Rob Hirst obit

Rob Hirst Dies: Midnight Oil’s Founding Drummer & Songwriter Was 70

 

He was not on the list.

Robert “Rob” Hirst, who co-founded and played drums for Australian rock band Midnight Oil and co-wrote many of its songs, has died. He was 70. The group announced his death on social media but did not specify a date or cause, but he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2023.

“After fighting heroically for almost three years, Rob is now free of pain – “a glimmer of tiny light in the wilderness,” the band wrote. “He died peacefully, surrounded by loved ones.” In a separate post, the group wrote: “We are shattered and grieving the loss of our brother Rob. For now there are no words but there will always be songs. Love Always from Jim, Martin & Pete.”

Fronted by singer and future Aussie politician Peter Garrett, the politically charged Midnight Oil enjoyed commercial success in the 1980s and ’90s, scoring international hit albums including Diesel and Dust (1987), Blue Sky Mining (1990) and Earth and Sun and Moon (1993). The group also scored a number of hit singles including “Beds Are Burning,” “The Dead Heart,” “Blue Sky Mine,” “Forgotten Years” and “King of the Mountain”

Born on September 5, 1955, in Camden, New South Wales, Hirst formed a trio in 1972 with school chums Jim Moginie on guitar and keyboards and Andrew “Bear” James on bass. After being known as Schwampy Moose and later Farm, they later became Midnight, having recruited Garrett in 1973, and guitarist Martin Rotsey joined in 1977.

The band released its self-titled debut LP in 1978 and a second set, Head Injuries, the following year. Both sold well Down Under, eventually going platinum. But it’s third album, 1981’s Place without a Post Card, reached No. 12 in Australia, and 1982 follow-up 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 gave the group its first Aussie Top 10 hit with “Power and the Passion.” Hirst, who also sang and played guitar and keyboards, co-wrote the track with Garrett and Moginie.

By then, Midnight Oil was among the country’s most popular bands. Its next album, 1984′ Red Sails in the Sunset, began a string of three consecutive chart-toppers Down Under and dented the Billboard 200 in the United States.

Its next album made the group international stars.

Diesel and Dust was issued in 1987 and featured Midnight Oil’s breakthrough singles “Beds Are Burning” and “The Dead Heart.” Both co-written by Hirst, whose driving drums propelled them, the songs spotlighted Indigenous issues to non-native audiences. Featuring a big singalong chorus, “Beds Are Burning” hit No. 1 in three countries and went Top 10 in several others. It reached No. 6 on Billboard’s Album Rock Tracks chart. “The Dead Heart” featured another grabby chorus and was a lesser but broad hit. The album was the group’s lone platinum seller Stateside and its lone Top 20 in the UK.

“Beds Are Burning” was reissued in 1989 in the UK, where it became the country’s only Top 10 single.

Blue Sky Mining arrived in early 1990 and was another international hit, going Top 10 in seven countries and making the Top 30 in the U.S. and UK. The single “Blue Sky Mine” became the band’s biggest U.S. hit, topping Billboard’s Modern Rock and Mainstream Rock charts. Follow-up single “Forgotten Years” also topped the Modern Rock chart, and the album’s “King of the Mountain” reached No. 3 on that tally.

Midnight Oil would score three more Top 10 on the American Modern Rock chart with 1993’s “Truganini,” “Drums of Heaven” and “Outbreak of Love” — all from the album Earth and Sun and Moon and co-wrote by Hirst.

Midnight Oil wouldn’t reach that success with its subsequent releases and went on hiatus for nearly 15 years after 2001’s Capricornia. They would reunite in 2016 with Hirst, Garrett, Moginie and bassist Bones Hillman, who had joined in 1987 and died in 2020. The group released two more studio albums, most recently 2022’s Resist, giving it 13 in all, along with numerous live, compilation and box sets. Garrett left the group that year to pursue a career in Aussie politics.

Midnight Oil was on a break in 1990 when Hirst teamed with Hoodoo Gurus guitarist Richard Grossman to form Ghostwriters, which ultimate would release three albums that decade and another in 2006. “Someone’s Singing New York New York,” a single written by Hirst from the band’s 1991 eponymous debut, made the Top 30 in Australia.

Hirst issued a series of solo albums starting in 2005, and Born Electric was released in October.

Information on survivors was not immediately available, but the family asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Pankind or Support Act.