A 2016 masterclass with Australian rock gods Rob Hirst and Jim Moginie, including a whiteboard with lyrics and notes, at Wollongong Art Gallery. Photo: Kirk Gilmour.
Robert George Hirst was a founding member of Midnight Oil in 1976. His fans were devastated when he passed away last week at just 70 years young. Eerily, less than a week later, Rob Hirst has been awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the Australia Day Honours List. Illawarra photographer Kirk Gilmour recalls the afternoon he spent with one of his musical heroes.
Entering a back room at the Wollongong Art Gallery on a December Saturday afternoon in 2016, I only had eyes for the super comfy blue leather chair that once had an alderman’s arse parked in it.
That was at council meetings when the art gallery was the Wollongong City Council chambers before it relocated down the road to Burelli Street in 1987.
A guy in a blue shirt with his back to me stood in my way as I moved to claim that treasured chair.
“Excuse me,” as I touched his shoulder to get his attention. Turning to face me, we smiled simultaneously and he greeted me: “Gidday, I’m Rob Hirst, thanks for coming to listen to Jim and me.”
I told Rob I was looking forward to their chat and pointing to the blue chair, mentioned how comfortable it was. Hirst replied, “You better go get it mate.” I did.
My lovely wife Angela had purchased a ticket for me to attend the Rocking the Songwriters’ Workshop with Jim Moginie and Hirst. Yeah, I was very happy getting a start to this gig.
I’d rocked out and sweated buckets to a few Oils concerts all over the Illawarra and Sydney. I photographed them a few times and sold some images to them back in the day.
I’ll never forget the intensity of the “10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1” album launch tour at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney in 1982. The Oils performance that weekend was an extreme next level gig. Both the stage and walls of the Capitol Theatre were soaked in perspiration from the band and fans alike.
The Moginie/Hirst workshop in the Wollongong Gallery on 10 December 2016 dovetailed with the gallery’s Making of Midnight Oil exhibition. Rob Hirst was the driving force behind the creation of the exhibition which had travelled and been viewed all over Australia for two years.
The workshop in the gallery was more than nine years ago, but it’s weird the things you remember. The passing of Rob Hirst on Tuesday 20 January reactivated my long and short memory.
After introductions, Rob started the session with a comment that he was familiar with the Illawarra.
Sure the Oils had cut their teeth and chopped their way through the raised stages in many pubs and club auditoriums in the region, but he told a story to the 20 to 30 people assembled in that quaint room.
“Yeah Jim might live in the area (not sure Jim Moginie was happy about that disclosure) but as a kid from Camden I nearly drowned in the pool at Austinmer Beach in the early 60s. I couldn’t swim and I was lifted coughing from the water by a bronzed lifesaver named George Luck. He told me: ‘That’s not how you swim sonny; where are you from?’ I told him, and he said, ‘Next time you’re at the beach come and find me, I’ll teach you how to swim.'”
I grew up in Austinmer and like pressing the memory repeat button, I too had that saltwater immersion and inhalation experience. I also was yanked from the pool by the same George Luck in the mid 60s. I knew exactly where Rob Hirst was coming from.
For more than two hours during that afternoon, Rob Hirst and Jim Moginie had the gathered few captivated with the many stories of their music and lyric collaborations with Midnight Oil anytime, anywhere nationally and internationally. The Oils were solid and a complete unit.
That day, they even used a whiteboard applying lyrics and music notes to get you in the moment of their songs and the great success Midnight Oil’s music delivered.
No drum kit in the room (hands, legs and knees will do) but strumming guitars featured and were played awesomely – that was a given. Some stories of relentless touring and making the growing Oils exhibition come to fruition and a Q&A session concluded the day.
That afternoon spent with those two Australian rock gods was a very cool and well received moment in time. I was very grateful to have been in a small room with two of the most easy-going and most revered Aussie musicians. It was a top of the charts experience.
Vale Rob Hirst, in your afterlife may you continue to sing and vocalise in your strong way. Beat those drums manically with your power and passion and swim serenely under the watchful eyes of George Luck.
