Burning the Midnight Oil on world tour
Midnight Oil Double CD – Essential Oils. Performing at Vector Arena Saturday 9 September.
Yes folks you heard right – Midnight Oil have reunited, are heading back out on the road for a global tour and are including New Zealand in their itinerary.
To celebrate this momentous and much anticipated occasion we have a copy of Essential Oils up for grabs.
This first truly comprehensive collection from the Aussie, alternative rock legends, Essential Oils boasts 36 remastered tracks, featuring at least one from every album, including the early EPs Bird Noises and Species Deceases.
Organised chronologically, the set dutifully charts the band’s rise to international fame, from the nervy, punk/new wave attack of their 1978 debut to the soaring, politically charged alt-rock of 2002’s Capricornia.
Adorned with rare images and liner notes from Rolling Stone senior Editor David Fricke, Essential Oils provides the perfect entry point for newbies, a solid collection for casual listeners wondering what else that Beds Are Burning act from the ‘80s was all about, and a smartly-paced anthology for long-time fans who have kept the flame alive over the decades
For the uninitiated there’s a stack of songs that you’ll instantly recognise as hailing from the Oils (as they are affectionately referred to by their fans), extensive catalogue of material.
Songs such as Back On The Borderline, Read About It, Power And The Passion, Dreamworld, The Dead Heart, Blue Sky Mine, Forgotten Years, King Of The Mountain, One Country, Truganini and My Country, to name but a few.
Songs that made not only Australia but also New Zealand and indeed the rest of the world, sit up, listen and take note.
The aptly named The Great Circle Tour will see the band drawing attention to issues affecting the planet, including collaborating with Greenpeace on crucial issues like dangerous climate change.
The tour name also has a further meaning.
Sailors and airmen use ‘‘the great circle’’ to navigate across oceans because the planet’s curvature means the shortest distance between two points is not usually a straight line.
It’s appropriate for this band who have always been deeply engaged with the world around them but whose career path has never been obvious or linear.
Midnight Oil is still more than just a rock’n’roll band and in September at Spark Arena they will bring things back to where they all began. The circle remains unbroken. Tickets from Ticketmaster. Competition by Fill The House Tickets Project – proudly supporting families of children with cancer.
To be in to win, email your name, address and daytime telephone number(s), to hpfthcomps@gmail.com, with Midnight Oil in the Subject, by midday Wednesday August 23.