Dreamworld

Album: Diesel and Dust (1987)
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Songfacts®:

  • In the fourth and final single from Diesel and Dust, Australian rockers Midnight Oil bid farewell to several of Queensland's beloved locales, including the Cloudland Dance Hall, which was demolished in 1982 during Joh Bjelke-Petersen's tenure as Premier of Queensland. Located in Brisbane, the ornate venue hosted numerous concerts by Midnight Oil and several other acts, including Buddy Holly on his 1958 tour of Australia, before it was replaced by an apartment complex. Oils frontman Peter Garrett told ABC Radio Brisbane: "I used to think that when we played there we were in a sense the inheritors of the earlier musical traditions... and this was just the '70s and '80s version of the same thing. Yes, it was louder, yes, it was more physical but Cloudland managed to handle it very well."
  • The song takes aim at greedy developers who cash in on destroying pieces of Queensland's cultural history. "I felt this sick feeling in my stomach when we learnt what had happened," Garrett recalled of Cloudland's overnight demolition. "In some ways it was indicative of the Bjelke-Petersen regime - that they actually didn't draw the connection between the incredible joy and pleasure that it had given so many people, and the incredible importance it played in the Australia's live music scene and in Brisbane's live music scene too."
  • This is named after the Dreamworld theme park in Queensland, which is briefly featured in the music video.
  • In the US, this peaked at #16 on the Modern Rock chart and #37 on the Mainstream Rock chart.

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