[Steve Lyons]

Hi everyone

New listee, so please show a little 'p l and u' if I'm a little nervous ! A
few words about me - I'm 52, originally from London but resident in the NE
of England for almost 30 years. Being a child of the '60s I pretty much
thought good music died around the late '70s when Dylan found God and the
Stones found Disco. Consequently I rarely listened to music radio for much
of the 1980s. However, around 1988/9 I found myself working in an industrial
lab where the radio was constantly tuned to BBC Radio 1. Most of the stuff I
heard went in one ear and out the other, but in the space of a few months I
heard three bands who excited me. The first were The Pogues, with Shane
MacGowan's poetry to the fore. The second were The Waterboys with the
Dylanesque 'Fisherman's Blues'. The third were Midnight Oil with 'Beds are
Burning' which was quite unlike anything I'd ever heard before. Well,
Shane's muse eventually drowned like his hero Behan's had long before. Mike
Scott reinvented The Waterboys so many times that even he lost himself
eventually. Which just left me with The Oils, and my love of their music and
everything they stand for has remained with me ever since.

I've found being an Oils fan in these parts a pretty solitary existence.
Mention of their name to my friends has always brought a response such as
'Who? Oh yeah, didn't they sing something about beds burning? Bit too
weird/political/strident/angry/in your face (choose appropriate adjective)
for me.' Even getting hold of the basic material can be a bit of a problem.
To my knowledge neither 'Real Thing' or 'Capricornia' were released in the
UK. I got mine from Oz and Hong Kong respectively. My one and only
unofficial live cd (Beds are Burning) came from Germany via eBay and my
'Strict Rules' came from a guy called The Booksella Fella in Victoria.
Consequently you can guess I have everything crossed that this wonderful new
DVD that you've all been discussing is released over here. The only live
Oils footage I have is on the '20000 Watt' DVD which I think I've
practically worn out ;-).

Sorry to be so wordy. Can I just end with a request which I hope is not out
of order for a first-time post. By following the link from the Mr. Noisy web
page I learnt of the wonderful OilsLive Project. I realise that I've arrived
much too late to be admitted to the tree, but is there some generous soul
out there who would be willing to share these with me for blanks and
postage?

Steve
steve at stevelyons.freeserve.co.uk