Cold Chisel rocked hard on their recently-completed tour of Australia. And the fans sure rolled in – hundreds of thousands of them.
The Australian rock legends reached the finish line Thursday night, December 4th at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena, completing a trek that welcomed more than 225,000 fans. When the ANZ lap is complete, that figure will zoom past a quarter million.
“Thank you, Sydney. Thank you, Australia. This tour was truly something special,” reads a post on the official Cold Chisel socials.
“It breathed new fire into Cold Chisel in a way we never expected. From ‘Standing on the Outside’ through to ‘Goodbye (Astrid, Goodbye)’ we loved every minute of every show and all 225,000 who witnessed our ‘Big Five-0’ tour lifted us to new heights. Thank you. And see you soon New Zealand!”
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In pure numbers, the 225,000 attendance places Chisel’s Australia tour next to Fred again..’s pop-up arena trek earlier in the year, produced by TEG, one three major outings shortlisted for the Variety Live Biz Award (Pink’s record-breaking ‘Summer Carnival’ trek for Live Nation, with its 970,000 attendance across 20 stadium shows, was the winner).
Powderfinger’s final ‘Sunsets’ tour in 2010 also raked in more than 200,000 punters.
According to reps for Chisel, the ARIA Hall of Fame-inducted band played 23 sold-out shows on their ‘The Big Five-0 Tour’, including six Big Tops, seven arena dates and 10 outdoor spots.
All that for the ageless frontman Jimmy Barnes, who has recently undergone multiple invasive procedures, including heart and hip surgeries, and continues to rock harder than many artists a third of his age.
The touring party included more than 50 staff, plus 100s of local riggers, drivers, crew and more.
Next up: the ‘Big Five-O’ trek heads to New Zealand as part of Greenstone Entertainment’s Summer Concert Tour, for three dates in January 2025.
Ahead of the 24-date Australia trek, Chisel dropped 50 years – The Best of, which went straight to No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart. With that feat, Barnes extended his record as the artist with the most chart leaders in Australia, with 21.
Since forming in Adelaide in 1973, Chisel has led the national chart with six LPs: Swingshift (in 1981), Circus Animals (1982), Twentieth Century (1984), The Last Wave of Summer (1998), Blood Moon (2019) and the most recent anthology.
As a solo artist, Barnes, now 68, has clocked up 15 Number 1s.
New Zealand – Greenstone Summer Concert Tour 2025
Ticketing information via Coldchisel.com.
Saturday, January 18th
Gibbston Valley Winery, Queenstown
Saturday, January 25th
Taupo Amphitheatre, Taupo
Sunday, January 26st
Whitianga Waterways, Whitianga
