When Cold Chisel announced they were getting back together for their ‘Big Five-O’ anniversary tour, there was a justifiable buzz around the country.
The run of shows began just over a week ago in Armidale: a town seminal to the band’s mythology and conclude in New Zealand early next year.
Night two of the tour brought Chisel to the Gold Coast in the second week of October to play a six-thousand seater, which, at this stage of Cold Chisel’s career, is equivalent to a club gig.
You can tell a lot from the mixtape piped into an auditorium prior to showtime. Tonight it was 1950s rock and roll, referencing artists from Little Richard to Eddie Cochran and back again.
At 8pm the lights dropped and there appeared five silhouettes etched in our collective concert-going DNA.
Mainstay members
Phil Small stood off to the side, next to a squadron of bass amps. Mossy, armed with a Stratocaster, took his position stage right. There was Charlie Drayton behind the drum kit and Don Walker hunched over the piano. Jimmy Barnes dropped his right arm and the band tore into ‘Standing On The Outside’.
PHOTO: Bill Donahue
The roar from the audience had the hair on the arms spring to attention.
Building a head of steam, the next four tunes were for anyone who’s ever ventured beyond greatest hits compilations: ‘Letter To Alan’, ‘Four Walls’, ‘Mr Crown Prosecutor’ and Chisel’s latest single ‘You’ve Got To Move’.
Like all great bands, the genius of Chisel can be found in the margins. It’s here you’ll often spot Don Walker’s novelist-like gift for portraiture.
If you like ‘You’ve Got To Move’ it’s worth checking out Walker’s original recording on last year’s solo LP, Lightning In A Clear Blue Sky.
Next up was a rousing ‘Cheap Wine’, followed by Barnes’ rockabilly homage to his wife Jane: ‘Rising Sun’. Ian Moss took lead vocal duties on the Phil Small penned ‘My Baby’.
Here’s a thought. Can you name another band where every member has written at least one song that is a stone cold classic?
PHOTO: Stephanie Barnes
Later Barnes told an anecdote about Chisel’s relationship with their American label in the 1980s, the gist of which is summed up in the title, ‘You Got Nothing I Want’. In 2024 the song remains incendiary.
Ian Moss in any other band on the planet would be lumbered with lead vocal duties to go with his extraordinary guitar work. Moss’s take on Hoagy Carmichael’s ‘Georgia (On My Mind)’, via Ray Charles, was quite a moment among many.
The spirit of the late Steve Prestwich was in the room as the band played songs the drummer wrote: ‘Forever Now’, ‘When The War Is Over’ and his co-write with Don Walker: ‘Flame Trees’.
Merseybeat hooks were not only in Steve’s playing, but in his choruses as well.
No drum machines to see here
On this night, Charley Drayton was the glue that held the band together. There were no machines or pre-recorded vocals flown in, this was the real deal with a beating heart. If a cue was missed, or if Moss’s guitar went out (which it did) during a solo … so be it. That’s rock and roll.
When Chisel plays, the emphasis is on the roll. The band swung like the proverbial gate. The ghosts of the 1950s mixtape that rang out before the band came on stage were brought to life via Don Walker’s left hand, David Blight’s harp playing on ‘Khe Sanh’ and Andy Bicker’s terrific baritone sax work on Chisel’s cover of Roy Hamilton’s ‘Don’t Let Go’.
PHOTO: Stephanie Barnes
Shout out to backing vocalists Juanita Tippens and Mahalia Barnes who hit all the gorgeous high notes when required. ‘Saturday Night’ was a stand out.
A couple of months ago, Jimmy Barnes was in hospital on a drip after hip surgery. On this night, he held the audience in the palm of his hand. Cold Chisel have much of their autobiography in their set list. A couple of times they promised to ‘set fire to the town’.
PHOTO: Bill Donahue
Well, tonight, by Christ, they did.
PHOTO at top of story: Stephanie Barnes
