Sorry, that was a juicy pun; I had to go there. Anyway, fans of Aussie Rock n Roll are rejoicing harder than a Russian hacker over that Trump win as that tallish bald guy with the epileptic dance moves and shady political past has gotten the band back together and ‘the Oils’ are headed on a world tour.

I must confess I’ve never really been an Oils fan, in their heyday of the mid 80’s through to early 90’s; I was navigating my way through Duran Duran, Poison and Nine Inch Nails, yes-strange bedfellows indeed. When I lived on Glebe Point Road in the mid 80’s I heard the Oils wrote music in a terrace house down the road from us and the bald man was occasionally spotted about the neighbourhood.

Since their last album, ‘Capricornia’ which was released in 2002, I’ve developed more of an appreciation, (I always arrive at the party late); my buddy Swami is a big fan of their early albums, 1978’s Midnight Oil, ’79’s Head Injuries and 1981’s Place without a Postcard. Over a bottle of red the other night we as a group avoided the Putin method of democracy and came to a consensus to attend one of the gigs which was tough considering there were 15 choices around the country, what followed was a late night foray into those early albums where my appreciation deepened.

Over the last few years you could say I’ve broadened my musical horizons,  due to gentle prodding from ‘upper management’ I’ve seen Katy Perry, Pink, Keith Urban and Bruno Mars, they’ve all been eye-opening experiences and dare I say it, enjoyable, calm down Slayer fans.

Back to the Oils and the word on social media the last few days is the bald man is getting whacked on the ‘pink batts’ scheme where Garrett as the then Environment minister for the Labor Government oversaw the home insulation program that resulted in over 200 house fires and four deaths, to some fans his image was already tarnished that he joined a major Political party, never mind the fact his journey into Politics was marred by this disaster.

Regardless, tickets for this world tour have been selling like the proverbial yummy hotcake and I wonder if Garrett will use these gigs to cleanse himself of this Political disaster. It is ironic that a pub band, which turned itself into a political band, was tarnished by a Political disaster and is now coming back in the age of Trump where Political upheaval is so prevalent. Drummer Rob Hirst has stated about the possibility of new songs that “After all, there’s a lot to sing about these days, isn’t there”.

You can bet leading up to our Oils gig Swami and I will be delving a lot deeper into the back catalogue over another bottle of red late into the night as I’ll be trying to latch onto the magic that Garrett is trying to rediscover.