''20,000 Watt R.S.L.'' is a

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

by Australian

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Midnight Oil 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 ...

released on 13 October 1997 on their own label Sprint Music. The word "Collection" appears on the front of the CD along the hinge in the same type face as the title and the name of the band and may have been intended as part of the album's title; however, it does not appear on the spine. The release has also been distributed inside a cardboard sleeve which adds "Midnight Oil: The Hits" to the album art, distinguishing it as a compilation album. The compilation covers the majority of Midnight Oil's career, starting with their 1979 album ''

Head Injuries A head injury is any injury that results in trauma to the skull or brain. The terms ''traumatic brain injury'' and ''head injury'' are often used interchangeably in the medical literature. Because head injuries cover such a broad scope of inju ...

'', and includes tracks from all their major studio releases (and one EP), even including two songs from the forthcoming ''

Redneck Wonderland ''Redneck Wonderland'' is the tenth studio album by Midnight Oil that was released in July 1998 under the Columbia Records label, which peaked at No.7 on the ARIA Albums Chart. The title of the album was inspired by a wall graffiti, a picture ...

'' album, which was released after this compilation in 1998. The compilation does not include any material from the band's eponymous 1978 debut album or the ''

Bird Noises ''Bird Noises'' is the first extended play by Australian rock group, Midnight Oil, which was released on 24 November 1980 under the band's own independent label, Powderworks Records / Sprint Music. It was produced by Leszek Karski and manufactu ...

'' EP (1980). The liner notes contain an essay on the band by Australian author

Tim Winton Timothy John Winton (born 4 August 1960) is an Australian writer. He has written novels, children's books, non-fiction books, and short stories. In 1997, he was named a Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia, and has won the Miles ...

. The album peaked at #1 on the

Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a trade association representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing th ...

(ARIA) album charts, and achieved 5×Platinum sales, it also peaked at #18 in New Zealand. In 2012, Midnight Oil released the 2-disc compilation album ''

Essential Oils An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile (easily evaporated at normal temperatures) chemical compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils, aetheroleum, or simply as the o ...

'', a more comprehensive summary of the band's career, and which includes material from all of the band's studio albums and EPs between 1978 and 2002. There is only one song ("What Goes On") included in ''20,000 Watt R.S.L.'' that is not included in ''Essential Oils''.

Background

Midnight Oil are an Australian rock band from

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

formed in 1976 with

vocalist Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

Peter Garrett Peter Robert Garrett (born 16 April 1953) is an Australian musician, environmentalist, activist and former politician. In 1973, Garrett became the lead singer of the Australian rock band Midnight Oil. As a performer he is known for his sign ...

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

Rob Hirst Robert George Hirst (born 3 September 1955) is an Australian musician from Camden, New South Wales. He is a founding member of rock band Midnight Oil on drums, percussion and backing vocals (sometimes lead vocals) from the 1970s until the band t ...

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

ist Andrew James and

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instr ...

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

ist

Jim Moginie James Moginie (born 18 May 1956) is an Australian musician. He is best known for his work with Midnight Oil, of which he is a founding member, guitarist, keyboardist and leading songwriter. Career In addition to Midnight Oil, Moginie has wor ...

, Guitarist

Martin Rotsey 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 together in 2017. Career In 2006, he joined fellow Midnight Oil member Rob Hirst's projects Ghostwrit ...

joined in 1977 and Midnight Oil established their own record label Powderworks, they released their second album ''

'' on this label in October 1979. Founding bass guitarist James left due to illness in 1980, he was replaced by

Peter Gifford Peter Gifford (born 5 April 1955), sometimes known as "Giffo," is an Australian musician. From 1980 until 1987, he played bass guitar, Chapman Stick and sang backing vocals for Australian rock band Midnight Oil. Midnight Oil Gifford is credi ...

, Gifford was himself replaced by

Bones Hillman Wayne Stevens (May 1958 – 7 November 2020), known by the stage name Bones Hillman, was a New Zealand musician best known as the bass guitarist for the Australian alternative rock band Midnight Oil, which he joined in 1987 and remained with un ...

in 1987. Australian Top Ten singles were " Power and the Passion", "The Dead Heart", "

Beds Are Burning "Beds Are Burning" is a 1987 song by the Australian rock band Midnight Oil, the first track from their album ''Diesel and Dust''. This song was released as the second single from the album. It reached No. 1 in Official New Zealand Music Chart, Ne ...

" and "

Blue Sky Mine "Blue Sky Mine" is a song by Australian rock band Midnight Oil, released in February 1990 as the first single from their seventh studio album, '' Blue Sky Mining'' (1990). The song was inspired by the experiences of workers at the Wittenoom asbes ...

". Aside from chart success both "Power and the Passion" and "Beds Are Burning" were listed by

Australasian Performing Right Association APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwr ...

(APRA) in the Top 30 best Australian songs of all time in 2001. Through a long and distinguished career, the band became known for its driving hard-rock sound, intense live performances and political activism, particularly in aid of

anti-nuclear The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes various nuclear technologies. Some direct action groups, environmental movements, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, natio ...

environmentalist An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that se ...

and

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

causes. The title refers to the Returned Servicemen's League, whose clubs the band has performed in, and the typical power used by a

public address system A public address system (or PA system) is an electronic system comprising microphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers, and related equipment. It increases the apparent volume (loudness) of a human voice, musical instrument, or other acoustic sound sou ...

.(Powderworks) 20,000 Watt RSL Title - Meaning
/ref>

Track listing

Songwriters according to

(APRA): Note: requires user to input song title e.g. WHAT GOES ON # "What Goes On" (Garrett, Hillman, Hirst, Moginie, Rotsey)from ''

'' (1998) # " Power and the Passion" (Garrett, Hirst, Moginie)from '' 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1'' (1982) # " Dreamworld" (Garrett, Hirst, Moginie)from '' Diesel and Dust'' (1987) # "White Skin Black Heart" (Garrett, Hillman, Hirst, Moginie, Rotsey) # "Kosciuszko" (Hirst, Moginie)from '' Red Sails in the Sunset'' (1984) # "

The Dead Heart "The Dead Heart" is a song by Australian rock band Midnight Oil. It was first released as a single in Australia in 1986 and in the United Kingdom and the United States in 1988 after it had been included on the 1987 album, '' Diesel and Dust''. ...

" (Garrett, Hirst, Moginie) # "

" (Garrett, Hillman, Hirst, Moginie, Rotsey)from ''

Blue Sky Mining ''Blue Sky Mining'' is the seventh studio album by Australian alternative rock band Midnight Oil, released on 9 February 1990 under the Columbia Records label. It received high ratings from critics. In March of that year, the album peaked at nu ...

'' (1990) # " US Forces" (Garrett, Moginie) # "

" (Garrett, Hirst, Moginie) # "One Country" (Garrett, Moginie) # "Best of Both Worlds" (Hirst, Moginie) # "

Truganini Truganini (also known as Lallah Rookh; c. 1812 – 8 May 1876) was an Aboriginal Tasmanian woman. She was one of the last native speakers of the Tasmanian languages and one of the last individuals solely of Aboriginal Tasmanian descent. Truga ...

" (Hirst, Moginie)from ''

Earth and Sun and Moon ''Earth and Sun and Moon'' is the eighth studio album by Australian rock group, Midnight Oil, that was released in April 1993 under the Columbia Records label. It peaked at No.2 on the ARIA Albums Chart. Background Midnight Oil's ''Earth and Sun ...

'' (1993) # " King of the Mountain" (Hirst, Moginie) # "Hercules" (Garrett, Hirst, Moginie)from ''

Species Deceases ''Species Deceases'' is an extended play by Australian rock music group, Midnight Oil, which was released on 26 November 1985 under the CBS record label. ''Species Deceases'' debuted at No. 1 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Char ...

'' (1985) # "Surf's Up Tonight" (Garrett, Hillman, Hirst, Moginie, Rotsey)from '' Breathe'' (1996) # " Back on the Borderline" (Garrett, Hirst, James)from ''

'' (1979) # "

Don't Wanna Be the One "Don't Wanna Be the One" is a song by Australian rock band Midnight Oil, released in October 1981 as the lead single from the band's third studio album, '' Place without a Postcard''. The song peaked at no. 40 in Australia. Track listing # "Don' ...

" (Garrett, Hirst, Moginie, Rotsey)from ''

Place without a Postcard ''Place Without a Postcard'' is the third studio album by Australian rock band Midnight Oil, released in November 1981 under Sprint Music and the Columbia Records label. It peaked at No. 12 on the Kent Music Report albums chart and the r ...

'' (1981) # " Forgotten Years" (Hirst, Moginie)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Album

Video

Personnel

;Midnight Oil *

– vocals,

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

–

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

, vocals (on tracks 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 14, 17) *

– bass, vocals (on tracks 1, 4, 7, 10, 12, 13, 15, 18) *

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

, vocals *Andrew James – bass (on track 16) *

– guitars,

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

s ;Additional personnel *

Gary Barnacle Gary Barnacle (born 1959 in Dover, England) is an English saxophonist, flautist, brass instrument arranger, composer, and producer. Barnacle is primarily noted for his session work and live work, including various Prince's Trust concerts at Wem ...

, Peter Thoms, Luke Tunney - brass on ' Power and the Passion'

References

External links

Midnight Oil

ARC Album Review
{{Authority control Midnight Oil compilation albums 1997 greatest hits albums CBS Records compilation albums