FRENCH BIOGRAPHY
Le groupe se forme d'abord sous le nom de "Farm" dans la banlieue de Sydney en 1971 avant de changer de nom pour "Midnight Oil" en 1976 avec Rob Hirst à la batterie, Martin Rotsey et Jim Moginie à la guitare, Andrew "Bear" James à la basse et Peter Garrett au chant. Les membres du groupe ont toujours montré leur attachement aux valeurs écologistes (entre autre pour la dénucléarisation), et milité pour défendre les droits des ouvriers et protéger les Aborigènes.Rejeté par toutes les maisons de disques en raisons de ses idéaux bien affirmés, le groupe est contraint, en 1978, de créer son propre label : Powderworks. La main tendue de Peter Garrett en deviendra le logo. De 1978 à 1981, Midnight Oil sort ses quatre premiers albums qui ne connaitront guère le succès hors d'Australie, à l'exception du titre "Cold Cold Change", présent sur l'album Head Injuries.En 1982, les "Oils" (surnom donné par les fans) intègrent les synthétiseurs, les guitares acoustiques et les choeurs pour valoriser autrement leur musique tout en écrivant des textes encore plus virulents. L'album 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 les propulse en haut du top 40 australien pendant quarante semaines. Ils en font la promotion en jouant, notamment, dans des prisons. Le monde du rock commence aussi à s'intéresser à ce groupe atypique. Midnight Oil sera pourtant boycotté dans plusieurs pays à cause de ses convictions anti-nucléaires dirigées contre les gouvernements occidentaux, principalement celui des Etats-Unis.Ils se rendent à Londres au moment où le Royaume-Uni milite pour le désarmement nucléaire.Peter Garrett se présente au sénat australien mais n'est pas élu, écarté par des arrangements politiques au 2e tour.En 1984, le groupe enregistre à Tokyo l'album Red Sails in the Sunset, dont la pochette montre la ville de Sydney dévastée par une explosion nucléaire. Midnight Oil semble prendre la relève du rock australien, en compagnie de INXS. Son combat contre le nucléaire atteint son apogée avec l'EP Species Deceases un an plus tard, l'année des quarante ans d'Hiroshima.Après avoir passé une bonne partie de l'année 1986 dans le bush australien auprès des populations aborigènes, Midnight Oil parait arriver à maturité. L'album Diesel & Dust sera l'album qui connaîtra le plus de succès, avec les tubes « Beds Are Burning », « The Dead Heart », « Dreamworld », ou encore « Put Down That Weapon ». "Diesel & Dust" reste, à ce jour, le plus gros succès du groupe et une référence incontournable des classiques du rock.Les Oils entament alors une énorme tournée mondiale.En 1990 sort l'album Blue Sky Mining, abordant cette fois des sujets mondiaux (déforestation, pluies acides...). "Blue Sky Mine", "Forgotten Years", "Bedlam Bridge", "King Of The Mountain" et "One Country" furent les singles.Le 30 mai de cette même année, le groupe organise, en pleine tournée, un concert improvisé devant le siège de la compagnie pétrolière Exxon (qui était situé au World Trade Center), accusée d'avoir déversé des tonnes de pétrole en Alaska.En 1992 sort le furieux Scream In Blue - live qui présente le groupe sous sa vraie nature en concert, très loin des hits calibrés pour la radio. Ce qui a probablement déstabilisé plus d'un fan.En 1993 sort l'excellent album Earth and Sun and Moon. Le groupe revient à un son plus naturel et à une orchestration nettement plus chaleureuse. Comme à (presque) chaque album, Midnight Oil part faire une tournée mondiale supplémentaire. Mais le public suit de moins en moins.Après trois ans de silence, Midnight Oil sort l'album Breathe (1996). Certainement le plus intimiste et le plus acoustique de sa carrière. En raison de son approche anti-commerciale et de nouveaux courants musicaux très influents, l'album passera quasi-inaperçu. 20.000 Watts RSL , le best of, donne les signes avant-coureurs de la fin du groupe. Redneck Wonderland, en (1998), est sûrement l'album le plus agressif et le plus sombre. Le groupe prend un virage musical conséquent en mélangeant des riffs sursaturés aux nouvelles technologies de l'époque.Une tournée est organisée en 2000 à la suite de laquelle sort The Real Thing, reprenant quelques uns de leurs plus grands classiques joués en "unplugged" en 1993 et 1994 ainsi que 4 titres inédits.Le groupe participa également à la cérémonie de clôture des Jeux olympiques de Sydney en 2000.Capricornia fut le dernier album de Midnight Oil. Peter Garrett quitte le groupe en décembre 2002 pour se consacrer à la politique, dissolvant par là -même le groupe. En 2007 sort la compilation Flat Chats, contenant une quinzaine de leurs compositions les plus "péchues" remasterisées pour l'occasion. Les albums 'Diesel & Dust' et 'Blue Sky Mining' sont eux aussi remasterisés en 2008.Le groupe s'est reformé plusieurs fois pour des concerts de charité :à l'occasion du Projet Gaia de Alan Simon en 2003.
participation à la compilation Peace Not War contre la Guerre en Irak.
concert à but humanitaire ("Wave Aid" en faveur des victimes du tsunami du 26 décembre 2004) le 29 janvier 2005.
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ENGLISH BIOGRAPHY
The Oils, as the group is known to its fans, began as a progressive rock band called Farm in the early 1970s. After changing its name to Midnight Oil, the group began to develop an aggressive, punk - hard rock sound. The band built a dedicated fan base through constant touring, and furious live performances, featuring the twin guitars of Moginie and Rotsey, the drumming and vocals of Hirst and the manic presence of the towering, bald Garrett as lead singer. Its first two albums, 'Midnight Oil' and 'Head Injuries' mixed solid guitar rock with progressive flourishes, and further interest was generated by the popular Bird Noises EP, produced by former Supercharge member Lesek Karski, which featured the surf-instrumental 'Wedding Cake Island' (named after a rock outcrop in the ocean off Sydney's Coogee Beach). The band's third LP Place Without A Postcard (1981) was recorded with English producer Glyn Johns. Creative tensions between band and producer plagued the recording, however, and the group were not totally happy with the outcome.Driven largely by commercial pressures to stay with reliable chart-toppers and teenage pop sensations, the Australian music industry in the mid-1970s cast a dismissive eye toward most bands with an alternative outlook. Although consistently championed by Sydney alternative rock station Double Jay and its FM band successor Triple J, the band in the early part of their career were almost totally ignored by Australia's mainstream commercial radio stations. Manager Gary Morris quickly developed a reputation as one of the toughest managers in the business, and became notorious for banning critics or journalists, who were usually given free admission to concerts, for writing unfavourable reviews. One famous case in the mid-80s involved writer and critic Bruce Elder, who in a newspaper review described the band's music as "narrow and xenophobic"; in retaliation, Morris banned him from Oils shows permanently. Elder later recanted, describing them as the only Australian band to have developed a truly Australian sound.The frostiness of their relationship with the traditional music media quickly saw the band develop a strong "street cred", and a reputation for making no compromises with the music industry. In the early 1980s the band was scheduled to appear on an episode of the the all-powerful ABC TV pop show Countdown, but on the day of the show found themselves "bumped" from the lineup. According to Countdown producer Michael Shrimpton, the band had arrived late for rehearsal, and due to the show's very tight schedule and budget there was a strict policy that latecomers were not allowed to appear, and as such they were told they could not perform that day. In retaliation, the group declared that they would never again approach the show to appear.Fans of the group were drawn to the band's "us and them" mindset, and fan loyalty to the Oils' ideas and music was fierce. Two venues at which they built significant fan bases from their early live performances were the Sydney northern beaches pub The Royal Antler at Narrabeen and the Bondi Lifesaver club near Sydney's Bondi Beach. Politically-oriented rock of the style produced by the band was something of a new concept for the Australian music scene, and Peter Garrett quickly earned a reputation as one of the most charismatic and outspoken musicians in the country.Their major Australian breakthrough and their first international recognition came in 1982, with the release of 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, which included the singles "Power and the Passion" and "Read About It"; their denunciation of American military interference in foreign affairs in "US Forces"; and their critique of imperialist repression in "Short Memory". 10-1 was produced by Englishman Nick Launay, who had previously worked with acts including The Jam, XTC, Peter Gabriel, PiL, Gang of Four and The Birthday Party. Their ascendancy was signalled by a series of concerts on the release of the album at Sydney's Capitol Theatre, one of which was filmed and recorded, and which has recently been released on DVD. The band also played their first shows outside Australia during this time."10-1" was followed two years later by Red Sails in the Sunset (1984), in which the band continued to expand their sound and explore themes of politics, consumerism, militarism, the threat of nuclear war and environmental issues. The album cover featured a photomontage of Sydney - both city and harbour - cratered and devastated after a hypothetical nuclear attack. Live concert footage from this time period was also used in the Australian independent anti-nuclear war movie One Night Stand. A promotional video for "Best of Both Worlds" received airplay worldwide on cable music TV station MTV.In 1985, Midnight Oil performed another outdoor concert on Goat Island in Sydney Harbour to celebrate Triple J's tenth birthday, before a select audience of fans who had won tickets in a radio competition. This concert was also filmed and recorded by the ABC and was simulcast on ABC-TV and Triple J. It has recently been remastered and released on DVD
"Beds are Burning" single coverAfter the release of 1985's Species Deceases EP including the single "Hercules", the band spent several months in 1986 touring outback Australia with Aboriginal group Warumpi Band, playing to small Aboriginal family groups and seeing first hand the seriousness of the issues in health and living standards experienced by Australia's outback indigenous communities. The band was galvanised by the experience and made these the basis of Diesel and Dust (1987), an album focusing on the need for recognition by white Australia of past injustices involving the Aboriginal nation and the need for reconciliation. Featuring the singles "Beds Are Burning" (their biggest international hit), "The Dead Heart", "Put Down That Weapon" and "Dreamworld", the album debuted to worldwide critical acclaim.Between 1990 and 1993, the band's Blue Sky Mining and Earth and Sun and Moon albums also drew critical acclaim and international success. The subject matter of their singles included the CSR asbestos mine incident (Blue Sky mine) and racism (Redneck Wonderland, White Skin-Black Heart), while the song Truganani referenced multiple issues including the 'last' Tasmanian Aboriginal, the treatment of Albert Namatjira and the Australian flag debate. In 1989 Garrett was appointed the President of the Australian Conservation Foundation, and in 1990 Midnight Oil played an impromptu lunchtime set in front of Exxon headquarters in New York with a banner reading, "Midnight Oil Makes You Dance, Exxon Oil Makes Us Sick", protesting the Exxon Valdez oil spill the previous year.In 1993, the band participated in the Another Roadside Attraction tour in Canada, and collaborated with The Tragically Hip, Crash Vegas, Hothouse Flowers and Daniel Lanois on the one-off single "Land" to protest forest clearcutting in British Columbia.The band again brought the politics of Aboriginal reconciliation to the fore during their performance at the closing ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics. Then Prime Minister John Howard had triggered controversy that year with his refusal to embrace symbolic reconciliation and apologise to Aboriginal Australians and members of the stolen generations. The group performed their reconciliation-themed single "Beds Are Burning" at the ceremony with the word SORRY conspicuously printed on their clothes as a form of apology to the Aboriginal people for their suffering under white settlement, and to highlight the issue to Howard, who was in the audience at the Olympic stadium.
Manly Leagues Club 2005Garrett decided to quit the band on December 2, 2002, to refocus on his political career. In 1984, Garrett had stood for the Australian Senate under the Nuclear Disarmament Party banner, and narrowly lost. He won the seat of Kingsford Smith at the 2004 General Election for the Australian Labor Party and was selected as Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment, Heritage and the Arts. On Thursday, 29th November 2007, Labor Prime Minister elect Kevin Rudd named Garrett Minister for Environment, Heritage and Arts. The other members of the band continued to work together, but not under the Midnight Oil name, bringing the band's career to a close. After a warm up gig the previous evening at the Manly-Warringah Leagues Club the band, including Garrett, reunited to perform at the WaveAid concert on January 29, 2005, to raise funds for the victims of the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The concert, which took place at the Sydney Cricket Ground, also included performances by Powderfinger, Silverchair, Nick Cave, the John Butler Trio, the Finn Brothers and others.
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