Next year, Midnight Oil are closing a chapter of their iconic career with their final tour from February to April.
Midnight Oil are one of the most ‘Australian’ rock bands this country has ever produced. Born from the Australian pub rock scene that gave us AC/DC, Cold Chisel and INXS, the Oils were able to break out of that scene without compromising themselves in any way.
Now the iconic Aussie rockers are set to hit the road one final time next year, closing their five-year reunion chapter with their final tour of Australia in support of new and 15th record, Resist, due out in 2022.
The tour will kick off in Newcastle in February with 14 big outdoor and arena shows on the initial schedule which sees The Oils playing their final farewell concert in their Sydney hometown on April 21. As part of the farewell tour, the band will perform two Victorian a day on the green shows, one at Mt Duneed Estate, Geelong on March 5 and at All Saints Estate, Rutherglen on March 12. They’ll also perform at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne between the two outdoor shows on March 9.
In addition to these shows, the band has already announced special appearances in Tasmania for Mona Foma 2022 and at Byron Bay Bluesfest next Easter.
What you need to know
- Midnight Oil will conduct their final ever Australian tour in February-April 2022.
- The Oils will return to Mt Duneed Estate, Geelong on March 5 as part of the tour
- The band have also announced their new album, Resist, which features the recent single, ‘Rising Seas’.
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Midnight Oil, who made a musical comeback in 2017, announced huge news on Friday morning, gifting fans news of a forthcoming album, Resist, before revealing the corresponding tour will be their final shows together. Signifying the end of an era, each of the members will continue their own projects over the years ahead and remain very open to recording new music together in future and supporting causes in which they believe. But, this will be their last tour.
“We all know time refuses to stand still for anyone but after many years together the band’s spirit is deep, the music and words are strong, and our ideas and actions as bold as we can make them,” frontman Peter Garrett said in a statement announcing the final tour.
“We’ve reached people in ways we never could have imagined. Our desire to create and speak out is undimmed.
“We hope everyone who hears this album and gets to one of the shows will come away charged up about the planet’s future, saying ‘why stop now?’. Having always tackled every tour like it’s the last – this time it actually will be.”
Resist, which was introduced with the incendiary single ‘Rising Seas’ ahead of the COP26 climate summit earlier this month, will be released in February and features the Oils’ final studio recordings with beloved bassist Bones Hillman. Hillman died last November on the same weekend their First Nations collaboration The Makarrata Project debuted at No. 1 on the ARIA charts.
Before his passing, he urged his bandmates Garrett, Rob Hirst, Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey to continue with their record and tour plans, and they recruited Adam Ventoura to fill his role on their Makarrata Live tour of Australia earlier this year, which saw the Oils take to Mt Duneed Estate for one of the first major live music events in the region.
Resist will be a fitting, forward-looking, statement for a band whose clarion call has always been “it’s better to die on your feet than live on your knees”. The tour will see them performing classic Midnight Oil songs from across their repertoire while also showcasing some urgent new works. As the title makes abundantly clear, Resist engages with the issues of today and tomorrow – like the lead single Rising Seas which tackles the climate crisis in a typically uncompromising fashion.
“A huge thank you to all our fans around the world. We’ve shared so much together from the swelter of Sydney pubs to magical nights under starry skies. Your energy took us further than we could ever have dreamed,” Martin Rotsey adds.
“To those down the front in the maelstrom, those at the back of the room singing their hearts out, and all of those onstage, backstage, and back home who helped make everything possible, we send our thanks.”
Check out the full tour dates below.
A DAY ON THE GREEN
Sat 26 Feb 2022 Heifer Station, Orange, NSW (Lic. All Ages)
Sat 5 Mar 2022 Mt Duneed Estate, Geelong, VIC (Lic. All Ages)
Sat 12 Mar 2022 All Saints Estate, Rutherglen, VIC (Lic. All Ages)
Sat 26 Mar 2022 Nikola Estate, Swan Valley, WA (Lic. All Ages)
FRONTIER TOURING
Wed 23 Feb 2022 Newcastle Entertainment Centre, Newcastle, NSW
Wed 2 Mar 2022 WIN Entertainment Centre, Wollongong, NSW
Wed 9 Mar 2022 Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, VIC
Sat 30 Mar 2022 Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adelaide, SA
Sat 2 April 2022 Darwin Amphitheatre, Darwin, NT
Wed 6 April 2022 Convention Centre Arena, Cairns, NT
Sat 9 April 2022 Sunshine Coast Stadium, Sunshine Coast, QLD
Wed 13 April 2022 Riverstage, Brisbane, QLD
Tue 19 April 2022 Stage 88, Canberra, ACT
Thu 21 April 2022 Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney, NSW
