On Saturday, 7 June 1980 Cold Chisel played a blistering pub gig at the Manly Vale Hotel on the northern beaches of Sydney. Today, more than 36 years later, that entire show is released as The Live Tapes – Vol 3 – Live At The Manly Vale Hotel and is available as a Vinyl LP, a CD, a very limited edition CD/DVD, a digital download and it can be streamed exclusively for the next two weeks on the Apple Music streaming service.
This Manly Vale show was recorded the same week that the band’s ground-breaking third album East was released. East would go on to dominate the charts for the rest of 1980 and set a new high for Australian music. With great foresight, the band recorded the cramped, sweaty pub show on 2-inch 16-track tape and the original audio tapes have been found, baked and carefully prepared so that Kevin Shirley could mix them in June this year. They also filmed the show, but only the second film reel (featuring the second half of the show) could be found. Despite months of archaeological digging, the first reel seems to have been lost forever.
The Live Tapes – Vol 3 – Live At The Manly Vale Hotel reveals a fierce, lean band; razor-sharp and confident from 5 years of relentless touring but who were still hungry and risk-taking, previewing ten of East’s twelve songs in the twenty-one song set. In addition to songs like Cheap Wine, Choirgirl, My Baby, Rising Sun and Star Hotel that would all go on to become massive radio songs and a huge part of Cold Chisel’s canon, the set also featured Khe Sanh, Breakfast at Sweethearts, Conversations and a speed fuelled One Long Day from the band’s first two albums that were already well on their way to becoming Australian classics.
The set also features two great covers, an adrenaline-charged rendition of the ’60s nugget Shakin All Over – a brilliant one-hit-wonder for Johnny Kidd & The Pirates in 1960 which was made even more famous in Australia when Normie Rowe took it to #1 in September 1965. Although Cold Chisel occasionally covered this gem in ’79 and ’80, a recording of the song has never surfaced till now. Additionally, the band deliver an emotional take on the Bob Dylan classic Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, which they offer as a tribute to two close friends and roadies who had recently died in a truck accident.
“In 1980, we were playing 8 days a week. We were fighting fit and hungry, playing every show like it was our last – and often it almost was,” laughs Cold Chisel frontman Jimmy Barnes. “This show at the Manly Vale Hotel was recorded the week EAST came out. We were still playing pubs, with the audience spilling onto the stage and the band spilling into the audience. It was fierce and fiery and lots of fun. Everyone in the band was writing songs and playing at the top of their game. It’s all here in this raw and real recording.”
The Live Tapes – Vol 3 – Live at The Manly Vale Hotel
Tracklisting:
Disc 1
1. Standing On The Outside
2. Home And Broken Hearted
3. Juliet
4. Shakin’ All Over
5. Choirgirl
6. Conversations
7. Never Before
8. My Turn To Cry
9. Best Kept Lies
10. Shipping Steel
11. My Baby
Disc 2
1. Rising Sun
2. Breakfast At Sweethearts
3. One Long Day
4. Cheap Wine
5. Khe Sanh
6. Star Hotel
7. Merry-Go-Round
8. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
9. Tomorrow
10. Goodbye (Astrid, Goodbye)
