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Genres. Rock, alternative rock. Occupation (s) Guitarist. Years active. 1977–2002, 2006–present. Website. midnightoil .com. Martin Rotsey is an Australian guitarist and a member of the rock band Midnight Oil, which was active from 1977 to 2002 and resumed performing in 2017.
www .midnightoil .com. Midnight Oil (known informally as " The Oils ") are an Australian rock band composed of Peter Garrett (vocals, harmonica), Rob Hirst (drums), Jim Moginie (guitar, keyboard) and Martin Rotsey (guitar). The group was formed in Sydney in 1972 by Hirst, Moginie and original bassist Andrew James as Farm: they enlisted Garrett ...
- 1972–2002, 2016–present, (reunions: 2005, 2009)
Martin Rotsey (guitarist/songwriter) (1976- ) — Joined forces with fellow Oils alumni Rob Hirst and Jim Moginie (and former Violent Femmes bassist Brian Ritchie) to form the surf-rock band The Break.
Rob Hirst (drums, vocals) and Jim Moginie (guitars, keys & vocals) started making music together at school in 1972. They gradually evolved into Midnight Oil, with singer Peter Garrett joining in 1975 and Martin Rotsey (guitar), coming on board in the following year.
- No Time For Games
- Best of Both Worlds
- Armistice Day
- Hercules
- Rising Seas
- Back on The Borderline
- Wedding Cake Island
- Gunbarrel Highway
- Stand in Line
- Dreamworld
This was Midnight Oil’s first genuine anthem, amplifying their sociopolitical lyrical ambitions with an enormous, shout-along chorus, sandwiched between tricky time signature changes. As was often the case with early Midnight Oil recordings, live versions left the original sounding sluggish: check out the band’s blitzkrieg performance at their famo...
Made in Tokyo, Midnight Oil’s fifth album Red Sails in the Sunset expanded upon the studio wizardry and ambitious arrangements of its predecessor 10-1 with slightly diminished returns. But Best of Both Worlds was a barn-burner. Taking the brass and guitar fusion of the Saints’ Know Your Product as a template, it threw shade on the rest of the album...
Place Without a Postcard was the difficult third album for Midnight Oil. Recorded with famed English producer Glyn Johns, it sounded like it had lead in its saddlebags – live performances of songs like Lucky Countryand Brave Faces hint at what might have been. But on Armistice Day, the sluggishness worked in its favour. It’s a big, bad bomber of a ...
Having pushed the limits of the studio as far as they could with Red Sails in the Sunset, Midnight Oil went back to their northern beaches surf-punk-hippie roots for the Species Deceases EP: four up-tempo, back-to-basic rock songs, inspired by the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and a trip to Hiroshima. Hercules was the main radio cut, highlighted b...
If you hoped for a furious return from Midnight Oil circa 2022 – something that reminded you of your own youth – you’d be looking at their beautiful, probably final album through the wrong end of the telescope. Here are men in their late 60s, looking back not with anger, but forward with horror. Rising Seas begins with a hymn, then builds, holding ...
“The first thing I’ve got to do with you guys is cut out the hippie waffle,” producer Les Karski told Midnight Oil at the outset of recording of their second album – and first great one. Their self-titled debut had occasionally meandered, but Head Injurieswas hard, taut and mean, and Back on the Borderline was just perfect: Rob Hirst is on fire beh...
Summoning the spirit of the Shadows and Australian surf-rock pioneers the Atlantics, this instrumental gained Midnight Oil their first serious airplay. At that time, commercial radio couldn’t deal with Garrett’s vocals. An obscene and defamatory rant had been excised from the song’s mix, with just an inaudible snatch of conversation remaining. The ...
Not included on the original US CD or cassette editions of Diesel and Dust – and left off vinyl editions to this day – Gunbarrel Highway was reduced to virtual bonus track status. Which is a great shame, because its grand cinematic sweep ranks among Midnight Oil’s most evocative songs, hurtling like a road train through endless mulga and spinifex, ...
This live showstopper was usually reserved as an encore, until it was dropped after Bones Hillman joined the band in 1987 (he struggled to master its fiendish bassline). Stand in Line was the pinnacle of the band’s early surf-punk years: the lyrics were sharper, Garrett delivered them with berserk commitment, and Moginie’s long, unconventional solo...
Named after the Gold Coast theme park and inspired by Queensland’s “white shoe brigade” of 1980s property developers, Dreamworld rocked hard. But it also featured layered harmonies and a huge, descending hook line, just a bit faster to the similar pattern in the Cure’s contemporaneous Just Like Heaven. It’s the sound of a band full of confidence, p...
Biography - Martin Rotsey. Martin Rotsey. Gtr. Originally from England, Martin got his first guitar at 12 (good age for starting), and met up with Rob when he was in Schwampy Moose. At uni he did part of an arts course, before leaving, and then joined up with the newly formed Oils. Originally he joined as a temporary replacement for bassist ...
By 1976 they had changed their name to Farm and decided they needed a singer. Rob placed an ad in the Sydney Morning Herald and Peter Garrett turned up for the audition. In 1976 they first met their long-time manager Gary Morris, who is treated as the sixth member of the band. Also in 1976 Farm expanded with the arrival of Martin Rotsey (guitar).
