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Strict Rules: The iconic story of the tour that shaped Midnight Oil
Author(s): Andrew McMillan ISBN: 9780733638084 Binding: Paperback Published: 2017-02-28 Midnight Oil are an iconic Australian band, known for their songs of social conscience and their conviction. They didn't get that way by accident - one tour in 1986 changed them forever, as they joined the Warumpi Band to play to remote Aboriginal communities.Journalist Andrew McMillan was a witness to this tour and he documented it all in STRICT RULES. This contemporary Australian classic charts not just the development of an eternally popular band but a moment in time when Australian culture changed, because the songs produced by Midnight Oil thereafter became embedded in the nation's minds.With Peter Garrett back at the helm of the Oils, the band will embark on a reunion tour in 2017. Peter Garrett will write an epilogue for this new edition of STRICT RULES, which also contains drummer Rob Hirst's original foreword.
- GenresMusic
320 pages, Paperback
First published November 16, 1989
4 people are currently reading
65 people want to read
About the author
Andrew McMillan
36 books106 followersAndrew McMillan was born in 1988. He now lectures in Creative Writing at Liverpool John Moores University. He studied English Literature w/ Creative Writing at Lancaster University, and then an MA in modernism from University College London.
His first full-length collection, ‘physical’, will be published by Jonathan Cape in July 2015. This follows three highly successful pamphlets, the first of which, every salt advance, was published in 2009 by Red Squirrel Press. A second pamphlet, ’ the moon is a supporting player’, was published by Red Squirrel Press in October 2011 and a selection of his poet can be found in the seminal new anthology The Salt Book of Younger Poets as well as in Best British Poetry 2013. A new pamphlet length poem, ‘protest of the physical’, was published by Red Squirrel Press in late 2013.
As well as his permanent position at Liverpool John Moores University, Andrew has taught poetry for Sheffield University, Edge Hill University and the Poetry School.
Andrew is currently one of the writers working for national charity First Story, and has been Poet-in-Residence for Off the Page , the LGBT community of Bournemouth, Sea View Day Centre in Poole, Basingstoke Bourough Council and the Regional Youth Theatre Festival; writer-in-residence for the Watershed Landscape Project, Growing Places arts and sustainability project in Newcastle and Apprentice Poet-in-Residence for the Ilkley Literature Festival In 2010 he was commissioned by IMove, the cultural olympiad body for Yorkshire, to produce a new sequence of work which was featured on Radio 4’s Today Programme. He regularly runs workshops for amateur poetry groups and in various community,school and higher education settings as well as for Sheffield Theatres and various literary feativals. 2012 saw him named a ‘new voice’ by both Latitude Festival and Aldeburgh Poetry Festival.
He was founding editor of Cake Magazine alongside Martha Sprackland: http://www.cake-poetry.co.uk/
In 2014 Andrew won a substantial Northern Writers Award from New Writing North.
His first full-length collection, ‘physical’, will be published by Jonathan Cape in July 2015. This follows three highly successful pamphlets, the first of which, every salt advance, was published in 2009 by Red Squirrel Press. A second pamphlet, ’ the moon is a supporting player’, was published by Red Squirrel Press in October 2011 and a selection of his poet can be found in the seminal new anthology The Salt Book of Younger Poets as well as in Best British Poetry 2013. A new pamphlet length poem, ‘protest of the physical’, was published by Red Squirrel Press in late 2013.
As well as his permanent position at Liverpool John Moores University, Andrew has taught poetry for Sheffield University, Edge Hill University and the Poetry School.
Andrew is currently one of the writers working for national charity First Story, and has been Poet-in-Residence for Off the Page , the LGBT community of Bournemouth, Sea View Day Centre in Poole, Basingstoke Bourough Council and the Regional Youth Theatre Festival; writer-in-residence for the Watershed Landscape Project, Growing Places arts and sustainability project in Newcastle and Apprentice Poet-in-Residence for the Ilkley Literature Festival In 2010 he was commissioned by IMove, the cultural olympiad body for Yorkshire, to produce a new sequence of work which was featured on Radio 4’s Today Programme. He regularly runs workshops for amateur poetry groups and in various community,school and higher education settings as well as for Sheffield Theatres and various literary feativals. 2012 saw him named a ‘new voice’ by both Latitude Festival and Aldeburgh Poetry Festival.
He was founding editor of Cake Magazine alongside Martha Sprackland: http://www.cake-poetry.co.uk/
In 2014 Andrew won a substantial Northern Writers Award from New Writing North.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
May 2, 2017
This is an outstanding book.
Written in 1989 with a depth of first hand knowledge and insight into the then australian aboriginal culture of the Northern Territory and parts of Western Australia, Queensland and the Tiwi islands, the author captures in an easy to read and very engaging prose a journey of a main stream australian band as they enmbarked on a Blackfella-Whitefella tour.
The title of the version named the band, but it would be a huge injustice to the author to focus just on that name. this novel provides an insight into the 2008 outback and aboriginal policies that can rarely be found in such an accessable text. If the name Midnight Oil makes anyone pick up the book, and read it, then that is probably the best outcome of the tour, for it will open the world as it was then as a learning for a topic the reader was unlikely to encounter.
In the years that have passed since that 1986 tour, much will have changed. However that does not detract from the novel at all. It is a book that all australians should consider reading. Balanced, honest, infomative.
Written in 1989 with a depth of first hand knowledge and insight into the then australian aboriginal culture of the Northern Territory and parts of Western Australia, Queensland and the Tiwi islands, the author captures in an easy to read and very engaging prose a journey of a main stream australian band as they enmbarked on a Blackfella-Whitefella tour.
The title of the version named the band, but it would be a huge injustice to the author to focus just on that name. this novel provides an insight into the 2008 outback and aboriginal policies that can rarely be found in such an accessable text. If the name Midnight Oil makes anyone pick up the book, and read it, then that is probably the best outcome of the tour, for it will open the world as it was then as a learning for a topic the reader was unlikely to encounter.
In the years that have passed since that 1986 tour, much will have changed. However that does not detract from the novel at all. It is a book that all australians should consider reading. Balanced, honest, infomative.
July 9, 2023
This has been on my tbr for 5 years and it did not disappoint. I thoroughly enjoyed the history provided of each community toured through by the oils and warumpi band. Although it was written in the late ‘80s much of the information about social issues is still accurate and relevant for today. Change truly moves at a glacial pace through remote parts of Australia.
October 24, 2018
This was a fascinating look at the seminal outback tour undertaken by the bands Midnight Oil and The Warumpi Band in 1986. This book was written right after the tour by music journalist Andrew McMillan who traveled with the bands. The tour lasted a little over the month, and the Oils had no idea what they were getting into or what to expect. In many of the stops, they were 2nd fiddle to hometown heroes the Warumpi's. The tour wound up changing all the members of the Oils and their music. A band that didn't shy away from politics wrapped up in the music and media releases, they took it to a whole nether level after this tour. During the tour, the camped out in swags under the stars, ate bush tucker, played on the dirt with a very stripped down sound and made a lot of friends along the way. The book also gives a good idea of how the local indigenous population are trying to renew their connection to their land and rejuvenate their people. For my US/Canadian friends, if you want a bit of an understanding of what is happening in the Aboriginal communities here in Australia this could be a good introduction, while also giving you an insight of how the music of Midnight Oil evolved into the Diesel and Dust album and beyond.
October 3, 2012
It’s an excellent read; profound, beautiful, and heartbreaking, by turns. McMillan captures the feel of the Australian desert better than any writer I’ve read. For the first half of the book, he refers to himself in the third person, as “the hitch-hiker”. (The book is dedicated to Andrew’s mother, father, and “the people who pick up hitch-hikers.”) It’s a cracking read, and the pace never wavers as he explores the logistics behind the tour, the nightly performances to mostly-bewildered locals, the history of the land, and the people who live there. After I finished, all I could think was: I wish I read this sooner.
April 23, 2013
Music journalism is rightly seen as a bit of a joke, but when it's good it can make for a compelling way to talk about the bigger picture. That's what 'Strict Rules' does, as it documents the 1986 Australian Outback tour of Aboriginal desert rock group Warumpi Band and right-on whiteys Midnight Oil. When the author, Andrew McMillan, died recently, his journalism was described by Midnight Oil's drummer, Rob Hirst, as "extremely well-researched". I'd say the same, except to note the comment by Maori author Linda Tuhiwai Smith that "'research' is probably one of the dirtiest words in the indigenous world's vocabulary".
February 12, 2010
Awesome behind the scenes account. Loads of interesting bits of history too.
October 18, 2017
I gave up on this book around page 194, or about 3/4 through. It's a good book and I don't often decide to give up. I'm interested in the Oils, but the book is just a really dense and heavy experience. There's a lot to take in about a world that's pretty foreign to city fellas and it can be tough going.
November 23, 2017
A wonderful, and at times overwhelmingly comprehensive overview of the bands, the crews, and the places featured on the ground-breaking "Blackfella/Whitefella" tour. This is McMillan writ large, with full stream-of-consciousness segments a thrill to be behold.
April 21, 2018
This is the first book about Midnight Oil that I’ve been able to finish. Actually the book taught me far more about the indigenous cultures of Central Australia and the Top End than about the band. Very readable and quite interesting.
March 1, 2020
A spectacular account of a place, time and culture.
May 17, 2022
First half of book felt disjointed, 2nd half of the book I really got into it.
November 13, 2025
This is a bloody good book. Read it!
January 8, 2025
A wonderful book about the Warumpi Band and Midnight Oil touring Austtalian Aboriginal towns and villages. I read the 2017 updated version with an epilogue written by the Oils' Peter Garrett.
October 7, 2015
From memory cause it's a while back but really good save for the over usage of the word 'spinifex.'
Pity the cover image isn't here, as it's is a nice companion piece to their seminal Diesel and Dust album.
Pity the cover image isn't here, as it's is a nice companion piece to their seminal Diesel and Dust album.
February 10, 2012
An interesting insight into the aboriginal settlements in the outback of australia. You don't have to be an oils fan to enjoy this - but it helps.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews