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Cold Chisel

Last Stand – 40th Anniversary Box Set

Released: 17 November on Universal Music Australia

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER

Cold Chisel‘s Last Stand is part of Australian music folklore.
It was late 1983 and the swansong for the biggest band in the country.
At the time, the tickets sold faster and in bigger numbers than any tour by an Australian artist, ever.
The first show of the tour was at the Logan Campbell Centre, Auckland on September 20, 1983 – exactly 40 years ago today.
After a blitzkrieg run through Australia and New Zealand, it all came down to four huge shows in December 1983 at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.

‘Goodbye Now Babe, I Won’t Be Coming Back For Long’

And sure enough, it would be 15 years before Cold Chisel would be seen on stage again. These four shows in Sydney were recorded and filmed to create some of the most loved and enduring live recordings in Australian music history.

For the first time ever, they are all gathered together in Last Stand – 40th Anniversary Box Set – with some additional tracks never before released on vinyl or CD and with photos, posters and an authentic tour laminate bundled in as well.

VINYLThe legendary Last Stand album in its extended 19-song glory is released as a beautiful, remastered double album on thick 180g vinyl for the first time ever. Originally, this album was released in October 1992 and only on CD.  It was the height of the CD boom and vinyl was all but dead. Here the album is now remastered especially for vinyl and also with enhanced gatefold artwork. 

The Barking Spiders Live 1983. This rough diamond of a record was first released in 1984 and was made to appear as though it was a bootleg by a band called The Barking Spiders. It featured no mention of Cold Chisel, but he songs were a giveaway – captured at the Last Stand shows delivering a blistering single vinyl album of what was originally 11 songs, now remastered for vinyl as 12 songs, including Conway Twitty’s gem It’s Only Make Believe (which featured on the subsequent CD release). Seven of these songs do not appear on the Last Stand album and are all different versions to those five that are repeated on both albums. The Barking Spiders Live 1983 has not been available on vinyl for many years and is presented here exactly as it was in 1984 – including the poster of the first-ever photo of Cold Chisel from 1973. The only change to the original vinyl release is the inclusion of It’s Only Make Believe and it’s all newly remastered by Don Bartley.

10 “vinyl mini-album, Last Stand Outtakes. This has never before been released on either CD or vinyl and includes four great outtakes. Mastered for vinyl by Don Bartley, it captures Cold Chisel raw and wild and features the Circus Animals’ favourites Wild Colonial Boy and Letter To Alan as well as the then-brand new Build This Love and a long version of the Isley Brothers/Beatles classic Twist & Shout. Running at 20+ minutes, it’s almost a full album in itself. The artwork came from a hardcore fan, Ian Morrison, from a call- out we did for fan submissions of photos, memorabilia, merchandise etc from back in 1983. Ian snuck a camera into a Last Stand show in Newcastle in 1983 and captured the photos we included here. Thank you, Ian.

The band’s official Universal store gives those who pre-order the Box a chance to win the Ultimate Collector’s Prize Pack – a special one-only prize.
Pre-order here: https://www.coldchiselstore.com.au/products/last-stand-40th-anniversary-edition-box-set

Love Police have a pre-order for the Box Set and also unique Last Stand Merchandise items/bundles – including a T-shirt, a Cap and a Stubby Holder.
Click here to check them out:  https://coldchisel.bandtshirts.com.au/

And if you pre-order via JB HiFi the first 200 pre-orders will win a special, signed Last Stand Art Card: https://jbhi.fi/658582

This is the ultimate Last Stand experience – The 40th Anniversary – Cold Chisel style! – will be released through Universal Music Australia on 17 November 2023.

Pre-order all the versions now from here.

Just on 10 years ago, Cold Chisel released announced the first release on their own, new label:  “The Live Tapes Vol. 1: Hordern Pavilion. April 18, 2012”. The special concert set featured 21 live recordings and was released as a Deluxe 2CD/1 DVD pack; a double CD; a Blu-Ray and Standard DVD; and via digital download and on streaming services.  The only thing they didn’t do was release it on vinyl!

Due to the constant requests from fans, the band has remedied that – mastering the album for vinyl and is setting a release date of Friday, February 10. This now means that all five volumes of The Lives Tapes, drawing from all stages of the legendary band’s career, are available on vinyl.

The Live Tapes Vol. 1: Hordern Pavilion captures the band in great form as they were launching their platinum studio album, No Plans. The gig came just a few months after Cold Chisel had wrapped their unforgettable “Light The Nitro” tour. The 36 dates on that run set all sorts of ticket sales records, drawing over 325,000 people across Australasia – the biggest tour ever by an Australian-based band. “We were really road hardened by the time of that Hordern gig,” remembers the band’s frontman, Jimmy Barnes. “Adding a few new songs in the set for those launch gigs kept things fresh for us. Listening and watching it back, it’s raw and primal, warts and all – like the best rock & roll should be.”

The triple album is available through the Cold Chisel online store for $79.99 – and for a limited time only we can add the 2CD/DVD version of the release for an additional $10 – for a bundled price of $89.99

Order now directly thru:   https://www.coldchiselstore.com.au/

“From the hard, parched saltpan of the album’s front cover to the bloodcurdling crescendo at the end of the last track (‘Letter To Alan’), Circus Animals screams of its birthplace. Even without the place names, ‘Bow River’, ‘Houndog’ ‘Taipan’ and ‘Numbers Fall’ all tell of the Australian experience – from the hot, barren coastal highways to the sloping indifference of Kings Cross, these are the Australian blues.”
 
Coming on the back of the band’s breakthrough album East, which established Cold Chisel as the biggest band in the country, Circus Animals was the band’s first album to hit # 1 on the Australian Charts – spawning the huge, perennial songs ‘You Got Nothing I Want’, ‘Forever Now’, ‘When The War Is Over’ ‘Bow River’ and more… It marked the further development of all of the band as songwriters, with drummer Steve Prestwich writing the beautiful ‘When The War Is Over’ and ‘Forever Now’, Jimmy penning the fierce first single ‘You Got Nothing I Want’ and Ian Moss delivering the live favourite ‘Bow River’ and ‘No Good For You’.  Don Walker, the band’s chief songwriter, was responsible for the remaining songs.
 
March 8, 2022 marks the 40^th anniversary of the release of this legendary album and Cold Chisel is preparing a bunch of items to celebrate
 
The Signed and Framed Print is of the great back cover image and is a unique offering. All prints are personally signed by all Jimmy, Ian, Phil and Don. It is strictly limited to 400 copies and it will sell out quickly. The dimensions of the framed print are: 426mm x 600mm.  It is mounted horizontally.
 
The CD/DVD marries the album on one disc with a brilliant DVD disc, featuring:

1. Taipan  – filmed at the ‘An Evening With The Circus Animals’, the famous shows that launched the album
2. No Good For You – an early version of this song, captured on rough film stock prior to recording the album, live at the legendary Playroom on Queensland’s Gold Coast.
3. Wild Colonial Boy – from the same Playroom show as above.
4. Letter To Alan – Captured live on the German TV show Rockpalast
5. Houndog (with Tim Rogers from You Am I) – recorded and filmed at Sydney Acer Arena on the band’s triumphant 2011 Light The Nitro tour. This blistering performance is released for the first time.
6. When The War Is Over – again, this is the first release of this emotional tribute version of Steve’s classic song done in acoustic mode by the band on their 2011 tour, featuring rare and special photos of Steve throughout his life with the band.
7. Forever Now – the original concept video
8. You Got Nothing I Want – the original concept video
9. Bow River – the original concept video

This CD/DVD is limited to 1,000 copies
 
The original Vinyl album is made available again for the first time in 3 years. It is currently being pressed and shipped from Europe and we have our fingers crossed it will make the July 8 release date.
 
We also have a White T-shirt, a Black T-shirt and a one-off ‘Bow River’ Tea Towel. All Unlimited!

We start taking orders from now until the release of these items on July 8*
Release Date:  July 8*
*Release date is reliant upon vinyl delivery

‘CIRCUS ANIMALS’ 40^TH ANNIVERSARY ITEMS

The intimate live album reissued on Vinyl for first time ever.

Also released as a new Deluxe 2CD/DVD pack.

Release date: Friday, 26 November.

Cold Chisel have announced that on Friday, 26 November they are releasing their acclaimed live album Ringside on vinyl for the first time ever. The band is also releasing a new, Deluxe 2CD/DVD edition of this unique release.

Partly inspired by Elvis Presley’s legendary 1968 ‘comeback’ special and more simply by a desire to perform in a smaller, more intimate environment, Ringside captures the iconic Cold Chisel up close and personal, like they’re performing in your lounge room. Recorded across 4 shows in June 2003 (and originally released in November 2003), Ringside turns the normal Cold Chisel concert experience on its head. With a rotating stage set in the middle of Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion, no member of the audience was more than 30 metres from the band and everyone got to see the five piece outfit from every imaginable angle. The Hordern is much smaller than the band’s normal arena or outdoor shows and with the stage placed in the middle of the room it reduced capacity and further accentuated just how intimate Ringside was. 

In addition, Cold Chisel upended their setlist, playing rarely heard gems like Plaza, Rosaline, Pretty Little Thing and F-111, as well as unveiling three totally new songs – two Steve Prestwich penned and sung tracks, Lovelight and All I Wanna Do (which features on Ringside twice, once sung by Prestwich, and from another night sung by Barnes), and Fallen Angel, written and sung by Don Walker, which ultimately ended up on Walker’s solo album, Cutting Back. The album is also unique for its covers – Johnny Cash’s Big River, Arthur Hamilton’s torch song Cry Me A River (made famous by Julie London) and Sunshine, written by Don Walker’s friend Paul Hewson and originally recorded by Dragon – all of which only ever appeared on Ringside.

The band recorded these shows in June and released Ringside as a double CD in November 2003 and then undertook a national Ringside tour across the nation in November/December 2003 and January 2004. “We loved playing those shows,” recalls frontman Jimmy Barnes. “I remember the band had a real swing about it. And it was great mixing up the set list, playing some obscure tracks and covers like ‘Big River’ and ‘Sunshine’.”

In addition to the vinyl release, the band is also releasing a limited edition Deluxe set, combining the double CD with the normally separate DVD. The Deluxe package features new cover art. “When our management started digging into the archive for ‘Ringside’, they lucked upon a design that we did for these shows,” says Don Walker. “It was an image created by Carl Bellesini from Love Police and it captured the romance of the travelling tent boxing shows, back at the start of last century. It’s a different take on the original artwork, which is still represented on the vinyl release and was designed by the brilliant pop artist, Martin Sharp. This new and ‘lost’ artwork also caught the spirit of what we were attempting to do with the shows – and we all thought it would be good to switch it up.” 

The Ringside DVD was directed by Robert Hambling, Cold Chisel’s long time film documentarian, and for all those who didn’t get to see one of these unique shows, the DVD is the next best thing to being there.

VINYL TRACKLISTING

Side One
1. Home And Broken Hearted
2. The Things I Love In You
3. Rosaline
4. Breakfast At Sweethearts
5. Plaza

Side Two
6. My Baby
7. Houndog
8. Shipping Steel
9. The Last Wave Of Summer

Side Three
10. Pretty Little Thing
11. Forever Now
12. Khe Sanh
13. When The War Is Over

Side Four
14. Cry Me A River
15. Lovelight
16. All I Wanna Do (Steve Vocal)
17. F-111
18. Big River
19. Painted Doll

Side Five
20. You Got Nothing I Want
21. Rising Sun
22. Flame Trees
23. Bow River

Side Six
24. Water Into Wine
25. Sunshine
26. Goodbye (Astrid, Goodbye)
27. All I Wanna Do (Jimmy Vocal)

Pre-order links are available here.

The Live Tapes – Vol 5 – Live At The Bondi Lifesaver

Captured on Friday, 29 February 1980 just 3 days before they began recording their breakthrough album, East

The legendary Cold Chisel have unearthed a fierce live recording from deep in their archives. Captured on two multitrack tapes on a Friday night at the arse end of February 1980, after a blinding 43 shows over 56 days, it showcases the five-piece band at a pivotal moment – just 3 days before they entered Paradise Studio in Sydney’s Woolloomooloo to record their breakthrough album East.

The 2 inch tapes had sat completely untouched in the band’s archive for just over 40 years. Nobody had listened to them because everybody forgot they existed. When they were unearthed earlier this year it started a long chain of events that will come to fruition on 11 December 2020 when The Live Tapes Vol 5 – Live at the Bondi Lifesaver is released on vinyl, CD, as a digital download, and across all streaming services.

The two tapes were sent to sound engineer Phil Punch to transfer to digital so the band could hear what was captured 40 years ago, but on examining the tapes Punch said that before they could be played, they needed to be baked in an ‘audio oven’. They were sent away to a Turtle Rock mastering, baked twice, and sent back to Punch. Punch said that too much oxide had built up around the tapes and that they would need to be baked again. The tapes went into the oven again and then sent back to Punch but he was still not happy so he cut each of the bulky masters in two and had the four ‘half-tapes’ baked again. He then finally set about transferring them to digital, stopping after each song to wipe the tapes and machines clean of all the primordial ooze (which seemed particularly appropriate for recordings made at the notoriously grimy Bondi Lifesaver). This painstaking, labour of love took 6 weeks.

The files were then sent to Cold Chisel’s longtime producer, Kevin Shirley, who did a quick comp mix of the set to see if the show was any good. What came back gobsmacked the normally hard-to-impress band. The Bondi Lifesaver was the band’s de facto home and the band clearly loved the venue, playing there with kinetic speed and verve, tearing blistering holes through the legendary bar.

Kevin Shirley was given the green light to bring his trusted ears to properly mix the live recording, which frontman Jimmy Barnes says, “might be our live best recording ever.”

Of particular interest to Cold Chisel fans is hearing the 7 East songs in their pre-studio form (Choirgirl had been released as a single in late 1979). Some songs were still coming together, only 3 days prior to the album recordings; parts were still being written and a couple of sections were ad-libbed. Others (Standing On The Outside and Tomorrow) reveal substantially different arrangements to what the band subsequently crafted with East producer Mark Opitz. “It’s great to hear this earlier arrangement of Tomorrow. We re-worked it with Mark Opitz – and he brought a great pop discipline to the album recording sessions. But I do like this version,” smiles songwriter and piano player, Don Walker.

Another then-new song is Jimmy Barnes‘ My Turn To Cry, the first single fromLive at The Bondi Lifesaver, and it’s delivered here with raw, unhinged power and emotion. “In 1980, we were fighting fit and hungry, playing every show like it was our last – and often it almost was,” laughed Barnes recently, when recounting the times. “We were still playing pubs, with the audience spilling onto the stage and the band spilling into the audience. I was living just around the corner from the Lifesaver – and probably half the audience ended-up back at mine.“

The whole band is captured in killer form on Live at the Bondi Lifesaver. “I can’t believe Steve and Phil’s playing” says guitarist Ian Moss referencing the band’s bass player Phil Small and their late drummer Steve Prestwich. “They set the whole tone here – we’re just trying to keep up. Jimmy is also in incredible form, wailing and nailing everything.“

In addition to the East songs, Cold Chisel tear through songs that were already becoming classics: Khe Sanh, One Long Day, Merry-Go-Round and a steamrolling take on Shipping Steel; some rarely heard gems: Rosaline, the never-before-physically-released The Dummy; and five cover songs including Johnny Kidd‘s Shakin’ All Over and a never-before-released take on The Yardbirds‘ The Nazz Are Blue.

From this incredible live recording in February 1980 to their phenomenal sold-out national “Blood Moon” Tour dates in early 2020, Cold Chisel’s longevity is a testament to the special connection between the band, their songs and their legion of die-hard fans. Earlier this week Cold Chisel revealed that ongoing connection, scoring two ARIA Award Nominations for Best Rock Album(Blood Moon) and Best Australian Live Act (Blood Moon Tour 2020), withKevin Shirley also getting a nomination for Producer of the Year for Blood Moon.

The singles My Turn to Cry and Tomorrow are now available on all streaming services, and The Live Tapes – Vol 5 – Live at the Bondi Lifesaver is also available for pre-order NOW.

The album will be released on all formats on Friday, 11 December, 2020.   Pre-order links are available here.

TRACKLISTING

1. Juliet
2. Tomorrow
3. The Dummy
4. Shakin’ All Over
5. Breakfast At Sweethearts
6. My Turn To Cry
7. Best Kept Lies
8. Standing On The Outside
9. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
10. Star Hotel
11. Merry-Go-Round
12. Four Walls
13. One Long Day
14. Shipping Steel
15. Khe Sanh
16. The Door
17. Goodbye (Astrid, Goodbye)
18. Georgia
19. Choirgirl
20. Ita
21. I’m Gonna Roll Ya
22. Rosaline
23. The Nazz Are Blue
24. Wild Thing

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