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Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst has died at the age of 70, his bandmates have confirmed.
Hirst had been fighting advanced pancreatic cancer. In a post to Midnight Oil’s Facebook page, the band said Hirst had died peacefully, “surrounded by loved ones”.
“After fighting heroically for almost three years, Rob is now free of pain – ‘a glimmer of tiny light in the wilderness’.”
Hirst was one of the founding members of the seminal Australian band that formed in the 1970s and was led by frontman Peter Garrett. The Oils became famous around the world with hits including Power and the Passion (1982), Beds Are Burning (1987) and Blue Sky Mine (1990).
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Hirst was diagnosed with stage three pancreatic cancer in 2023, six months after the last ever Oils gig at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion.
In an interview with this masthead in November, Hirst spoke of selling his beloved drum kit for $90,000 – to an Oils fan, as it turned out, who donated it to the Australian Music Vault in Melbourne.
The battered black Ludwig kit, which Hirst played while performing with the Oils from 1979 until 2022, sold for $90,000 at auction – $80,000 above reserve – thanks to the fundraising clout of “rusted-on fans” known as the Powderworkers.
“I can’t really thrash the drums any more,” Hirst said at the time.
He was “hanging in there,” he reported, in an upbeat way. “I’m looking at the bush and the jacarandas are all out. It’s a lovely time of year.”
Hirst, an accomplished singer and songwriter in his own right, recently released the EP A Hundred Years or More, with guitarist Jim Moginie, his former schoolmate and Oils colleague, and drummer Hamish Stuart.
Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst has died at the age of 70.Credit: Robert Hambling
On the EP, Hirst plays acoustic guitar, his songs drenched in psychedelic sunshine and melody. “I realise it’s quite an existentialist bunch of songs, with titles like Are We There Yet? and A Hundred Years or More,” he told this masthead late last year.
“I suppose I’ve been thinking about lifespan and longevity – legacy, even. And, of course, that comes out in the songs.”
Hirst had writing credits on a number of the Oils’ big hits, including Beds Are Burning, Blue Sky Mine, The Dead Heart and King of the Mountain.
Hirst performing with Midnight Oil in 2017.
Hirst is survived by his wife, Lesley Holland, and his daughters Lexi, Ella and Jay.
His family asked that anyone wanting to honour Hirst donate to Pankind, Pancreatic Cancer Australia or Support Act.
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