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Arts / Power and the passion comes to Tuggeranong

Midnight Oil… always a good match for conscientious Canberrans.
Midnight Oil… always a good match for conscientious Canberrans.

“OH, the power and the passion; oh, the temper of the time!” That’s Midnight Oil capturing the zeitgeist of Australia circa 1982.

“Sunburnt faces around, with skin so brown/ Smiling zinc cream and crowds,” it goes on, true blue Aussies, right?

Canberra doesn’t exactly own Midnight Oil, but it feels as if it does.

For one thing, it was while vocalist Peter Garrett was studying at ANU he applied for and got the lead singer’s spot. For another, with their impassioned championing of causes ranging from indigenous rights to environmental issues, “The Oils” have always made a good match for conscientious Canberrans.

Their influence has spread far and wide in the ACT. Local theatre teacher and writer George Huitker and his band Junk Sculpture regularly hold jam-packed Midnight Oil tribute gigs and I’ve walked into many school and college halls to find bands practising the 1987 hit “Beds Are Burning”.

John Shortis… “I really enjoyed exploring the interesting tonalities and the way their songs work”.
John Shortis… “I really enjoyed exploring the interesting tonalities and the way their songs work”.

Now Tuggeranong Arts Centre is picking up on this sense of ownership with a project themed around the touring exhibition “Making of Midnight Oil”. Developed by Manly Art Gallery & Museum, the show explores the band’s 40-year history, looking at Midnight Oil through stage props, musical instruments, protest banners, costumes and previously unseen film footage. There’ll also be events involving two band members, Rob Hirst and Jim Moginie.

In a canny move, the centre has commissioned Bungendore lyricist and music researcher John Shortis – half of the satirical duo Shortis & Simpson – to create a one-night stand of power and passion that pays homage to The Oils.

Shortis admits to being steeped in the overtly rebellious lyrics and music of the ‘50s and ‘60s, so was at first moderately daunted by the commission.

He’s been reading Peter Garrett’s recently published autobiography “Big Blue Sky” and Mark Dodshon’s “Beds are Burning”.

“I found it hard to get into, the lyrics were more oblique, you have to read into the words of ‘Power and Passion’,” he tells “CityNews”.

In songs such as the 1990 “Blue Sky Mining”, he says the social message was clearer.

“But I really enjoyed exploring the interesting tonalities and the way their songs work,” he says.

The first half of the show will focus on The Oils’ catalogue while the second half will zero in through the wider political lens, with Shortis reprising Whitlam’s 1972 campaign song “It’s Time”. Anecdotes will be intertwined with personal stories and he will also sing “In the Valley” about the deaths of Garrett’s parents and “Home” about Moginie’s search for his birth mother.

“The Power and the Passion”, Tuggeranong Arts Centre, 7.30pm, Friday, March 18. Bookings to tuggeranongarts.com or 6293 1443. “Making of Midnight Oil” exhibition, Tuggeranong Arts Centre, March 11-May 14.

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Helen Musa

Helen Musa

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