Friday, May 23, 2008

Redgum - Midnight Sun


Redgums's swan song Midnight Sun is a fine record, having been able
to overcome the shock of John Schumann leaving the band in 1986,
they released this Lp that year, a last single "Roll it on Robbie" (1987)
after which Atkinson left.
The remaining members performed until 1990
before breaking up for good.
Bring us to the end of a band which formed back in 1975, becoming
the greatest musical export from Adelaide
and one of Australia's best.
These days John Schumann & the Vagabond Crew (including Hugh)
are performing, doing shows at woodford last year and john, post
Redgum Schumann released two solo albums before pursuing a career
with the Australian Democrats ,
standing for the South Australian seat of Mayo in the 1998
Federal election and only losing by a small margin.
Very nearly knocking off the governments Foreign Affairs Minister.
He left the Democrats in 2000 and returned to further solo works.



When I worked on the Latin American Show on 4zzz in the late 80's
the song "Blood upon the rain" was a favorite, I must of played it
every time and the beautiful version of "La Partida" the
haunting Victor Jara song. This song is a fantastic insightful
song about the struggle for freedom in Latin America which was
my focus for many years and Redgum were singing about it.
Theres plenty more politics on this album, "Talk",
"Running with the hurricane" and "Too many dollars"
all showing the band has lost none of their insight. Also theres
"When your luck runs out" another wonderful Hugh McDonald,
life on the land Masterpiece.
But its "Blood on the rain" and the fantastic
"Running with the hurricane" that make this for me,
with songs like this I was glad they kept going.

Running with the hurricane - Atkinson/McDonald

White domes on sacred land, B52s in Arnhem land
Cold wars buccaneers, lasers in the stratosphere
Theres a shadow across the sun,
alarms of struggle and fight.
Theres poisoned seeds in the perfumed garden
and the spectra of an endless night

Thunder in the distance, Running with the hurricane
Feel the cold winds tuning, keep the faith burning
Fire in the Ukraine, dust on the high plains
Thunder in the distance, running with the hurricane

Vogue fashions, empty passions, world banks,
corporation think tanks.
Feeding us our new-made views,
With our Weeties and our septic news.
Geriatric G-grade actor, power in his paternal smile
His inane quotes are last years jokes
Now we judge all his lies on style

Thunder in the distance, Running with the hurricane
Feel the cold winds tuning, keep the faith burning
Fire in the Ukraine, dust on the high plains
Thunder in the distance, running with the hurricane

Melt-down, southbound, the winds are blowing gale force
Gather up the children, batten down the doors
Hopes like a beacon in the howling night
Muruoa, Pine Gap, Greenham Common
Together its going to be a long, hard fight

Thunder in the distance, Running with the hurricane
Feel the cold winds tuning, keep the faith burning
Fire in the Ukraine, dust on the high plains
Thunder in the distance, running with the hurricane

Rambo, cult machismo, Armageddon, the clouds keep spreading
Warriors rule by fear, fission for the profiteers
Mass march, rally in the twilight, heart and soul, a call for peace
If power is blocked through the ballot box
Then we'll vote in the open streets


This is the sort of song running through my head when I drove
to the front gates of pine gap in 1990, to see for my self the
cold war infrastructure in the center of my country.
It was Redgum and other influences that had led me to
this point and now some 18 years on, as Redgum say
"Nothing much has changed here but the skyline"

Download Here


Stage song list from the tour to promote this album
I grabbed after the show.

Track List

01 - Talk
02 - When Your Luck Ran Out
03 - Running With The Hurricane
04 - Empty Page
05 - Midnight Sun
06 - Too Many Dollars
07 - Another Country
08 - In Their Hands
09 - Blood Upon The Rain
10 - La Partida (The Parting)




Download Artwork Large Files Here

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

"...a band which formed back in 1975, becoming
the greatest musical export from Adelaide" is a pretty contentious judgement but then those sort of calls always are.

bob nebe said...

True I should say in my opinion
Its like that here in Brisbane
was Brisbane's greatest band
1-The Saints, 2-The Go-betweens,
3-Powerderfinger
or 4-Savage Garden
Now I wouldn't think 3 or 4 myself
and I meet kids these days who haven't even heard of 1 and 2
ciao bob

Anonymous said...

...to quote the mighty 'Gum - 'it doesn't matter to me' - I just know I love them :O) Thanks again Bob, Gareth (in the UK)

bob nebe said...

No problem Gareth, did you find the bushwackers alright? Their a bit more on the Irish side of Australian folk I must upload some more
ciao bob

Anonymous said...

Big Thank You for all the Redgum you have posted! I had the great 'Caught in the Act' from a boot trade, but all the rest were in my 'desired but unlikely to get' list!

Anonymous said...

Schumann was employed by Meg Lees rather than the Democrats, and played a crucial role with Lees in bringing Australia the GST and the consequential destruction of the Democrats. Quite a legacy from a 'career' of just a couple of years.

bob nebe said...

I liked the dems and even voted for them, but I wouldn't pretend to understand them, I was more your democratic socialist party type, I suppose i found it easer to relate to the greens later. Never less the dems implosion was very sad to see and I never did understand the working with the libs to bring in the GST
Still I would have liked to see John beat bloody Downer
ciao bob

Anonymous said...

thank you very much bob after 15 years of trying to find this album you are the only 1 to have it thanks again

bob nebe said...

Make sure you get the lost album as well. Its a great companion to midnight sun
ciao bob

Chris Davis said...

Hi Bob,

Can you set up the download for Midnight sun please? I don't remember the album but know the lyrics to running with the hurricane almost word perfect...that's 25 years or so for you.

Thanks

Chris

Paul said...

Hi. Thanks for this. In a previous lifetime in Adelaide I worked with Verity in her day job before I moved to Brisbane in 1979.

What's the "lost album" you refer to above, and where do I find it?

TIA

Paul

bob nebe said...

the lost album post is here

http://stripedsunlight.blogspot.com/2008/06/redgum-lost-album.html

theres heaps of redgum here if you do a blog search for "redgum"
you should find it all

Culley said...

In the lyrics to Running With The Hurricane, in the first line, I think he says:

"White domes on sacred sand"

He's referring to Pine Gap.
Great blog.

bob nebe said...

Thanks Cully its taken over 3 years for that typo to be pointed out, not sure why I missed it. On the topic of Pine Gap I once visited it, well the front gates were as far as I got!

Diceman said...

Is Pine Gap depicted on Redgum's first two albums?

It bears a resemblance to photos of Pine Gap that have been released.

If it was, looks like they were trying to draw attention to it through their cover art.

bob nebe said...

I can see what looks like factories built in flat scrubby bush land on the 1st lp, pine gap is up against the Mcdonald ranges just west of Alice and the 2nd lp has a factory built next to Uluru which is 600 kms away from pine gap. So I would say no. I guess they considered doing pine gap depictions but knew that it would get them into trouble and this was a compromise, its possible

Anonymous said...

Bob, i know its L-O-N-G after your post, but is there any chance of getting a listen of Redgum's midnight Sun album?
I am very keen to hear how they sounded sans-JS.
Hope its not too late to catch an earful.
Cheers,
Oz

bob nebe said...

I shall put on a long list of reups and it will return!

bob nebe said...

back up

Anonymous said...

Hey Bob, thanks for the repost, that's great.
Do you have any more album art? I see that there is only the front cover. By any chance, do you have anything that contains the credits on it?
In any case, thanks very much for the reup.
Oz

bob nebe said...

Ill see what I can do

bob nebe said...

Ive updated the page with the record artwork and added a link to larger versions the the files including the record labels

Anonymous said...

BRILLIANT!!!
Thank you very much.
Oz

Paul said...

Thanks for the artwork, but...(and I don't want to sound ungrateful here)

Do you actually have a bigger front cover? The one in the archive is the same size as the one on the web page

Haydon said...

Thank you so much for this re-upload! I bought the LP at a second-hand store here in Hobart the instant I saw it, but had no way of putting it onto my computer.

bob nebe said...

Ive never seen an old post get so much attention! Your all welcome of course and I shall see if I can take a new photo of the cover and put it in with the others

Old Man Emu said...

Hi Bob, been a while since I've visited - I have that set list on a t-shirt - just put it in the wash a few days back.

Gary