Liz Stringer & William Crighton Release Their Interpretation Of Midnight Oil’s ‘Golden Age’
William Crighton and Liz Stringer have joined forces to bring to life their interpretation of the Midnight Oil classic, Golden Age from 2002’s Capricornia.
Having made the decision to tour Australia together while hanging out in Germany and France during the Oils 2022 Resist Tour, during which Stringer was backing vocalist for the Oils and Crighton opened the European shows, it felt like a natural choice to tackle a selection from the Oil’s epic canon. Recorded live at Jim Moginie’s Oceanic Studio in northern Sydney, and featuring Moginie on bass and Rob Hirst on drums, with Julianne Crighton and Beans on Toast joining them both on backing vocals, this version of Golden Age is a homage to Stringer and Crighton’s newfound musical kinship and a firm hat-tip to their unending respect for the mighty Midnight Oil.
Of recording the song, Liz says; “It seemed like only a matter of time until William and I collaborated on a project like this. It was a joy to watch our version of Golden Age, a song that I love, evolve over a couple of days, from sitting around a table at my mates’ house in Maroubra, to putting it down live with Jim and Rob at Oceanic. I’m so glad we got the chance to record the experience.”
Likewise, the experience for William to record this particular track with Liz and co. was special also, with Crighton saying, “It was Liz’s idea to do “Golden Age”. When I sat down with her to go through it, the first line “All the screens are filled with heroes and losers but the sky’s still filled with stars” sunk in and the song had me. The idea grew and everything aligned for us all to converge for a few hours and run some takes at Oceanic. Jim and Rob contributed their mastery in their usual humble way. Jules and Beans singing BV’s too. Was a beautiful evening, bit surreal really.”
The final words go to Rob Hirst, giving his take on the recording; “Liz sings and picks, William sings and strums – Golden Age emerges, take five, live and real and rough in Jim Moginie’s Oceanic studio. Much fun had by all, especially the rhythm section (Jim and me), the Greek chorus (Julianne, Jim, Beans and me), and that WILD man on theremin (Jim).”