 Book Reviews
with Robin Osborne
Beds Are Burning
By Mark Dodshon
Penguin $29.95
 Awkwardly-named schoolboy band 'Schwampy Moose' played their first gig one lunchtime in 1971, the line-up featuring Rob Hirst (drums), Jim Moginie (guitar) and Andrew 'Bear' James (bass) – three wannabe musos who'd sweated to buy gear, jammed in garages and impressed with their ability to play Beatles covers.
Later, with the addition of Peter Garrett, now Labor MP for Kingsford Smith, a new name and two changes in bassists, they would form the nucleus of Midnight Oil, perhaps the most successful rock outfit in Australian history.
Recognising the need for a lead singer they ran a 'wanted' ad and, by coincidence, held auditions on St Cecilia's Day, which recognises the patron saint of music - and of the deaf, as the author notes wittily.
With his height and then-long blonde locks, Garrett stood out and when they withdrew to discuss the applicant, Bear said, 'It's not your normal thing is it?'
The rest is history - and a truly fascinating history it is, told in a personal yet objective way by long-standing friend, Mark Dodshon, a former Triple J presenter who experienced the two decades-plus of the Oils' career at close range.
In this comprehensive account, including a detailed discography, Dodshon, as fan and chronicler, blends his reminiscences with band-member interviews and comments by many of the industry figures with whom they dealt.
'Pete had already spun like a dervish,' he writes of an early Sydney gig, 'and staggered like a boxer during the powerhouse middle section of the song [Don't Wanna Be the One] when the bass drives everyone's heart to breaking point and the guitars and keyboard cut slices through you…'
The Midnight Oil story was as much about messages as music and it is worth noting, in the light of Garrett's move to the ALP, that his mother, who perished tragically in a house fire, was a staunch Labor worker whom Gough Whitlam remembered fondly.
Midnight Oil played their final gig in 2002 in Tweed Heads, 29 years after Garrett had joined the band. It was again St Cecilia's Day and fans at the concert included the author and his son, celebrating his 11th birthday.
Could the band have been 'as big as U2', as the last chapter is titled?
Garrett: 'We didn't have sufficient capacity within ourselves… I haven't spent a lot of time analysing, but whatever "it" was, we didn't have it to the level that was necessary.'
But they were certainly good enough.
- Thanks to Book Warehouse, Keen Street, Lismore for supporting this column.
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