Midnight Oil, the Australian new wave and alternative rock outfit, announced on social media that their original drummer and founding member Rob Hirst has died after a tough battle with pancreatic cancer. You can read the original statement in English below.
Rob Hirst was an Australian musician, drummer, songwriter and founding member of the rock band Midnight Oil. Born Robert George Hirst in Camden (New South Wales), he played with Midnight Oil from the band’s formation in the 1970s right through to its later years. He played drums and percussion, handled backing vocals and occasionally took lead vocals too. He co-wrote many of the band’s best-known songs and was one of the pillars of the group, shaping its sound with his vision across decades of recording and touring. Hirst also played in other bands, including Ghostwriters, Backsliders, Angry Tradesmen and The Break. He is also the author of the book Willie’s Bar & Grill.
Midnight Oil’s roots go back to the early 1970s, when the members were based in Sydney and Canberra. The band’s first album, “Midnight Oil”, came out in 1978. By 1987, when “Diesel and Dust” dropped and put them on the world map with real international clout, they had released four more albums.
Over their career, Midnight Oil racked up 13 studio albums. A full 19 years passed between “Capricornia”, released in 2001, and its follow-up “The Makarrata Project”. The latest album, “Resist”, came out in 2022. Across their career, the band sold over 20 million copies of their albums worldwide!
