Iconic Australian rock band Midnight Oil today announced two intimate gigs for late May. These will be the Oils‘ only Australian concerts for 2019 apart from their headlining appearance at the world’s most remote music festival, The Big Red Bash, near Birdsville on July 18.

Tickets for the two warm up shows at Anita’s in Wollongong on Thursday 23 May and Canberra’s Royal Theatre on Monday 27 May will go on sale to members of Midnight Oil’s mailing list from 2pm AEST on Tuesday 9 April. Given the unusually small size of these venues they are expected to sell out quickly. A second batch will then be available to the general public from 10am on Friday 12 April. Strict anti-scalping measures will be in place for both dates and further ticketing information is detailed below. As always, fans are strongly advised to avoid using search engines like Google to find tickets as they steer buyers to unscrupulous and expensive overseas resellers. Instead fans should avoid getting ripped off by simply clicking the links to the official ticket agencies at midnightoil.com/tour.

Appropriately for a band who are longtime advocates for First Nations peoples, the Canberra show will take place on Reconciliation Day, which is a public holiday in the A.C.T.

“Meaningful steps towards reconciliation are long overdue, including a whole of government response to the Uluru Declaration, so it will be good to be in Canberra on this important date to kick up a fuss and help get the issue back on track,” said the band’s frontman, Peter Garrett.

Special guests for the Wollongong show will be local experimental pop band Shining Bird, while acclaimed Darwin singer-songwriter Leah Flanagan will open proceedings in Canberra.

Immediately following these gigs, the Oils will head to Europe for headline concerts in cities including London, Manchester, Dublin and Paris, as well as major festivals in France, Switzerland and Germany, before returning home for The Big Red Bash. Tickets for that unique music event in the QLD desert are already selling fast. Transport and camping packages are available here for anyone still considering a trip to see Midnight Oil play at sunset with a gigantic outback sand dune as their backdrop.

In other big news the Oils have also confirmed rumours that they hope to track some new music for possible release in 2020. If all goes to plan these would be their first recordings since 2001. At this stage it is not known whether a new song or two will be previewed at some point during their tour, but the band currently plans to head straight into the studio when they come off the road.

Oils drummer Rob Hirst said,

Last, but certainly not least, Midnight Oil also announced today that they will perform a couple of songs acoustically at the 1 Million Women LoveEarth Festival, which happens from 9:30am on 25 May at Carriageworks, Sydney. 1 Million Women is one of the world’s largest women’s movements acting on climate chaos. This is their big birthday bash after 10 years of action on climate change and it will be streamed online around the world. Their LoveEarth Festival is a morning of inspiration involving speeches from world leaders, women from the front lines of climate change, sustainable fashion gurus, zero wasters and musicians, including a brief but special acoustic performance by Midnight Oil. For tickets and more information please go to eventbrite.com.au.

MIDNIGHT OIL
Peter Garrett – Lead Vocals
Rob Hirst – Drums + Vocals
Martin Rotsey – Guitar
Jim Moginie – Guitar, Keyboards + Vocals
Bones Hillman – Bass + Vocals

MIDNIGHT OIL
AUSTRALIA
MAY 2019
With special guests Shining Bird (Wollongong) & Leah Flanagan (Canberra)
Presented by Frontier Touring

Thursday 23 May
Anita’s Theatre | Wollongong, NSW
With special guests Shining Bird
Lic. Over 18 (minors must be accompanied by parent/guardian)
ticketmaster.com.au | Ph: 136 100

Monday 27 May
Royal Theatre | Canberra, ACT
With special guest Leah Flanagan
Lic. Over 18 (minors must be accompanied by parent/guardian)
ticketek.com.au | Ph: 132 849

FRONTIER MEMBERS PRE-SALE 
via frontiertouring.com/midnightoil
Begins: Tuesday 9 April (2pm AEST)
Ends: Wednesday 10 April (2pm AEST)
or until pre-sale allocation exhausted

MIDNIGHT OIL PRE-SALE 
via midnightoil.com
Begins: Tuesday 9 April (2pm AEST)
Ends: Wednesday 10 April (2pm AEST)
or until pre-sale allocation exhausted

GENERAL PUBLIC ON SALE
Begins: Friday 12 April (10am local time)

ALSO PLAYING:

Thursday 18 July
Big Red Bash | Birdsville, QLD
All Ages
Tickets via bigredbash.com.au
All tickets include 3 day unlimited access to festival site plus 4 nights camping
on site

MIDNIGHT OIL
UK & EUROPE
JUNE & JULY 2019
Full details and tickets via midnightoil.com 

Sun 9 Jun          O2 Apollo | Manchester, England
Tue 11 Jun         Olympia | Dublin, Ireland
Thu 13 Jun         O2 Brixton Academy | London, England
Sat 15 Jun          Festi’neuch Openair Festival | Neuchatel, Switzerland
Mon 17 Jun        Stadtpark | Hamburg, Germany
Wed 19 Jun        Porta Nigra | Trier, Germany
Fri 21 Jun           Zeltfestival | Mannheim, Germany
Sat 22 Jun          Rock the Ring | Hinwil, Switzerland
Thu 27 Jun         Grand Rex | Paris, France
Sat 29 Jun          Festival Retro C Trop | Tilloloy, France
Mon 1 Jul           Tollwood Festival | Munich, Germany
Wed 3 Jul           Killesberg | Stuttgart, Germany
Fri 5 Jul              Rock Zottegem | Zottegem, Belgium
Sat 6 Jul             Zitadelle | Mainz, Germany
Tue 9 Jul            Les Nuits De Fourviere Festival | Lyon, France
Thu 11 Jul          Guitare en Scene Festival | Saint-Julien-en-Genevois, France
Sat 13 Jul           Amphitheatre | Gelsenkirchen, Germany