In many ways Peter Garrett has lived a charmed life and this book is mainly a big, humble, thank-you to those who helped it happen. He does not take for granted the blessings he was born with: good health, great abilities, and good, caring parents who were well-off enough, and strict enough, to ensure that he got a good education. As the final year of his schooling approached they decided that as he was so good at arguing, he should study law. And so, after a summer of pulling beers in a country pub, he found himself at the ANU in Canberra.
He made the most of student life, studying just enough to pass each year. Amongst all the extracurricular activities, music started to be the biggest distraction. Eventually he had a go at becoming the lead singer for a local student band. The rest was not quite “history” at that point in time. There was more hard-slogging at the music, and time out to finish his law degree. As successes started to accumulate, it seemed that there would be no stopping this charmed life. But then tragedy struck: his parent’s home burned down, his beloved mother died in the flames. He tried, but was unable, to rescue her.
Because gigs were booked, the shows went on. Friends, music, surfing, helped Peter and his brothers to get through this terrible time.
In 1978 his band, Midnight Oil, cut its first album, called simply, Midnight Oil. More years of hard work and fun took the band into the 1980s, around Australia, over to New Zealand and then to the wider world. The songs became political, planet-saving, anti-nuclear, anti-weapon proliferation, pro-peace. He was asked to head the Senate ticket for the Nuclear Disarmament Party.
And so his political life was launched.
Unlike some other people who were born with many benefits, Peter Garrett always acknowledges his privileged background, and has never been blind to the inequality and the injustices that can hamper and hurt those people who are less fortunate or less lucky.
Big Blue Sky is a record of an amazing life.
It is a great read.
