In 1984, Paul Kelly packed up his few belongings, borrowed his father-in-law’s Holden and made the 13-hour drive from Melbourne to Sydney. He had barely a dollar in his pocket and no place to lay his head. Don Walker, who was taking a breather from the music business after the breakup of Cold Chisel, offered him […]
Paul Kelly’s Post at 40 Read More »
On the screens flanking the stage at Petersons Winery in Armidale, you can clearly see the scar at the top of Jimmy Barnes’ big barrel chest. It’s a visible legacy of the singer’s second round of open-heart surgery in December last year, after a serious bout of bacterial pneumonia nearly killed him. Two months ago,
Cold Chisel: The Big 5-0 Read More »
Every week, Don Walker buys a lottery ticket. It’s a matter of ritual. The piano-playing hurricane force behind one of the most successful Australian bands of all time, Cold Chisel – the man who gave us Khe Sanh and Flame Trees and too many more to mention – says he’s buying his continuing right to dream. On
Don Walker: a real cat Read More »
After two best-selling, incredibly personal memoirs, Working Class Boy (2016) and Working Class Man (2017), you might think you know all there is to be known about James Dixon (Jimmy) Barnes. You’d be wrong. Barnes, by his own estimation, is still revealing himself. “There’s a lot of stuff I don’t know about me yet,” he
Jimmy Barnes: bio for My Criminal Record Read More »
Early in Jimmy Barnes’ memoir Working Class Man, he tells an anecdote about Cold Chisel guitarist Ian Moss. In 1974 the band, formed in Adelaide a year earlier, was living on a farm outside of Armidale in northern NSW. One day, in the middle of winter, the group went into town leaving Moss behind to practice
Ian Moss: The barefoot guitarist Read More »
I used to hate Cold Chisel. As a teenager in the 1980s, it was hard to avoid them. FM radio couldn’t get enough of them, and Khe Sanh was especially ubiquitous, pumped out of every muscle-car stereo at the beach like an extra pipeline of exhaust fumes. Despite growing up in the outer eastern suburbs
How I learned to listen and love Cold Chisel Read More »