
"But I thought Billy would be a natural partner to the wrestling."

It's easy for the lead singer of Midnight Oil to chuckle over the
inclusion
of his band, and Billy Idol, in the M-One line-up. The festival, the
brainchild of executives at FM radio station TripleM, unashamedly
targets
mainstream rock'n'roll fans, who hunger for "real" stars and their
anthems.


But when the line-up was announced, even those fans could have been
forgiven
for thinking they were in a time warp. Midnight Oil? Billy Idol? If
it
wasn't for Garbage as the headline act, things could have seemed
very retro
indeed.

But the reality is, nothing about Midnight Oil is retro. Despite 25
years of
performing together, their music remains strong, fresh and raw.
Unlike other
Australian bands who hit the big time in the 1980s, they don't sit
around
talking about "the good old days". Instead, they push themselves to
create
great new ones.

The band have just returned home after a road tour of the US and
Canada
(plus festival appearances in the UK), where they performed songs
from their
album Capricornia.

According to Garrett, they are likely to start working on another
album
early next year - which would be their 15th studio album.

"We don't pop them out like mums who have 10 kids - we're not a
Catholic
band," Garrett said, with a chuckle. "We're not stuck with any
recording
contracts, which is a blessing. We go in there because we want to."

In the meantime, the band members leapt at the chance to perform at
M-One,
if only because of the weather.

"There's something exhilarating and magical about the onset of
spring in
Australia," Garrett said. "The thought of playing outdoors in Oz
when
winter's finishing, and you can smell jasmine and see T-shirts, is
too
appealing to knock back."

Despite his enduring reputation as an intense, and sometimes very
angry,
musical activist, it doesn't take long for Garrett to reveal his
soft side.
In relaxed mode he is a natural comic, specialising in dry
one-liners. He
has lost none of the presence which turned him into Australia's
best-known,
and most controversial, lead singer during the 1980s.

His striking bald head and defiant glare have long provided
inspiration for
younger musicians and Australians in general. But Garrett has never
been a
one-man band.

His relationship with Rob Hirst, Martin Rotsey, Bones Hillman and
JimMoginie
is one of the most extraordinary in Australian rock. The partnership
between
the members of Midnight Oil has outlasted many successful marriages.

When I suggested the men could write a counselling guide for
aspiring rock
bands, Garrett laughed approvingly. "Oh yeah, we could produce our
own
manuals," he said. "Life on the bus. Life in the Tarago. Life after
your
first gold record.

"Truth is, we've just kept enjoying the process of making music with
each
other. You're lucky if you happen on that synchronicity, the
combination of
different characters and musical characteristics that make a band
work."

Midnight Oil have never been afraid to tackle issues - from
reconciliation
to environmental conservation, with Garrett leading the protest. But
have
they mellowed in older age?

The current political upheaval in Australia surrounding detention
centres
and asylum seekers seems like classic Oils subject-matter. But
Garrett said:
"We haven't got a detention centre song on our list."

Mind you, once the topic was mentioned, his much-loved fiery spark
ignited
in about three seconds.

"We'll certainly have something on our next album. It will be
something
which throws a bit of salt into the flesh wound. If it's John
Howard's
exposed arm, then so be it."

Midnight Oil are so quintessentially Australian it's often easy to
underestimate their impact overseas, primarily in the US. Even in
2002, ask
any group of American backpackers about their favourite Australian
bands and
nine times out of 10 they'll mention Garrett and his bald head.

Various celebrities can also be counted among their many fans. Actor
Chris
O'Donnell gushed about Peter Garrett during a visit to Sydney (his
character
in Vertical Limit boasted the same name). O'Donnell enthusiastically
quoted
lyrics from a range of Midnight Oil albums, and described the
real-life
Garrett as a "musical hero".

But despite ongoing adulation overseas, Midnight Oil have not been
tempted
to write about their American experiences, even on the back of their
successful tour this year.

"We don't want to write an album about touring on the road, the bus
stops
and the greasy food," Garrett said. "Nor having to queue up for
planes and
getting your feet X-rayed because people are worried about Arab
bombers.

"We wanted to wait until we came back, because our inspiration comes
out of
this place. That tends to be the basis of the Oils - the pumping
history and
heartbeat of Australia, that's our thing."

It's hard to believe Midnight Oil struggled to get radio airplay in
the late
1970s because Garrett sang with an Australian accent. (Most bands
were
mimicking an all-American sound.)

How appropriate, then, that at the M-One festival, 25 years later,
Peter
Garrett will symbolise the voice of Australian rock.




=====
Miron

It's better to die on your feet than live on your knees.
(Midnight Oil)

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