Midnight Oil and Other Oz Music

Someone posted this on a music forum, from before Garrett joined the Oils. He looks like a potential movie star. :icon-biggrin:

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@Patrick and any others that may be aware of Cold Chisel. I don’t think they ‘broke’ in North America but they have to be up there as Australia’s best home grown music product. The reason I’m posting this is they mentioned Midnight Oil last night as one of their inspirations.

I went to their ‘Big Five O’ Brisbane show last night. Jimmy Barnes has just recovered from surgery but was typically energetic. Lead guitarist and part time lead vocalist Ian Moss remains the heart and soul of the band in my opinion. I’d pay the admission fee to watch him play those tunes sans vocals. Such great blues based rock n roll.

We were in general and got there late but were content to stand up the back and enjoy the atmosphere. There were few kids under 25, (my 19 year old was up the front), and plenty of 60/70 year olds that were obviously fans from the start in 1974.

To those that don’t know them this song is an example of what they do although less bluesy than other numbers. Khe Sahn was controversial back in the day and wasn’t allowed to be played on radio for a while but probably became their most popular tune.
Mossy on the screen from the nose bleed section.
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That’ll probably be the last time I see the band. Must have been 6 or 7 times now. The first was in 1983 when I was nine for their ‘Last Stand’ tour. (It was just after their hit ‘East’ album which was my very first record). They didn’t speak to one another for probably 15 years after 1983 but have toured a number of times since. Jimmy Barnes went on to forge a hugely successful solo career although I don’t think he was big outside Oz. His songs like For The Working Class Man and Last Frontier were certainly appealing to the domestic audience. Quintessential Australian rock.
Sorry but no sorry for the rambling post. I’m no journalist.
 
jasoncapecod said:
worlds greatest arena
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Similar to the hyperbolic U.S. is the greatest country in the world or NYC the greatest city, whatever.

I'm surprised that Gilmour is able to fill arena venues like that. I would've expected him to play something more intimate like the Beacon Theater. At the height of their popularity (1990/Blue Sky Mining), Midnight Oil played three nights at Radio City with a total capacity of 18,000 -- approximately the same as one night at Madison Square Garden.

Interesting that across 25 years of living in this region, I've only attended one concert at MSG: Prince's incredible 1988 Love Sexy tour. Dancing nonstop in high heels night after night/year after year, you can understand how he developed chronic hip pain leading to his reported opioid addiction.
 
jamesdeluxe said:
Similar to the hyperbolic U.S. is the greatest country in the world or NYC the greatest city, whatever.

I'm surprised that Gilmour is able to fill arena venues like that. I would've expected him to play something like the Beacon Theater. At the height of their popularity (1990/Blue Sky Mining), Midnight Oil played three nights at Radio City with a total capacity of 18,000 -- approximately the same as one night at Madison Square Garden.

Interesting that across 25 years of living in this region, I've only attended one concert at MSG: Prince's incredible 1988 Love Sexy tour. Dancing nonstop in high heels night after night/year after year, you can understand how he developed chronic hip pain leading to his reported opioid addiction.
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Well he is one of the greatest rock guitarist ever. The tour was only 4 cities, LA/NY/London /Rome
Not hyperbole MSG has an energy that is second to none. I’ve been to plenty of arenas
 
Gilmour played the Hollywood Bowl (capacity 17,500) in the middle of last week, reviewed in today's L.A. Times. I never knew of this before today because of the World Series commanding my attention. I have this shirt on order because I was fortunate to attend both of those games.
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This may precede @Sbooker's time but I'll give it a shot.

A few weeks ago at karaoke night, a young woman got up and impressively sang the Divinyls big hit from 1991. Wow did that bring back memories -- I hadn't heard or thought about them in 30 years. A quick search turned up this clip of them performing that same song at The Ritz in New York. My band at the university in the mid-80s used to cover their early hit Boys In Town, when they had a different sound and Chrissy looked quite a bit different!
 
jamesdeluxe said:
This may precede @Sbooker's time but I'll give it a shot.

A few weeks ago at karaoke night, a young woman got up and impressively sang the Divinyls big hit from 1991. Wow did that bring back memories -- I hadn't heard or thought about them in 30 years. A quick search turned up this clip of them performing that same song at The Ritz in New York. My band at the university in the mid-80s used to cover their early hit Boys In Town, when they had a different sound and Chrissy looked quite a bit different!
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I was 19 in 1991 so very much into the live band thing at that stage. (Our legal drinking/pub age is 18).
I was an avid watcher of Countdown and never missed it from about 1978 to whenever it ceased. Countdown was our modern day equivalent to Bandstand I guess. The host of the show, Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum was/is an Australian icon.
 
What a great era for Australian rock music. Did The Angels make a ripple over the Pacific? This is definitely a top ten Oz rock song in my opinion.
And the concert classic with lyrics by the audience.
 
Sbooker said:
Did The Angels make a ripple over the Pacific?
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When AC/DC broke through stateside with their live album If You Want Blood and then with Highway To Hell, The Angels and Rose Tattoo got a bit of airplay in their wake. Both bands at that point had a similar sound to AC/DC, possibly because they were produced by the Vanda/Young duo. Two songs from The Angels were played on our Central NY rock stations in 1978 (Take A Long Line and Marseille) and turned me into a fan of Doc Neeson and crew. I recall that they toured extensively throughout the U.S. in 1980. As you can see on the Marseille album cover, they were forced to adopt the name "Angel City" here because there was already a Los Angeles glam rock band called Angel.

@Sbooker, in case you haven't seen this: here they are in Melbourne 1979 before a very appreciative audience. A beautifully shot video (so clear, it looks like last week instead of 46 years ago) with perfect sound at arguably their peak. Interesting that when Doc sings, he pronounces hard Rs similar to an American -- or am I projecting?


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jamesdeluxe said:
Correct! What gave it away? :eusa-think:

Our band was called Free Drinks. We played "danceable new wave" covers, mainly at fraternity parties (they paid really well) around CU Boulder.
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Just a good guess. I figured an ex lead guitarist would spend most of their time at places at Aspen or Verbier. And you’ve obviously got your stuff sorted to be able to go to regular trips to Europe so that makes it unlikely you were a drummer. :)
Perhaps when Tony finally arranges a forum gathering you can bring your bass and show me how you do some old Devo bass lines.
 
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