Midnight Oil rocker Jim had one quality Christabel had never seen in a man

Christabel Blackman, 65, author, artist and fine art conservator, and her partner, Jim Moginie, 68, author and founding member of rock band Midnight Oil, live and make art between the south-east of Ireland and the NSW South Coast.

Christabel Blackman and Jim Moginie. “If he’s off, I’m off, too,” says Blackman. “And vice versa. It’s the way our life has continuum, or we probably wouldn’t see each other.”Credit: Edwina Pickles

Christabel: I first met Jim in 2010 at a birthday party in Sydney, around the time I returned to Australia after living in Spain for 25 years. There he was, playing songs with Doc Neeson, from The Angels, and Stephen Coburn, who’d been in Mental As Anything. All of them dressed as pirates. Over coming years I’d see him at parties and arts weekends [at his NSW South Coast home]. A big bonfire, friends playing music, people making art.

Jim was a little bit distant when I first met him. I didn’t know he was famous, or that he was in Midnight Oil [which disbanded in 2002 and re-formed in 2017]. To me, he was a ­gardener who was in an Irish band that we’d sometimes go and see. One weekend, he said, “You know, you can come down here anytime you want and paint.” A friendship formed. I realised we could just talk the night away and, six years after we met, we got together.

‘Finding the greatest love you’ve had in your life, at that age, it’s not expected.’

Christabel Blackman

I’d totally planned my life as being alone for the rest of my time. My marriage had ended, my three kids were old enough to decide where they wanted to be, I had my home in Sydney, my studio, my business as a fine art conservator. I was happy. Finding Jim was beyond a needle in a haystack. Finding the greatest love you’ve had in your life, at that age, it’s not ­expected.

Jim’s got something I haven’t found in another man, ever. He listens to you. He’s adopted, and I think his adoptive mother, Betty, taught him what love meant, how important it is to listen to other people. We’re not married, but we are in our eyes. In 2018, we came across this ­incredible little cottage in Ireland. Jim had ­always wanted to live in Ireland. His ancestry is Irish. The ­cottage was the place where he carried me over the threshold. He dropped me. We’re not 20 any more, but he tried.

The thing that does drive me a bit crazy is the suitcase is always packed. We’re never more than three days anywhere. When it came out in the newspaper [in 2016], “Midnight Oil are back together, they’re going on a world tour,” I must have been the only person who said, “Oh no.” After that, we realised, if he’s off, I’m off, too. And vice versa. It’s the way our life has continuum, or we probably wouldn’t see each other.

Jim’s got all these identities. The Oils, The Family Dog, The Break, his Irish band, Shameless Seamus, his electric guitar orchestra, piano concerts. He loves gardening. He’s got this big ride-on mower. The Spanish say about falling in love, or a lifelong friend, the person is unfinishable. There’s always something more to learn about them. That’s Jim. There is no time I don’t want to see him. Whenever he walks out of the room and then comes back in, I go, “Oh. There he is.”

Blackman and Moginie in Ireland in July of this year.Credit: Pepa Blackman

Jim: The first time I met Christabel was at a weekend art party, and she made paella. I fashioned some bricks and besser blocks ­together over the fire, she put the pan over the top and, when it was finished, you could stand the pan up and the paella didn’t fall out. I thought, “You’re pretty amazing,” but I didn’t think anything much more about her.

It was a few years later that I think she saw something in me. I wasn’t in a very good place. I was coming out of a bad experience after a relationship had ended. I was still hurting. Christabel came down to do a bit of painting. Whether that was her way of cracking onto me, I don’t know. It was just, she’s great. A deep friendship began. Because I was in a strange, sort of existential, state, I was a bit, “Oh god.”

‘Christabel is the personification of love. That sounds very pretentious, but it feels like that to me.’

Jim Moginie

I quickly realised, here was a really substantial person with incredible qualities. She knew everything about classical music, about art, ­literature. I’d be quoting Bob Dylan lyrics to her, she’d be quoting T. S. Eliot. I’d thought I would become one of those guys, a tragic. I’d been married, had kids. I’ve had a few relationships that didn’t work. I just thought, “I’m not cut out for it. I need to learn something here.”

Christabel is the personification of love. That sounds very pretentious, but it feels like that to me. It’s something crystalline, like a naked flame. She’s strong, she’s kind. Her kids adore her and that’s not always the case when you’ve come out of a marriage.

Christabel had a really different kind of childhood [which she writes about in her book Charles and Barbara Blackman: A Decade of Art and Love, about her artist father and writer mother]. She had to learn at a very young age to cope and be practical. She had to look after her younger brother and her mother [who died in October], who was blind. People like Spike Milligan and Barry Humphries would be ­hanging out with her family. It means she’s very sorted. And, she doesn’t judge people.

When she first came to see Midnight Oil, we were playing at Marrickville Bowling Club in 2017. The sound was deafening. Pete [Garrett] was going for it, Rob [Hirst] thrashing the drums. I could see Christabel edging slowly to a back wall. Afterwards, she said, “So, that’s what you do?” It was almost like she was in shock.

At the end of Midnight Oil [in 2022], I needed her ­support. I was partly grieving the end of the band, partly wanting it to end. We’re pretty stoic guys, but that final tour was challenging. I was very glad she was there. At certain times in my life, ­success was quite troubling.

And, being an adopted kid. I found that out when I was 11. It changes your brain chemistry at that age. The idea of being abandoned, the fear or flight thing. Your nervous system isn’t the same as other people’s, basically. It was only around the time I found Christabel that I was able to look at all that and write my book [The Silver River].

Nothing about her drives me crazy. She bloody talks a lot, but it’s always entertaining, educational talking. I’m a bit more taciturn but I can give as good as I get. She lets me be myself. I’m not trying to be someone else with her.

I hope she’s happy with me. I know we met at the right time, and it would be lovely, at this point in my life, to keep it rocking.

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