Midnight Oil ‘Excited’ About Reunion Tour

Midnight Oil are “excited” about the possibility of a reunion tour once frontman Peter Garrett has finished writing his memoirs.

The band – who wrote some of Australia's most iconic rock songs – disbanded in 2002 so that Garrett could concentrate on his political career, reforming only for events such as the Sound Relief charity concerts.

With Garrett now keeping a low profile post-politics, the band's drummer Rob Hirst has told theMusic.com.au's Steve Bell that their upcoming art exhibition is the first step on the comeback trail.

“Yeah, yeah, we might, yeah,” Hirst said of a comeback tour.

“Pete's writing his memoirs, and that will take a while, so we'll see how he feels after that. [The prospect] makes me excited and terrified at the same time!

Sources close to the band's long-time label Sony, the parent company of Columbia, have told theMusic.com.au in recent months that no definite plans had been laid down.

Garrett resigned from his ministerial portfolio July 2013 when he backed then Prime Minister Julia Gillard in a Labor leadership spill that was won by Kevin Rudd. He did not seek re-election, fuelling reformation rumours. The band's manager Gary Morris officially left his post shortly after, claiming that it was a move to highlight the fact that no reformation was on the cards.

On the upcoming exhibition, set to open 20 June at Manly's Art Gallery & Museum in Sydney, Hirst said, “About three years ago I started pulling stuff out of my attic and started to realise that I was even more of a hoarder than I thought I was, and in there were all these posters dating back to when the band was first called Farm – there were posters and badges and lyrics and stickers and god knows what.

“So I was walking past Manly Art Gallery and just on a whim I went in and spoke to them about the exhibition, and they said, 'Yeah, we're going to do it!' so I was, like, 'Oh fuck, we've got to get all this stuff together!' It's grown over the last two years, and the creator down there – one Ross Heathcote – has been fantastic, because he knows as much about music as museums.

“So between the two of us we've been able to pull in all of this stuff including the Exxon banner [featured in new DVD Black Rain Falls] and an amazing amount of stage clobber and footage that Bonesy [bassist Bones Hillman] shot of the band backstage that has never been shown, and a new documentary that Rob Hambling made about the making of Ten-To-One [1982 album 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1], and I've even tried to recreate what it was like in 1979 at the Royal Antler Hotel with sticky carpet and sharp elbows!”