Oils Gig Reviews

Arena, 14th Feb 1998

Gidday Powderworkers,
Saturday Night rocked in the Roxy or as it is now known Arena Entertainment. After a pleasant six hour drive from sunny central Queensland we arrived in the heart of sven country around lunchtime. After a few quiet ales at the Victory and a meeting with The London tourist (Olivier) we chose to hit the CD stores and yes we even managed to find hidden amongst the countless number of CD's a Second hand copy of the Ghostwriters first album which Olivier snapped up and I found a vinyl copy of 20000 watts RSL... boy this almost made our day's.

The night was balmy and the venue was worse, the bar queue was seven deep so upstairs we went, the queue was only three deep but they only had two staff working it... 35 minutes later we had the first drink... boy would this be a hard night.

A.C. couldn't cope with 500 people let alone the 1000+ that tickets had been sold. The Roxy had a couple of side rooms upstairs with bar as we quickly discovered and the A.C. worked a little better... needless to say I missed the two support bands although they still could be heard, but just not the same as being up front.

We introduced Olivier to the finer points of drinking but gee he took the English way of drinking a bit to heart... Warm VB's but that was probably because he was having trouble keeping up. Hope you enjoyed it anyway Olivier, it was great to have your company.

As the Oils prepared I managed to make it up to the third row on the right hand side just in front of the chocolate wheel and Martin but lost Olivier in the crowd. Before the band started the security was throwing water over the crowd and boy was it needed. The usual RSL start brought with it a huge roar from the crowd. The stage was set... the boy's came out and Forgotten years blasted the cobwebs out of the speakers.

Next song we were introduced to the wheel, Peter spun the first two times... Places Without Postcards and Read About It. They didn't seem to stick to the set list that I managed to score after the show !!!!! Earthbeat and What Goes On were next on the list. The wheel was next and Angie from "I'm not going to tell where" Spun up the Hand... 30 seconds for the crowd to decide which it was to be. The crowd all roared as one Hercules

Shakers... Free My Soul... Surf's Up Tonight. Wheels turn again and this time Kev Yates a fellow Powderworker was plucked from the crowd. With a request to play Wedding cake island for his friend who had just left for Switzerland, Peter said Ok and chose to change while the boy's played it. Of course peter first had to teach Kev the dance to go with it and he also plucked Julie who also had to learn the dance. The two then spun the wheel and up came Sons of Tomorrow I thought but Krusty said No Time For Games - one of us is right!!!

One Country... Don't Wanna Be... Blue Sky Mining. Then the techno version of Power and the Passion... I also thought they played the normal version earlier but once again I could be wrong.

"So long and good night."

Encore. Dead Heart. Dreamworld. Lights on and game over... I think the heat took it's toll. Peter changed his shirt probably four times. Long sleeve Black ... what's your excuse... Yellow Jabiluka anti mining ...Black anti-nuclear shirt. He also had a huge plastic box full of ice and countless bottles of water and Staminade to consume for the night. After the show I managed to have a quick chat with Kev and met the elusive Krusty... Although she still won't reveal her connection to the Oils.

I even asked her outright if she is related to Jim as this seems to be her source... but she can keep a good secret... maybe there's a job opening for her in the secret service :-) Overall a great night but I had two virgins with me... one who had never seen the oils and one who has never been to a concert before... Now before you say so what... they were both in their thirties and instant converts.

So from the six Gladstone people that journeyed to the big smoke. Money well spent and we will all return.

Actually any takers for U2 next week ??????

see ya's