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

What a coincidence. Just recording all my CD's onto my computer hard drive and I was at the Midnight Oil CDs and I saw this thread. I had just played a few tracks off 10-1 and Diesel and Dust and was really getting back into it. I have all the original CD's in their no brick-walled glory as well as the 10-1 on original LP. They all sound great, Midnight Oil is a fantastic band and their original release material was well recorded and engineered.

Saw the Oils live in a pub somewhere in Sydney around '79 or '80 before their major success of 10-1 in 1982. Don't remember the pub or the exact date as we were seeing many great Aussie bands back then, INXS, Mental as Anything, Cold Chisel etc, but it's all a bit of a blur now.

Another gem to watch is the "Black Rain Falls" video when Midnight Oil set up a live concert in front of the Exxon building in New York in 1990 after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. I have the complete DVD and it is a real gem, highly recommended. Here's an except from the DVD. I think if you keep watching it goes through a number of tracks, but thDVD is better and very well recorded sound-wise.

 

Beds Are Burning is a great song.

 

I saw them again live last weekend at the Greek Theatre. Great show, doubly so because they played "Stand in Line" from Head Injuries. Great to hear it live again and amazing to see the Oils unspool and really rock out. So happy to have seen them twice this year. They are still one of the best live bands out there and God knows I've seen more than my fair share.

 

Thanks for the write up. Please inform us of the rest of the set. It is much appreciated. Incidental they are selling individual albums but they are crazy expensive. I too would like a better sounding PWAP. Great album, awful sound.

 

Guess who came back to Toronto last night for show # 2 this year!

The "Oils" were on fire last night at the "ampitheatre" (now called Budweiser Stage)

We got a 2 hour show that contained 22 songs and only 9 of those were played last May at the Danforth Music Hall.

5 songs from "10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1" (which was completely ignored last show and everyone loved these songs!); a new song called "Can't See Reason"; a song from the "Bird Noises" ep that surprised me and a real surprise from "Red Sails In The Sunset"

A smaller crowd than I expected but still enthusiastic and loud, up and dancing quite a bit throughout the night. We had the best spot in the house (Section 200, Row 4, dead centre and around some real fans that were up with us for the whole show)

Peter Garrett was a total character throughout the show and sang wonderfully. Rob Hirst was dynamite on the drums as well. The whole band was rocking! The last 8 songs of the night had the band at a pace that just blew the roof off the joint; hit after hit and the crowd just had a blast!

These songs are more poignant and relevant now than they have ever been; this band has aged well and their material is not dated at all to me.

An excellent evening was had by all (and an added bonus was a trip to the CNE that afternoon for some great beer and food as admission to the grounds was free for all ticketholders)

What a great day and evening (and the weather was perfect; one of the nicest nights here of this whole summer)

Well done mates!

10/10

 

How many people would you say were there? I heard the place holds 16,000. Way too big a place for the Oils in North America, unfortunately.

Sounds like a great show! I flew to Denver to see them earlier this year and had hoped to catch another show on this second go round, but they won't come to the Texas and I couldn't afford to fly again.

 

I finally finished getting through the LP box set. First the packaging: As was mentioned earlier the sleeves seem to be a bit off color and the cardboard is a little flimsy. A little. But very passable in my opinion. They are each individually shrink-wrapped which I liked because it saved me from doing it myself. There are two gatefolds - Diesel & Dust and 10, 9, 8,.... Be careful with the knife though when opening a slit. They are tight if you're not careful you can slit the album cover, which I did to my Head Injuries. When you get it open, each album is sleeved in a high quality thick paper stock, complete with pictures and lyrics (except Earth & Sun & Moon, no lyrics there). I could tell the Blue Sky Mining record was replaced because it was upside down in the box. The records are tight in the box, but nothing like the CDs in the tank. The box is very sturdy and held up well in shipment (from Amazon). The records themselves are very nice. They are quiet and flat and thick. Each label has a variation of the cover on it. No song titles are listed. The sound on each is absolutely stunning. The last song on Redneck Wonderland (Drop In The Ocean) had a skip on it, but after a thorough cleaning it popped out.

My final verdict: I feel incredibly lucky to be able to own such a set since much of this vinyl cannot be found anywhere else. I just hoped that the same care would have been taken for the remastered CDs. Oils fans everywhere - GET IT NOW (if you can afford it).

 

Went to the Minneapolis show at First Avenue last night. First time I've seen them. They were tremendous.

 

Incredible concert. When Peter almost topples off the speaker, you catch your breath, but it only adds to the tension and excitement of the gig.

 

I've watched the black rain falls DVD dozens of times (owned it on VHS in the 90's). Agree that sound quality is excellent but if you watch closely you can see several syncing errors - especially when Peter topples off speaker, which makes me think that many of the sound tracks were done either in a studio or the sound check prior to the concert itself. I'm off to hear Peter speak at his book promotion later today... perhaps I'll get a chance to ask him. Concert here tomorrow night!! Can't wait.

 

Awesome! If you get an answer, please post up in this thread!

(Oh, yeah, he does fall off, doesn't he? It's been a while since I've seen it.)

 

Maybe we should start a Black RainFalls audio thread, however as this seems to be the only active Oils thread on the SH forum I'll continue here. I had the chance to attend Peter Garrett's "In conversation" book promotion today and the subsequent book signing. What an incredibly humble and gracious person! After he signed my original vinyl copy of Blue Sky Mining (that I purchased new in 1990) I asked him about the sound recording of the Black Rain Falls "film"' remarking on the sound quality and asking if it was re-recorded in the studio or at a sound check. Also asking how he kept it together after falling off the speaker without cursing! He offered the following info. The sound was all recorded live at the concert. The record company (assume Columbus USA) offered their top live sound recording engineers and best equipment when they were informed of the "gurilla" action against Exxon. The main sound engineer was anti-Exxon and did the work pro-bono but with the caution that the concert would likely never happen and be shut down as soon as law enforcement were aware of what was happening
That's my recollection of our brief moment, I'm not sure how or why it was done pro-bono but Peter had a amazing clarity of the recording process, which leads me to believe he's correct. I will have to watch it again to check my syncing suspicions but perhaps it's an editing fault rather than a recording inconsistency.
Hope they play River Runs Red tomorrow night, it's one of the best tracks on that album IMHO.

 

I lived outside of NYC when the concert happened and I listened to it live on the radio. My audio that I taped off the radio that day matches the audio of the video exactly, although mixed somewhat differently of course.

 

I was at the gig and he came down pretty hard. Latest reports from management say he has a torn hamstring and may require surgery.
Midnight Oil Melbourne show cut short after guitarist trips and falls on stage

The gig at the same venue on Monday was one for the ages.
Midnight Oil Setlist at Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne

 

I also had the VHS as well but then got the DVD. I'll have to have a closer look at the syncing errors, like you say, the sound quality is that good you wonder if it was overdubbed.

 

Not heard from many Aussies on this forum with regards the Oils playing in Oz.
I saw them twice in L.A. And they were in rare form.

 

I've been a fan since 'Diesel and Dust' introduced me to them.

 

Been watching videos of the Australian portion of the tour. Amazing to see them playing to enthusiastic crowds of 20,000 or more after seeing them play a great show in Denver to around a 1000.

 

I grew up in Sydney and saw them play all sorts of venues. From a couple of thousand all the way up to 13,000 people stadiums. I was unfortunately just a little too young to see them play in pubs. It was a real treat to see them here in Los Angeles where they played the Wiltern capacity 1800 and the Greek capacity 6000.

 

Thanks for this. Do you know if Bernie Grundman cut them?

 

I hope they tour the U.S. again soon - family reasons, I had to miss all of their Southern California shows.

I can't imagine - given the sorry state of musical tastes stateside - that they made a lot of money or played to a lot of fans last year :/

 

Tickets sold out instantly everywhere - suspiciously so. But the guys got all their money, I'm sure. Tickets for the Greek show, on their return visit to L.A., were easier to get, and the place was pretty full on the night. They underestimated demand by booking theaters stateside.

 

I hope they recorded some of the shows for a live album.

 

There are apparently two Midnight Oil movies happening this year. The first one is called Midnight Oil 1984 and is playing in Brisbane in May. The second one is called Backburning. Here's what I found on the web:

Here what I could find on Backburning:

I really hope both of these make it to DVD for us fans outside of Australia. I'm pretty certain that there will be some kind of release from the Great Circle Tour, hopefully and album and DVD. Could be another banner year for Oils fans.

 

Trailer for Midnight Oil 1984:



Looks great! Hope it makes it to the US!!!