[Andrew Cook]

G'day all, it's been a long time since I've posted but how could I not write 
just a few lines about the Oils and their inspirational music at at time 
like this!  I've enjoyed reading about everyone's favourite Oils moments and 
I couldn't resist contributing some of my own:

* Seeing the band live for the first time at The Princess Theatre, Melbourne 
on their live and interactive concerts in 1994.  Although the atmosphere was 
electric in the grand old theatre the music was all acoustic.  Nevertheless, 
I'd never heard anything as powerful as the music that night, many of their 
songs coming off Red Sails in the Sunset.  I was already hooked to their 
albums, from that point on I was hooked to seeing them live also and haven't 
missed catching at least one show on every Melbourne tour since then.  A 
notable PG incident from that evening, Melanie Oxley was support and 
apparently some clown in the crowd flashed his wedding tackle at her during 
the performance - when the Oils came on there was a significant PG rant on 
what this person did and what would happen to him if he ever did it again!

* The Palace, St Kilda ~ 1996.  Close to the best Oils show I'd seen, they 
played a heap of stuff of The Blue Album and Head Injuries, including Is It 
Now? - those guitars went forever at the end!  It was a sweaty mass of fans 
down the front that night and some shorter friends had to go to the back to 
get some air!  They still said it was the best show they'd seen though!

* Regent Theatre, Melbourne ~ 2000-01 Will anyone who was there that night 
ever forget the Power and the Passion dancers? One of the funniest things 
I've ever seen!  Peter Garrett was joined on stage for the last song by a 
large group of girls who'd just finished a performance next door.  
Apparently Bones had a chat to them before the show and invited them on!  
Did cause a storm on the list however, caused much feminist debate - had the 
band become fascist misogynistic pigs - surely not!

* Introducing friends and family to the band.  Both my younger brothers are 
now converts - the second youngest only seeing them for the first time at 
their Forum, Melbourne Friday night show a few weeks back - couldn't get the 
grin off his face afterwards.  My other brother, at age 19, was already an 
Oils veteran, having seen them 4 or so times since turning 17!  We recently 
cycled from Canberra down to Wodonga through the Snowy Mountains, this trip 
happily coincided with their Canberra gig!  I'm so glad now that we saw 
this, apart from hearing Armistice Day live for the first time, it was also 
the last time we saw them.  Worth the effort.  Pretty much sums them up.  
Place without a postcard got a fair run on the walkman on that trip!

* On same cycling trip - looking for something to do in Jindabyne we heard 
Blue Sky Mine blasting out of the pub we were walking past.  Guess where we 
ended up!

Hope everyone is well and continues to enjoy the great music and vibes!

Andrew











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