Midnight Oil fans rally to rescue drummer’s ‘war horse’
Andrew Stafford |
A piece of Australian music history is expected to raise tens of thousands of dollars for charity at auction – despite having been thrashed within an inch of its life for over 45 years.
Rob Hirst, drummer of one of Australia’s most celebrated rock bands, Midnight Oil, has decided to part with his black Ludwig kit, purchased new in 1979 for the recording of the band’s second album Head Injuries.
It’s featured on every Midnight Oil recording and accompanied them on every tour since, right up until the band’s final farewell shows in October 2022.
Hirst admits he feels some sentiment towards his beloved instrument, but said he hoped it would find a loving home.
“There is this thing between musicians and their instruments, but this one, I just felt sorry for – literally, for the beating it’s taken over the last 45 years,” he jokes.
Despite the hammering from Hirst, the kit remains in excellent condition, with bidding reaching $32,000 ahead of the auction’s close at 9pm Monday.
Details of the auction have been shared online by other Australian and international musicians, including Troy Cassar-Daley, Hunters & Collectors’ Mark Seymour and Paul Kelly.
All proceeds from the sale will go to music industry charity Support Act and MusicNT’s Fix ’em Up Truck, which helps maintain and repair musical equipment to remote First Nations communities.
Sadly, Hirst is no longer able to play his old war horse, having battled pancreatic cancer since Midnight Oil’s career came to a close in 2022.
“I don’t have the breath power to play a big rock ‘n’ roll kit anymore,” he says.
“It’s been a battle. I won’t diminish the impact it’s had on all of us, my family and loved ones. It really came out of left field.
“I’ve had two major operations; a whole bunch of chemo and radiotherapy. I had the delightful sepsis earlier this year, which is pretty dangerous stuff.”
Yet despite being “really exhausted a lot of the time”, Hirst is still making and recording new music, with an EP out next month featuring Midnight Oil guitarist Jim Moginie and drummer Hamish Stuart.
The EP also includes contributions from his daughters, Lex and Gabriella.
Hirst hoped that his kit might be purchased by another musician.
“If it went to a drummer here or overseas that was still going to use it as a working kit, that would be the ideal.”
But Matthew Yau, who runs the Powderworkers Midnight Oil fan page on Facebook and who is facilitating the auction on Hirst’s behalf, is hoping the kit can be saved for public display.
“It would be such a shame if this amazing kit that’s got so much history behind it ended up in someone’s shed,” he says.
Yau pointed to Midnight Oil’s history of activism and protest songs in arguing that the drum kit should be for everybody to enjoy.
“Midnight Oil stand for a lot of things that resonated with a lot of fans,” he says. “For us it’s about saying, let’s just not talk the talk. Let’s walk the walk.”
Pledges to make a collective bid for the kit range from $50 to $5000, with Powderworkers hoping the kit might be housed by the Australian Music Vault in Melbourne.
One piece not included in the auction is the corrugated iron water tank that Hirst salvaged from the sand dunes on the 1986 Blackfella/Whitefella tour of remote First Nations communities.
That tour spawned the internationally successful album Diesel and Dust, and one of the band’s biggest hit, Beds are Burning.
The tank became part of Hirst’s elaborate percussion set-up, used for his famous solo turn on Power and the Passion.
It remains a permanent part of the Midnight Oil collection which has previously been exhibited at the Arts Centre in Melbourne and Manly Art Gallery and Museum in Sydney.
As well as being the band’s drummer, Hirst wrote or co-wrote many Midnight Oil classics, including Power and the Passion, Beds are Burning, The Dead Heart, Forgotten Years and Blue Sky Mine.
He recently celebrated his 70th birthday, and the arrival of another grandchild two weeks ago. He says he was lucky his cancer was detected relatively early, at stage 3.
“I think that made all the difference,” he says.
“I’m surrounded by loved ones, and the outpouring of love and care from here and around the world has just been overwhelming. I had no idea.
“It’s these kinds of shots out of the blue which makes you realise that. So that’s been joyful.”
AAP
