Bernard Bosanquet

@rohan_connolly 25 chronos P’works Used/Abused Run/Night CC Change B’line No React S I Line Is It Now Games Knife Edge Don’t Wanna Brave Faces Written Heart Quin Hol/Loves Sale Ned L Country The Strong Read About it Power/Passion Tin-legs Both Worlds Hercules Dead Heart F’gotten Yrs Truganini

Midnight Oil’s drummer Rob Hirst died on Tuesday, and as you might expect, it’s a loss which has resonated deeply in the world of Australian music, indeed Australian cultural life generally, so inextricably were they bound to this country’s landscape in the 1980s and ‘90s. I suspect I’m far from the only one who has been a little teary about the news, inevitably dragging out the old Oils’ classics, whether the studio stuff or concert footage, for another trip down memory lane. Rob’s passing had been coming a while since his cancer diagnosis and yet it was still a real shock. He always seemed so youthful for his age, so fit and strong. So many people have said to me over the last few days “this one really hurts”. It really does. I was lucky enough to meet him about 10 years ago after hearing him give a marvellous talk about the Oils. He was incredibly friendly and generous with his time, and had some lovely things to say about my late muso brother Steve, whom he’d bumped into at various stages on the road. Watching Rob behind the kit at any of those famous Oils gigs like Goat Island in 1985 or Sydney’s Capitol Theatre in 1982 was watching a human dynamo, the arms raised, the pounding on the toms, snares and cymbals, and trademark sprays of water from the drums as his sticks smashed the surfaces. Even writing those few words conjures the most vivid imagery, and I can hear a live classic like ‘Stand In Line’ or ‘Don’t Wanna Be The One’ echoing in the background and see Hirsty at work whilst Peter Garrett spins madly across the stage and Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey play off each other’s guitar lines. We’ve already lost the much-loved bassist ‘Bones’ Hillman, whose soulful playing and beautiful voice leant the Oils a new dimension after he joined the group. And hardcore Oils fans like me have an enduring love affair, too, with former bass player Peter Gifford, whose harder, rockier sound was so integral to the incredibly explosive unit the band was from the late ‘70s until they rose to another level of fame altogether with ‘Beds Are Burning’ off the seminal ‘Diesel And Dust’ album in 1987. Those ‘80s gigs were something else. I’ve seen a lot of bands live and some great performers among them, but none better than the Oils. You couldn’t walk away from one of their gigs at those gritty pub venues without being bathed in sweat and carrying the greatest sense of exhausted satisfaction. My little group of mates saw them absolutely every time they came to Melbourne, beginning with a gig at the Chevron in St Kilda Road in early 1982. We saw them play with Men At Work at the Myer Music Bowl for Moomba, the ‘Stop The Drop’ concert at the same venue. Fittingly, perhaps, my last live viewing of the Oils came back at the Bowl 35 years later in 2017. We saw them at The Venue in St Kilda, the Prospect Hill in Kew, saw them underneath a circus tent on what is now the site of Rod Laver Arena, at the old Entertainment Centre (where Collingwood Football Club now resides), at Festival Hall, and what I think are my most fondly-remembered shows, at the Astor Theatre. It was the end of 1982, I was 17, we’d all just finished our HSC exams, and the phenomenal ‘10-9-8…’ album (think ‘Power And The Passion’, ‘U.S. Forces’, ‘Short Memory’, ‘Read About It’) had just been released. The Oils played four nights at The Astor, and we went to them all. I had an aisle seat at the first one, and used it all night to repeatedly jump off the armrest into the seething mass of bodies going bananas in the aisle. No one batted an eyelid, this was the Oils, after all, and that’s just how fired up they got you. I’ve done a couple of “My Favourite 20 songs” exercises with Soundgarden and R.E.M. recently, so it made sense to do so again now with clearly my favourite Australian band of all time. It was a nightmare, of course, given how much I love so many of their songs. I’m not going to explain overly why I’ve chosen this song over that, these things always just come down to personal taste. And I make no apologies for the bias towards the earlier, rockier stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I still loved them to death when they got big, and the messages of their songs, always important, were a big part of that appeal. But it was still, for me anyway, always primarily about the actual music, and that early, incendiary sound they generated was at times from another world. The fact it can have me bobbing my head to the extent it still does 45-odd years later says it all, really. So check out the 20 tracks and see what you think. There’s some notable absentees (apologies particularly to ‘Read About It’, ‘U.S. Forces’, ‘Short Memory’, ‘The Dead Heart’ and ‘Blue Sky Mine’). There’s plenty of deeper album/EP cuts here, too, like ‘Knife’s Edge’ from ‘Bird Noises’ (always a huge favourite). And no, it’s not all 100 miles an hour. Some of my favourite Oils songs are some of their most emotional and meaningful, the epic ‘Jimmy Sharman’s Boxers’, for example, ‘Warakurna’ or ‘River Runs Red’. There’s a heap more I hated having to leave out, like ‘Progress’ and ‘Blossom And Blood’ from the ‘Species Deceases’ EP, or ‘No Reaction’ from ‘Head Injuries’, or ‘Put Down That Weapon’. But I could comfortably have had a ‘Top 50’ list here, so profound an impact did Rob, Pete and co. have on me. For one thing any dedicated Midnight Oil fan will tell you, is that just about every song in their extensive catalogue has real meaning. They were a band you never just had on in the background as a half-listened-to mood setter. They demanded your attention. And they had that from much of this country, for decades. They were a soundtrack for my younger life. And the lives of countless others. Rob Hirst was fundamental to that. And while he’s with us no more, his legacy will remain massive. Just like the massive sound of the band so many of us loved so much. RoCo's FAVOURITE 20 MIDNIGHT OIL SONGS 1. Back On The Borderline 2. Don’t Wanna Be The One 3. No Time For Games 4. Power And The Passion 5. Dreamworld 6. Cold Cold Change 7. Jimmy Sharman’s Boxers 8. Only The Strong 9. Stand In Line 10. Beds Are Burning 11. Hercules 12. Run By Night 13. Sometimes 14. River Runs Red 15. Warakurna 16. King Of The Mountain 17. Best Of Both Worlds 18. Kosciusko 19. Knife’s Edge 20. Brave Faces

Perhaps it’s a desperate need for positivity, but this has been my favourite post-Ashes article so far.

Thought we were doing well at @MelbourneAFLW with the great Paxy Paxman, but Swans have a Zippy Fish and a Sargent-Wilson. Too good.

@Rajiv1841 Max Walker

Who was your first favourite cricketer? Be honest.

@malcolmconn exceptional, although I did not enjoy her interactions with the umpy in tge field

Midge is something special! Big game player! #CWC cricket.com.au/news/4383601

@Demonblog excellent call

Fitzsimon at Nev Jetta levels of being called underrated so often it no longer applies.

Great work tonight, @danziffer.

Go Nibbler

A Rigoni in the No. 43, it's just right 👌❤️💙 #DemonSpirit | #AFLWPiesDees

Definitely worth a read/chuckle

@Channel7 narrative at opening bounce: Chaplin trying new things by putting Windsor in middle. Only problem: it’s completely wrong. Now they are showing coaches and replays instead of actual play. Pls shut up and show the bloody game. #AFLDeesDogs

Huge American-style utes are damaging our roads, reducing safety, and increasing emissions. “In Europe they’re introducing measures to discourage people from driving these big utes... "In Australia we’ve got subsidies for them.” - Richard Denniss, Executive Director #auspol

Incredible man. I'm cackling. Grade Cricketer saying the silent part out loud

Need a mood booster today? Read this terrific story by @lucy_carroll about the positive impacts of evidence-based practices including explicit teaching in eight @NSWEducation schools, where students are being given the keys to a high quality of life. Blue Haven, The Entrance, Budgewoi, Gorokan, Toukley, Northlakes, Brooke Avenue and Wamberal Public Schools are showing what’s possible in a change steadily taking place across the system. Link in reply 👇

@PeterGHanlon @thefrontbar7 …rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb… And a bit light on for hair …rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb… But he’s just got a football brain, As sure as a goal is six behinds, Fitzroy, you’re gonna miss Lee Murnane - G Champion, 1980s

@thefrontbar7 Lee Murnane

Garry Wilson's on the show this week 🦁 #TheFrontBar | Wednesday | 8.30pm AEST 📺

@JakeNiallTHEAGE @melbournefc Excellent letter from Barry Jones re Dixon in Sat @theage

@pasmithers @melbournefc Your dad would know. Still, hell of a record- not many 5 time premiership players in any period.

Huge figure in @melbournefc history - as player & introduced Joe Gutnick to club as eventual president/benefactor at time of (failed) merger. Also important to “Life Be in It” campaign as state MP. Vale “Dicko”

@RicFinlay Aided and abetted by negligent commentators, neutered umpires and spineless administrators, time wasting is metastasising in front of our eyes, from London to Jamaica. Lunatics running asylum. Time to cut out the perpetrators of this crime against Test cricket. #ENGvIND #WIvAUS

Not a cloud in sight, and we’ve had 233 overs out of the “mandatory” 266 overs in the first three days.

Aided and abetted by negligent commentators, neutered umpires and spineless administrators, time wasting is metastasising in front of our eyes, from London to Jamaica. Lunatics running asylum. Time to cut out the perpetrators of this crime against Test cricket. #ENGvIND #WIvAUS

@RicFinlay YES, YES, YES!

Time for a rule change, methinks. If the batter is injured and can’t face again within 30 seconds, retire hurt and come back later when you feel better….

For a start, Jadeja needs to pull his head in and put on his gloves at the non-striker’s end. #ENGvIND