Legendary Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst has died at 70 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Photo / Instagram
The global music industry has been rocked by the death of legendary Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst, 70, after an almost three-year battle with pancreatic cancer.
Hirst is survived by his wife Lesley Holland and daughters Gabriella, Lex and Jay.
“After fighting heroically for almost three years, Rob is now free of pain – ‘a glimmer of tiny light in the wilderness’,” his bandmates posted to the Oils social media channels.
“He died peacefully, surrounded by loved ones. The family asks that anyone wanting to honour Rob donate to @pankind_australia or @supportact.”
One of the most revered musicians both in Australia and on the world stage, Hirst was born on September 3, 1955, and first grew up in Camden in Sydney’s outer west before the family relocated to the northern beaches.
After knocking around in high school bands, he co-founded Midnight Oil, originally known as Farm, with his mate Jim Moginie in 1972.
They were soon joined by frontman Peter Garrett and Martin Rotsey, who remained the core of the band for the next five decades.
Hirst and Moginie began as the band’s songwriting core, before Garrett later joined them in the creative engine room.
Known for his formidable power behind the drum kit – and later on the steel water tank that he bashed during the Power and the Passion – the Oils forged their reputation as an incendiary live band in the brutal pub rock era of the 70s and 80s.
They quickly distinguished themselves from other Aussie pub rock bands of the era with their musical activism, taking on politicians and corporate giants and becoming passionate advocates for the rights of indigenous Australians.
While he didn’t rate his singing voice highly, Hirst’s distinctive vocals served as a signature harmony in the Oils repertoire and he also pulled lead singer duty on classics including Kosciuszko.
Hirst released his final music project in November last year, a deeply personal EP called A Hundred Years or More, with his Oils bandmate Moginie and drummer mate Hamish Stuart.
At the time, he said he counted himself “lucky” to have enjoyed a music career over six decades, relentlessly creating and playing not only with Midnight Oil but myriad side projects including Ghostwriters and the Backsliders.
He had recently attended the 70th birthday of his Ghostwriters bandmate and Hoodoo Gurus member Rick Grossman and recalled how grateful he was for his musical life.
“At Rick Grossman’s big birthday, Reg Mombassa and members of the Gurus were there, Hamish and Jim were there, and we’re all around talking about how lucky we were that all our bands landed in the late 70s, early 80s, when people were tribally loyal to the bands they loved,” Hirst said.
“They went out every night and supported us and we could then afford great PAs and light
“It was before all the pubs closed down and Spotify and Live Nation and AI and all these terrible things that have become obstacles for new musicians coming up.
“God, how lucky were we? So we might be legends, but we’ve been very lucky legends.”
His greatest love, besides his family and bandmates, was the beauty of the Australian ocean and bush.
A staunch campaigner for the protection of the environment both in music and action, Hirst loved nothing more than to immerse himself in the ocean every day from the dog beach near his Manly home.
“I tell you what, swimming in salt water is just not to be underestimated. It’s the best tonic,” he said in November.
“I’m very lucky here, you know, to be down close to the harbour and it’s just a walk through a bit of bush and then I can throw myself in with all the dogs at the little beach.
“The locals call it Dog Beach, because it’s one of the few places they’re not chased off by a ranger. And yeah, we’re very lucky. We found this place, you know, almost 40 years ago.”
Hirst was proud to have made music with all three daughters. Both Gabriella and Lex lent their voices to the A Hundred Years Or More EP and he released the record The Lost and the Found with Jay O’Shea in 2020.
That album came a decade after the father and daughter found each other; O’Shea was adopted out by her birth mother after she fell pregnant as a teen.
Hirst was diagnosed with stage three pancreatic cancer in April 2023, just six months after Midnight Oil played their final gig at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion in October 2022.
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