Politician's rock gig for bushfire victims

Australian politician Peter Garrett will reunite with his rock band Midnight Oil today to warm-up for a bushfires' benefit concert, vowing not to shy away from the politically charged songs of his activist era.

The lanky, bald Garrett, 55, was the lead singer of Midnight Oil for 26 years, swaying the hearts and minds of a generation as he jerkily danced and railed against US foreign policies and corporate greed and for indigenous rights and the environment.

But Garrett quit music in 2002 for politics, winning a seat in the Australian parliament in 2004 for the center-left Labor Party. He was appointed Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts when Labor won power in 2007.