Midnight OilProlific, artistic, collaborative and inspiring, Rob Hirst was one of Australia’s finest musicians and while radio stations around Australia will be blasting Midnight Oil in tribute to the great man over the next week and beyond, Hirst was far more than just one band.
The Music takes a look over ten great Rob Hirst musical moments as we pay tribute to a remarkable musician.
GHOSTWRITERS - Someone’s Singing New York New York (1991)
Formed in 1990 with Hoodoo Guru’s Rick Grossman, the first of Hirst’s extra-curricular activities outside of Midnight Oil was also his most commercially successful. And it shouldn’t be a surprise, with members of two of Australia’s biggest bands at the time creating this debut single that crashed into the ARIA top 30.
BACKSLIDERS - Dark Side Of Newtown (2014)
After Midnight Oil committments started to wind back, Rob Hirst met Dom Turner, leader of legendary Australian blues act Backsliders. The two got on well, with Hirst officially joining the lineup in 2000 and continuing as a new creative force in the band right up until his illness. This track is the opening salvo from 2014 album Darkside.
HIRST & GREENE - Secret World (2005)
A commercial and creative success, Hirst’s collaboration with singer/songwriter Paul Greene created an amazing album which captured the sound of suburban summers. The album In The Stealth of Summer sold over 20,000 copies with the singles Comfort In Her Own Skin and Secret World becoming staples across ABC local radio.
THE BREAK - Cylinders (2010)
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When you’ve conquered rock, pop, blues and folk, what’s left to do? Form a surf rock band with Violent Femmes’ Brian Ritchie of course. And the results are of course perfection. Released on his own “Bombora” records, this is a love letter to The Atlantics, taking everything that was great about 60s surf rock and updating it for 2010. The group played as backing band for Sixto Rodriguez in 2013 and dropped a followup record Space Farm that same year.
ROB HIRST & JAY O’SHEA - The Lost & The Found (2010)
Rob Hirst had a child at the age of 17, choosing at the time with her birth mother to adopt her out, due to their young ages. Jay spent fifteen years searching for her birth parents before reconnecting in 2010. By that stage, Jay was one half of country duo O’Shea with her partner Mark and started connecting musically with her father. They released their first musical collaboration in 2014, leading to a full album in 2020, The Lost & Found. This was the track from that record, the equally aptly titled There You Are.
ROB HIRST, JIM MOGINIE & HAMISH STUART - Red Continent (2023)
Red Continent is a brilliant four-track from three music legends. It’s got an air of Midnight Oil about it, which is unsurprising when 2/3 of the trio worked together in that band for so long. Speaking to The Music’s Steve Bell in 2023, Hirst said: “We’ve made a really good writing team I think over the years, and I guess with the songs on the Red Continent EP some of them – if the Oils were still going – could easily have ended up as Midnight Oil songs, but as it is I think they turned out really well in this slightly different form.”
ROB HIRST & SEAN SENNETT - Nothing More Nothing Less (2020)
Hirst’s friendship and musical partnership with Brisbane musician and ex Time Off proprietor Sean Sennett brought out the rock side of his musical identity. Their acclaimed 2015 album Crashing The Same Car Twice showed a harder rock edge than much of Hirst’s other non-Oils projects. The album was followed up with the EP Driver Reviver (which features this track) and finally a compilation of the pair’s work which dropped in October last year. That album would be Hirst’s final album chart entry, making it to #78 on the ARIA list.
GHOSTWRITERS - Start The Day (2007)
After a seven year hiatus, Ghostwriters made a comeback in 2007 with the album Political Animals. With Oils bandmate Peter Garrett firmly ensconsed as the member for Kingsford Smith, Hirst proved he was no less political, but stuck to the music as the vehicle for his message. Start The Day was the sole single from the record.
ROB HIRST - Stronger Than The Strings (2014)
Even when he finally released a real solo album, Rob Hirst still couldn’t help but collaborate, this time with his daughter Gabriella Hirst providing the amazing cover art. Recorded in Berlin, the album is one of his strongest moments, standing as his only true solo record in a life full of delicious collaborations.
ROB HIRST, JIM MOGINIE & HAMISH STUART - First Do No Harm (2025)
Released just two short months ago, Hirst, Moginie and Stuart’s final record A Hundred Years or More was released, a perfect parting gift from Rob Hirst in the final months of his cancer journey. This track has an ethereal quality, leaving with us a resonant message from one of Australia’s greatest ever songmen.
