Original subtitles

Downloaded from YTS.MX

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

[audience cheering, applauding faintly]

[audience] Oils, Oils!

Oils! Oils!

Oils, Oils!

Oils! Oils!

-["We Resist" playing] -[audience] Oils, Oils!

-[indistinct chatter] -[audience] Oils, Oils!

Oils! Oils!

Oils, Oils!

[indistinct chatter]

[Peter] It's life.

[camera whirring]

-[Peter] It's politics. -[car horn honking]

Why don't you talk to us?

♪ Free market And labour rights♪

[Peter] It's music. It's action.

[audience cheering]

[Peter] It's boisterous. It's sometimes provocative.

♪ Women's vote And hunger strikes♪

[Peter] It's Midnight Oil.

[indistinct chatter]

[Martin] You need to lend your voice to things.

You can't stay silent.

[woman] Hey, we buy your shit!

[Martin] Let's run the risk of being knocked down a bit.

Lend your voice. More people need to do that.

♪ Please don't say That nobody...♪

[reporter] The Prime Minister again refused to make

an official apology for the Stolen Generation.

[indistinct chatter]

[Jim] Sometimes you've got to take the hardest line.

♪ Standing up to those Who sell fear♪

[Jim] If someone said to do something,

we say, "Well, no, we're not going to do that."

-[car engine revving] -[camera whirring]

[Jim] And I think that was part of us

being a difficult bunch of bastards.

[camera whirring]

[Rob] The band is constantly curious,

constantly moving.

Not always in favour.

Not always delivering the message

that people want to hear.

♪ We resist♪

[audience cheering]

[Rob] We wanted to write material

that hits you right in the face and say,

"This is the truth.

"We're not skirting the truth here."

[car engine revving]

[audience cheering]

♪ Only if♪

♪ We resist♪

[reporter 2] The people of Australia go to the polls today

to elect a new federal government.

About six and a half million electors are entitled to vote...

-["Lucky Country" playing] -[lawn mower whirring]

♪ Speed♪

[indistinct chatter]

♪ And, and this♪

[Nick] If you were a kid

in Australia in the early '70s,

it seemed like you were living in paradise.

[indistinct chatter]

[Nick] People said it was "the lucky country".

-And maybe it was. -[children exclaiming]

♪ It's so tough♪

-[crowd exclaiming] -[Nick] But somehow

we could feel the bullshit behind that line.

[phone ringing]

[Nick] It was like the whole the country

was creaking under the weight of all the things

that weren't being said.

-[machines whirring] -[indistinct clamouring]

♪ We're all looking For an easy way♪

[Nick] We knew something wasn't being told to us

and we really wanted to hear someone say it.

[indistinct clamouring]

[protester] Kicking the establishment!

[protesters] We want jobs!

We want jobs! We want jobs!

[mid-tempo music playing]

[Martin] I was at school with Rob.

I didn't know that many people that played music

in those days,

so you'd seek those people out.

He had a band.

It was just Rob, Andrew James and Jim...

...and I think they were called Swampy Moose.

I remember I was just blown away.

I just loved the sound that they were making.

-[young Jim] Swampy Moose! -[guitar playing]

[Jim] I was about ten or 11 and I was told I was adopted.

[young Jim] Sounding great, Martin!

[Jim] It was a bit of a shock, as it always is with people,

and I kind of lost my way a bit at that point

because I thought everything

was a certain way, but actually

it just wasn't any more.

And then the music came along

and that was my saving grace, really.

[young Jim] Repeat! [chuckles]

And we're done!

[Rob] There'd never be any Midnight Oil music at all

had Jim not been guiding it.

We just kind of hit it off immediately

and actually almost, on day one,

started writing songs together.

-[guitar playing] -[indistinct chatter]

[Jim] We loved that whole sort of surf culture

and a lot of it sort of came from that.

Bands like Tamam Shud and guitar bands.

Daddy Cool, I mean, I thought

they were a fantastic guitar band.

[Rob] I was singing behind the drums.

It was... was horrendous,

and it was clear that, you know, singing and playing

behind the kit wasn't cutting it for much longer.

So we held auditions in the...

...in the science auditorium at Grammar.

[upbeat music playing]

[Rob] The only person who actually answered the ad

was this fellow

who was a couple of years older than us,

who had long blond hair and was already driving.

He turned up in an old Peugeot 404.

-["Head Over Heels" playing] -[guitar playing]

[Jim] And he walked in the room

and saw these young guys on stage

fiddling with their instruments

and plugging their amps in.

And I think he thought

we were all just a bunch of teenage wankers

from the North Shore, which I think we were, probably.

♪ Head over heels♪

♪ Holding back The chills in love♪

[Peter] My musical life starts as a roadie cum student

who felt that he could do a little bit better

than whoever was up there.

They were very different kinds of people from me,

and I think they felt the same way about me,

that I was kind of remote and just surfing

and turning up and singing and jumping around a bit.

[Rob] Jim and I had a chat afterwards and thought

no-one would ever forget him.

[Jim] He seemed much more grown up

than the rest of us, I think, and probably still does.

[introspective music playing]

[Mark] They are a band of brothers.

You know, they feel incredibly collectively responsible

to the band and each other.

[audience cheering]

[Mark] Rob is literally the beating heart

of Midnight Oil.

Jim is like the artist in residence.

A lot of the music starts with Jim.

But Rob writes a beautiful melody

and Jim has a brilliant turn of phrase.

It's the way they work together.

Martin is the ultimate gatekeeper of the band.

The bullshit detector, if you like.

He's the glue in lots of ways.

-[audience cheering] -[screams]

[Mark] Pete's the chief activist.

Without his fine-tuning of the message,

without his visceral response to what's happening

with the musicians around him,

there's no Midnight Oil.

[mid-tempo music playing]

[Mark] But there's a chemistry at work between those guys

that even they probably can't explain.

The bottom line is that Midnight Oil is much more

than the sum of its parts.

It's like a body with four heads.

-[camera whizzing] -["Used And Abused" playing]

♪ I said♪

-♪ No, no ♪ -♪ Don't pick on me again ♪

♪ No, no♪

♪ You're losing All your friends♪

-♪ No, no♪ -♪ I'm going home to my♪

♪ Family and friends♪

[Rob] We basically formed as a kind of a prog-surf band,

but discovering the energy of punk

and then kind of surfing that energy on stage

and becoming, first and foremost,

a really strong live band.

♪ And I was taken to the man♪

♪ He said, "We're gonna make a deal"♪

♪ I was fooled into thinking♪

♪ That the paper In my pocket was real♪

♪ I said♪

-♪ No, no♪ -♪ You've been taken again♪

♪ No, no♪

♪ You're losing All your friends♪

♪ No, no♪

♪ It's just a matter Of sense♪

♪ It's just a matter Of sense now♪

[audience cheering]

[John] There was something about the period

of the Australian pubs in the late '70s

that was like some Darwinian,

natural selection experiment

that forced bands to get really good,

or go home.

[Rob] So that's when we started

playing French's Tavern,

just down the road from where people like

Radio Birdman were playing

with all this energy and anger.

And so we toughened up our sound.

♪ The smile of disbelief♪

[Peter] Midnight Oil was a do-it-yourself band.

And at the time, do it yourself

was the only way that you could survive.

["Back on the Borderline" playing]

♪ I'm back on the borderline♪

[Jim] It was exciting, you know, because

we were building a thing that felt very authentic

and the industry to us looked like

a bunch of shamateurs,

really just phonies.

And corrupt. Completely corrupt.

[Peter] And occasionally a large and fat gentleman

with sort of, you know, bad taste

in personal jewellery

would come around and say, you know,

"Mugsy says you got to play in Wollongong tonight."

[chuckles]

"Tell Mugsy..." you know, that's what we were like.

["Bus to Bondi" playing]

♪ Push-start That car tomorrow♪

♪ I'll take it To the tip yard♪

♪ Leave it as a metal wreck For cats to sleep in♪

♪ I'll catch The bus to Bondi♪

[Nick] Yeah, I don't know if Midnight Oil would have known

-we were out there. -[indistinct chatter]

[Nick] All these beaches were filled

with crazy young male energy.

-[engine roaring] -[Nick] It was pretty manic.

♪ I'm making an inroad To my one and only♪

[Mark] The extraordinary thing, I think, about

the band plugging into that culture

was mainly because of the manager, Gary Morris,

who was a surfer himself

and was just a master of promotion.

♪ Then I'll stop the games♪

[Jim] He was the bull bar between us and the industry

to sort of blast through.

♪ Then I'll shop At New World♪

[Jim] He was a hard-arse,

and so we all became hard-arses

a bit because of that.

[Rob] So we started off at the Antler

and the first night there weren't

very many people, maybe 50 or 60.

And then we went back a week later

and then there was about 150.

And then we started packing this surf pub out.

♪ I've decided I'm here to stay♪

[Nick] There's a bunch of kids who played out their best

life moments in that big smelly room.

We were young.

No-one was showing us the way to anything.

Nobody gave a fuck. We were the perfect audience.

It was a whirlpool of sweat and human bodies

and screaming.

Everybody just descended to the same level

of animal craziness.

[synth warbling]

[Peter] And I think, in those days,

we were just trying to stay alive,

sweaty night by sweaty night,

K after K doing it.

[Rob] Once we hit the road, you know,

in late '78, we didn't stop.

We played an average of 180 shows a year.

[upbeat music playing]

[Rob] And so these gigs dictated the kind of music

you could play.

The audience could dominate you...

...and that could have grave consequences

for the band, and the crew,

you know, it's lambs to the slaughter.

♪ Who can wear the fashion?♪

♪ This place is oh-so-hot♪

♪ I'm just part of this play♪

-[eerie music playing] -[guitar amp hums]

[Andrew] I had developed various problems.

Both mental problems with anxiety...

...physical problems.

I got an ulcer.

So I had to announce

that I would have to leave the band for my health.

It was...it was killing me, basically.

[Jim] You know, you had to be fit to sort of

endure the kind of workload that we had.

He wasn't sort of built of the same stuff we were.

[Andrew] There was no way that the band

could continue with me in it.

[Giffo] I wasn't out to change the world.

I was just a young, blue-collar worker

from the wrong side of the bridge,

you know, that sort of happened to join up

with these pretty smart guys

from the other side of the bridge.

♪ Playing games With the light♪

[Rob] He had toughness and like a tradesman attitude too.

And that very much changed the image of the band

just when we wanted to look and sound tougher.

["Run by Night" playing]

♪ We all run by night♪

♪ We all run by night♪

♪ We all run by night♪

♪ Through the night♪

[Jim] There was a lot of anger there.

The first thing that Pete did when he walked out...

...before we even played a note, he's destroyed the stage

with a mic stand, the heavy end of it.

[guitar playing]

[eerie music playing]

[Mark] Pete can do anger.

Pete can do fucking fury.

He lost his mum

when the house burned to the ground.

He heard her screaming. He couldn't get there.

I think if anyone witnesses their mum

being burnt to death,

it changes you.

His dad had died a year earlier.

Suddenly they had no money, no home,

and he was a single parent of his two younger brothers.

[Peter] The fact that I couldn't rescue my mum

and get her out of essentially a burning house

stayed with me and still... is still with me.

I know, rationally, that I wasn't able to do it.

It's the trauma of it.

And then there is how you cope with it.

[guitar playing]

[Jim] He was troubled,

I think, genuinely by the events

after his mother died.

And he discovered this incredible persona on stage.

[Nick] And the audience was ready for his anger.

They saw in him what they felt in themselves.

It was the emotional connection with the band.

It was the spark.

["Stand in Line" playing]

[audience cheering]

♪ Get around, get around All that money in the ground♪

♪ For the people Who don't deserve it now♪

[Peter] But by the late '70s, right-wing governments

were back in power.

Young people were quite marginalised

and didn't have a voice, quite often didn't have a job.

And we didn't have any money either. [chuckles]

So we knew what it was like.

♪ Everything's set Everything's fine♪

♪ You just got to Stand in line♪

[Nick] So much of Australian culture

at the time, which was rejecting us

and saying, "Oh, no, you're dole bludgers.

"Oh, no, you can't have a job.

"Oh, no, you can't have an imagination.

"Oh, you can't have any of that,

"you know, because life wasn't meant to be easy."

I mean, let's face it, if we taxpayers

are not paying tax, how would the bludgers

in our society continue to cop the dole?

[man] Who are the bludgers in our society?

People who won't get off their backsides

and bloody will go out and work.

♪ Everything's set Everything's fine♪

♪ You just got to Stand in line♪

♪ Everything's set Everything's fine♪

♪ You just got to Stand in line♪

[Tanya] It felt very, very serious and political

to be singing the words to those songs,

but it still felt kind of young

and carefree at the same time.

I don't know how both of those things could coexist,

but they did.

[guitar playing]

♪ Everything's set Everything's fine♪

♪ Just got to Stand in line♪

[screams]

♪ Everything's set Everything's fine♪

♪ You just got to Stand in line♪

[Nick] When we heard those songs,

we knew straightaway

that those songs were about us.

And what could be more seductive

than hearing your band write songs for you,

about you,

when no-one else was paying attention?

[lead guitar playing]

-See you later! -[audience cheering]

-[guitar music playing] -[indistinct chatter]

[Jim] The industry didn't really

take to us that well, they didn't get it.

Proggy music with this weird bald guy jumping around.

[upbeat music playing]

[Martin] I don't remember ever getting

any airplay, really, at all.

[audience cheering]

[Martin] Luckily, we had this great live audience

that were there to keep us going.

[Jim] The audience were everything to us.

Like, you know, we wanted to give them

everything we had.

Musically blitz them, hurl stuff at them,

-you know, in big lumps. -["No Reaction" playing]

♪ Are we going to be The winners or the losers?♪

[Martin] We'd really just decided

we just wanted to make our own music

and not think about the commercial aspects of it.

♪ We're getting no reaction♪

[audience cheering]

♪ We haven't heard a word♪

We sent the Blue album to the radio stations,

you know, and they didn't want to play it.

We're not in it for the money,

but if we're going to be playing like this,

we want to do it our own special home-grown way.

-[audience cheering] -And of course...

...they politely told us to fuck off and said,

"Look, we'll see you at the bottom of the barrel."

[audience cheering]

And the only thing that radio have ever really got behind

is the "Wedding Cake Island" song,

which is an instrumental.

What are your thoughts on that?

Well, it figures, you know, I mean, I think

AM radio in this country is unbelievably bland.

I believe that the majority of the music

they play on it is rubbish.

Of course, the story behind "Wedding Cake Island"

on the Bird Noises EP

was that I'd originally put a vocal over.

-Yeah. -On that.

Which was quite insane, but...

Yeah, well, I mean, unfortunately it was libellous

and obscene and, you know, basically we had no chance.

I think the record wouldn't have even been pressed.

So we pulled most of that out.

And then they played it.

[Peter] Stations like 2JJ, which came before Triple J

and some of the community stations

became incredibly important.

[Cassi] We play a very wide variety of music.

We play a lot of Australian music,

a lot of independent music of young Australian bands

that often don't get airplay on other stations.

Well, not until they become big and acceptable

and maybe get a clip on Countdown.

[upbeat disco music playing]

[disco song playing] ♪ I wanna be a superstar♪

[John] I think they're a band

that really fiercely believes in their own vision.

And when you have to step into the mass media,

you usually have to compromise it a little bit.

You know, "Don't say that, don't wear that.

"Turn that down."

And the way that they conducted themselves

was always proudly contrary.

They had this way of doing things

that was their way

and they simply weren't going to bend.

[Jim] There was an era where bands would go on Countdown

and they'd sell their souls to get on.

You could go on on Sunday night and have the performance

and then on Monday morning

you'd have a number one record kind of thing.

That was the logic behind it,

and they were the kind of kingmakers of pop.

[disco music playing]

[Rob] The producers of Countdown,

would have had us on but wanted to produce us.

We said, "No, that's not how we want to be seen.

"We don't want to be seen on the flashing floor

"with the really young girls - that's not our audience.

"No, it's not our floor either, by the way."

[audience cheering]

[Rob] So Gary, of course, went down there early.

He said, "This is how we're going to remodel the set."

They said, "Fuck off. This is how we do Countdown."

We said, "OK, fine," and backed off.

-[eerie music playing] -[audience cheering]

[Peter] The idea was that you couldn't break through

if you didn't go on Countdown, so it was a case of saying,

"Well, yes, you can and we will,

"and we'll show you that you can do it another way."

[audience cheering]

[Molly] I find musical snobness an absurd situation.

So I'd often argue with Peter. I'd say, "Look, Peter,

"if you're trying to get out your message,

"the people that are going to your concerts,

"you converted them.

"Surely, you know, with our audience,

"they're the audience that you can have

"some influence on and they may be taught something."

And he just could never see it that way, you know?

[camera whirring]

[Peter] Because everybody in the music industry,

with one or two exceptions,

for at least five years of Midnight Oil's career,

spent most of their time telling us why we would fail

and why what we wanted to do couldn't be done.

And we're pretty stubborn

and slightly determined and sort of thought,

"Well... [grunts] ...maybe not.

"Let's just see where we end up."

[introspective music playing]

[cow mooing]

[birds chirping]

-[sheep bleating] -[cow mooing]

[Peter] Glyn Johns, who produced Place Without a Postcard,

was a very, very well known producer,

came and just saw us and said,

"Look, come and record at my place."

[Rob] He was one of the producers

of the '60s and '70s.

Well, for example, he took the Rolling Stones in

for their first-ever recording session.

He produced "Who's Next" for The Who,

"Desperado" for the Eagles,

Joan Armatrading's albums.

And so that was our big break.

["Don't Wanna Be the One" playing]

[Giffo] Recording with Glyn

was a very interesting experience. [chuckles]

It was like a barn converted to a studio.

[upbeat music playing]

[Giffo] We were there just as the hay had been cut.

We helped him bale the hay.

And we had this old World War II style trailer

that had timber sides on it

and the hay kept falling off.

♪ I'm just like you♪

♪ We end up in home units♪

[Giffo] So I found some tools in his shed

and some old things, and I stripped the trailer

and rebuilt it.

Well, in between, you know, guitar solos or whatever.

♪ And I don't want To be the one♪

[Peter] Well, it's a quixotic record.

I think it's very, very Australian

in many senses, but it was made by a guy

that sort of would only work between

sort of 6:00 and 9:00 at night.

And then when he got full of brandy would fall over

and go out, shoot rabbits.

We'd be sitting there twiddling our thumbs

till the next day.

I mean, it was an impossible record to make.

♪ I cut up all the options♪

♪ And went running For my life♪

♪ And I don't want To be the one♪

♪ And I don't want To be the one♪

[Jim] And that was going to be the big thing.

It was going to break the band, and it didn't.

♪ I don't want to be the one♪

[Jim] And the record was rejected by the record label.

[audience cheering]

["Don't Wanna Be the One" playing]

[Andrew] Glyn Johns was a big-name producer

promising a shortcut to the top.

And it just didn't work for them.

They were gonna have to do it their own way.

[guitar playing]

[Jim] We came back under our own bat,

played in Australia for months,

tried to make some money to come back again to England.

[guitar playing]

[Rob] Then went back to London the next year.

We felt like we'd gone about as far

as pub-rock in Australia could take us.

[indistinct chatter]

[Rob] And the band was almost breaking up

-with frustration. -["Only the Strong" playing]

♪ When I'm locked in my room♪

[indistinct chatter]

♪ I just want to scream♪

[woman shrieks]

♪ And I know what they mean♪

[indistinct chatter]

♪ One more day Of eating and sleeping♪

[car engine revving]

-[indistinct clamouring] -[guitar playing]

[Jim] I think we just had in our minds to crack England.

We had a very unified front.

Slightly miserable and intense bunch of Aussies abroad.

We're all living together in the one house.

It was claustrophobic and relentless.

[indistinct chatter]

Tryin' to connect with an audience

in a place that really didn't seem

to want to know about us.

-[indistinct chatter] -[introspective music playing]

[Peter] Our backs were literally to the wall

and we were going to try anything and everything

to make the best record imaginable.

[Andrew] They were taking this huge risk.

They put their pub-rock sound in the hands of Nick Launay,

this post-punk kid that hardly anyone had ever heard of,

and they completely reinvented themselves.

[expectant music playing]

[Jim] Meeting Nick was terrific

because we just knew from the stuff

he was playing us with Kate Bush

and the stuff he was doing was much more out there

than anyone in Australia was capable of producing

at that time.

[Rob] Nick was sort of like this hyperactive stick insect,

you know, with his long limbs, and, you know, he was just

so obviously excited about new music

and about the new technologies coming in.

[button clicks]

[Nick] I mean, I'm not a musician.

To this day, I'm not a musician, but I am a huge fan of music.

And I'm really into sounds, and I thought,

"Well, I can control how they sound

"through the desk.

"I can basically fuck this up."

[chuckling] "I can fuck shit up for them.

"In a good way."

[upbeat music playing]

[Nick] I was like, "Hey, Rob, don't play the hi-hat

"because I can't get the drum sound I want.

"I want to get this bombastic drum sound.

"If you play the hi-hat,

"it sounds like two big dustbin lids."

[upbeat music playing]

[Nick] Imagine that - imagine you've got this great drummer

who's got a great groove

and this 20-year-old,

you know, starts saying,

"Can you play it without the hi-hat?" you know?

We actually used a drum machine,

which was almost like blasphemy.

He was pretty pissed off.

[upbeat music playing]

[Rob] I wasn't coping very well, to be honest.

I was...

...at one point rushed off to hospital

with-- I thought I was dying.

It was, of course, was a panic attack.

[camera whirring]

[Rob] I think the pressure manifested itself

with the musicians in different ways.

In my case, I think combination

of not having the family and friend support,

of being deeply unhappy with some of the things

that the band were doing.

[eerie music playing]

[Rob] I'd gone for a big run directly before

just to sort of ease these anxieties,

these panic attacks that I was having...

...and I sort of walked in the door and it was all there.

And he said, "Where have you been"?

You know? So I go... You know, I go.

And so I just threw myself,

straight off this run, at the drums.

[drum kit and drum machine playing]

[Rob] But when I hear back to the album, I hear me

and the performance I gave

as someone actually driven pretty much to the edge.

[drum kit and drum machine playing]

["Power and the Passion" playing]

♪ Oh-oh The power and the passion♪

♪ Oh-oh The temper of the time♪

♪ Oh-oh The power and the passion♪

♪ Sometimes you've got to Take the hardest line♪

[Peter] We brought 10 to 1 home,

absolutely uncertain of what people would think of it.

You know, you just got no idea

how people are going to respond.

["Power and the Passion" playing]

-[audience cheering] -[guitar music playing]

[Richard] I got to see the first shows

for the 10, 9, 8 Tour at the Capitol Theatre

and it was incredible.

-[guitar playing] -[audience cheering]

[Richard] Well, most bands work up to fifth gear

through a set list.

Midnight Oil started in fifth gear

within 30 seconds of that performance.

["Only the Strong" playing]

♪ When I'm locked in my room♪

♪ I just want to scream♪

♪ And I know what they mean♪

♪ One more day Of eating and sleeping♪

[audience cheering]

[Nick] You're standing in a room. You're not running.

You're still, yet when you listen to music like that,

you feel like you're going at 100 miles an hour.

♪ When I'm locked in my room♪

♪ I just want to scream♪

♪ And I know what they mean♪

♪ Only the strong♪

♪ Only the strong♪

♪ Only the strong♪

♪ Only the strong♪

[guitar playing]

[Nick] You know, everybody in the band

is just a phenomenal musician.

[guitar playing]

[Nick] There is no better two guitar players

in a band than Jim and Martin.

I mean, the way they play off each other

is absolutely unique.

[guitar playing]

[Jim] We felt it was the first record

that we were really kind of proud of.

[Rob] It was a real breakthrough.

Took off big-time.

Three years later, we were still in the top ten.

[guitar playing]

[audience cheering]

[Peter] Thank you.

[soft music playing]

[woman announcing in Japanese]

[indistinct chatter]

[Rob] Once again, where can we put ourselves?

We're completely out of our depth.

And we're challenging each other for reinvention.

And no musical challenge was enough.

You know, so we set ourself

a ridiculous task of six weeks

in the Victor Aoyama Studio in Tokyo.

[indistinct chatter]

[Nick] Which is a very, very strange place

to be at the time - it's like going into the future.

[Rob] Members of the band went down to Hiroshima

and to Nagasaki.

I don't know if you've been to those museums

of what happened in those places,

but then you were confronted by this recent past.

You know, this is the past of our parents,

not even grandparents.

[reporter 3] The children of Hiroshima must go now

in search of memories,

to hear about the horrors of war,

to realise what they have in peace.

[bell tolling]

[Rob] My father fought the Japanese in the war

in New Guinea,

and the end of that war

catastrophically and very definitively ended

with the atomic destruction of those two cities.

But to actually be in those cities

and to walk around those places,

it was very moving.

And so there's songs

that reflect that from that time.

-[indistinct chatter] -[bell tolling]

["Harrisburg" playing]

[mid-tempo music playing]

[Nick] The one thing that became very obvious

when we were there was that Peter,

in particular, was very, very consumed

with politics much more than before.

♪ The Government said It might♪

♪ Harrisburg, oh, Harrisburg♪

[Peter] I was feeling quite driven

to try and get to the core

of what was actually going on in the world.

Why were we spending all this money

on these massive, horrible bombs

that you can't let off.

And the one occasion when they were let off,

they caused such destruction.

♪ There's something I must say to you♪

♪ You cannot get it out♪

[Jim] And that's when he realised

that he could make a difference in the world

and change things.

And we were already starting to do that anyway

within the band.

He sort of took the lead

and then he went off to become

the Peter Garrett we know now.

[reporter 4] One-issue parties

are normally doomed to failure,

but then again, even if it's one issue,

it's hard to imagine a bigger one

than avoiding atomic war.

And even if the candidate in this story

is a political unknown,

he also happens to be

one of Australia's best-known rock stars.

Peter Garrett, lead singer of Midnight Oil.

You know, the environment

and the environment that we live in

in Australia is just such an extraordinary, great place

that the thought of it being put at risk

by military policies of people that we,

for the most part, don't have a great deal to do with,

horrifies me,

especially when the ultimate conclusion

of those military policies is extinction.

I reckon we've got to do something about it

and that's why I'm running as a candidate.

♪ US Forces give the nod♪

["US Forces" playing]

[audience sing]

Alright. Alright.

♪ Bombs and trenches All in rows♪

♪ Bombs and threats Still ask for more♪

[audience sing]

[Peter] Australia is still contributing

-to nuclearism at the moment. -[camera shutter clicking]

So long as we have the bases,

so long as we have

weapons-carrying ships and aircraft

using Australia,

using Australian facilities and ports and airfields

and so long as we allow the mining of uranium,

we are part of the nuclear world.

[Peter vocalises]

♪ Sing me songs Of no denying♪

♪ Seems to me Too many trying♪

[Mark] Pete doesn't do anything in half measures.

You know, it's... he's either fully in

or he's not in at all.

And he wasn't just going to help around the edges.

He's got such a clear vision.

And with this, he could see

how marshalling young people was the most important element

of the Nuclear Disarmament Party.

♪ Now market movements Call the shots♪

[Peter] You see, one of the things that's happened

is that it's old people

who have got us into this state.

We've got a 74-year-old

president of the United States,

we've got 70- and 80-year-old leaders

of the Soviet Union,

and they've built this huge monster

and this is the monster which young people

in the world inherit.

And this is the monster

which young people are having to come to grips with.

[indistinct chatter]

[reporter 5] This week Midnight Oil are performing

seven sell-out concerts at Sydney's Hordern Pavilion

to no fewer than 50,000 fans.

No Australian band has ever attracted

such support,

and everyone we spoke to

said they would vote for the NDP.

[reporter 6] Will you be voting for him?

-Yes. -[reporter 6] Why?

-[chuckles] -[indistinct chatter]

Because...

...I want to live.

["Sleep" playing]

[Mark] When you look back at the press of the time

and the front page of every newspaper

every day, virtually, was Nuclear Disarmament Party.

Hawke was scared,

the Liberal persons, they were scared.

The Democrats were scared.

In fact, they all gave each other preferences

to keep Pete out.

The ALP, in an astonishing move,

has given its Senate preferences

to pro-nuclear candidates,

...the Liberal Country Party,

even to the Call to Australia Party

ahead of Nuclear Disarmament Party candidates.

An extraordinary, extraordinary action

for a political leader who professes

to be pro-disarmament.

♪ Waiting for the next big♪

[Peter] If I had got elected,

we'd all agreed, even me, that the band wouldn't stop.

-[upbeat music playing] -[audience cheering]

♪ We're waiting♪

[Peter] How that would have manifested itself

through a term in the Senate is anybody's guess.

But I had too much music coursing through my veins

just to, you know, shut it off at that point in time.

♪ We're waiting♪

[Jim] I'm kind of glad that he didn't make it,

to be honest.

But at the time, we were supportive.

[audience cheering]

[introspective music playing]

[crowd whistling]

[Rob] It did feel like, once again,

throw away the rule book.

Start our music from scratch again.

[Peter] The normal thing for a band to do

would be to keep on towards the bright, shining lights,

but instead we went completely in another direction.

-[aeroplane engine whirring] -[introspective music playing]

[Rhoda] Midnight Oil came to the attention

of Aboriginal people

because the Warumpi enabled them

that entrée into the Aboriginal community.

Everyone knew the Warumpi

but they didn't know Midnight Oil.

["The Dead Heart" playing]

[crows cawing]

♪ We don't serve Your country♪

♪ Don't serve your king♪

♪ Know your custom...♪

We're less inclined to believe

what we read and what we see on the box

than we are to go out and experience firsthand.

And I think that Midnight Oil has always had

a direct relationship with the people

that it's played to anyway.

These people out here won't often get an opportunity

to hear or see a band like this.

♪ The true country ♪

♪ And that cannot be stolen♪

♪ We follow in the steps Of our ancestry♪

♪ And that cannot be broken♪

♪ We carry in our hearts The true country♪

♪ And that cannot be stolen♪

♪ We follow in the steps Of our ancestry♪

♪ And that cannot be broken♪

[intense guitar chord]

-♪ Broken ♪ -[indistinct chatter]

[Rob] It was remarkable for us,

but I think it was also

something quite... [chuckling]

...like those communities had never seen before.

["Helps Me Helps You" playing]

♪ My policy helps me Helps you♪

♪ Generosity helps me...♪

[Jim] We came in like a 747 jet.

It really wasn't going over well.

♪ Put your trust in me I'll help you too♪

[Martin] We carried our pub-rock sound

out there to the outback,

and it was a lot to take on in a tin shed.

[Gordon] Yeah, the community was a bit different.

Country music, gospel... A bit laidback.

So the Oils performance,

"Too loud, man!" [laughs]

[upbeat music playing]

[Peter exclaims]

♪ Blackfella♪

[Neil] But that was really good for them.

They became a great catalyst for their creativity.

They just had songs coming out of them

that included in them songs references to that experience.

They felt that they could write something about it.

♪ All the people Of different races♪

♪ With different lives In different places♪

♪ It doesn't matter What your name is♪

♪ We got to have Lots of changes♪

♪ We need more brothers If we're to make it♪

♪ We need more sisters If we're to save it♪

♪ Are you the one who's gonna Stand up and be counted?♪

[introspective music playing]

[Rhoda] When they first went out with the Warumpi...

...they're a group of white, middle-class boys,

lawyers and so forth,

and they go out into the centre of the country

to communities that would possibly make you feel

like you're in India or somewhere.

So you're looking at a different climate,

different landscape, different language.

Everything's different, everything's remote,

everything's tough.

[indistinct chatter]

[Peter] That's the ribs.

[woman 2] Yeah, that's the ribs.

[Peter] Yeah.

Not exactly like barbecue ribs, are they?

[woman 2] Nothing gets wasted. We eat everything.

The guts, the eyes, brains, tongue, everything.

[Mark] I think for most of the band

it was their first real contact

with Aboriginal people.

Their tour was a culture shock, essentially.

["Warakurna" playing]

♪ There is enough♪

[Martin] I don't think I really knew what to expect

going out there.

It was almost too much to take on at first.

I just realised there was so much to learn.

We didn't know anything.

♪ There is enough♪

♪ In Redfern as there is♪

-♪ In Alice♪ -♪ There is enough♪

[Jim] As whitefellas growing up in the suburbs,

it was a genuine moment of clarity.

I think a lot of what's wrong with Australia is the...

...it's a simple lack of...

...recognition of what happened here

with the invasion.

So, how many of the people's families here

would have been shot and killed in that time?

It's not that long ago, really, is it?

They just spread a bit of poison on a...

...piece of bread and give it to them.

Just like a dog.

-[sombre music playing] -[indistinct chatter]

[Sammy] The members of the Oils learned so much...

...I guess coming into NT

to learn from each other.

[Gordon] We took them on a tour of the Western Desert.

And they learned a lot from different elders,

from different communities, different languages.

You know, they felt "This is home.

"This is open space.

"This is free."

-And that's where it stuck. -[indistinct chatter]

-♪ Stand up!♪ -Everybody!

♪ Stand up and be counted♪

♪ Uh!♪

[Jim] Blackfella-Whitefella Tour was key.

I mean, we were radicalised by that trip.

We weren't... we didn't come back kind of going,

"Oh, yeah, hey, we rocked out in the desert."

We were, like, we came back going, "Holy shit!

"What? What happened?

"What was that experience?"

♪ Stand up♪

♪ Stand up and be counted♪

♪ Stand up Stand up♪

[Martin] Nothing has affected us so much as that did.

And once we'd been out here

and experienced that, it entered the band's DNA

and we were changed forever, I think, by that experience.

♪ Are you the one♪

♪ Who understands This family plan?♪

[guitar playing]

[Rob] We came back with a completely new way

of looking at the absurdity

of whitefella life in the big cities.

[audience cheering, applauding]

["Beds Are Burning" playing]

[Peter] And you end up with Diesel and Dust.

Probably our most successful record.

But for us, much more important,

an addition to our way of thinking and feeling

and seeing that we never otherwise would have had.

And which actually made us,

I think, probably just better people.

[Rob] Our whole sense of time,

spatial qualities, had been changed

and that's why the Diesel and Dust album has

so much more space.

[audience cheering]

[Rob] We realised that we could write

slower-paced music

on a single groove rather than hectic music,

which changed gears five times.

[Warne] I mean, "Beds Are Burning",

Rob started the song, I think, and then Jim contributed.

It's just, like, over six minutes long, the demo,

and it has no verses on it.

We recorded the vocal three or four times, I think,

and redid it for improving lyrical content.

I said down the talkback mic afterwards...

..."Boys, you've just recorded your first number one."

♪ The time has come♪

♪ To say fair's fair♪

[Giffo] I resigned when I was out

on the Aboriginal tour.

I burnt out. And I couldn't...

I couldn't play anymore.

I just cracked up. That's really what happened.

I was quite sedated when I was sitting in that truck

doing "Beds Are Burning" with my beard.

That's how I felt.

I felt I was too sick to even shave, you know?

I was very sick there.

-[traffic rumbling] -[aeroplane engine roaring]

[camera whirring]

[introspective music playing]

[Jim] Well, when Giffo left, that was a real shock.

I thought it was forever with him.

And he did tell me one night he was going to go

and I didn't believe him, and he did, he did go.

[Giffo] Bones took over from me

and he's picked up where I couldn't keep going.

He picked it up and carried the baton.

-[bus engine idling] -[indistinct chatter]

[Rob] What happened basically was

we were caught unaware that the songs

about Aboriginal people in Australia would find

an acceptable listening audience overseas.

And then we went on the road and we got in the bus

and we were shuttled all around the United States

and Canada and Europe.

-[audience cheering] -[MC] Please welcome

Midnight Oil!

♪ How can we dance When our earth is turnin'?♪

♪ How do we sleep While our beds are burnin'?♪

[Connie] With "Beds Are Burning", it erupted.

We started going into major, major concert halls

and major outdoor shows.

And instead of playing number, you know,

third from the top, you are at the top.

♪ How do we sleep While our beds are burnin'?♪

♪ The time has come To say fair's fair♪

♪ To pay the rent now To pay our share♪

[man 2] You got to wind it on twice, Jodie.

♪ The time has come♪

[Rob] Australian band like us

should never have gone to England.

We should have immediately gone to France

or Germany or Canada.

I was at my happiest playing in those countries.

♪ To pay our share♪

♪ The time has come♪

♪ A fact's a fact♪

♪ It belongs to them♪

[audience] ♪ Let's give it back♪

[guitar playing]

♪ How can we dance When our earth is turnin'?♪

[acoustic guitar playing]

[Rob] Each of the bass players that we had

brought something different to the party.

Bones, kind of, I always think saved the band in one way.

Although he didn't play as hard as Giffo,

or as technically proficiently as Bear

with a background more in Kiwi pop

played on "Counting the Beat" obviously.

["Counting the Beat" playing]

♪ I'm thinking about you♪

♪ I'm thinking about me♪

[Rob] Here comes Bones

modelling the latest in Lakewood fashions.

Oh! [chuckling]

He's gone off for a pee.

[Rob] He brought a sense of fun

and not taking ourselves so seriously,

which the band desperately needed.

Particularly on those long,

three-month, you know, bus hikes.

Worst band in the world!

[Rob] And Bonesy would just send the whole thing up

and reduce us to tears of laughter.

And that was as important as his musical contribution.

We can go and play in Berlin to 7,500 people

and with a dying rig.

[all laughing]

[Rob] But he could sing. It was an angelic voice.

So he opened up the band's vocal capacity.

["Blue Sky Mine" playing]

♪ But if I work all day ♪

♪ On the blue sky mine♪

♪ There'll be food On the table tonight♪

♪ Still I walk up and down On the blue sky mine♪

♪ There'll be pay In your pocket tonight♪

[John] "Beds Are Burning" was the song

that put the band on the map around the world,

but they then had this incredible run

of song after song after song.

♪ There'll be pay In your pocket tonight♪

[John] "Blue Sky Mine" dealing with asbestosis,

you know, like all great hit singles do.

♪ And nothing's as precious♪

♪ As a hole in the ground♪

[machine whirring]

[guitar playing]

-[bomb exploding] -[introspective music playing]

[reporter 7] An oil tanker ran aground today

off the nation's northernmost ice free port,

Valdez, Alaska.

[reporter 8] One of the worst oil spills in US history.

[reporter 9] The oil slick from the ruptured tanker,

Exxon Valdez, has now grown

to more than 30 square miles

-and is continuing to expand... -[seal barks]

...throughout Prince William Sound.

[introspective music playing]

[Rob] Like most people, we were appalled by the fact

that Exxon just wanted to

really forget about the whole incident.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Rob] And we hatched this scheme

to do a kind of lightning raid right in Midtown Manhattan.

[indistinct chatter]

[Peter] We pretended that we were a video crew,

-sort of setting up to play. -[indistinct chatter]

[Peter] It was like a guerilla raid,

with split-second timing and fingers crossed.

And, you know, it's just one of those things.

You can either fall flat on your face

or you're gonna pull it off.

[introspective music playing]

Greetings, New York.

[audience cheering]

[Peter] This is Midnight Oil. We decided to play

some songs in the street for you today.

We chose a special location in front of the Exxon building.

I think you can work out why.

["Dreamworld" playing]

♪ The Breakfast Creek Hotel Is up for sale♪

♪ The last square mile...♪

[Peter] There's a cop that runs

that whole Midtown precinct who decides to let it run.

♪ Your dreamworld Is just about to end♪

♪ Fall♪

♪ Your dreamworld Is just about to fall♪

♪ Fall ♪

[Rob] And the copper said, "OK, you got one song."

Which we did, you know,

and the crowd started to gather

and the cops started to, you know, get into it.

And you could see foot start-- "OK, play one more. It's OK."

♪ Hey♪

♪ Hey!♪

[Rob] We ended up playing about 45 minutes.

♪ Is just about to end♪

[Rob] So the last 15 minutes

corresponded with Manhattan lunch hour.

And so the last 15 minutes,

this vast audience poured out of these skyscrapers.

[audience cheering]

[Peter] And before then, a special message for you,

a song called "Sometimes"

from the Midnight Oil Diesel and Dust record.

[audience cheering]

The key line is, even if you're pushed to the wall,

for the things that you believe in,

-you don't give in. -[indistinct chatter]

["Sometimes" playing]

[audience cheering]

[Jim] It's an important thing to stand up there

and deliver the goods,

you know, as we did at Exxon.

There's a courage that comes from having music

like that that you can play

and it's cogent

and it can reach people in a different way.

♪ There's a floodgate And a raging river♪

♪ And I say!♪

[Peter] We just happened to end up

with activist communities.

But once it picked up steam and momentum,

people were really landing stuff on us

from every corner of the country to begin with

and then every corner of the globe.

♪ Sometimes you're beaten To the call♪

♪ Sometimes♪

♪ Sometimes you're taken To the wall♪

♪ But you don't give in♪

♪ Sometimes you're beaten To the call♪

♪ Sometimes♪

[John] Throughout their career

Midnight Oil have been

not just willing to get in people's faces

but keen to get in people's faces.

♪ Sometimes you're beaten To the call♪

♪ Sometimes♪

♪ Sometimes you're taken...♪

[Rob] On Vancouver Island,

a company there were clear-felling

and we thought that was a really lousy idea

and a lot of local people and Greenpeace people as well,

plus the local Indian community

also thought it was a really bad idea.

So we did this dawn concert.

-[guitar playing] -[audience cheering]

Everybody in Canada ought to be aware

of the fact that

the international community of people,

particularly young people,

considers what's happening out here

to be a wrong

and are prepared to do something about it.

-Thank you. -[audience cheering]

-[man 3 exclaiming] -[car engine revving]

[indistinct chatter]

[Rob] And after the concert,

the loggers' families decided

that we weren't going anywhere.

We were actually wedged in by the community.

-[car horn honking] -[indistinct chatter]

[man 4] Did anyone push you away

from the logging truck?

Did anyone push you away from the logging truck?

-[car horn honking] -[man 4] Oh, you're gonna

-run us down, are you? -[man 5] Hey.

[woman 3] I think you should roll up both your windows

or you're never going to get through.

[Peter] I think it's inevitable

that if you stick your neck out far enough

for long enough, whoever you are,

wherever you are, someone's going to come along

and try and chop it off.

-[introspective music playing] -[indistinct chatter]

Hey, open your window. Why don't you talk to us?

-[woman 4] Get out. -You got no balls, or what?

[indistinct chatter]

You got your say. Let us have ours.

[indistinct clamouring]

Where you come from?

[indistinct clamouring]

[woman 5] Why are they putting everything on our car?

-[car horn honking] -[indistinct clamouring]

Come on out! Come outside!

Talk! [muffled]

[woman 6] Get out of the car, you idiot!

[man vocalising]

[indistinct clamouring]

[man 6] Well done, everybody. Full-tilt blockade, huh?

[introspective music playing]

[Mark] Well, there was a while where

the band felt part of the zeitgeist

that things were changing,

that community was moving with them.

And then there was this backlash,

this shift, this lurch to the right, a full-on lurch.

[crowd] We want John! We want John!

-We want John! -[camera shutter clicking]

[crowd] We want John! We want John!

We want John!

-[crowd cheering] -[Kerry] When John Howard

came into power

in 1996

and you'd had 12, 13 years of Labor,

socially, he wanted to lead Australia back

into a more conservative position, and he did.

-Order! -[Paul] Mr Speaker,

-give him a Valium. -[crowd chuckling]

[Paul] Give him a Valium, Mr Speaker. He needs it.

[Michelle] And one of the sort of surprises,

although I think it's probably

less of a surprise in hindsight,

is that that election throws up

is the election of Pauline Hanson.

[upbeat music playing]

[Rob] And I remember thinking

this... this is a game changer.

This is the beginning of something...

-[indistinct chatter] -...different and sinister.

I won the seat of Oxley largely on an issue

that has resulted in me being called a racist.

[crowd] Racist! Racist! Racist!

[Pauline] Just because you're an Aboriginal

is a weak excuse.

[intense guitar music playing]

We will decide who comes to this country

and the circumstances in which they come.

[intense guitar music playing]

[children] "It's a book for all of you."

Thank you...

♪ This story's right This story's true♪

♪ I would not tell lies To you♪

♪ Like the promises They did not keep♪

♪ And how they fenced us In like sheep♪

[reporter 10] For 150 years, Aboriginal

and Torres Strait Islander children

were forcibly removed from their families.

[indistinct chatter]

[Michelle] In 1996, the Bringing Them Home Report

had been released into the Stolen Generations

and had demonstrated the fact of Indigenous child removal.

And it also indicated the extent

of that removal.

[children exclaiming]

♪ The children away♪

[Mick] Aboriginal people were the only people

in this country

ever to be automatically

wards of state at birth because of law,

because their Aboriginality was perceived as a problem

and that had to be expunged.

The Day of Reconciliation was also marked by division.

The Prime Minister again refused to make

an official apology for the Stolen Generation.

And I absolutely repudiate it.

-[crowd booing] -[Howard] So, ladies

and gentlemen, I believe that the plan...

This is not an issue that should be manipulated

for political purposes.

[Peter] It had been

a very controversial political debate

for a number of years, and a lot of people

on both sides of politics

could see nothing wrong with saying sorry.

It was really Howard

and some of the extreme right wing

in the Liberal Party that were digging their heels in,

which was extraordinary and quite repugnant.

[Howard] We must not join those

who would portray Australia's history

since 1788

as little more

than a disgraceful record of imperialism,

exploitation and racism.

[George] It's going to be a big finish.

Cathy lifting!

Goes up to Graham, takes the lead,

looks a winner.

This is a famous victory. A magnificent performance.

What a legend. What a champion.

[John] Anybody who was alive

at the time of the Sydney Olympics

remembers how incredible it felt

to have the eyes of the world upon Australia.

[crowd cheering]

[John] The Oils took that moment

and turned it into a moment to make people stop

and think about who we are as a people

and the unfinished business that we've got.

-[triumphant music playing] -[crowd cheering]

[David] When we started working

on the closing ceremony, we want to do

this moment of celebrating Australian music,

and of course you couldn't do that

without the Oils.

[indistinct chatter]

[Rob] When the opportunity came up

to be part of the closing ceremony,

there was a lot of debate as there is always

with every Midnight Oil decision,

particularly ones involving a big public arena

and international audience.

It's all pomp and circumstance.

It doesn't sound like us at all.

It's the kind of thing we would never have done.

You know, it's like a giant Countdown.

-[introspective music playing] -[birds chirping]

[Rob] We actually decided that we would go back

to the desert and camp outside Papunya

in a riverbed for two or three days

and talk about it.

We felt like we could actually get our story straight

and see the big picture if we just got out

of the noise and the smoke of Sydney

and went out bush, under those amazing stars,

and thought about it and talked about it.

[Jim] And then it was, "Well, we're going to do

"our latest single. We'll do that.

"That'll be great publicity for the single."

Eventually we thought, no,

we've got to do the song that connects us

with what we're about to the world.

Then we can really drive the message home

and be Midnight Oil.

This way for city Central-bound train.

[indistinct chatter]

[Rob] And we told David Atkins,

who was organising the bands,

what our proposal was.

["Olympic Fanfare and Theme" playing]

[Rob] Atkins said, "We didn't have

"this conversation."

[David] The Olympics, as an organisation, no politics.

And we had that

very, very firmly... [chuckling] ...stated over and over again.

I was in the control room.

It was only me and the band that knew

what was going to happen.

[Rob] As we came out, even at that point,

the band was uncertain

whether we should be doing this.

And as we walked up on stage, this enormous roar,

the like of which never heard before.

[announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, Midnight Oil.

-["Beds Are Burning" playing] -[audience cheering]

♪ How can we dance When our earth is turnin'?♪

[Rob] And we did it.

And it was one of the most extraordinary moments.

♪ How do we sleep While our beds are burnin'?♪

[Rob] And people saw for the first time

what was written on the overalls

and the look on John Howard's face.

This look of absolute horror.

We knew that it was worth it.

♪ How do we sleep While our beds are burnin'?♪

[Rhoda] I get goosebumps thinking about it

and I could actually cry with pride.

♪ The time has come To say fair's fair♪

♪ To pay the rent now To pay our share♪

[Rhoda] And every single athlete

was singing that song.

[Peter] And I had a brief moment on the stage

of just pausing for a second and thinking,

"Well, this is something that, for me,

"in terms of everything that we've ever done,

"means a great deal."

[upbeat music playing]

[crowd cheering]

[Commentator] Midnight Oil, never afraid

to make a statement.

[insects chirping]

[Peter] Midnight Oil was always about the big issues,

but the question then became...

...how do we win the big issues?

And for me, having a second job

ultimately as a conservation activist

and working with organisations like Greenpeace and the ACF

was a way of trying to win some of those issues.

[indistinct chatter]

[Peter] And eventually,

you can't do two things really well at the same time.

[introspective music playing]

[Bones] I mean, we played so much, you know.

The touring schedule was huge for a long period of time.

[Rob] So we're all overseas,

we're all out of our comfort zone.

We all miss home.

Increasingly having families and small children

who came and went, you know.

Sometimes they could be with us,

but mainly not.

[indistinct chatter]

[waves crash]

[Jim] To be honest, myself, I'd felt

a certain weariness about it.

I had a few moments in Holiday Inns

where I was walking up to my room

with my guitar and my suitcase going,

"How long am I going to be fucking doing this?"

[Jim] Great hairdryer.

[hairdryer whirring]

Helsinki.

Eight more shows to do on the tour.

Here's the hotel room.

[acoustic guitar playing]

Trusty Dove, the video camera.

Jacket.

Guitar case.

Flannelette shirt.

♪ Trying to turn The world around♪

♪ Trying to turn the world Around♪

♪ Trying to turn The world around♪

[Jim] And you're, like, dragging the load

of who you were in the '80s around

and it's 2002

and you kind of go, "Well, what does this mean?"

You know, like, no-one wants to hear your new music.

They don't play it on the radio.

They just see you as this thing from the past.

[acoustic guitar playing]

[Rob] And I remember, you know,

one by one people going, "I don't think

"I can do this much longer.

"I don't want to do this," you know?

[suspenseful music playing]

[Jim] One of these gigs on this tour,

Pete just said, "Jimmy, I've had enough."

I think it needed to just stop.

And Pete... recognised that

and he was the first one to pull the pin.

And I think, when he did, it was a shock to some.

[Bones] We only had six weeks notice, really.

I mean, we'd toured United States and Europe,

returned home and he said that, you know,

"At the end of this, I'm done."

[Peter] They were brothers and they are brothers.

And we done something very special.

To take that other direction,

that was a day that I remember very well,

and it was a hard one for me.

[reporter 11] Midnight Oil, it seems,

doesn't burn forever.

The legendary Australian rock band has broken up

after the sudden resignation

of energetic frontman Peter Garrett.

A fierce and powerful environmentalist,

he's expected to devote more of his energy

towards his politics.

Come on in and duck your head.

[upbeat music playing]

Full of people, usually,

volunteers who come in and help.

Frida at the front desk today.

And she'll smile at the camera. No?

[chuckles]

[Rob] The band really never broke up.

Pete left.

And then it was up to the band to decide

whether we were going to, you know,

be one of those bands that will continue on

in some shape or form.

And I think, you know, wisely,

we decided that Midnight Oil was the five of us

and it had to be all of us.

[Peter] My headquarters, so to speak.

["Home" playing]

[Jim] Well, it was hard when Pete went into politics.

It was a tricky one to sort of learn how...

...to be without the band...

...behind you and with you, you know,

financially, emotionally.

Everything.

♪ It is a place I've never seen♪

[Jim] It's very much like losing your family.

♪ Where it is♪

[Jim] It was difficult to find my place in the world

and make sense of anything after I've been in it

since I was a kid.

I mean, I met Rob when I was 13 or 14.

♪ Where is home?♪

♪ Where is my home?♪

[Peter] Music and activism is partly about

shouting at governments and powerful institutions

either to stop doing something

or to make something happen.

Getting in government gives you the opportunity

to stop something and make something happen.

[upbeat surf music playing]

[Jim] Martin and Rob himself formed a surf band,

of all things, because I think we didn't want to

go around calling ourselves Midnight Oil without Pete.

We just didn't want to do that.

[Rob] So we formed The Break.

-Really enjoyable... -[water gurgling]

...and very improvisational

compared to the kind of nailed-down arrangements

that Midnight Oil do.

[Martin] The amps got smaller and smaller

because you had to carry them yourself

and just took us back to the very basic thing

of really enjoying playing music together.

You've been pretty much your own person up to now.

I imagine you've had to make

very few political compromises.

Do you have any real idea of what lies ahead for you

on Compromise Alley?

I do, and I know

that some of those compromises will be hard for me,

but I also accept that if I want to work effectively

in national politics,

in the alternative government or in a government in time,

then I'm going to have to be in a political party,

accept the rules of the party, follow the policies,

and express myself strongly and positively

in the party room but not outside of it.

Not on the media, not on TV.

I'm Peter Garrett, standing for Labor

-for Kingsford Smith. -[woman 7] Yep. I know

-who you are. -[laidback music playing]

[camera shutter clicking]

[Billy] You know, when Peter Garrett

became a politician, he stepped up,

he didn't step down.

He went beyond where very few of us would go.

[indistinct chatter]

[Billy] He took the responsibility for it,

because you can get away with a lot of shit

when you're in a rock band

and you can say all sorts of bollocks.

Keep the Frogs out and stop them bombing Mururoa too,

the rotten Frog shits.

[Billy] When you put on a suit

and you're on telly and you're representing people

and you got to take responsibility,

you're accountable.

[imitating explosion] There's not many people

in my industry who could deal with that.

[indistinct chatter]

I came into politics to make a difference.

It might sound as though it's the sort of thing

that people say when they enter public life,

but that is the fact, that's why I came here.

[indistinct chatter]

[Tanya] He knew he was giving up

-the demigod status of... -[audience cheering]

...the kind of political purity

that he could quite rightly claim

from all of his years of activism.

I will be Prime Minister for all Australians.

[crowd cheering]

[reporter 12] Kevin Rudd claims victory

in one of the most extraordinary

election triumphs in living memory.

Howard government removed from power

-for a Labor government... -[camera shutter clicking]

...a result which will fundamentally change

the political landscape in Australia.

[introspective music playing]

[Peter] I think that Australia

was a pretty conservative place

in some ways in those days,

as it still is in some ways today.

[indistinct chatter]

[Peter] And people have got to be fearless.

You know, they've got to stand up

for what they believe in

and be prepared to put it out there.

[crowd applauding]

On behalf of the Government of Australia,

I am sorry.

[crowd cheering]

[Peter] Having been on stage

at the Sydney Olympics and then in the House

as a minister, when the apology was moved

by the prime minister and read out

were probably two of the most meaningful moments of my life.

-Certainly my public life. -[all applauding]

-[introspective music playing] -[camera shutter clicking]

[Natasha] I suspect a lot of his fan base,

particularly that really rusted-on political fan base...

[indistinct chatter]

...at times found it challenging

to understand the mechanics of politics,

to understand that compromise

is almost an inevitable part

of wielding power and making change.

[Peter] Some people don't like the idea

of this wild, outspoken rock singer

suddenly, as they see it, being hobbled.

-I never felt hobbled. -[indistinct chatter]

[Peter] I understood what I was getting myself in for.

If you don't suffer a little,

then you don't get anything achieved.

-[audience cheering] -["Say Your Prayers" playing]

♪ Don't want to live in...♪

[Nick] He told them what he was going to do...

...that he was going to abide by the party's decisions...

...and they just didn't hear him.

This is his old audience. They're in their 40s.

But they had that golden part of themselves,

that golden idealism

which they'd given to him

and they just didn't listen to him at all.

♪ Say your prayers For the future♪

♪ Say your prayers For the past♪

[Anthony] If you're on stage at Selina's, let alone,

you know, Sydney Football Stadium,

then you're in charge.

[speaker] Order.

[Anthony] When you're in Parliament,

you're not alone.

-[speaker] Lock the doors. -[indistinct chatter]

[Anthony] You're there with the noise coming back at you.

One word the opposition leader said.

[Anthony] It's loud. It's full-on.

[speaker] Order! Order!

[Anthony] Politics is about power.

-Order! -[upbeat music playing]

-Yeah. -[Anthony] And someone

gaining power

is often at the expense of someone else.

-[indistinct chatter] -Now, hang on. Hang on.

[reporter 13] The Abbott-Bishop team

will now try to save

-the Liberals from themselves. -[camera shutter clicking]

You'll need this.

Sloppy Joe there went out

-all guns blazing. -[speaker] Order!

And the Coalition has vacated the field.

-[camera shutters clicking] -[indistinct chatter]

We have thrown our absolute all at this.

[upbeat music playing]

First woman, maybe first redhead.

[camera shutter clicking]

[Tanya] What we're seeing at the moment, this level of

nastiness, personal attack.

-You're a gutless loser! -Well, I'm here, mate.

Offensive words. Reflections on members.

-And it must stop. Righto. -[upbeat music playing]

[all laughing]

[Malcolm] Have a listen to the lyrics.

[Peter] I didn't realise we had so many music fans.

We are down the bottom of the barrel now.

[reporter 14] Resurrected, reinstated, revenged.

Kevin Rudd's second prime ministership

began the same way the first ended,

with a brutal nighttime ambush.

I wouldn't seek to serve in his ministry

even if he chose to ask me.

[upbeat music playing]

[Anthony] Peter. Greg Combet. Julia Gillard. Craig Emerson.

-All decided to go. -[indistinct chatter]

[Peter] If you look at the record

of the Rudd-Gillard governments

and including the stuff that I was involved in,

a lot was done.

We took the Japanese to court,

the International Court of Justice

on whaling in the Southern Oceans,

and we won that case.

You know, we stopped the Mary River Dam.

We established, you know, e-waste recycling schemes,

you know, a whole bunch of different things.

[indistinct chatter]

[Tanya] The work that he did as a minister,

particularly in the education portfolio,

I think is really phenomenally important

and will affect generations of kids' lives.

He's going to get less credit for that

than for any song he ever sang

in some respects.

And I think that that's really unfair.

From my friends and family

and also from many in the community

who provided support to me

over time as well, my deep gratitude,

and I wish all of you in this House

well in the future - thanks very much.

[all applauding, cheering]

[Peter] I think you've got to leave your comfort zone

if you really want to get stuff done in the world

and in your life, you just can't...

...think about "Maybe this isn't going to work,

"maybe we'll fail."

Go and do it.

-[crickets chirping] -[birds chirping]

[Rob] And so we'd all gone off doing our thing and then,

you know, not sure whether the band would ever play again.

And then after ten years of politicking,

I called everyone up

and asked the question.

[Martin] I really wanted the band to play again.

Who wouldn't, you know?

What a great band to play with.

[upbeat acoustic music playing]

[Jim] I was almost like, "Really? Wow. OK, great."

Pete's ready to do it, so let's do it.

[Rob] I actually didn't want that,

you know, the anxiety, if you like,

of the Oils to come back

along with all the great bits of the band.

And the decks had to be cleared

and then we move forward.

So it's about 30 years, isn't it,

since we played that song out here,

and that was just before

the Blackfella-Whitefella Tour.

Like, you never would have thought when we were

sort of taking off and doing all those pub shows

that we'd actually end up

somewhere like here, playing out where it's quiet,

-playing acoustic guitar. -[Rob] Yeah, it changed

everything about the band,

-I mean. -Absolutely.

[Peter] I think particularly at this time,

you know, there's a lot of really difficult,

challenging stuff happening in people's lives

in different countries in the world.

I think that

coming at music from that perspective,

with that kind of motivation and intent,

sort of feels to me like it's the right time

to be playing.

[Peter] We agreed to see what would happen.

Little did I know that it would take on

a completely new life of its own.

[audience cheering and chanting]

[John] The Oils forged this

unusually deep bond with audiences

because they never took the easy option.

So when the band came back, the fans were still right there.

[audience] Oils, Oils!

Oils! Oils!

[Nick] Didn't really feel like nostalgia.

It was... something stronger than that.

It was... maybe an appreciation...

...for so many years saying what so many of us kids back then

in the '70s in Australia

needed someone to say on our behalf.

[audience cheering]

[Rob] Songs played and conceived

and written by teenagers and 20-somethings.

And here we were in our early 60s

going out to do it.

That was one of my main apprehensions.

As far as the intensity and the speed

and the energy, the buck stops with me...

...just because the drumming is so much more physical.

[audience cheering]

["Read About It" playing]

[audience cheering]

♪ The rich get richer The poor get the picture♪

♪ Bombs never hit you When you're down so low♪

[Rob] 2017 tour pretty much sold out

within five or ten minutes internationally, I mean.

♪ The bosses want decisions Workers need ambitions♪

♪ Won't be no collisions When they move so slow♪

♪ Nothing ever happens♪

[Jim] You know we played a million people,

or something like that, extraordinary amount of people

that wanted to see us all around the world.

♪ What am I to know?♪

♪ You wouldn't read about it♪

♪ Read about it♪

♪ One unjust...♪

[Rob] I didn't want the band to be seen

as simply a nostalgic exercise.

You know, one more time with the same material.

I wanted us still to be seen as a creative force.

-[song fades] -[audience cheering]

[John] For any band who's had a long break,

the acid test is really going back

into a recording studio.

Will people still want to hear what they've got to say?

Will they be able to create something

that stands up to their earlier work?

[Jim] I wasn't too sure we could do it.

[waves crashing]

[Jim] I just thought... [sighs]

..."How the hell are we going to pull this off?

"We've got such a past to live up to."

And we went around for a songwriting session

at Rob's house.

He played straight up. He played "First Nation"

and "Gadigal Land" straight up.

And I was like,

"Holy fucking shit.

"You bastard. You've nailed it.

"And that is the Midnight Oil essence, those songs."

-[audience cheering] -["First Nation" playing]

♪ First nation♪

♪ First nation♪

[Rob] There's been quite a bit of water under the bridge

since the band made an album.

It's almost 20 years and quite a lot has happened

in the relationship between black and white Australia.

[Peter] Promises of a treaty that historically

had been made by a Labor prime minister, Hawke.

-[indistinct chatter] -That there shall be...

...a treaty.

[Peter] Which weren't fulfilled.

-[crowd applauding] -[Peter] We really felt that

that was such an important thing

that couldn't be let just fade away

and disappear down the plughole.

We needed to come back and recognise how important,

-how fundamental it was. -[indistinct chatter]

-[wind blowing] -[Troy] We leave base camp

and start our trek across this vast country.

We invite you to walk with us in a movement

of the Australian people for a better future.

-[audience cheering] -["Gadigal Land" playing]

[Martin] Then that became a very exciting idea

that we could have

First Nations people on that record with us.

♪ Welcome to Gadigal land♪

♪ Welcome to Gadigal country♪

♪ Welcome to Gadigal land♪

♪ It's unfolding You're unloading♪

♪ Your high and mighty Prison ships♪

♪ Ah ♪

♪ Welcome to Gurindji land♪

♪ All of your lands♪

♪ Oh, welcome!♪

[audience cheering]

[introspective music playing]

[birds chirping]

[Jim] It hit all of us very hard

because we were very close.

Even though he lived in the States, we were...

He was like a family member.

[Peter] He managed his departure

to that other place with an incredible amount

of bravery and dignity.

For him, his life had turned out to be

much greater than what he'd originally thought

when he was essentially a street kid

in Auckland back in the day.

And I was very heartened and very moved to hear that.

Anyway, we miss him terribly, as you can imagine.

But one of the things that he did say very clearly was,

he expected us to get out there

and keep on playing so long as our legs were up...

-[audience cheering] -...our hearts were beating.

And I figure if we're all standing here

on the stage today, that means

that there's more music to come.

[upbeat synth music playing]

-[machine whirring] -["Nobody's Child" playing]

[machine whirring]

[Rob] You know, some folks came to us and said,

"Have you been waiting for the political situation

"of the world to turn as shit as it is?"

-Do not shoot! -[indistinct clamouring]

[Rob] All of this happened to conspire at the very time

that the band was treading the boards again.

It's quite uncanny.

[indistinct chatter]

♪ Look around the world♪

♪ 'Cause nothing less Will do♪

[Martin] We've just had this wonderful time together.

In my mind, I'm not saying farewell.

I'm just out there doing it one more time.

♪ Nothing less will do ♪

[Peter] It's as much about leaving yourself

at a point when you're as good as you can be

and you're able to do what you do

as well as you can.

And that's an acknowledgement of human frailty and mortality.

There's so much flashing lights

this rocker can take.

[Jim] You've dedicated your life to something

that's amazing and bigger than you are,

but the band just means so much to me.

I would hate to see it less than anything than what it was.

Where is the line that you cross where it goes to that...

You don't know where the line is.

♪ Alright 'Cause nothing less will do♪

[audience cheering]

[Peter] Thank you for having us tonight.

Thank you for having us for the last 40 years.

Take care. Be safe.

We've cherished every second of it.

["Forgotten Years" playing]

♪ Few of the sins Of the fathers♪

♪ Are visited upon the son♪

♪ Hearts have been hard♪

♪ Hands have been clenched In a fist too long♪

♪ Our sons Will never be soldiers♪

♪ Our daughters Will never need guns♪

♪ These are The years between♪

♪ These are the years that Were hard fought and won♪

♪ Contracts torn At the edges♪

♪ Signatures Stained with tears♪

♪ Seasons of war and peace♪

♪ These should not be Forgotten years♪

♪ Still it aches Like tetanus♪

♪ It reeks of politics♪

♪ How many dreams remain?♪

♪ This is a feeling Too strong to contain♪

♪ The hardest years The darkest years♪

♪ The roarin' years The fallen years♪

♪ These should not be Forgotten years♪

♪ The hardest years The wildest years♪

♪ The desperate And divided years♪

♪ We will remember♪

♪ These should not be Forgotten years♪

♪ Our shoreline Was never invaded♪

♪ Our country Was never in flames♪

♪ This is the calm We breathe♪

♪ This is a feeling Too strong to contain♪

♪ Still it aches Like tetanus♪

♪ It reeks of politics♪

♪ Signatures Stained with tears♪

♪ Who can remember? We've got to remember♪

♪ The hardest years The darkest years♪

♪ The roarin' years The fallen years♪

♪ These should not be Forgotten years♪

♪ The hardest years The wildest years♪

♪ The desperate And divided years♪

♪ We will remember♪

♪ These should Not be forgotten years♪

♪ Years ♪

[audience cheering]

♪ I said It's the hardest years♪

♪ The darkest years♪

♪ The roarin' years The fallen years♪

♪ These should Not be forgotten years♪

♪ These should not be Forgotten years ♪

[Peter vocalising]

["Hercules" playing]

♪ My life is A valuable thing♪

♪ I want to keep it that way♪

♪ I won't cry♪

♪ My life's Such a valuable thing♪

♪ And some things Don't fade away♪

♪ But I don't mind♪

♪ We give the best We can give♪

♪ We won't forget We can't forgive♪

♪ Keep us radioactive free♪

♪ Strike a bell In Hiroshima park♪

♪ You know that We can't see in the dark♪

♪ We try and we try and we try And we try and we try♪

♪ Who waits For the planes to come♪

♪ When everybody's Got you on the run?♪

♪ South Pacific, carry on♪

♪ It seems to me That what we're saying♪

♪ Nobody wants to talk about♪

♪ This is no time To be wondering why♪

♪ I do the best I can do♪

♪ The human jungle And the global zoo♪

♪ I'll find my way It's a very special way♪

♪ Why wait For the planes to come♪

♪ When everybody's Got us on the run?♪

♪ South Pacific, carry on♪

♪ Here come the Hercules♪

♪ Here come the submarines♪

♪ Sinking South Pacific dreams♪

[lead guitar playing]

♪ This is something I will remember♪

♪ This is something I will Remember♪

♪ This is something I will remember♪

♪ Remember♪

♪ Remember...♪

♪ Why wait For the planes to come♪

♪ When everybody's Got us on the run?♪

♪ South Pacific, carry on♪

♪ Here come the Hercules♪

♪ Here come the submarines♪

♪ Sinking South Pacific

♪ Dreams♪

[audience cheering]

[upbeat music playing]

[song ends]

[audience cheering]