Members of the future Midnight Oil began playing together in Sydney in 1972. In 1976 they found a lead singer, Peter Garrett, in Canberra. When he moved to Sydney, they changed their name from Farm to Midnight Oil and kickstarted their live career along the northern beaches. The Oils have always foregrounded social concerns, particularly the environment, uranium mining and Aboriginal rights. In 1986 they toured some of the remotest parts of the outback with the Warumpi Band. The subsequent Diesel and Dust (1987) included the huge hit ‘Beds are Burning’, sung provocatively at the close of the 2000 Olympics. Midnight Oil have mostly maintained a truculent distance from commercialism. Despite his untiring activism, Garrett has said that he thinks of the Oils as a dance band, and so do thousands of fans who recall the exhilarating shirts-off gigs of the past 20 years.