It’s 12 months today since Bones Hillman exited the stage … and what better way to commemorate his singular memory than with a new bittersweet song featuring some of his many friends. “One Voice” can be heard and downloaded here: www.midnightoil.com/one-voice-for-bones
The initial inspiration came to Midnight Oil’s Rob Hirst soon after Bones’ passing. Rob recorded the song live at Jim Moginie’s Oceanic Studio, with Hamish Stuart on drums, Jim producing and playing guitar and Mellotron, and Rob singing and playing acoustic. The track also features contributions by Martin Rotsey (guitar), Peter Garrett (vocals) and Warne Livesey (bass), plus the distinctive vocals of Rob’s daughter Jay O’Shea. Their joint tribute even includes an apt slice of the Kiwi classic “Counting The Beat” (co-written by Bones along with his Swingers bandmates, Phil Judd and Buster Stiggs). ‘One Voice’ was mixed by Warne Livesey with a stirring music video by Robert Hambling, using Bones’ home movie footage.
As Peter Garrett exhorts near the end of the piece … “hey Bonesy, can you believe it? We’re singing this song about you, without you!”.
On this sad anniversary The Hillmans add their voice to all those sending their best wishes to Denise from across the waves. They also send their love to Bones who is hopefully holding court right now in some celestial bar, surrounded by eternal laughter.
