Cold Chisel: Австралияның рок тобының тарихы

Australian rock band
the Australian rock band

Cold Chisel are an Australian pub rock band, which formed in Adelaide in 1973 by mainstay members Ian Moss on guitar and vocals, Steve Prestwich on drums and Don Walker on piano and keyboards. They were soon joined by Jimmy Barnes (at the time known as Jim Barnes) on lead vocals and, in 1975, Phil Small became their bass guitarist. The group disbanded in late 1983 but subsequently reformed several times. Musicologist Ian McFarlane wrote that they became "one of Australia's best loved groups" as well as "one of the best live bands", fusing "a combination of rockabilly, hard rock and rough house soul'n'blues that was defiantly Australian in outlook." Eight of their studio albums have reached the Australian top five, Breakfast at Sweethearts (February 1979), East (June 1980), Circus Animals (March 1982, No. 1), Twentieth Century (April 1984, No. 1), The Last Wave of Summer (October 1998, No. 1), No Plans (April 2012), The Perfect Crime (October 2015) and Blood Moon (December 2019, No. 1). Their top 10 singles are "Forever Now" (1982), "Hands Out of My Pocket" (1994) and "The Things I Love in You" (1998). At the ARIA Music Awards of 1993 they were inducted into the Hall of Fame. In 2001 Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), listed their single, "Khe Sanh" (May 1978), at No. 8 of the all time best Australian songs. Circus Animals was listed at No. 4 in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums (October 2010), while East appeared at No. 53. They won The Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music at the APRA Music Awards of 2016. Cold Chisel's popularity is almost entirely confined to Australia and New Zealand, with their songs and musicianship highlighting working class life. Their early bass guitarist (1973–75), Les Kaczmarek, died in December 2008; Steve Prestwich died of a brain tumour in January 2011.

Cold Chisel originally formed as Orange in Adelaide in 1973 as a heavy metal band by Ted Broniecki on keyboards, Les Kaczmarek on bass guitar, Ian Moss on guitar and vocals, Steve Prestwich on drums and Don Walker on piano. Kaczmarek left Cold Chisel during 1975 and was replaced by Phil Small on bass guitar. In May 1977, Barnes told his fellow members that he would leave again. From July he joined Feather for a few weeks, on co lead vocals with Swan – they were a Sydney based hard rock group, which had evolved from Blackfeather. It peaked at No. 4 and was the top selling album in Australia by a locally based artist for that year;

The Youth in Asia Tour performances were used for Cold Chisel's double live album, Swingshift (March 1981). Half of the songs had lyrics written by Barnes and music by Walker, a new combination for Cold Chisel, with Barnes noting his increased confidence after writing two autobiographies.

McFarlane described Cold Chisel's early career in his Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop (1999), "after ten years on the road, [they] called it a day. Not that the band split up for want of success; by that stage [they] had built up a reputation previously uncharted in Australian rock history. By virtue of the profound effect the band's music had on the many thousands of fans who witnessed its awesome power, Cold Chisel remains one of Australia's best loved groups. As one of the best live bands of its day, [they] fused a combination of rockabilly, hard rock and rough house soul'n'blues that was defiantly Australian in outlook."