Midnight Oil have announced plans to reform and play “some gigs”. In statements posted to their website and social media pages, the five members of one of Australia’s most iconic rock bands confirmed the reunion and that they will be performing both at home and overseas, but gave little else away.
“We wanted you to be the first to know that the five of us are planning to do some gigs in Australia and overseas during 2017. It will probably be at least the end of this year before we know exactly where or when,” a post on The Oil’s Facebook page read on Thursday.
“We know it’s been a while but we wanted to tell you that the five of us are finally making plans to get together again for some gigs next year,” the statement on the band’s official website says.
“We’re looking forward to hopefully playing overseas and touring our homeland for the first time since 2002.
“We won’t know exactly when, where and what we’ll be doing before next January at the earliest so in the meantime please just ignore any rumours. Unless and until you hear about something from us you can safely assume that it’s not yet confirmed.”
Midnight Oil disbanded in 2002 after more than two decades of touring and chart success, both in Australia and abroad, with seminal albums such as 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Diesel and Dust and Blue Sky Mining.
Lead singer Peter Garrett pursued a career in federal politics, becoming a senior minister in the Rudd and Gillard Labor governments from 2007 to 2013 when he announced he would not seek re-election. Meanwhile, the other four members of the group pursued various other music projects, regularly collaborating.
According to the band’s website, Peter Garret will be releasing a solo album soon, marking his first return to recording since the last Midnight Oil album, 2002’s Capricornia.
Midnight Oil reformed breifly in January 2005 to perform at the WaveAid benefit concert for victims of the Indian Ocean Tsunami. The band also came together in March 2009 to headline the Melbourne half of the Sound Relief benefit concerts, raising money for vitims of the previous month’s disasterous bushfires in Victoria.
Oils fans will just have to wait and see if there is a particular motivation for the guys getting together again this time around, or if its just to make some good music again. Will there be another album? Does “some gigs” overseas include London, or perhaps even Glastonbury 2017?
