[CHRIS WINTER +61 2 8333 3131]

If you leave the DVD running after the "1985 intro" you will get some
explanation of the background to Goat. 

As you know it was an anniversary "gift" from Midnight Oil to a radio station of
Australia's national broadcaster the ABC, launched in 1975. Called TripleJ, it
was in those days a Sydney-only station -- it is now a national network (and
streams) -- http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/ -- they're relaunching their site in
a couple of weeks. It was the only radio station that supported the band when
they started.

We planned it to be simulcast as a national radio/TV event 19 January 1985 (the
birthday), rather than just a live concert, but decided to record it the
previous weekend -- for a number of reasons, not the least of which was we had
decided to do it on an island in Sydney Harbour and getting a video and radio
signal off the island for a live gig made us nervous.

In other words, the audience was required to give the band someone to play to,
but had to be small because room was limited. Had we advertised it, the island
would have been overrun. We ran a competition on air (while keeping the prize a
secret) and selected 500 winners, taking them to the island by ferry, not
telling them what they were doing until they were on the boat and halfway there.

There was only one performance in front of an audience (Sunday night 13 Jan) and
a rehearsal the previous night, on the basis of which we shifted the start time
so the sun would set in the middle. As far as I know that was the whole concert.
It was a six camera shoot (1" video), mixed live on the night, as was the audio,
direct to stereo. There were two isos, one on Garrett and one in a helicopter --
that material was cut in over the next couple of days -- there was no time to do
anything else.

However, a multitrack recording had been made as well, as a guard copy, and that
was exhumed for this project, baked overnight, and transferred to hard disk for
mixdown to stereo and 5.1. Justin did a lot of work on the picture as well! The
result you see and hear on the DVD is nothing like what went to air originally
-- it's much better!

The capitol theatre concert was one of a series. The concert was "presented" by
TripleJ and the recording was originally intended for radio only; the band
commissioned a documentary maker to film part of the concert as well.
Considerable restoration work went into this one as well.

Chris Winter

-----Original Message-----
From: powderworks-bounces 
Sent: Thursday, 10 June 2004 4:57 AM
To: Oilers
Subject: [Powderworks] The DVD!