Do You Know Midnight Oil?

In the 1980s, there are a handful of Aussie rock bands that mattered. Rose Tattoo sang about being a criminal. No-one was really sure what the Angels sang about half the time. Midnight Oil sang about things that mattered. Social issues, aboriginal issues, CSR refusing to pay out workers harmed by asbestos in mines, nothing escaped their gaze. Peter Garrett, the lead singer, always seemed to have some sort of seizure on stage, and the band was legendary for their live performances. As a teenager, you knew that the government was messing it up, and that people like Peter Garrett were what the world needed if we were ever going to make things better.

So, it's 2011, and where are they now? Actually, Peter Garrett is a member of the Australian parliament, although he lost his portfolio due to a government subsidy program that was widely rorted and ended up in the deaths of several apprentices. He was minister for the environment, a position in which he utterly failed to ever live up to his ideals, and was regularly embarrassed on television by being reminded of the gap between the lyrics he used to sing and what he was doing now that he had a chance.

Funny old world.

I'm not sure if the Oils were ever heard of outside the U.S., have you heard of them?