Midnight Oil announces massive 2017 reunion tour, 3 huge box sets with unreleased music

I've scrolled through some old posts and do not see much discussion of this awesome band. Like many Americans, my intro was the great "Diesel & Dust" CD, but I really enjoyed the "Blue Sky Mining" release and also the "Earth, Sun and Moon" CD. After that I kind of lost interest for some reason and was looking for a recommendation as to where to head to next. I did sample some of their really early stuff and it wasn't my cup of tea. I have the "Black Rain Falls" DVD and really wish there was a nice release of their "MTV Unplugged" set.

 

I love, love, LOVE "10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1"!!
While my local new-wave radio station (WLIR) had played "Read About It" & "The Power And The Passion" quite often, it was a few months after that there was an Australian exchange student at my high-school. Just out of the blue, I had mentioned Midnight Oil, and she lit up, and told my how awesome the entire album was, and let me borrow her cassette copy!
It's strong personal memories like this that makes the album even more special for me.

 

Beds Are Burning is a great song as well as The Dead Heart from the only album I have, "Diesel & Dust".

 

Great band

 

Yeah, I loved 'em at one time. Have four, maybe five(?), of their albums. I gotta admit it's been a LONG time since I played anything but at one time they were right up there at the top of my list.

 

Some awesome sounding CDs

 

Red sails in the sunset is a classic album amongst many fantastic releases from the Oils. They were huge in Australia and I believe did gain some fans in the US too. Track down the original Aussie vinyl and revel in the brilliance of one of if not Australia's finest band.

 

One of those cool bands where the drummer wore the pants - Rob Hirst, alongside Jim Moginie.

10,9,8 .. and Diesel & Dust are a fantastic twofer, especially coming after the relative disappointment of Red Sails in the Sunset, which was the first Oils album I bought and it thus has a special place in my heart. The Diesel deluxe reissue features a documentary about the band's outback tour. Another great video (also available as CD) is Oils on the Water, where they play with the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House as backdrops.

And Hirst, being the literary giant that he is, wrote a provocative book, available on Kindle, Willie's Bar and Grill, about their North American tour in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.

Their post-Oils stuff is worth checking out - incl. The Ghostwriters.

 

Hi mate - three songs from MTV unplugged and other acoustic renditions can be found on their CD called The Real Thing. Its a killer CD - stunning sound quality!

 

4 of the MTV unplugged songs are on The Real Thing. Not sure if that is all of them or not.

Saw them live in Philly a couple of times and was lucky enough to meet the band on the Earth, Sun, and Moon tour. Hand them autograph my Green disc.

 

The must haves in my opinion are:



and to fill in the best of what good tracks that aren't on those three albums, I'd go with:

 

Red Sails is my fav Oils album . As Mondie said, the aussie vinyl is awesome.
Every self respecting fan must have Head Injuries

I love all their albums up to Blue Sky Mine where they started to lose their spark and and anger to become almost MOR.

 

They were ferocious live. I saw them open for UB40 at Pine Knob in 87, I think. Went out there with no ticket and scored a single seat, 4th row, dead center. I was able to hear everything off the monitors and they were great. The first 25-30 row were virtually empty and they still brought it. UB40 were dull as ditch water after that. I wish they'd sort out decent editions of the CD's in the U.S. Anyone know if the 2014 Aus. reissues are a improvement?

 

Stick to the original CDs. The new ones are, you guessed it, markedly compressed. The old CDs have a huge dynamic range.

 

I listened to the Scream in Blue live album a couple of days ago. Pretty intense!

 

Three ex-members of The Oil's are in a band called The Break along with Brian Ritchie of The Violent Femmes.

 

yes since their debut on MTV...

 

agreed...they sound wonderful.

 

They were a terrific band. Get hold of the "Oils On The Water" CD/DVD set, as long as your player is multi-region and can play PAL. Amazing live band. Scream In Blue is excellent too. The Real Thing is an unplugged performance with a serious crack at the best ever version of Russell Morris' "The Real Thing".

 

I wonder how well it's known outside Australia that the lead singer, Peter Garrett, later became Minister of the Environment (among other portfolios) during the Labor government of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.

 

Love Earth and Sun and Moon as well asDiesel and Dust.

 

Peter was unfairly blamed for tragedies that occurred during the subsidised house insulation scheme. The scheme brought so much business to insulation sellers/installers that they started recruiting untrained installers, a couple of whom were electrocuted during roof space installations. I remember that a smiling Mr Rudd took one step backwards when accusations were misdirected towards Peter. A very sad affair that was a great idea and completely botched by some borderline criminal insulation sales/installation companies, unfortunately with some fatalities due to lack of training.

 

I knew nothing about them and had bought the cassette of it(It was cheap), and then proceeded to wear it out. Took a long time, but I finally got it on cd. Great live disc that packs a wallop!

 

Anybody interested in the Oils can't really go wrong with any of their original Australian CDs.