Rob Hirst, the drummer and co-founder of the Australian rock band Midnight Oil, has died. He was 70.
The band confirmed Hirst’s dying from pancreatic most cancers in statements posted to social media.
“After fighting heroically for almost three years, Rob is now free of pain — ‘a glimmer of tiny light in the wilderness,’” the band mentioned. “He died peacefully, surrounded by loved ones.”
“We are shattered and grieving the loss of our brother Rob,” they added. “For now there are no words but there will always be songs.”
Hirst, born in Camden, New South Wales, based the band that grew to become Midnight Oil with schoolmates, and it launched its debut album by itself unbiased label in 1978. The band steadily climbed the charts in its native Australia, pairing its brawny rock with honest and outspoken political activism. Hirst was recognized for his trendy aptitude behind the package, inspiring younger Aussie drummers along with his intro music for the TV present “Beatbox,” and the beating water-tank solo on “Power And The Passion” that introduced down the home at reside gigs.
1983’s “10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1” hit quantity three on the Australian charts, and 1987’s album “Diesel and Dust” — a collection of songs in regards to the troubles dealing with Indigenous Australians — launched the band to world fame. Its anthemic however pressing single “Beds Are Burning” grew to become one of many group’s best-known hits, topping out at quantity 17 on the Sizzling 100 in 1988. They launched 1990’s “Blue Sky Mining” with a live performance outdoors Exxon’s headquarters in New York to protest its dealing with of an oil spill in Alaska. The group additionally charted with singles “Blue Sky Mine” and “The Dead Heart,” all of which had co-songwriting credit from Hirst.
“We take on, headlong, all the things that you’re supposed to avoid. We fight the battles that we jointly feel we have to fight and we win some and we lose some,” Hirst instructed United Press Worldwide in 1988.
Australian rock legends Midnight Oil — Bones Hillman, from left, Peter Garrett, Martin Rotsey, Jim Moginie and Rob Hirst — arrive for the 2006 Australia music trade awards the Arias, the place they have been to be inducted into the corridor of fame.
(Rick Rycroft / Related Press)
Midnight Oil broke up in 2002 when singer Peter Garrett left to pursue a political profession in Australia’s Labor Get together. They reunited in 2017 and launched two extra LPs, 2020’s “The Makarrata Project” and 2022’s “Resist,” and performed their closing present in 2022.
Hirst had a number of aspect initiatives, together with the band Ghostwriters, which launched 4 albums, and the prolific blues-rock group Backsliders. He self-released an album, “Born Electric,” in 2025, and an EP, “A Hundred Years or More,” with Midnight Oil bandmate Jim Moginie and Hamish Stuart. Hirst’s daughters, Gabriella and Lex Hirst, additionally sang on the EP. He additionally auctioned off his drum package final 12 months to learn two Australian musicians’ charities, MusicNT and Help Act.
He mirrored on dying in his later music, talking about his sickness in a latest interview with The Age. “I realise it’s quite an existentialist bunch of songs, with titles like ‘Are We There Yet?’ and ‘A Hundred Years or More,’” he mentioned. “I suppose I’ve been thinking about lifespan and longevity — legacy, even. And, of course, that comes out in the songs… Now that I’ve started counting back in life rather than counting forward, the days are even more precious.”
