Cold Chisel
Encyclopedia
Cold Chisel is a rock band that originated in Adelaide
, Australia. It is one of the most acclaimed Australian rock bands of all time, with a string of hits throughout the 1970s and 1980s and huge sales that continue to this day, although its success and acclaim was almost completely restricted to Australia and New Zealand.
cover band by bassist Les Kaczmarek, keyboard player Don Walker
, guitar
ist Ian Moss
and drum
mer Steve Prestwich
. Seventeen-year-old singer Jimmy Barnes
—known throughout his time with the band as Jim Barnes—joined in December 1973, taking leave from the band in 1975 for a brief stint as Bon Scott
's replacement in Fraternity
. The group changed its name several times before settling on Cold Chisel in 1974 after writing a song with that title. Barnes' relationship with other band members was volatile; as a Scot he often came to blows with Liverpool-born Prestwich and he left the band several times. During these periods Moss would handle vocals until Barnes returned.
Walker soon emerged as Cold Chisel's primary songwriter. Walker spent 1974 in Armidale
, completing his studies and in 1975 Kaczmarek left the band and was replaced by Phil Small
. Barnes' older brother John Swan
was a member of Cold Chisel around this time, providing backing vocals and percussion
but after several violent incidents he was fired.
In May 1976 Cold Chisel relocated to Melbourne but found little success and moved to Sydney in November. Six months later, in May 1977, Barnes announced he was quitting Cold Chisel in order to join Swan in Feather, a hard-rocking blues band that had evolved from an earlier group called Blackfeather
. A farewell performance took place in Sydney that went so well the singer changed his mind and the following month Cold Chisel was picked up by the Warner Music Group.
with producer Peter Walker. All tracks were written by Don Walker except "Juliet", for which Barnes wrote the melody and Walker the lyrics. Cold Chisel was released in April and featured appearances from harmonica
player Dave Blight, who would become a regular on-stage guest, and saxophonists Joe Camilleri
and Wilbur Wilde
from Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons
. The following month the song "Khe Sanh
" was released as a single but was deemed too offensive for airplay on commercial radio because of the lyric "Their legs were often open/But their minds were always closed", although it was played regularly on Sydney rock station, Double J, which was not subject to such restrictions because it was part of the ABC
. Despite that setback, it still reached #48 on the Australian singles chart and number four on the Adelaide charts thanks mainly to the band's rising popularity as a touring act and some local radio support in Adelaide where the single was aired in spite of the ban. "Khe Sanh" has since become Cold Chisel's signature tune and arguably its most popular among fans. The song was later remixed, with re-recorded vocals, for inclusion on the international version of 1980's East
.
The band's next release was a live EP titled You're Thirteen, You're Beautiful, and You're Mine
, in November. This had been recorded at a show at Sydney's Regent Theatre in 1977 that had featured Midnight Oil
as one of the support acts. One of the EP's tracks, "Merry Go Round" was later recorded on the follow-up, Breakfast at Sweethearts
. This album was recorded between July 1978 and January 1979 with experienced producer Richard Batchens
, who had previously worked with Richard Clapton
, Sherbet
and Blackfeather. Batchens smoothed out many of the band's rough edges and attempted to give their songs a sophisticated sound. This approach has made the album sit a little uncomfortably with the band ever since. Once again, the majority of the songs were penned by Walker, with Barnes collaborating with Walker on the first single "Goodbye (Astrid, Goodbye)" and Moss contributing to "Dresden". "Goodbye (Astrid, Goodbye)" became a live favourite for the band, and even went on to be performed by U2
during Australian tours in the 1980s.
By now the band stood at the verge of major national success, even without significant radio airplay or support from Countdown, Australia's most important youth music program at the time. The band had become notorious for its wild behaviour, particularly from Barnes who was rumoured to have had sex with over 1000 women and who was known to consume more than a bottle of vodka
every night during performances.
In late-1979, following their problematic relationship with Batchens, Cold Chisel chose Mark Opitz to produce the next single, "Choirgirl", a Don Walker composition dealing with a young woman's experience with abortion
. In spite of the controversial subject matter, the track became a hit and paved the way for Cold Chisel's next album. Recorded over two months in early-1980, East
reached #2 on the Australian album charts and was the second-highest selling album by an Australian artist for the year. Despite the continued dominance of Walker, during Cold Chisel's later career all four of the other members began to contribute songs to the band, and this was the first of their albums to feature songwriting contributions from each member of the band. Cold Chisel is the only Australian rock band to score hits with songs written by every member of the group.
Of the album's 12 tracks, two were written by Barnes, with Moss, Prestwich and Small contributing one song each. The songs ranged from straight ahead rock tracks such as "Standing on the Outside" and "My Turn to Cry" to rockabilly
-flavoured work-outs ("Rising Sun", written about Barnes' relationship with his girlfriend Jane Mahoney) and pop-laced love songs ("My Baby
", featuring Joe Camilleri
on saxophone) to a poignant piano ballad about prison life, "Four Walls". The cover featured Barnes asleep in a bathtub wearing a kamikaze
bandanna in a room littered with junk and was inspired by Jacques-Louis David
's 1793 painting The Death of Marat
. The Ian Moss-penned "Never Before" was chosen as the first song to air by the ABC's radio station Triple J
when it switched to the FM
band that year.
Following the release of East, Cold Chisel embarked on the Youth in Asia Tour, which took its name from a lyric in "Star Hotel". This tour saw the group play more than 60 shows in 90 days and would form the basis of 1981's double live album Swingshift
.
In April 1981 the band was nominated for all seven of the major awards at the joint Countdown/TV Week
music awards held at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, and won them all. As a protest against the concept of a TV magazine being involved in a music awards ceremony, the band refused to accept its awards and finished the night by performing "My Turn to Cry". After only one verse and chorus, the band smashed up the set and left the stage.
Swingshift debuted at No. 1 on the Australian album charts, crystallizing the band's status as the biggest-selling act in the country. Overseas, however, Cold Chisel was unable to make an impact. With a slightly different track-listing, East had been issued in the United States and the band undertook its first (and only) US tour. But while it was popular as a live act, the American arm of their label did little to support the album. According to Barnes biographer Toby Creswell
, at one point the band was ushered into an office to listen to the US master only to find it drenched in tape hiss and other ambient noise, making it almost unreleasable. The band was even booed off stage after a lacklustre performance in Dayton, Ohio in May 1981 opening for Ted Nugent, who at the time was touring with his guitar army aka the 'D.C. Hawks'. European audiences were more accepting of the band and the group developed a small but significant fan base in Germany.
In August 1981, the band began work on the album Circus Animals
, again with Opitz producing. The album opened with "You Got Nothing I Want
", an aggressive Barnes-penned hard rock track that attacked the American industry for its handling of the band. The song would later cause problems for Barnes when he later attempted to break into the US market as a solo performer as senior music executives there continued to hold it against him. Like its predecessor, Circus Animals contained songs of contrasting styles, with harder-edged tracks like "Bow River" and "Hound Dog" in place beside more expansive ballads such as "Forever Now
" and "When the War Is Over
", both written by Prestwich. The latter track has proved to be the most popular Cold Chisel song for other artists to record -- Uriah Heep
included a version on the 1989 album Raging Silence
and John Farnham
has recorded it twice, once while he and Prestwich were members of Little River Band
in the mid-80s and again for his 1990 solo album Age of Reason
. The song was also a No. 1 hit for former Australian Idol
contestant Cosima De Vito
in 2004 and was also performed by Bobby Flynn
during that show's 2006 season. "Forever Now" was also covered (as a country waltz) by Australian band The Reels
.
To launch the album, the band performed under a circus tent at Wentworth Park in Sydney and toured heavily once more, including a show in Darwin that attracted more than 10 per cent of the city's population.
" and "When the War is Over" were all major hits in Australia during 1982 but further success overseas continued to elude the band and cracks began to appear. In early 1983 the band toured Germany but the shows went so badly that in the middle of the tour Walker up-ended his keyboard and stormed off stage during one show and Prestwich was fired. Returning to Australia, Prestwich was replaced by Ray Arnott
, formerly of the 1970s progressive rock band Spectrum. After this, Barnes requested a large advance from management. Now married with a young child, exorbitant spending had left him almost broke. His request was refused however because there was a standing arrangement that any advance to one band member had to be paid to all the others. After a meeting on 17 August during which Barnes quit the band it was decided that Cold Chisel would split up. A final concert series known as The Last Stand was planned and a final studio album was also recorded. Prestwich returned for the tour, which began in October. Before the Sydney shows however, Barnes lost his voice and those dates were re-scheduled for December. The band's final performance was at the Sydney Entertainment Centre on 12 December 1983, apparently precisely 10 years since its first live appearance. The Sydney shows formed the basis of the film The Last Stand, the biggest-selling concert film of any Australian band. Several other recordings from the tour were used on the 1984 live album Barking Spiders Live: 1983, the title of which was inspired by the name the group occasionally used to play warm-up shows before tours, and as b-sides for a three-CD singles package known as Three Big XXX Hits, issued ahead of the release of the 1994 compilation album, Teenage Love
.
During breaks in the tour, Twentieth Century was recorded. It was a fragmentary process, spread across various studios and sessions as the individual members often refused to work together, but nonetheless successful. Released in February 1984, it reached No. 1 upon release and included the songs "Saturday Night
" and "Flame Trees
", both of which remain radio staples. "Flame Trees", co-written by Prestwich and Walker, took its title from the BBC series The Flame Trees of Thika
although it was lyrically inspired by the organist's hometown of Grafton, New South Wales
. Barnes later recorded an acoustic version of the song on his 1993 album Flesh and Wood
and the track was also covered by Sarah Blasko
in 2006.
Barnes launched a solo career in January 1984 that has produced nine Australian No. 1 albums and an array of hit singles. One of those, "Too Much Ain't Enough Love
" also peaked at No. 1. He has recorded with INXS
, Tina Turner
, Joe Cocker
, John Farnham and a long list of other Australian and international artists and is arguably the country's most popular male rock singer.
Prestwich joined Little River Band in 1984 and appeared on the albums Playing to Win
and No Reins before departing in 1986 to join John Farnham's touring band. Walker, Moss and Small all took extended breaks from music. Small, the least prominent member of the band virtually disappeared from the scene for many years, playing in a variety of minor acts. Walker formed Catfish in 1988, ostensibly a solo band with floating membership that included Moss, Charlie Owen and Dave Blight at various times. The music had a distinctly modern jazz aspect and his recordings during this phase attracted little commercial success. During 1989 he wrote several songs for Moss including "Tucker's Daughter" and "Telephone Booth" that the guitarist recorded on his debut solo album Matchbook
. Both the album and "Tucker's Daughter" peaked at No. 1 on the chart in 1989 and won Moss five ARIA Awards
. His other albums met with little success.
in 1993. The pair then recorded an acoustic version for Flesh and Wood later the same year. Thanks primarily to continued radio airplay and Barnes' solo success, Cold Chisel's legacy remained solidly intact and by the early 90s the group had surpassed 3 million album sales, most of which had been sold since 1983. The 1991 compilation album Chisel
was re-issued and re-packaged several times, once with the long-deleted 1978 EP as a bonus disc and a second time in 2001 as a double album. The Last Stand soundtrack album was also finally released in 1992 and in 1994 a complete album of previously unreleased demo and rare live recordings also surfaced. Teenage Love
spawned a string of hit singles.
Cold Chisel reunited in 1998 to record the album The Last Wave of Summer
and supported it with a sold-out national concert tour. The album debuted at number one on the Australian album chart. In 2003, the band re-grouped once more for the "Ringside" tour and in 2005 again reunited to perform at a benefit for the victims of the Boxing Day tsunami at the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne.
On 10 September 2009, two days after Barnes' 15th studio solo album The Rhythm and the Blues hit No. 1 on the Australian album charts, Cold Chisel announced it would reform for a one-off performance at the Sydney 500
V8 Supercars event on 5 December 2009. The reunion saw the band perform at ANZ Stadium to the largest crowd of its career, with more than 45,000 fans in attendance. Cold Chisel played a single live performance in 2010, at the Deniliquin
ute muster
in October. In December Ian Moss confirmed that Cold Chisel was working on new material for an album.
In 2011, they went on the 'Light The Nitro' tour.
and Catfish drummer Charley Drayton
had been recruited to replace Steve Prestwich. Most shows on the tour sold out within days and new dates were later announced for early 2012.
, inspired by the Star Hotel riot
in Newcastle.
The songs were not overtly political but rather observations of everyday life within Australian society and culture, in which the members with their various backgrounds (Moss was from Alice Springs, Walker grew up in rural New South Wales, Barnes and Prestwich were working-class immigrants from the UK) were quite well able to provide.
Cold Chisel's songs were about distinctly Australian experiences, a factor often cited as a major reason for the band's lack of international appeal. "Saturday Night" and "Breakfast at Sweethearts" were observations of the urban experience of Sydney's Kings Cross
district where Walker lived for many years. "Misfits", which featured on the b-side to "My Baby", was about homeless kids in the suburbs surrounding Sydney. Songs like "Shipping Steel" and "Standing on The Outside" were working class anthems and many others featured characters trapped in mundane, everyday existences, yearning for the good times of the past ("Flame Trees") or for something better from life ("Bow River").
and Midnight Oil
, whose rise to popularity came in their wake, Cold Chisel was renowned as one of the most dynamic live acts of their day and from early in their career concerts routinely became sell-out events. But the band was also famous for its wild lifestyle, particularly the hard-drinking Barnes, who played his role as one of the wild men of Australian rock to the hilt, never seen on stage without at least one bottle of vodka and often so drunk he could barely stand upright. Despite this, by 1982 he was a devoted family man who refused to tour without his wife and daughter. All the other band members were also settled or married; Ian Moss had a long-term relationship with the actress Megan Williams (she even sang on Twentieth Century) whose own public persona could have hardly been more different. Yet it was the band's public image that often saw them compared less favourably with other important acts like Midnight Oil
, whose music and politics (while rather more overt) were often similar but whose image and reputation was far more clean-cut. Cold Chisel remained hugely popular however and by the mid-90s had continued to sell records at such a consistent rate they became the first Australian band to achieve higher sales after their split than during their active years. While repackages and compilations accounted for much of these sales, 1994's Teenage Love album of rarities and two of its singles were Top Ten hits and when the group finally reformed in 1998 the resultant album was also a major hit and the follow-up tour sold out almost immediately.
Cold Chisel is one of the few Australian acts (along with AC/DC
, The Easybeats,and Slim Dusty
) to have become the subject of a major tribute album. In 2007, Standing on the Outside: The Songs of Cold Chisel
was released, featuring a collection of the band's songs as performed by artists including The Living End
, Evermore, Something for Kate
, Pete Murray, Katie Noonan
, You Am I
, Paul Kelly
, Alex Lloyd
, Thirsty Merc
and Ben Lee
, many of whom were still only children when Cold Chisel first disbanded and some of whom, like the members of Evermore, had not even been born.
}
|-
|align="center"|1982
|Circus Animals
|align="center"|1
|style="background: grey" align="center"|
|align="center"|—
|
|-
|align="center" rowspan="3"|1984
|Twentieth Century
|align="center"|1
|align="center"|1
|align="center"|—
|
|-
|The Last Stand (soundtrack)
|align="center"|8
|align="center"|8
|align="center"|—
|
|-
|Barking Spiders Live: 1983
(live)
|align="center"|14
|align="center"|14
|align="center"|—
|
|-
|align="center"|1998
|The Last Wave of Summer
|style="background: grey" align="center"|
|align="center"|1
|align="center"|—
|
|-
|align="center"|2003
|Ringside (live)
|style="background: grey" align="center"|
|align="center"|27
|align="center"|—
|
|-
|align="center" colspan="7" style="font-size: 8pt"| "—" denotes releases that did not chart.
|-
|}
1 "Khe Sanh" re-entered the ARIA Singles Chart in August 2011.
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, Australia. It is one of the most acclaimed Australian rock bands of all time, with a string of hits throughout the 1970s and 1980s and huge sales that continue to this day, although its success and acclaim was almost completely restricted to Australia and New Zealand.
Beginnings (1973–78)
Originally named Orange, the band was formed in Adelaide in 1973 as a heavy metalHeavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
cover band by bassist Les Kaczmarek, keyboard player Don Walker
Don Walker (musician)
Don Walker is an Australian musician and songwriter known for writing many of the hits for Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel. He played piano and keyboard with the band from 1973 to 1983, when they disbanded. He has since continued to record and tour, both solo and with Tex, Don and Charlie,...
, guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist Ian Moss
Ian Moss
Ian Moss is an Australian rock musician, best known as the guitarist and occasional singer of Cold Chisel. In that group's initial ten year career, Moss recorded eight albums, three of which were No. 1 national hits. His solo career began with a No. 1 album and single and five ARIA Awards...
and drum
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
mer Steve Prestwich
Steve Prestwich
-External links:* *...
. Seventeen-year-old singer Jimmy Barnes
Jimmy Barnes
James Dixon Swan , better known as Jimmy Barnes, is a Scottish-born Australian rock singer-songwriter. His father Jim Swan was a prizefighter and his older brother John Swan is also a rock singer. It was actually John who had encouraged and taught Jim how to sing as he wasn't really interested at...
—known throughout his time with the band as Jim Barnes—joined in December 1973, taking leave from the band in 1975 for a brief stint as Bon Scott
Bon Scott
Ronald Belford "Bon" Scott was a Scottish-born Australian rock musician, best known for being the lead singer and lyricist of Australian hard rock band AC/DC from 1974 until his death in 1980...
's replacement in Fraternity
Fraternity (band)
Fraternity were an Australian rock band which formed in Sydney in 1970 and relocated to Adelaide in 1971. Former members include successive lead vocalists Bon Scott , John Swan , and his brother Jimmy Barnes...
. The group changed its name several times before settling on Cold Chisel in 1974 after writing a song with that title. Barnes' relationship with other band members was volatile; as a Scot he often came to blows with Liverpool-born Prestwich and he left the band several times. During these periods Moss would handle vocals until Barnes returned.
Walker soon emerged as Cold Chisel's primary songwriter. Walker spent 1974 in Armidale
Armidale, New South Wales
Armidale is a city in the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia. Armidale Dumaresq Shire had a population of 19,485 people according to the 2006 census. It is the administrative centre for the Northern Tablelands region...
, completing his studies and in 1975 Kaczmarek left the band and was replaced by Phil Small
Phil Small
Phillip "Phil" James Small is an Australian bassist from pub rock band Cold Chisel. He has written songs for Cold Chisel including, "My Baby" for the 1980 album East, "Notion For You" off the Teenage Love album and "The Game"....
. Barnes' older brother John Swan
Swanee (singer)
John Swan, better known as Swanee, is a Australian rock singer. He was born John Archibold Dixon Swan in Glasgow, Scotland in 1952. He is the older brother of rock singer Jimmy Barnes and the uncle of singer and stage performer David Campbell. He emigrated to Australia with his family in 1961...
was a member of Cold Chisel around this time, providing backing vocals and percussion
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
but after several violent incidents he was fired.
In May 1976 Cold Chisel relocated to Melbourne but found little success and moved to Sydney in November. Six months later, in May 1977, Barnes announced he was quitting Cold Chisel in order to join Swan in Feather, a hard-rocking blues band that had evolved from an earlier group called Blackfeather
Blackfeather
Blackfeather was an Australian rock group in the 1970s. The group had many members and went through two major incarnations - the earlier heavy rock version of the group, which recorded the album At The Mountains of Madness and the hit single "Seasons of Change", and the later piano-based lineup...
. A farewell performance took place in Sydney that went so well the singer changed his mind and the following month Cold Chisel was picked up by the Warner Music Group.
Main career (1978–82)
In the early months of 1978, Cold Chisel recorded its self-titled debut albumCold Chisel (album)
Cold Chisel was the self-titled debut album of Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel. Released in April 1978, it spent 23 weeks in the Australian charts, peaking at number 38....
with producer Peter Walker. All tracks were written by Don Walker except "Juliet", for which Barnes wrote the melody and Walker the lyrics. Cold Chisel was released in April and featured appearances from harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
player Dave Blight, who would become a regular on-stage guest, and saxophonists Joe Camilleri
Joe Camilleri
Joseph Vincent "Joe" Camilleri, aka Jo Jo Zep or Joey Vincent, is an Australian vocalist, songwriter and saxophonist. Camilleri has recorded as a solo artist and as a member of Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons and The Black Sorrows...
and Wilbur Wilde
Wilbur Wilde
Wilbur Wilde is an Australian saxophonist. He rose to prominence with the bands Ol' 55, Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons...
from Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons
Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons
Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons were an Australian blues and rock music band which featured singer, songwriter and saxophonist, Joe Camilleri . The band was active in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and had several Australian chart hits, including "Hit and Run", "Shape I'm In" and "All I Wanna Do"...
. The following month the song "Khe Sanh
Khe Sanh (song)
"Khe Sanh" is an Australian song, released as a 45 rpm single in May 1978, and named after the Battle of Khe Sanh during the Vietnam War. The song, performed by Cold Chisel, having been written by pianist Don Walker and featuring the vocals of Jimmy Barnes, is about an Australian Vietnam veteran...
" was released as a single but was deemed too offensive for airplay on commercial radio because of the lyric "Their legs were often open/But their minds were always closed", although it was played regularly on Sydney rock station, Double J, which was not subject to such restrictions because it was part of the ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
. Despite that setback, it still reached #48 on the Australian singles chart and number four on the Adelaide charts thanks mainly to the band's rising popularity as a touring act and some local radio support in Adelaide where the single was aired in spite of the ban. "Khe Sanh" has since become Cold Chisel's signature tune and arguably its most popular among fans. The song was later remixed, with re-recorded vocals, for inclusion on the international version of 1980's East
East (album)
East was the third studio album by Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel, released in June 1980. The album peaked at No. 2 and spent 63 weeks on the national chart. It was the biggest-selling Australian album release of the year...
.
The band's next release was a live EP titled You're Thirteen, You're Beautiful, and You're Mine
You're Thirteen, You're Beautiful, and You're Mine
You're Thirteen, You're Beautiful, and You're Mine was a live EP by Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel, recorded at the Regent Theatre in Sydney in 1977, and released in November 1978...
, in November. This had been recorded at a show at Sydney's Regent Theatre in 1977 that had featured Midnight Oil
Midnight Oil
Midnight Oil , were an Australian rock band from Sydney originally performing as Farm from 1972 with drummer Rob Hirst, bass guitarist Andrew James and keyboard player/lead guitarist Jim Moginie...
as one of the support acts. One of the EP's tracks, "Merry Go Round" was later recorded on the follow-up, Breakfast at Sweethearts
Breakfast at Sweethearts
Breakfast at Sweethearts was the second studio album by Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel, released in February 1979. It spent 32 weeks in the national charts, reaching a peak of number 4....
. This album was recorded between July 1978 and January 1979 with experienced producer Richard Batchens
Richard Batchens
Richard Batchens is an Australian record producer and recording engineer. He was the main in-house producer for the Australian recording company Festival Records in the early-mid 1970s and was one of the most prominent and successful producers of the era....
, who had previously worked with Richard Clapton
Richard Clapton
Richard Clapton is an Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist from Sydney, New South Wales. His solo top 20 hits on the Kent Music Report Singles Chart are "Girls on the Avenue" and "I Am an Island"...
, Sherbet
Sherbet (band)
Sherbet was one of the most prominent and successful Australian rock bands of the 1970s. Their biggest singles were "Summer Love" and "Howzat" , both reaching number one in Australia. "Howzat" was also a top 5 hit in the UK. Though the band's success in the U.S...
and Blackfeather. Batchens smoothed out many of the band's rough edges and attempted to give their songs a sophisticated sound. This approach has made the album sit a little uncomfortably with the band ever since. Once again, the majority of the songs were penned by Walker, with Barnes collaborating with Walker on the first single "Goodbye (Astrid, Goodbye)" and Moss contributing to "Dresden". "Goodbye (Astrid, Goodbye)" became a live favourite for the band, and even went on to be performed by U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
during Australian tours in the 1980s.
By now the band stood at the verge of major national success, even without significant radio airplay or support from Countdown, Australia's most important youth music program at the time. The band had become notorious for its wild behaviour, particularly from Barnes who was rumoured to have had sex with over 1000 women and who was known to consume more than a bottle of vodka
Vodka
Vodka , is a distilled beverage. It is composed primarily of water and ethanol with traces of impurities and flavorings. Vodka is made by the distillation of fermented substances such as grains, potatoes, or sometimes fruits....
every night during performances.
In late-1979, following their problematic relationship with Batchens, Cold Chisel chose Mark Opitz to produce the next single, "Choirgirl", a Don Walker composition dealing with a young woman's experience with abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
. In spite of the controversial subject matter, the track became a hit and paved the way for Cold Chisel's next album. Recorded over two months in early-1980, East
East (album)
East was the third studio album by Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel, released in June 1980. The album peaked at No. 2 and spent 63 weeks on the national chart. It was the biggest-selling Australian album release of the year...
reached #2 on the Australian album charts and was the second-highest selling album by an Australian artist for the year. Despite the continued dominance of Walker, during Cold Chisel's later career all four of the other members began to contribute songs to the band, and this was the first of their albums to feature songwriting contributions from each member of the band. Cold Chisel is the only Australian rock band to score hits with songs written by every member of the group.
Of the album's 12 tracks, two were written by Barnes, with Moss, Prestwich and Small contributing one song each. The songs ranged from straight ahead rock tracks such as "Standing on the Outside" and "My Turn to Cry" to rockabilly
Rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
-flavoured work-outs ("Rising Sun", written about Barnes' relationship with his girlfriend Jane Mahoney) and pop-laced love songs ("My Baby
My Baby (Cold Chisel song)
"My Baby" was a 1980 single from Australian rock band Cold Chisel, the third released from the album East and the first of the band's singles not to be written by organist Don Walker...
", featuring Joe Camilleri
Joe Camilleri
Joseph Vincent "Joe" Camilleri, aka Jo Jo Zep or Joey Vincent, is an Australian vocalist, songwriter and saxophonist. Camilleri has recorded as a solo artist and as a member of Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons and The Black Sorrows...
on saxophone) to a poignant piano ballad about prison life, "Four Walls". The cover featured Barnes asleep in a bathtub wearing a kamikaze
Kamikaze
The were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy as many warships as possible....
bandanna in a room littered with junk and was inspired by Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David was an influential French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era...
's 1793 painting The Death of Marat
The Death of Marat
The Death of Marat is a 1793 painting in the Neoclassical style by Jacques-Louis David, and is one of the most famous images of the French Revolution. This work depicts the radical journalist Jean-Paul Marat lying dead in his bath on 13 July 1793 after his murder by Charlotte Corday...
. The Ian Moss-penned "Never Before" was chosen as the first song to air by the ABC's radio station Triple J
Triple J
triple j is a nationally networked Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...
when it switched to the FM
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...
band that year.
Following the release of East, Cold Chisel embarked on the Youth in Asia Tour, which took its name from a lyric in "Star Hotel". This tour saw the group play more than 60 shows in 90 days and would form the basis of 1981's double live album Swingshift
Swingshift
Swingshift is a live album released by Australian band Cold Chisel in 1981. It was their first album to reach No. 1 on the Australian chart, debuting there in its first week.-Details:...
.
In April 1981 the band was nominated for all seven of the major awards at the joint Countdown/TV Week
TV Week
TV Week is a weekly television magazine in Australia, first published as a Melbourne-only publication in December 1957 , and bearing a strong affiliation to television station GTV.The publication is still publishing weekly...
music awards held at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, and won them all. As a protest against the concept of a TV magazine being involved in a music awards ceremony, the band refused to accept its awards and finished the night by performing "My Turn to Cry". After only one verse and chorus, the band smashed up the set and left the stage.
Swingshift debuted at No. 1 on the Australian album charts, crystallizing the band's status as the biggest-selling act in the country. Overseas, however, Cold Chisel was unable to make an impact. With a slightly different track-listing, East had been issued in the United States and the band undertook its first (and only) US tour. But while it was popular as a live act, the American arm of their label did little to support the album. According to Barnes biographer Toby Creswell
Toby Creswell
Toby Creswell is an Australian music journalist and pop-culture writer. He was editor of Rolling Stone and a founding editor of Juice. In 1986 he co-wrote, with Martin Fabinyi, his first book Too Much Ain't Enough a biography of pub rocker and former Cold Chisel vocalist Jimmy Barnes...
, at one point the band was ushered into an office to listen to the US master only to find it drenched in tape hiss and other ambient noise, making it almost unreleasable. The band was even booed off stage after a lacklustre performance in Dayton, Ohio in May 1981 opening for Ted Nugent, who at the time was touring with his guitar army aka the 'D.C. Hawks'. European audiences were more accepting of the band and the group developed a small but significant fan base in Germany.
In August 1981, the band began work on the album Circus Animals
Circus Animals
Circus Animals was a studio album released by Australian band Cold Chisel in 1982. It was recorded and mixed at Paradise Studios and EMI Studio 301, Sydney . It reached number one on the Australian charts, remaining in the charts for 40 weeks...
, again with Opitz producing. The album opened with "You Got Nothing I Want
You Got Nothing I Want
"You Got Nothing I Want" was a 1981 single from Australian rock band Cold Chisel, the first released from the album Circus Animals. One of the band's heaviest and most aggressive songs, it was written by singer Jimmy Barnes in response to the treatment they received at the hands of a record company...
", an aggressive Barnes-penned hard rock track that attacked the American industry for its handling of the band. The song would later cause problems for Barnes when he later attempted to break into the US market as a solo performer as senior music executives there continued to hold it against him. Like its predecessor, Circus Animals contained songs of contrasting styles, with harder-edged tracks like "Bow River" and "Hound Dog" in place beside more expansive ballads such as "Forever Now
Forever Now (Cold Chisel song)
"Forever Now" was a 1982 single from Australian rock band Cold Chisel. The second single from the album Circus Animals, it was the first Cold Chisel single to be penned by Steve Prestwich. The song reached number 2 in the New Zealand charts, and number 4 in Australia, the band highest chart...
" and "When the War Is Over
When the War Is Over
"When the War Is Over" is a power ballad originally performed by Australian band Cold Chisel on their 1982 album Circus Animals. The song was written by drummer Steve Prestwich and issued as the third single from the album, peaking at #25 on the national singles chart.-Cold Chisel version:Like many...
", both written by Prestwich. The latter track has proved to be the most popular Cold Chisel song for other artists to record -- Uriah Heep
Uriah Heep (band)
Uriah Heep are an English rock band formed in London in 1969 and regarded as a seminal classic hard rock act of the 1970s. Uriah Heep's progressive/art rock/heavy metal fusion's distinctive features have always been massive keyboards sound, strong vocal harmonies and David Byron's operatic vocals...
included a version on the 1989 album Raging Silence
Raging Silence
Raging Silence is the 17th album by British progressive rock group Uriah Heep. It marked the studio debut of Canadian vocalist Bernie Shaw.It was the first Uriah Heep studio album to have a contemporary release on CD....
and John Farnham
John Farnham
John Peter Farnham, AO, formerly billed as Johnny Farnham , is an English-born Australian pop singer. He was a teen pop idol from 1964 to 1979, and has since forged a career as an adult contemporary singer. His career has mostly been as a solo artist although he briefly replaced Glenn Shorrock as...
has recorded it twice, once while he and Prestwich were members of Little River Band
Little River Band
Little River Band is an Australian rock band, formed in Melbourne in early 1975.The group chose the name after passing a road sign leading to the Victorian township of Little River, near Geelong, on the way to a performance. Little River Band enjoyed sustained commercial success in not only...
in the mid-80s and again for his 1990 solo album Age of Reason
Age of Reason (album)
Age of Reason is a studio album by Australian pop singer John Farnham. It was released in Australia on 25 July 1988 and debuted at No. 1 on the Australian Recording Industry Association Albums Chart in August and remained on top for eight weeks...
. The song was also a No. 1 hit for former Australian Idol
Australian Idol
Australian Idol is a Logie Award-winning Australian singing competition, which began its first season on July 2003 and ended its run in November 2009. As part of the Idol franchise, Australian Idol originated from the reality program Pop Idol, which was created by British entertainment executive...
contestant Cosima De Vito
Cosima De Vito
Cosima De Vito , also known simply as Cosima, is an Australian singer-songwriter. She rose to fame as a contestant of the original Australian Idol series in 2003...
in 2004 and was also performed by Bobby Flynn
Bobby Flynn
Robert Andrew "Bobby" Flynn is an Australian singer-songwriterThe band made a nationwide tour through Australia in 2007, appearing in many regional centres including Burnie, Wagga Wagga, Townsville and Lismore....
during that show's 2006 season. "Forever Now" was also covered (as a country waltz) by Australian band The Reels
The Reels
The Reels is an Australian rock/indie pop group which formed in Dubbo, New South Wales in 1976 and initially disbanded in 1991, they eventually reformed in 2007. Their 1981 song, "Quasimodo's Dream", was voted one of the Top 10 Australian songs of all time by a 100-member panel from Australasian...
.
To launch the album, the band performed under a circus tent at Wentworth Park in Sydney and toured heavily once more, including a show in Darwin that attracted more than 10 per cent of the city's population.
Break-up and aftermath (1983–84)
Circus Animals and its three singles, "You Got Nothing I Want", "Forever NowForever Now (Cold Chisel song)
"Forever Now" was a 1982 single from Australian rock band Cold Chisel. The second single from the album Circus Animals, it was the first Cold Chisel single to be penned by Steve Prestwich. The song reached number 2 in the New Zealand charts, and number 4 in Australia, the band highest chart...
" and "When the War is Over" were all major hits in Australia during 1982 but further success overseas continued to elude the band and cracks began to appear. In early 1983 the band toured Germany but the shows went so badly that in the middle of the tour Walker up-ended his keyboard and stormed off stage during one show and Prestwich was fired. Returning to Australia, Prestwich was replaced by Ray Arnott
Ray Arnott
Raymond "Ray" Walter Arnott is an Australian rock drummer, singer-songwriter, he was a member of Spectrum , which had a number one hit with "I'll Be Gone" in January 1971...
, formerly of the 1970s progressive rock band Spectrum. After this, Barnes requested a large advance from management. Now married with a young child, exorbitant spending had left him almost broke. His request was refused however because there was a standing arrangement that any advance to one band member had to be paid to all the others. After a meeting on 17 August during which Barnes quit the band it was decided that Cold Chisel would split up. A final concert series known as The Last Stand was planned and a final studio album was also recorded. Prestwich returned for the tour, which began in October. Before the Sydney shows however, Barnes lost his voice and those dates were re-scheduled for December. The band's final performance was at the Sydney Entertainment Centre on 12 December 1983, apparently precisely 10 years since its first live appearance. The Sydney shows formed the basis of the film The Last Stand, the biggest-selling concert film of any Australian band. Several other recordings from the tour were used on the 1984 live album Barking Spiders Live: 1983, the title of which was inspired by the name the group occasionally used to play warm-up shows before tours, and as b-sides for a three-CD singles package known as Three Big XXX Hits, issued ahead of the release of the 1994 compilation album, Teenage Love
Teenage Love
Teenage Love is a compilation album by Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel, released in 1994. The album collected studio recordings, many just demos, that were not used on previous albums. Phil Small said, "There was always a surplus of 3 to 4 tracks with each album." The tracks were recorded...
.
During breaks in the tour, Twentieth Century was recorded. It was a fragmentary process, spread across various studios and sessions as the individual members often refused to work together, but nonetheless successful. Released in February 1984, it reached No. 1 upon release and included the songs "Saturday Night
Saturday Night (Cold Chisel song)
"Saturday Night" was a 1984 single from Australian rock band Cold Chisel, the second released from the album Twentieth Century and the first to be issued after the band's official break-up. The song is a picture of late-night city life written by organist Don Walker based on his observations of...
" and "Flame Trees
Flame Trees
"Flame Trees" is a song by Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel from their 1984 album Twentieth Century. It is one of their best known songs, and was written by drummer Steve Prestwich and organist Don Walker...
", both of which remain radio staples. "Flame Trees", co-written by Prestwich and Walker, took its title from the BBC series The Flame Trees of Thika
The Flame Trees of Thika
The Flame Trees of Thikais a British television mini-series of seven 50-minute episodes made by Euston Films for Thames Television in 1981. It was adapted by John Hawkesworth from the 1959 book of the same title by Elspeth Huxley, and is set in and around the town of Thika in Kenya's Central Province...
although it was lyrically inspired by the organist's hometown of Grafton, New South Wales
Grafton, New South Wales
The city of Grafton is the commercial hub of the Clarence River Valley. Established in 1851, Grafton features many historic buildings and tree-lined streets. Located approximately 630 kilometres north of Sydney and 340 km south of Brisbane, Grafton and the Clarence Valley can be reached...
. Barnes later recorded an acoustic version of the song on his 1993 album Flesh and Wood
Flesh and Wood
Flesh and Wood is the seventh album by Australian rock singer Jimmy Barnes. The album was recorded using only acoustic instruments and includes various duets with artists including Diesel, Archie Roach, Joe Cocker, Ross Wilson, Tommy Emmanuel, Don Walker, Deborah Conway and The Badloves.-Track...
and the track was also covered by Sarah Blasko
Sarah Blasko
Sarah Elizabeth Blaskow , is an Australian singer-songwriter and musician. After fronting Sydney-based band Acquiesce from the mid-1990s, Blasko developed her solo career from 2002. In 2007, she won the 'Best Pop Release' for What the Sea Wants, the Sea Will Have at the ARIA Music Awards, which...
in 2006.
Barnes launched a solo career in January 1984 that has produced nine Australian No. 1 albums and an array of hit singles. One of those, "Too Much Ain't Enough Love
Too Much Ain't Enough Love
"Too Much Ain't Enough Love" was the first single lifted from the 1987 album Freight Train Heart by Australian rock singer Jimmy Barnes. It was his first Australian No. 1 hit single....
" also peaked at No. 1. He has recorded with INXS
INXS
INXS are an Australian rock band, formed as The Farriss Brothers in 1977 in Sydney, New South Wales. Mainstays are Garry Gary Beers on bass guitar, Andrew Farriss on guitar/keyboards, Jon Farriss on drums, Tim Farriss on lead guitar and Kirk Pengilly on guitar/sax...
, Tina Turner
Tina Turner
Tina Turner is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards and her achievements in the rock music genre have led many to call her the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll".Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the...
, Joe Cocker
Joe Cocker
John Robert "Joe" Cocker, OBE is an English rock and blues musician, composer and actor, who came to popularity in the 1960s, and is most known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic arm movements while performing, and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles...
, John Farnham and a long list of other Australian and international artists and is arguably the country's most popular male rock singer.
Prestwich joined Little River Band in 1984 and appeared on the albums Playing to Win
Playing to Win
Playing to Win is the eighth studio album by Little River Band released on One Way Records. This album is the second studio album to feature John Farnham as lead vocalist and the first to be recorded by the band in the United States. Both Farnham and Little River Band are ARIA Hall of Fame...
and No Reins before departing in 1986 to join John Farnham's touring band. Walker, Moss and Small all took extended breaks from music. Small, the least prominent member of the band virtually disappeared from the scene for many years, playing in a variety of minor acts. Walker formed Catfish in 1988, ostensibly a solo band with floating membership that included Moss, Charlie Owen and Dave Blight at various times. The music had a distinctly modern jazz aspect and his recordings during this phase attracted little commercial success. During 1989 he wrote several songs for Moss including "Tucker's Daughter" and "Telephone Booth" that the guitarist recorded on his debut solo album Matchbook
Matchbook (album)
Matchbook is an album by ex-Cold Chisel member Ian Moss released in 1989. It spent 3 weeks at the top of the Australian Album charts in 1989 and was preceded by the single "Tucker's Daughter" which was also a No. 1 hit. The first four tracks on the album were all released as singles...
. Both the album and "Tucker's Daughter" peaked at No. 1 on the chart in 1989 and won Moss five ARIA Awards
Australian Recording Industry Association
The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956...
. His other albums met with little success.
Reunion
Throughout the '80s and most of the '90s, Cold Chisel was courted to re-form but refused, at one point reportedly turning down an offer of $5 million to play a single show in each of the major Australian state capitals. While Moss and Walker often collaborated on projects, neither would work with Barnes again until Walker wrote "Stone Cold" for the singer's HeatHeat (Jimmy Barnes album)
Heat is the sixth album by Australian rock singer Jimmy Barnes. It reached number 2 on the ARIA album charts in 1993, and features the singles Sweat It Out, Stand Up, Stone Cold and Right By Your Side.-Track listing:# Sweat it Out# Wheels in Motion...
in 1993. The pair then recorded an acoustic version for Flesh and Wood later the same year. Thanks primarily to continued radio airplay and Barnes' solo success, Cold Chisel's legacy remained solidly intact and by the early 90s the group had surpassed 3 million album sales, most of which had been sold since 1983. The 1991 compilation album Chisel
Chisel (album)
Chisel is the 1991 compilation album by Australian pub rockers Cold Chisel.It features a selection of their best songs from previous albums, including live versions of the tracks "Merry-Go-Round", "Star Hotel" and "Goodbye ". The track "Misfits" was a previously unreleased song and was removed from...
was re-issued and re-packaged several times, once with the long-deleted 1978 EP as a bonus disc and a second time in 2001 as a double album. The Last Stand soundtrack album was also finally released in 1992 and in 1994 a complete album of previously unreleased demo and rare live recordings also surfaced. Teenage Love
Teenage Love
Teenage Love is a compilation album by Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel, released in 1994. The album collected studio recordings, many just demos, that were not used on previous albums. Phil Small said, "There was always a surplus of 3 to 4 tracks with each album." The tracks were recorded...
spawned a string of hit singles.
Cold Chisel reunited in 1998 to record the album The Last Wave of Summer
The Last Wave of Summer
The Last Wave of Summer is the 1998 reunion album for Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel. It reached number-one in Australia for one week in October 1998....
and supported it with a sold-out national concert tour. The album debuted at number one on the Australian album chart. In 2003, the band re-grouped once more for the "Ringside" tour and in 2005 again reunited to perform at a benefit for the victims of the Boxing Day tsunami at the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne.
On 10 September 2009, two days after Barnes' 15th studio solo album The Rhythm and the Blues hit No. 1 on the Australian album charts, Cold Chisel announced it would reform for a one-off performance at the Sydney 500
Sydney 500
The Sydney Telstra 500 is a V8 Supercar motor racing event held annually at Homebush Street Circuit. The event is the last on the V8 Supercar calendar. The event is sponsored by Telstra and is officially known as the Sydney Telstra 500....
V8 Supercars event on 5 December 2009. The reunion saw the band perform at ANZ Stadium to the largest crowd of its career, with more than 45,000 fans in attendance. Cold Chisel played a single live performance in 2010, at the Deniliquin
Deniliquin
Deniliquin, known locally as "Deni", is a town in the Riverina region of New South Wales close to the border with Victoria.Deniliquin is located at the intersection of the Riverina and Cobb Highway approximately south west of the state capital, Sydney and north of Melbourne...
ute muster
Ute muster
A ute muster is an Australian festival which brings together large numbers of utes and ute enthusiasts. These events typically include competitions and other side events, occur annually, and normally last several days...
in October. In December Ian Moss confirmed that Cold Chisel was working on new material for an album.
In 2011, they went on the 'Light The Nitro' tour.
Death of Steve Prestwich
In January 2011, Steve Prestwich was diagnosed with a brain tumour. He underwent surgery on 14 January but never regained consciousness and died two days later, aged 56.Catalogue Re-release and Light the Nitro Tour
All six of Cold Chisel's studio albums were re-released in digitally re-mastered CD versions in mid-2011 and were also made available in digital format. The thirty-date Light the Nitro Tour was announced in July along with the news that former DivinylsDivinyls
Divinyls were an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1980 and featuring vocalist Christina Amphlett and guitarist Mark McEntee. As the focal point, Amphlett performed on stage wearing a school uniform and fishnet stockings, often using an illuminated neon tube as a prop and displaying...
and Catfish drummer Charley Drayton
Charley Drayton
Charley Drayton is an American multi-instrumental musician and producer, who has played as a drummer and bass guitarist for many bands and artists and is currently the drummer in Australian rock bands Divinyls and Cold Chisel....
had been recruited to replace Steve Prestwich. Most shows on the tour sold out within days and new dates were later announced for early 2012.
Musical style and lyrical themes
Influences from blues and early rock n' roll was broadly apparent, fostered by the love of those styles by Moss, Barnes and Walker and Small and Prestwich contributed strong pop sensibilities. This allowed volatile rock songs like "You Got Nothing I Want" and "Merry-Go-Round" to stand beside thoughtful ballads like "Choirgirl", pop-flavoured love songs like "My Baby" and caustic political statements like "Star Hotel", an attack on the late-70s government of Malcolm FraserMalcolm Fraser
John Malcolm Fraser AC, CH, GCL, PC is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia. He came to power in the 1975 election following the dismissal of the Whitlam Labor government, in which he played a key role...
, inspired by the Star Hotel riot
Star Hotel riot
The Star Hotel riot, occasioned by the closing down of a popular pub, was one of the largest riots in Australian history. An estimated 4,000 people fought with police on the streets of Newcastle, New South Wales on the night of 19 September 1979....
in Newcastle.
The songs were not overtly political but rather observations of everyday life within Australian society and culture, in which the members with their various backgrounds (Moss was from Alice Springs, Walker grew up in rural New South Wales, Barnes and Prestwich were working-class immigrants from the UK) were quite well able to provide.
Cold Chisel's songs were about distinctly Australian experiences, a factor often cited as a major reason for the band's lack of international appeal. "Saturday Night" and "Breakfast at Sweethearts" were observations of the urban experience of Sydney's Kings Cross
Kings Cross, New South Wales
Kings Cross is an inner-city locality of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately 2 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Sydney...
district where Walker lived for many years. "Misfits", which featured on the b-side to "My Baby", was about homeless kids in the suburbs surrounding Sydney. Songs like "Shipping Steel" and "Standing on The Outside" were working class anthems and many others featured characters trapped in mundane, everyday existences, yearning for the good times of the past ("Flame Trees") or for something better from life ("Bow River").
Reputation
Alongside contemporaries like The AngelsThe Angels (Australian band)
The Angels are a hard rock band that formed in Adelaide, Australia in 1970. The band later relocated from Adelaide to Sydney and enjoyed huge local success until well into the 1990s. For the purposes of international release, their records were released under the names Angel City and later The...
and Midnight Oil
Midnight Oil
Midnight Oil , were an Australian rock band from Sydney originally performing as Farm from 1972 with drummer Rob Hirst, bass guitarist Andrew James and keyboard player/lead guitarist Jim Moginie...
, whose rise to popularity came in their wake, Cold Chisel was renowned as one of the most dynamic live acts of their day and from early in their career concerts routinely became sell-out events. But the band was also famous for its wild lifestyle, particularly the hard-drinking Barnes, who played his role as one of the wild men of Australian rock to the hilt, never seen on stage without at least one bottle of vodka and often so drunk he could barely stand upright. Despite this, by 1982 he was a devoted family man who refused to tour without his wife and daughter. All the other band members were also settled or married; Ian Moss had a long-term relationship with the actress Megan Williams (she even sang on Twentieth Century) whose own public persona could have hardly been more different. Yet it was the band's public image that often saw them compared less favourably with other important acts like Midnight Oil
Midnight Oil
Midnight Oil , were an Australian rock band from Sydney originally performing as Farm from 1972 with drummer Rob Hirst, bass guitarist Andrew James and keyboard player/lead guitarist Jim Moginie...
, whose music and politics (while rather more overt) were often similar but whose image and reputation was far more clean-cut. Cold Chisel remained hugely popular however and by the mid-90s had continued to sell records at such a consistent rate they became the first Australian band to achieve higher sales after their split than during their active years. While repackages and compilations accounted for much of these sales, 1994's Teenage Love album of rarities and two of its singles were Top Ten hits and when the group finally reformed in 1998 the resultant album was also a major hit and the follow-up tour sold out almost immediately.
Cold Chisel is one of the few Australian acts (along with AC/DC
AC/DC
AC/DC are an Australian rock band, formed in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Commonly classified as hard rock, they are considered pioneers of heavy metal, though they themselves have always classified their music as simply "rock and roll"...
, The Easybeats,and Slim Dusty
Slim Dusty
David Gordon "Slim Dusty " Kirkpatrick AO, MBE was an Australian country music singer-songwriter and producer, with a career spanning nearly eight decades. He was known to record songs in the legacy of Australian poets Henry Lawson and Banjo Patterson that represented the Australian Bush...
) to have become the subject of a major tribute album. In 2007, Standing on the Outside: The Songs of Cold Chisel
Standing on the Outside (album)
Standing on the Outside: The Songs of Cold Chisel is a tribute album dedicated to the songs of Australian band Cold Chisel. The album features 18 songs recorded by Australian and New Zealand artists The Living End, Dallas Crane, Pete Murray, Ben Lee, Thirsty Merc, Evermore, Paul Kelly, Troy...
was released, featuring a collection of the band's songs as performed by artists including The Living End
The Living End
The Living End are an Australian rock band from Melbourne, Victoria, formed in 1994. The current lineup consists of Chris Cheney , Scott Owen and Andy Strachan...
, Evermore, Something for Kate
Something for Kate
Something for Kate are a rock band from Melbourne, Australia. Members include songwriter, vocalist and guitarist Paul Dempsey, drummer Clint Hyndman and bassist Stephanie Ashworth...
, Pete Murray, Katie Noonan
Katie Noonan
Katie Anne Noonan is an Australian singer-songwriter. In addition to a successful solo career encompassing opera, jazz, pop, rock and dance, she sings in the groups george and Elixir, duets with her mother, Maggie Noonan and is currently playing with support from the group The...
, You Am I
You Am I
You Am I are an Australian alternative rock band, fronted by vocalist/guitarist and main songwriter Tim Rogers. They were the first Australian band to have three albums successively debut at #1 on the ARIA Charts, and are renowned for their live performances.-History:Tim Rogers formed the first...
, Paul Kelly
Paul Kelly (musician)
Paul Maurice Kelly is an Australian rock music singer-songwriter, guitarist, and harmonica player. He has performed solo, and has led numerous groups, including the Dots, the Coloured Girls, and the Messengers. He has worked with other artists and groups, including associated projects Professor...
, Alex Lloyd
Alex Lloyd
Alex Lloyd is an Australian singer-songwriter. His most popular album Watching Angels Mend, which includes the songs "Amazing" and "Green", was released in 2001 went double platinum. His third album Distant Light released in 2003 featured three songs that made the Australian top 40 singles charts...
, Thirsty Merc
Thirsty Merc
Thirsty Merc are an Australian pop rock band formed in 2002 in Sydney, Australia. The band consists of Rai Thistlethwayte , Phil Stack , Karl Robertson , and Matt Smith ....
and Ben Lee
Ben Lee
Benjamin Michael "Ben" Lee is an ARIA Award winning musician and actor. Lee began his career as a musician at the age of 14 with the Sydney band Noise Addict, but focused on his solo career when the band broke up in 1995. He appeared as the protagonist in the Australian film The Rage in Placid Lake...
, many of whom were still only children when Cold Chisel first disbanded and some of whom, like the members of Evermore, had not even been born.
Band members
- Jimmy BarnesJimmy BarnesJames Dixon Swan , better known as Jimmy Barnes, is a Scottish-born Australian rock singer-songwriter. His father Jim Swan was a prizefighter and his older brother John Swan is also a rock singer. It was actually John who had encouraged and taught Jim how to sing as he wasn't really interested at...
(lead vocals / guitar) - Ian MossIan MossIan Moss is an Australian rock musician, best known as the guitarist and occasional singer of Cold Chisel. In that group's initial ten year career, Moss recorded eight albums, three of which were No. 1 national hits. His solo career began with a No. 1 album and single and five ARIA Awards...
(lead guitar / vocals) - Don WalkerDon Walker (musician)Don Walker is an Australian musician and songwriter known for writing many of the hits for Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel. He played piano and keyboard with the band from 1973 to 1983, when they disbanded. He has since continued to record and tour, both solo and with Tex, Don and Charlie,...
(keyboards / backing vocals) - Steve PrestwichSteve Prestwich-External links:* *...
(drums / backing vocals) - deceased - Phil SmallPhil SmallPhillip "Phil" James Small is an Australian bassist from pub rock band Cold Chisel. He has written songs for Cold Chisel including, "My Baby" for the 1980 album East, "Notion For You" off the Teenage Love album and "The Game"....
(electric bass)
Additional players
- Les Kaczmarek (bass guitar, October 1973- July 1975)
- Ray ArnottRay ArnottRaymond "Ray" Walter Arnott is an Australian rock drummer, singer-songwriter, he was a member of Spectrum , which had a number one hit with "I'll Be Gone" in January 1971...
(drums, 1983) - Dave Blight (harmonica)
- Billy Rodgers (saxophone)
- Jimmy Sloggett (saxophone)
- Andy Bickers (saxophone)
- Renée GeyerRenée GeyerRenée Rebecca Geyer is an Australian singer who has long been regarded as one of the finest exponents of jazz, soul and R&B idioms. She had commercial success as a solo artist in Australia, with "It's a Man's Man's World", "Heading in the Right Direction" and "Stares and Whispers" in the 1970s and...
(backing vocals) - Vanetta Fields (backing vocals)
- Megan Williams (backing vocals, Flame Trees)
- Peter Walker (acoustic guitar, Khe Sanh)
- Joe CamilleriJoe CamilleriJoseph Vincent "Joe" Camilleri, aka Jo Jo Zep or Joey Vincent, is an Australian vocalist, songwriter and saxophonist. Camilleri has recorded as a solo artist and as a member of Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons and The Black Sorrows...
(saxophone, My Baby and Home and Broken Hearted) - Wilbur WildeWilbur WildeWilbur Wilde is an Australian saxophonist. He rose to prominence with the bands Ol' 55, Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons...
(saxophone, Home and Broken Hearted, Rosaline, Just How Many Times) - Charley DraytonCharley DraytonCharley Drayton is an American multi-instrumental musician and producer, who has played as a drummer and bass guitarist for many bands and artists and is currently the drummer in Australian rock bands Divinyls and Cold Chisel....
(drums, 2011-)
Studio and live albums
| Year | Title | Peak chart positions | Certifications | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AUS (Kent) Kent Music Report The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to 1998... |
AUS (ARIA) ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
US Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
|||
| 1978 | Cold Chisel Cold Chisel (album) Cold Chisel was the self-titled debut album of Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel. Released in April 1978, it spent 23 weeks in the Australian charts, peaking at number 38....
|
31 | — | ||
| 1979 | Breakfast at Sweethearts Breakfast at Sweethearts Breakfast at Sweethearts was the second studio album by Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel, released in February 1979. It spent 32 weeks in the national charts, reaching a peak of number 4.... |
4 | — | ||
| 1980 | East East (album) East was the third studio album by Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel, released in June 1980. The album peaked at No. 2 and spent 63 weeks on the national chart. It was the biggest-selling Australian album release of the year... |
2 | 171 | ||
| 1981 | Swingshift Swingshift Swingshift is a live album released by Australian band Cold Chisel in 1981. It was their first album to reach No. 1 on the Australian chart, debuting there in its first week.-Details:... (live) |
1 | — |
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|align="center"|1982
|Circus Animals
Circus Animals
Circus Animals was a studio album released by Australian band Cold Chisel in 1982. It was recorded and mixed at Paradise Studios and EMI Studio 301, Sydney . It reached number one on the Australian charts, remaining in the charts for 40 weeks...
- Released: March 1982
- Label: Elektra Records
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|align="center" rowspan="3"|1984
|Twentieth Century
- Released: April 1984
- Label: Elektra Records
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|The Last Stand (soundtrack)
- Released: July 1984
- Label: Elektra Records
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|Barking Spiders Live: 1983
Barking Spiders Live: 1983
Barking Spiders Live: 1983 is a live album by Australian rock band Cold Chisel. It was recorded during the final performances of their Last Stand tour in 1983, at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. The name of the album derives from a name the band used occasionally when playing warm-up shows before...
(live)
- Released: December 1984
- Label: Elektra Records
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|align="center"|1998
|The Last Wave of Summer
The Last Wave of Summer
The Last Wave of Summer is the 1998 reunion album for Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel. It reached number-one in Australia for one week in October 1998....
- Released: October 1998
- Label: Mushroom RecordsMushroom RecordsMushroom Records is an Australian recoJrd company formed by Michael Gudinski and Ray Evans in Melbourne in 1972. After its sale in 1998, it merged into Festival Mushroom Records. From 2005 to 2009, it is one of the record labels operated by Warner Bros...
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|align="center"|2003
|Ringside (live)
- Released: November 14, 2003
- Label: Warner MusicWarner Music GroupWarner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies...
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|align="center" colspan="7" style="font-size: 8pt"| "—" denotes releases that did not chart.
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Compilation albums
- Radio Songs: A Best of Cold Chisel (1985) AUS #3
- Razor Songs (1988) AUS #11
- ChiselChisel (album)Chisel is the 1991 compilation album by Australian pub rockers Cold Chisel.It features a selection of their best songs from previous albums, including live versions of the tracks "Merry-Go-Round", "Star Hotel" and "Goodbye ". The track "Misfits" was a previously unreleased song and was removed from...
(1991) AUS #3 - Teenage LoveTeenage LoveTeenage Love is a compilation album by Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel, released in 1994. The album collected studio recordings, many just demos, that were not used on previous albums. Phil Small said, "There was always a surplus of 3 to 4 tracks with each album." The tracks were recorded...
(1994) AUS #6 - Cold Chisel: The Studio Sessions (box set, 1999)
- The Best of Cold Chisel: All for You (2011) AUS #2
Singles
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| AUS ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
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| 1978 | "Khe Sanh Khe Sanh (song) "Khe Sanh" is an Australian song, released as a 45 rpm single in May 1978, and named after the Battle of Khe Sanh during the Vietnam War. The song, performed by Cold Chisel, having been written by pianist Don Walker and featuring the vocals of Jimmy Barnes, is about an Australian Vietnam veteran... " |
41 | Cold Chisel Cold Chisel (album) Cold Chisel was the self-titled debut album of Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel. Released in April 1978, it spent 23 weeks in the Australian charts, peaking at number 38.... |
| "Goodbye (Astrid Goodbye)" | 65 | Breakfast at Sweethearts Breakfast at Sweethearts Breakfast at Sweethearts was the second studio album by Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel, released in February 1979. It spent 32 weeks in the national charts, reaching a peak of number 4.... |
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| 1979 | "Breakfast at Sweethearts" | 63 | |
| "Shipping Steel" | — | ||
| "Choirgirl Choirgirl (song) "Choirgirl" was a 1979 single from Australian rock band Cold Chisel. A ballad with an R&B influenced melody,the single was released months before the album East that it featured on. It was the first time the band had recorded with producer Mark Opitz.... " |
14 | East East (album) East was the third studio album by Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel, released in June 1980. The album peaked at No. 2 and spent 63 weeks on the national chart. It was the biggest-selling Australian album release of the year... |
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| 1980 | "Cheap Wine" | 8 | |
| "My Baby My Baby (Cold Chisel song) "My Baby" was a 1980 single from Australian rock band Cold Chisel, the third released from the album East and the first of the band's singles not to be written by organist Don Walker... " |
40 | ||
| 1981 | "You Got Nothing I Want You Got Nothing I Want "You Got Nothing I Want" was a 1981 single from Australian rock band Cold Chisel, the first released from the album Circus Animals. One of the band's heaviest and most aggressive songs, it was written by singer Jimmy Barnes in response to the treatment they received at the hands of a record company... " |
12 | Circus Animals Circus Animals Circus Animals was a studio album released by Australian band Cold Chisel in 1982. It was recorded and mixed at Paradise Studios and EMI Studio 301, Sydney . It reached number one on the Australian charts, remaining in the charts for 40 weeks... |
| 1982 | "Forever Now Forever Now (Cold Chisel song) "Forever Now" was a 1982 single from Australian rock band Cold Chisel. The second single from the album Circus Animals, it was the first Cold Chisel single to be penned by Steve Prestwich. The song reached number 2 in the New Zealand charts, and number 4 in Australia, the band highest chart... " |
4 | |
| "When the War Is Over When the War Is Over "When the War Is Over" is a power ballad originally performed by Australian band Cold Chisel on their 1982 album Circus Animals. The song was written by drummer Steve Prestwich and issued as the third single from the album, peaking at #25 on the national singles chart.-Cold Chisel version:Like many... " |
25 | ||
| 1983 | "Hold Me Tight" | 14 | Twentieth Century |
| 1984 | "Saturday Night Saturday Night (Cold Chisel song) "Saturday Night" was a 1984 single from Australian rock band Cold Chisel, the second released from the album Twentieth Century and the first to be issued after the band's official break-up. The song is a picture of late-night city life written by organist Don Walker based on his observations of... " |
11 | |
| "Twentieth Century" | 91 | ||
| "Flame Trees Flame Trees "Flame Trees" is a song by Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel from their 1984 album Twentieth Century. It is one of their best known songs, and was written by drummer Steve Prestwich and organist Don Walker... " |
26 | ||
| 1991 | "Misfits Misfits (Cold Chisel song) "Misfits" was a 1991 single from Australian rock band Cold Chisel,issued to promote the compilation album Chisel. The single only reached number 61 in the national charts and was later dropped from subsequent Chisel re-issue packages. The song was written by organist Don Walker and was recorded... " |
55 | Chisel Chisel (album) Chisel is the 1991 compilation album by Australian pub rockers Cold Chisel.It features a selection of their best songs from previous albums, including live versions of the tracks "Merry-Go-Round", "Star Hotel" and "Goodbye ". The track "Misfits" was a previously unreleased song and was removed from... |
| 1994 | "Hands Out of My Pocket" | 9 | Teenage Love Teenage Love Teenage Love is a compilation album by Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel, released in 1994. The album collected studio recordings, many just demos, that were not used on previous albums. Phil Small said, "There was always a surplus of 3 to 4 tracks with each album." The tracks were recorded... |
| "Nothing But You" | 16 | ||
| 1995 | "Yesterdays" | 23 | |
| 1998 | "The Things I Love in You" | 10 | The Last Wave of Summer The Last Wave of Summer The Last Wave of Summer is the 1998 reunion album for Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel. It reached number-one in Australia for one week in October 1998.... |
| "Water into Wine" | 46 | ||
| 1999 | "Way Down" | 63 | |
| 2011 | "Khe Sanh Khe Sanh (song) "Khe Sanh" is an Australian song, released as a 45 rpm single in May 1978, and named after the Battle of Khe Sanh during the Vietnam War. The song, performed by Cold Chisel, having been written by pianist Don Walker and featuring the vocals of Jimmy Barnes, is about an Australian Vietnam veteran... " |
401 | Cold Chisel Cold Chisel (album) Cold Chisel was the self-titled debut album of Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel. Released in April 1978, it spent 23 weeks in the Australian charts, peaking at number 38.... |
| "All for You" | 80 | All for You | |
1 "Khe Sanh" re-entered the ARIA Singles Chart in August 2011.