Midnight Oil’s final tour to rock Geelong in March

MIDNIGHT Oil have announced their 2022 tour will be the band’s last, and it will include a stop in Geelong.

The legendary Australian rock band will also release a new album, Resist, which will be the band’s 15th studio release since their formation in the late 1970s.

The tour will see them performing classic Midnight Oil songs from across their repertoire while also showcasing some new works from Resist, which engages with the issues of today and tomorrow, such as lead single “Rising Seas” that tackles the climate crisis.

“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,” Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett said.

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.”

Guitarist and keyboardist Jim Moginie said the band had played “intensely physical gigs” since their beginnings in 1977 and “we never want to take even the slightest risk of compromising that”.

“A lot has happened over the last five years. Much has been achieved and with the passing of Bones (bassist Bones Hillman) much has been lost, so it now feels like we’re at the end of a cycle.

“These will be sad and beautiful gigs but luckily we’re still capable of blowing the roof off any stage and that’s what we intend to do. You could call this a farewell tour, but Midnight Oil will still continue in some form or other as we’re brothers, family. We stand as one, dependent on each other and grateful in all the important ways that make great bands great.”

Although the Resist tour – which will come to Mt Duneed Estate in March as part of A Day on the Green – will be Midnight Oil’s final concent tour, the band says it will not signal the end of the Oils.

Each of the members will continue their own projects over the years ahead, and they remain very open to recording new music together in future and supporting causes in which they believe.

Midnight Oil’s hits include “I Don’t Wanna Be The One”, “Power & The Passion”, “US Forces”, “Best Of Both Worlds”, “The Dead Heart”, “Blue Sky Mine”, “Forgotten Years”, “Truganini”, “Redneck Wonderland”, “Say Your Prayers” and the 2020 APRA Song of the Year, “Gadigal Land” (feat. Dan Sultan, Joel Davison, Kaleena Briggs and Bunna Lawrie).

Diesel & Dust album topped the critics’ 100 Best Australian Albums Of All Time and its worldwide hit “Beds Are Burning” is one of the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll according to the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.

Midnight Oil will play at Mt Duneed Estate on March 5.

Pre-sale tickets and pre-orders for Resist go on sale from Tuesday, November 30. For more information, head to adayonthegreen.com.au/midnightoil or frontiertouring.com/midnightoil.