Oils Gig Reviews

Selinas, Sydney, 18th July 1998

After the opening song Peter sang a verbalized a short song for Mark Hunter. I did not recognize it, but it was an obviously sincere effort at a tribute to him. I only wish I knew / remembered the words. Peter wasn't as profound as before but more direct and powerful. The wheel produced two songs. Progress and Places. The funny bit was Jim was late into the song as he could not remember how to get in to it. Bones & Peter were giving him a go, obviously, while all but him were playing along.

Peter picked two people out of the audience this time. He made a request that he wanted a "volunteer" who never played rugby league, watched rugby league, watched the Footy show, dressed up like a woman, or ever taken drugs. "That narrows it done a bit" Peter said. Man I guess that answers his stance on rugby league. I love my footy too, what do I do!

The first volunteer he asked the girl where her parents were from, and their parents, etc, until she did not know. He has some subtle ways also of making his point. Later in, he called mentioned the "No Nation, No Brains Party".

The biggest bits were this "fax" he proclaimed just receiving. It read "To Peter Garrett, Midnight Oil. On December 10th 1948 the United Nations signed a human rights document, of which a copy is attached. They should display it at all RSL's, pubs, (on about ten different places including Pizza Hut) etc... He then read article one and later after several songs came back and read article 2. For reference here it is: http://www.unhchr.ch/hpage2.htm.

Article 1 "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

Peter really got into his "dance" during the closing P&P while Rob was doing his thing. He really gyrated across the stage like I haven't seen him in a while.

I met Rocco, the lighting guru. Pretty good bloke. I watched him during the show, which as described in earlier postings, is quite dominated by lighting and light effects. He showed me the show timings before the show. They have a PC that runs a Media player hooked to a VCR for the movie. One guy opened up a Word file, changed the setlist, saved it and printed out several copies on a deskjet. Annette and I saw Lucky Country and One Country back to back and we were ready to watch. I thought for a moment we would hear the triplicate if the wheel would cooperate. (My One Lucky Country). Forgot to ask for it when we left, sorry.

P.S. Thanks for the positive feedback on the feedback.

Remember we are not backwards down here, just upside down..

Rich & Annette - Powderworkers