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Published: June 26th 2022
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There we were in a taxi in Buenos Aires looking out the window as we do.
Then I started screaming...well not quite screaming...but I was leaning forward begging the driver...louder than he was probably used to.
It's not as if one of the front wheels was coming off like that time in Beijing...nor like the taxi overtaking around blind wet mud corners in Zigong.
Nor the tone I screamed at the soldier who boarded our bus in Tanzania who demanded my camera at gunpoint,
"You are not stealing my camera." This was unbridled excitement...like our guide in Uzbekistan yelling
"Luli..Luli" whenever a gypsy cart went by.
"Turn it up please...more...more...more"...my pleas getting louder and louder as he turned the radio knob.
Midnight Oil's "Beds Are Burning" belting out in a taxi in Buenos Aires...who'd have thought!!!!
Whenever I hear that track...it takes me back...to a taxi in Buenos Aires...and me pleading from the back.
Denise & I are reminded of times and places by certain pivotal tunes and seeing certain bands.
Like my first kiss as 'Pagan Baby' by Creedence Clearwater Revival played...seven piece rock band
opening their first bracket at a party in my loungeroom with 'I'll be Gone' by Spectrum...memories of where I heard 'Katy Lied' by Steely Dan'...Elton John's 'Your Song'...party days with Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon' and 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida' by Iron Butterfly...'Nut Bush City Limits' with Tina's long legs & Ike in a white suit with his back to the audience for most of the show.
Can't forget where I first heard Hawkwind's 'Lost Johnny' in my wayward youth...Frank Zappa and that smile...Led Zeppelin opening at Sydney Showground with 'Immigrant Song'...Split Enz arriving by helicopter at our first gig together...The Rolling Stones arriving in a carriage pulled by 4 white horses...BB King throwing sweets to the crowd...Wolf Mail, The Troggs, Russell Morris and John Mayall at The Basement...Geoff Achison & The Souldiggers at Street Market...16 years at The Great Southern Blues Festival...boogying out of a Dogan village in Mali...dance-off in a shed in Lalibela, Ethiopia...'Green Onions' in Red's Blues Bar with "Take off your coat girl...so we can see your moves" to Denise in Clarksdale, Mississippi...Heaven in the Queen's Lounge with Mr Sipp & Dave & Merry Jo Binkley in the Caribbean.
Hundreds of bands...thousands of grooves...thousands of
memories.
When a glass of water don't mix with 'The Oils'
Many firsts but none as bizarre as what prefaced the first time I saw Midnight Oil in my early twenties.
My mate arrives and asks for a drink of water before we head off to the gig.
"Sorry Peter. There's a problem with the water"...chasing him down the hall to the kitchen.
Note on the sink: "
Came home and held a strainer under the tap and this is what came out." A glass full of squirming greebies, centipedes, alien worm things...real shudder stuff.
Like a triffid sting...Peter's hand telescoping...grasping the glass...salut exclaiming
"Protein"...to his lips then down the hatch.
My
"Noooooooo" drowned by my horror and him smacking his lips.
And then my three flatmates came home.
Trevor with a smirk,
"How funny was my joke?" "What joke?" "That glass of water on the sink. There is nothing wrong with the water. Those wrigglies are to feed my fish. Wasn't that funny?"
"You think that's funny?" Pointing at Peter...
"He drank them!!!".
Will never forget the expression on Peter's face.
At the Midnight Oil concert...in a park at Castle Hill...me dancing the night
away...Peter too busy cracking onto chicks.
Can't recall ever seeing Peter again after that night.
I wonder if it was the "Protein".
When I see Midnight Oil...always reminds me of his salut and drinking that!!!
Midnight Oil in Orange Time warp forward to February 2022...few days after
'Unfinished Business...Icehouse Red Hot Summer Tour' (my last blog)...phone rings.
"Anita here. Scott and I want to know if you want to join us for Midnight Oil this weekend. We have two spare tickets . Gordon and Lisa can't go."
"Sounds great."
"I should tell you it's in Orange. That's about a four hour drive. Scott's prepared to drive you."
Unfortunately no rooms in the inn so we booked rooms in Bathurst (an hour drive from Orange) and went in separate cars over the Blue Mountains and onto the Western Plains.
The gig was at Hereford Estate...a winery with no beef cattle in sight...in Scott's car parking with the masses...never seen so many white plastic chairs.
On entry they tried to confiscate my camera (Sony NEX6 with 18-200 mm lens)..."Professional camera" they said..."Over my dead body you will"...young woman intervening,
"OK as long as its for your personal use."
Through the blizzard of white plastic chairs to our designated seats...about 70m from the stage...afternoon western sun ripping into us.
Last time I was in Orange was over 30 years ago...coming from Sydney for a court case...heavy rain ripping down and no one in the crowded streets with umbrellas nor running for cover...the sort of image one does not forget...all the suits sodden climbing the court steps.
The 2022 gig titled "A Day on the Green"..."The Oils in a sea of White Plastic Chairs" I call it...their "RESIST" Tour.
At 5:35pm Emily Wurramurra kicks off...a young indigenous woman making a name for herself...then Busby Marou at 6:45pm...second time in one week.
8pm the crowd stirring...the mass of Midnight Oil fans in their T-shirts from Oils gigs of the ages...not a spare seat...ker-bang...time to rock...time to dance...time to hear their protest songs ringing out.
This is the band that played on a rooftop opposite the Exxon Building in New York during the Alaskan oil spill in 1989...unwavering riffs and screaming vocals for social justice...demanding nuclear disarmament...action on urban & ecological pollution...indigenous rights...an
end to domestic violence.
Peter Garrett's vocals...Rob Hirst's power-plus drumming...sweet guitars of Martin Rotsey and Jim Moginie...bass from the late Bones Hillman now Adam Ventoura...Andy Bickers on sax and female support singers Leah Flanagan & Liz Stringer...this is a gig one cannot forget.
First met Rob Hirst when he was about 9 or 10...best friends with his older brother...no idea then that Rob would become Australia's best drummer...seeing him play the walls and downpipes in pubs...still remembers me when we chat over the years...later years with The Backsliders at blues gigs...great to see him with The Oils...great to see the band is back together again.
Backdrop of every social issue possible...storm on stage as only the Oils know how...'Rivers Run Red'...'Kosciusko'...'White Skin Black Heart'...'Blue Sky Mine'...'US Forces'...'One Country'...'Best of Both Worlds'...'The Dead Heart'...'Hercules'...'Back on the Borderline'...'Forgotten Years'..'Truganimi'...'King of the Mountain'...many of their 'Resist' album tracks and of course 'Beds Are Burning'.
Midnight Oil.
Pure Energy...'Power And The Passion'...expected to be their last tour.
Thanks for decades of memories.
Lest we Forget.
Relax & Enjoy,
Dancing Dave
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John Miranda
John & Miranda
Music & Memories
We couldn't agree more .... specific music will always remind us of our travels and moments in time. The Other Half dancing on the table in Melankas in Alice Springs to Whatever, Whenever by Shakira, an air conditioned in Tom Price with A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton on loop and New Zealand will forever be "Listening For The Weather" by Bic Runga or any track by Goldenhorse.