EMPTYING THE TANK

Midnight Oil first took on New Zealand in 1979. They may have spent the previous years ducking flying glassware in the pubs of Sydney, but Jim Moginie says their first trip across the Tasman was even more character-building.

“We did about 33 shows in like 28 days or something absolutely ridiculous like that, bouncing around the roads in a little eight-seater bus with no suspension. It was kind of brutal, but it was a good way of becoming a band. We could sort of survive anything aft er that. So thanks, New Zealand, you really toughened us up.”

Early on that tour, Peter Garrett, future Australian Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, but then a man who danced like an escaped jackhammer, destroyed the stage at Auckland’s Gluepot. That wrecking-ball reputation preceded them down country.

“I don’t think it was just Pete,” laughs the guitarist who has been the band’s dominant songwriter throughout its nearly five decades. “I think other members were involved in the crime. I don’t know what happened that night, but it followed us around New Zealand wherever