Check on your mum, check on your dad, check on an Australian rock fan of any age, because Cold Chisel today announced a special tour.
The legendary rockers will celebrate 50 years together across Australia later this year, performing in Sydney, Wollongong, Melbourne, Brisbane, and beyond between October and November (see full dates below).
Don Walker can’t wait to get started. “We’ll be going all out to celebrate a milestone birthday like this. Bookending the tour in the two places where we first welded the band together, building these circus tent shows in 3 cities, bringing along some great guests and doing a set which reaches back across our whole song catalogue should all make ‘The Big Five-0’ a tour to remember,” he says.
Cold Chisel’s impact on Australian music can’t be overstated.
Four years ago, Rolling Stone Australia released a special edition which looked at the 50 Greatest Australian Artists of All Time, paying tribute to the best artists in Australian music history. Walker, Jimmy Barnes and co., of course, were included, making it to #17 on the countdown (although they could have been higher).
For the special edition, we got Kirin J Callinan to detail his love for Cold Chisel, and he didn’t disappoint. Read his reflection on Australia’s most beloved pub-rock band below.
I struggle to find words to express why Cold Chisel will, in the canon of Oz rock legends, live forever now.
The truth is, personally, my heart is more tightly tethered to any number of other classic Australian acts of the same generation or ilk – Brisbane’s Go-Betweens for their heady romanticism and an aloof but open heart; INXS for their unparalleled sexual combustion; Severed Heads for severing heads; or Crowded House for informing my, and an entire nation’s, emotional identity.
Yet Chisel remains singular. An island in a sea of has-beens and never-weres. And whilst much of their music feels a wee bit dated to me now, one listen to The Barking Spiders Live: 1983 (The Barking Spiders being their live pseudonym for secret or warm-up shows) categorically encapsulates a solid gold, rock’n’roll moment. A timeless artefact containing within all of their much mythicised virility and raw firepower. Flame trees indeed.
The truth is Chisel were, and forever will be, the undeniable kings of one of the most macho and cutthroat musical eco-systems to have ever existed: beer-swilling Oz pub rock.
So what is it that makes Chisel so chiseled, Michaelangelo’s David of the pub rock scene?
Is it Don Walker’s nuanced yet unabashedly Australian writing? Mossy’s slick axe-slinging bravado? Is it Phil Small’s big bass, or Steve Prestwich’s wife-beater bearing, body beating beats beyond belief? Or does it all come down to Jim’s iconic voice, his unrivalled scream? A Scottish banshee on heat, marinated in vodka, crying out ‘cross the land, a call to arms to every other Aussie battler. Anthem.
Nope.
Add up the parts, you won’t have the sum.
The truth is, it comes down to heart. Cold Chisel, for me, have the biggest bleeding heart and soul of all the would-be contenders.
And ain’t nobody gonna steal this heart away.
Cold Chisel 50th Anniversary Tour
Ticket information available via coldchisel.com
Saturday, October 5th (SOLD OUT)
Petersons Winery, Mount View, Armidale, NSW
Special guests: The Cruel Sea, Birds of Tokyo, The Superjesus & Karen Lee Andrews
Tuesday, October 8th (SOLD OUT)
Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre, Broadbeach, QLD
Special guest: Karen Lee Andrews
Friday, October 11th (SOLD OUT)
The Entertainment Quarter, Moore Park, Sydney, NSW
Special guests: The Cruel Sea & Karen Lee Andrews
Saturday, October 12th (SOLD OUT)
The Entertainment Quarter, Moore Park, Sydney, NSW
Special guests: The Cruel Seas & Karen Lee Andrews
Tuesday, October 15th (SOLD OUT)
WIN Entertainment Centre, Wollongong, NSW
Special guests: Karen Lee Andrews
Saturday, October 19th (SOLD OUT)
Sandalford Wines, Caversham, WA
Special guests: Birds of Tokyo, The Cruel Sea, The Superjesus & Karen Lee Andrews
Sunday, October 20th (SOLD OUT)
Sandalford Wines, Caversham, WA
Special guests: Birds of Tokyo, The Cruel Sea, The Superjesus & Karen Lee Andrews
Friday, October 25th (SOLD OUT)
Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne, VIC
Special guests: The Cruel Sea & Karen Lee Andrews
Saturday, October 26th (SOLD OUT)
Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne, VIC
Special guests: The Cruel Sea & Karen Lee Andrews
Wednesday, October 30th (NEW SHOW)
Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane, QLD
Special guest: Karen Lee Andrews
Saturday, November 2nd (SOLD OUT)
Victoria Park, Brisbane, QLD
Special guests: The Cruel Sea & Karen Lee Andrews
Sunday, November 3rd (SOLD OUT)
Victoria Park, Brisbane, QLD
Special guests: The Cruel Sea & Karen Lee Andrews
Wednesday, November 6th (SOLD OUT)
Newcastle Entertainment Centre, Broadmeadow, QLD
Special guest: Karen Lee Andrews
Saturday, November 9th (SOLD OUT)
Victoria Park, Ballarat, VIC
Special guests: The Cruel Sea, Birds of Tokyo, The Superjesus & Karen Lee Andrews
Sunday, November 10th (SOLD OUT)
Mornington Racecourse, VIC
Special guests: The Cruel Sea, Birds of Tokyo, The Superjesus & Karen Lee Andrews
Wednesday, November 13th (SOLD OUT)
MyState Bank Arena, Glenorchy, TAS
Special guest: Karen Lee Andrews
Saturday, November 16th (SOLD OUT)
QUDOS Bank Arena, Sydney, NSW
Special guest: The Cruel Sea
Sunday, November 17th
VAILO Adelaide 500, Post Race Concert, Adelaide, SA
Special guests: The Cruel & The Superjesus
Tickets: Ticketmaster
Friday, November 22nd (NEW SHOW)
Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne, VIC
Special guests: The Cruel Sea & Karen Lee Andrews
Saturday, November 23rd (NEW SHOW)
Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne, VIC
Special guests: The Cruel Sea & Karen Lee Andrews
Thursday, November 28th (NEW SHOW)
Patrick White Lawns, Canberra, ACT
Special guests: The Cruel Sea & Karen Lee Andrews
Saturday, November 30th (NEW SHOW)
Roche Estate, Hunter Valley, NSW
Special guests: The Cruel Sea, Birds of Tokyo, The Superjesus & Karen Lee Andrews
Wednesday, December 4th (NEW SHOW)
Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney, NSW
Special guests: The Cruel Sea & Karen Lee Andrews
