Midnight Oil today unveiled plans for their long-awaited reunion, announcing a world tour that will take the band to North and South America, Europe and the U.K., and New Zealand and Australia this year — plus the release of three different box sets, including one that promises 14 hours of previously unheard and rare material.
Australian rock powerhouse Midnight Oil is expected to announce details on Friday of its promised reunion tour, shows that would mark the band’s first performances together since 2009’s Sound Relief concerts to benefit the victims of that year’s bushfires. It’s not clear what the band has planned, but it’s promising “a busy year ahead.”
Midnight Oil this month will release for the first time remastered CDs of the band’s full catalog from 1978 to 1993 — the group’s first eight full-length albums, plus two EPs — and also will finally issue its 1990 VHS release “Black Rain Falls” on DVD and digitally.
Last night, Hunters & Collectors brought its 2014 tour to Sydney for the first of two club dates at the Enmore Theatre, and treated fans to an encore surprise, inviting Peter Garrett and Jim Moginie of Midnight Oil onstage to help blast through a cover of The Saints’ “Know Your Product.”
This week’s new releases include CD “vinyl replica” reissues from Midnight Oil and Iggy Pop, plus a first-time vinyl release of Grant Hart’s 1999 solo album ‘Good News for Modern Man’ and a live-in-the-studio set from Lone Justice recorded in 1983.
Just days after manager Gary Morris told Australian media that Midnight Oil had been offered up to $200,000 per show to reunite and tour the U.S., the band has issued a statement saying it had no current plans to reform in the wake of Peter Garrett’s newfound unemployment, and that Morris was resigning his position.
Following a Labor Party shakeup today that ousted Australia’s first female prime minister, former Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett has announced he is leaving government, as he resigns his position as Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth and won’t seek re-election.
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