[David Quirk]

There have been a few posts about whether Peter's voice is the main part of 
the band etc...one thing is for sure though, he cannot be replaced and while 
I hope we see some new music soon, it clearly would not be as "Midnight Oil" 
without Peter.

My question was a general one relating to the rest...suppose it was one of 
the other 4 who wanted to leave and Peter was staying in the band, would the 
band have "replaced" them and continued as Midnight Oil? They have clearly 
done this in the past, replacing both Andrew James and then Peter Gifford as 
bass players. It would be easy to say that perhaps if Bones left, they could 
get another bass player but I think that Bones is perhaps a more integral 
part of the band than either of the other bassists they had - he has more 
solo singing parts and has been there the longest.

So I suppose I am asking what the feeling is on the list if they would have 
continued with any of the other members leaving. My thoughts are that due to 
the songwriting, Rob and Jim would have been the hardest to replace but 
clearly the other members could have filled the void and contributed more in 
this area. On Capricornia, for example, Jim wrote almost everything, so if 
Rob had decided to leave, they could have filled this void I think. Through 
Rob's comments, they certainly want to continue together in some form and I 
think that had it been someone else leaving, they may have replaced them and 
tried to continue.

Personally, I could not imagine them with Peter singing and one of the 
others missing. Bones is perhaps the only one who is a possibility but 
really only because he has been there the shortest amount of time. Even 
though Martin does not write many of the songs, his contributions with his 
guitar certainly would be missed. However, if the choice was for the band to 
split up, or to replace someone who left and continue, my vote would be for 
replacing...something is better than nothing. Also, there have been may 
occasions with bands over time where key members have been left and have 
been replaced without too much fuss.

Just thought I would throw it out there...

David

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