Midnight Oil\u2019s Peter Garrett\u2019s still got the moves like Peter Garrett.<\/p>\n
The rock legend made a surprise appearance to close out the 2026 APRA Music Awards, jumping up with electronic duo The Presets to perform Power and the Passion in tribute to his late mate Rob Hirst.<\/p>\n
The 73-year-old was clearly in his element in the wildly energetic revamp of the song, revered for Hirst\u2019s signature drum solo played on an old water tank.<\/p>\n
Garrett traversed the stage in his whirling dervish fashion. throwing his iconic shapes as he traded lyrics with The Presets frontman Julian Hamilton.<\/p>\n
To underscore the sheer power \u2013 and passion \u2013 of Hirst\u2019s musical talent, The Presets\u2019 Kim Moyes fronted a drum line of six players, all drumming along to amplify his famous solo.<\/p>\n
Garrett\u2019s rare live performance at the Hordern Pavilion for the annual songwriters\u2019 awards came almost four years after Midnight Oil played their final gig at the same venue.<\/p>\n
The former politician, environmental advocate and musician has continued to perform The Oils\u2019 classics, including Beds are Burning and Lucky Country, on tour with his solo project The Alter Egos over the past two years.<\/p>\n
Before his big surprise, Aussie pub rock heroes Amyl and the Sniffers were crowned the 2026 APRA Awards\u2019 big winners, claiming three trophies, including Song of the Year and Songwriter of the Year for their uncompromising hit Jerkin\u2019.<\/p>\n
The band revealed a music industry executive once asked them to provide a radio edit of the expletive-laden track, which opens with a C-bomb, but the rockers explained the song any bleeping or censorship would leave the song with no lyrics.<\/p>\n
Frontwoman Amy Taylor said it was \u201creally massive\u201d for the globally-famous punk quartet now to be recognised for their songwriting. This is the second consecutive year they\u2019ve taken out Song of the Year, winning last year with U Should Not Be Doing That.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that we\u2019re like the musical equivalent of a d \u2026 and balls being drawn on a dirty car,\u201d frontwoman Amy Taylor said on stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut there is meaning in what I\u2019m saying and what I am trying to get across because I feel like it\u2019s so frustrating to be alive right now sometimes.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven with all the stuff going on in this country right now, and you feel like you want to draw attention to the stuff that\u2019s really f \u2026 ked up, but if you draw attention to it, the people behind it just get lifted up more.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m talking about the politicians and the groups that none of us want to see rise to the top, that you just want to say \u2018Shut the f*** up.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
As APRA celebrates its 100th year, beloved band INXS was honoured with the prestigious Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music in recognition of their profound influence on modern music, with the five surviving members \u2013 Andrew, Tim and Jon Farriss, Kirk Pengilly and Garry Gary Beers \u2013 paying an emotional tribute to their late frontman Michael Hutchence.<\/p>\n
The trophy intended for the band\u2019s charismatic frontman and chief songwriter, alongside Andrew Farriss, will be sent to his daughter Tiger Lily.<\/p>\n
Guy Sebastian, who is in the middle of a national tour, was another big winner with his song Maybe claiming the trophies for Most Performed Australian Work and Most Performed Pop Work.<\/p>\n
Sia became the most awarded songwriter in APRAs history with 14 gongs when her 2016 hit Unstoppable was named the Most Performed Australian Work Overseas for the third consecutive year, proving the track is indeed \u2026 unstoppable a decade after its initial release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Midnight Oil\u2019s Peter Garrett\u2019s still got the moves like Peter Garrett. The rock legend made a surprise appearance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[164604,294838,64,63,689,310118,310129,310116,310123,33256,134,259656,310119,310113,294841,310124,2105,310115,310120,91626,294855,294847,259085,310114,294843,27803,294851,136,310125,310117,310127,673,677,294845,126940,310111,310128,310112,310110,310126,310121,670,310122],"class_list":["post-640388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-amy-taylor","tag-andrew-farriss","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-awards-gig","tag-beloved-band","tag-bicep-work","tag-chief-songwriter","tag-drum-line","tag-entertainment","tag-epic-performance","tag-expletive-laden-track","tag-final-gig","tag-garry-gary-beers","tag-garry-gary-morris","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-gig-honours","tag-globally-famous-punk-quartet","tag-guy-sebastian","tag-jenny-morris","tag-jon-farriss","tag-kathy-mccabe","tag-kim-moyes","tag-kirk-pengilly","tag-michael-hutchence","tag-modern-music","tag-music","tag-music-industry-executive","tag-musical-equivalent","tag-musical-talent","tag-new-south-wales","tag-oceania","tag-outstanding-services","tag-peter-garrett","tag-profound-influence","tag-rare-live-performance","tag-rock-heroes","tag-rock-icon-storms","tag-rock-legend","tag-surprise-performance","tag-sydney","tag-water-tank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}