Midnight Oil

Midnight Oil is the work of several bogans - the quintessential concept of what an Australian citizen is - that decided one day they'd get together and form a band. This band was called Midnight Oil, after an incident in which one of the band members received second-degree burns from when his mate (term applied to anyone, even your worst enemy) poured petrol on him while he was sleeping and set it alight. This also inspired their song 'Beds are Burning'.

Their music would not simply be able to be listened to, but it would tackle important government issues in Australia. For their first album, We Can't Count from 10 To 1, they chose to tackle issues that bothered them specifically, such as blaming the postal service for the fact that their parcel came three days late, whether they should clean the barbecue on Sunday or not, or most importantly, is there a cold beer in the fridge? A Melbourne Bitter would do it, thanks.

The music was very raw and unpolished, as they put it, it captured the essence of what being Australian was. That is, they had absolutely no talent in their entire band, and no proper instruments: they couldn't afford the real thing, so their guitarist played the rubber band, their bassist mowed the lawn to make noises, and their drummer played the glasses of refreshing drink at different levels. And then he'd drink it, throw things into the crowd (on one occasion, this included a live koala), and wreck their '71 van (a Holden, of course).

They released three albums, one after each other: Get the Ute, There's A Kangaroo Outside, Wine's For Ladies, Beer's For The Men and I Shoot Kiwis 'Cause They Can't Say 'Fish 'n' Chips' Properly. All these albums were the personal opinions of the band members of what should and should not exist in a peaceful Ozzie bogan society. Despite being unclear to foreigners about their meaning (and lyrics, because of their thick accent), all albums reached #1 in Australia, because there was nothing else so wonderful, so amazing, so wonderfully Australian... as Midnight Oil.

After releasing their fifth album, Who's On Top of the Footy Ladder?, they disbanded, and were never heard of again (although the singer appears to have become, in an ironic, stupid twist of fate, an attendant at the local petrol station, as well as eventually going into a career in politics - 'politics' being defined as 'shouting abuse at everyone you don't like').