The power and the passion: The Making of Midnight Oil

I first discovered Midnight Oil while flicking through my parent’s CD collection in the car, driving over the Sydney Harbour Bridge; with the windows down, the cool ocean breeze swept through my hair. As a young Australian teenager the music was incredible. Carefree and authentic. There truly is nothing else like it.

The nationally acclaimed The Making of Midnight Oil Exhibition showcases the iconic Australian band’s impact on social, political and cultural history.

And boy, does it deliver.

Walking up the stairs inside the Tuggeranong Arts Centre, you immediately hear echoes of that iconic Aussie rock n’ roll sound,

“How can we dance // When our earth is turning // How do we sleep //While our beds are burning”

Midnight Oil’s Beds Are Burning, from the album Diesel and Dust, 1987

On display is the enormous banner from their infamous daytime protest concert outside Exxon’s New York corporate headquarters which reads: MIDNIGHT OIL MAKES YOU DANCE, EXXON OIL MAKES US SICK. The band’s unforgettable ‘Sorry Suits’ that they wore at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games are also on display.

The exhibition, developed by Manly Art Gallery and Museum Curator Ross Heathcote in collaboration with Midnight Oil songwriter and drummer Rob Hirst, also features three specially commissioned film sequences by film maker Robert Hambling. These films explore the making of the band’s iconic 1982 album 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Midnight Oil’s vicious electric energy can be felt throughout the exhibition. Features of the show include draft lyrics, stage props, and musical instruments, including Jim Moginie’s much-loved Gretsch Roc-Jet and Martin Rotsey’s Fender Stratocaster which helped create anthems of the world. All while transporting you to another place in another time.

Every single wall within the exhibition is covered in old Midnight Oil posters and it features a wall of Midnight Oil t-shirts. Amid the extraordinary variety of paraphernalia is a replica stage from their Diesel and Dust tour, which includes Rob Hirst’s water tank, a life sized dingo and kangaroo, and Peter Garrett’s ridiculously tall microphone, among other instruments.

Oozing authenticity and the faint scent of  stale beer, there stands an old Midnight Oil road case. Upon entering you are taken right back to one of the band’s early gigs at The Royal Antler, Narrabeen. Close the curtains, and you are practically there. Plastic elbows provide that overly-packed bar feeling, amplified pub chatter and that sticky pub floor feeling completes the experience. Staff inform me that swills of beer keep the carpet appropriately smelly and sticky.

The Making of Midnight Oil encapsulates the exhilaration of hearing Midnight Oil for the first time. And the only thing missing? The band itself. Everything else is done so perfectly and completely right.

The power and the passion… Yes, Midnight Oil have still got it. And the world won’t stand still – so be quick, The Making of Midnight Oil is a free exhibition currently on show at the Tuggeranong Arts Centre until May 14.

Words and images by Ali Gillett.