Midnight Oil has just announced that they are pulling the brakes on touring life following their 2022 shows.
Take a deep breath… the heart is not completely dead just yet… This will not be the end of the beloved Aussie rock legends who formed in the mid-1970s… maybe… we hope… surely not.
The band announced a halt for the first time around nineteen years ago, following Peter Garrett’s conversion to politics.
The guys reformed unexpectedly five years ago with a world tour hitting the stage 77 times… not to bad for a few old blokes from Aus.
More recently, the Aussie icons released a new album collaborating with indigenous artists and a heavy focus on First Nations recognitions in the constitution. This album received a nomination at the recent ARIA awards.
The once long-haired surf rockers will release their new album titled Reist, early next year. This will be the first band-only record since 2002.
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The material on the album is heavily biased on issues such as the climate crisis, inspiring their first single Rising Seas.
Some tracks will even feature the final recording made by the band’s bass player Bones Hillman, who passed a year ago.
The band has come out in a public statement saying the songwriting members (Peter Garrett, Rob Hirst, Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey) would be “very open” to recording new music and supporting causes collaboratively, however, 2022 “will be their last tour.”
Time, that mysterious, inescapable force of nature is upon us. Big love to my family, brothers in music, managers, crew, back of house teams, and, Midnight Oil fans around the world. Onwards! https://t.co/o9qPO75LwG https://t.co/GqzvAiCbhR
— Peter Garrett (@pgarrett) November 25, 2021
Their hair may be thinning but their spirits are as powerful as ever, with Moginie quoting, “we’re still capable of blowing the roof off any stage, and that’s what we intend to do.”
It is fair to say the band will not let these be their forgotten years.
Adding to the band’s list of one music and one political retirement, they released the statement with Garrett quoting, “we all know time refuses to stand still for anyone.”
