Episode 377 - Cold Chisel Part 1

From smoky pubs in Adelaide to selling out arenas across the country, Cold Chisel became the voice of a generation. Fronted by Jim Barnes, the band’s raw energy and working-class anthems captured the spirit of Australia in the late 70s and 80s, their legacy continuing all the way until tomorrow. With hits like Khe Sanh and Flame Trees, they weren’t just making music — they were telling the stories of everyday Aussies.

In this episode, we dig into the band’s origins, their meteoric rise, the chaos of fame, and the lasting impact they’ve had on Australian music culture. Whether you’re a diehard fan or new to their legacy, Cold Chisel’s story is one of grit, passion, and pure rock ’n’ roll.

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This week's episode is sponsored by Kurralta Park, a small indie band from Adelaide! Head over to their Spotify or their YouTube Channel now to check out their new album, Powell Place! 

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/weird-crap-in-australia--2968350/support.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
A strange, spiraling white light was spotted in the early
morning sky over Sydney, with even skeptical witnesses wondering if
it was a UFO. They were last seen on the
beach with a tall man and that's the best description
police have ever had of it.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
More than seventeen years after Harold Holt disappeared into raging
surf at Chevy a Beach, his widow has finally revealed
his last romantic words.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Docky, terrifying, mesmerizing.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
That's the way a number of Australians have described the
alleged encounter with the Yowie.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
It's time for the Weird crap In Australian podcast. Welcome
to the week Crap In Australia Podcast. I'm your host
Matthew Soul. Joining me for another episode is Holy Soul. Hey,
and we are going to do another series on a

(00:55):
very famous Australian musical act that of course is Cold Chisel.
Before we do that, we're going to have a mid
credit break to introduce you guys to an Australian punk
rock band that is coalta par Their new album which
is called how Place is out now right Holly or

(01:17):
is it now. It is out now.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
It came out August twenty seconds. That's out now.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Now. I've actually listened to some of this, and you
guys know that I'm a punk guy, and I have
to say I quite like it cool. So that's my
recommendation from a fellow rocker or someone who enjoys punk rock,
not the sex Pistols.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Discounting sex Pistols.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Look, I know that a lot of people like to
think that the sex Pistols are punk rock, but I
really the kind of They didn't even plug in the
bass guitar most of the time, Like you know, I
think I think people recognize, like you know, God Save
the Queen. Obviously it's had a lot of airtime, but
I would ask a lot of people who aren't musos,

(02:00):
what are their other songs?

Speaker 2 (02:01):
I mean, I am a muso and I still don't
understand it.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Do amuse it?

Speaker 2 (02:05):
If it's pop, yes, If it's anything other than like
Granddad Rock, dad rock, or pop, then probably not. But
I still do have an eclectic collection of a lot
of other things.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
And I played the guzar of Granddad and Dad Rock.
I saw there was like two dudes in a music
store and they're like, oh, look the new Dad Rocks out.
What do you thinks on it? It's like, I don't know,
you know, maybe some Bruce Springsteen, Kenny Loggings, you know,
maybe sayk like that and they open up and it's like,
limp biscuit, what the fuck?

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah? Our loves and now the Dad Rock Our Loves
and the other stuff that gets played in grocery stores.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
It is. It is. I saw Fred Durst was performing.
He's got like gray sort of up hair now, and
I was like, yeah, that makes sense. All of those
guys are way old. I mean, even if you think
about like Metallica was big when we were growing up,
because they were releasing now as well into the you know, the.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Late I will take your.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Twenty ten's. Even they were like they kicked off in
the like late eighties, so they were already old by
the time they got to Usk. Now they're real old.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
And then you have the Rolling Stones, who no one
understands how they're still alive.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
But what's interesting is when the Stones go out to perform,
they can still perform, whereas Metallica, like the last time
I was listening to like I saw a little bit
of their live performance. I was like, is that having
trouble years of struggling with keeping up the beat?

Speaker 2 (03:36):
It was like the difference between nineteen eighties meat Loaf
and two thousands meat Loaf.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Well, like, I will have to talk about that one
day when Meatloaf came to Australia to do the AFL
Grand Final performance, and well it was rough. It was
very rough. I mean the pipeline used to be that
once you started needing to slow down, you became an
acoustic musician. Yeah, you know, you sit in front of

(04:02):
a small, intimate crowd and maybe someone has a piano
and you've got an acoustic guitar and do a little
bit of singing. That used to be how it how
it wrapped up.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
It's definitely how Johnny Cash ended up.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Yeah, well, I mean, to be fair, he always used
to do is it country or Western? I don't know.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
To me, they're the same.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
I like a little bit. I've got a Johnny Cash
up sitting there. Well, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen,
it's times hook about Australia's own cold Chisel. And I
would like to dedicate these episodes to my friend Graham,
who passed away this year that man loved Jimmy Barnes
on a level that I think would have made Jimmy

(04:45):
Barnes uncomfortable if he knew.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
And that's true, I then making it up. He did bother.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
You know, in Graham's last couple of days, I know
he was reading the Jimmy Barnes autobiography.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
Which one he is too.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
He had a couple and you know, I remember like
when I when I was saying goodbye, and I said
to him, you know, I love you, man, but not
as much as you love Jimmy Barnes. Because I don't
think any man could have loved Jimmy Barnes as much
as Graham Spencer loved Jimmy Barnes.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
I don't even think Jimmy Barnes loves Jimmy Barns as
much as Graham did.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
My only regret is that I didn't. You know, it
never sort of came up. It's just that, you know,
we had someone reach out to us and they were like, hey,
you know, we'd like to promote our our new album
coming out, and we thought, oh, it would be cool
idea to tie that in with a musical episode. And
that's that's why we've decided to hit on Cold Chisel.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
We hit on Cold Chisel because Holly went shit. Who
haven't we covered yet?

Speaker 1 (05:52):
But you know, my only regret is that I didn't
do it while Graham was alive, because number one, I
knew he would have listened to it, and I would
have expounded consistently, profusely, very loudly about his sexual attraction
to Jimmy Barnes. And I know, if he's watching over
us right now.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
Much protest would be heard, kind of.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
But it's protests that you know, he always had to
put on that front that he wasn't sexually attracted to
Jimmy Barnes. But you know, I think his love for
Jimmy Barnes ran deeper than the Mariana Trench. Okay, so
this one's for you, Graham. Anyway, let's get into it. Holly,
hold Chisel a part of whom.

Speaker 2 (06:39):
Every band has an origin story. No they don't, and
Cold Chisels begins far from the bright lights of Sydney
or Melbourne, before the hit singles, before the chaos, the
drinking and the girls.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
Let me guess they were a pub rock band.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
You don't say it's all Australia had in the eighties.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
What Australian band have we Harvard that hasn't started as
as a pub rock band.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Even Wiggles, So I can't tell you that.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
It's Kylie Minogue, but she wasn't a band.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, if you're a band, you have to start in
a pub. And that's why Australian music is.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
And there's damn country. You want to call yourself an
Australian punk rock band or rock band, by god, you
have to start at a pub.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
You have to play in front of fifty very drunk
people who have no shits to give about what you're seeing.
That's how you start.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
I always think of modern bands going into the pub
scene now in the same way the Blues Brothers walked
into that country Western venue. Yeah, these people do not
like what we're laying down. You know. The funniest example
of that. I was at a bike rally. I've never
been to one before and my friend was going up,

(07:50):
so I was. He's lovingly referred to as his bike
bitch because I don't know how to ride a motorcycle.
And like they had this massive truck with the bed
down so that the bands could perform on the truck,
and you know that they must have been like a

(08:11):
school band, like an early school band, and they decided
to be like, you know, the these themes are very
important to us, and they're very important to this song.
And I'm like, yeah, you're definitely the girlfriend of one
of those guys in the back there playing the drums
or the guitar, and everyone's looking awkward as shit, and
you have no idea the crowd you're playing to. Yep,

(08:34):
enjoyed it. I love sharing awkwardness that I haven't caused.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
Before they even had the name that would become legend,
they were just five young musicians chasing something bigger. That
story starts in Adelaide in nineteen seventy three with a
small band called Orange.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
Fine That the band we're going to introduce you to
leader is from Adelaide. Look at that hoole. Look at
what you did.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yes, I knew what I was doing, ilarly knew what
I was doing.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
This is going to be my biggest problem with Cold Chisel, right,
So obviously Jimmy Barnes we're going to get to this.
But Jimmy Barnes is the lead singer of Cold Chisel.
I have a problem knowing what a Cold Chisel song
and what a Jimmy Barnes song is.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
So I had to look it up and read the albums.

Speaker 1 (09:25):
That's good. I hope you'll illuminate us because I thought
kas was Jimmy Barnes song. I didn't know that it's
a Cold Chisel song.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
But then if you go to a working class man,
I thought for the longest time it was a Cold
Chisel song, it's not. It's just Jimmy Barnes.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
See, we actually have in our record collection that half
of it we inherited off of Graham, including this, and
there's like, what's he got in there? Best to Cold Chisel,
best to Jimmy Barnes.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
I think it's just the Cold Chisel one. I think
the Barnes one went to.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
Working class mean I think that. No, No, we've definitely
got one in there. We've got a Barnes one in there.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
We've definitely got a Chisel, that's all I remember.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah, we've definitely got I think we've got two Chisels.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
We also got the inexcess one from him.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
Two Chisels and a Jimmy.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
We'll have to have a look through it.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
Letter and my band name poppy righted, I own it.
Two chisels and now Jimmy's. Yeah, two chisels and a Jimmy.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
So many euphemisms there. Orange initially featured pianist Don Walker,
guitarist In Moss, drummer Steve Preswick, bassist Les Cosmik, and
keyboarder Ted Bronicky. Walker came to the band directly from
studying at university Well Moss played in school yard band
pot Ice before he moved from Alice Springs to Adelaide.

(10:39):
I hate ironic band names hot Ice from Alice Springs.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
I hate it. How what's your Do you have a naming?
Conceit for beans? Holy? Things? That upset you when it
comes to beans?

Speaker 2 (10:57):
Alliteration?

Speaker 1 (10:58):
Oh yeah, can you think of anyone in particular?

Speaker 4 (11:01):
Cold?

Speaker 1 (11:02):
So you in general? What about superheroes?

Speaker 2 (11:06):
Then it also annoys me because it's a cliche, So
like Peter Parker, Yeah, Clark Kent just because of the
not the letters, but the sounds. Lois Lane, Lana Lang,
Guy Gardner, Guy Gardner, Wally West, like all of these guys.
Is like, I understand that this is the forties when

(11:28):
a majority of these guys are being thought up. They
do something original.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
That's why the film with Jake Gillenhall, Donnie Darko, He's got.
He called him Donny Darko because he thought, oh, yeah,
that sounds like a real shit superhero name, Donnie Darko,
but yeah, my name. I really don't like ironic band names.
I don't know why. It just annoys me. So hot

(11:53):
Ice is.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
Annoying, and what other ones? Can you think of?

Speaker 1 (11:58):
Famous ones? Famous ones? A limp biscuit. That's annoying because
a biscuit is going to be limp? Should it could
be soft?

Speaker 2 (12:17):
Prestwick played Orn also Corn with the city spellings were Pizzo.
Presswick played in small time band Ice before he joined
up to play in Orange. These were two different people
in two different countries in country towns that ended up
being in the same band together. Orange played the music
of Deep, Purple Free, Jimmy Hendrix, and led Zeppelin in

(12:40):
pub backrooms, honing their chops under neon lights and sticky carpets.
Renecki left the group in September nineteen seventy three, allowing
for seventeen year old James Swan, professionally known to the
world later as Jim Barnes, to join as lead singer
in December of that year because.

Speaker 1 (12:57):
Their family like, so this is a out the band.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
I didn't do any profiles on Barnes because I figured
we might do that later.

Speaker 1 (13:05):
We can actually do a full Jimmy Barnes pisode. So
before everyone gets on your little emails and starts shooting
us emails being like you did not talk about how
jim emigrated from Ireland Scotland Scotland, right, we will cover
Jimmy Barnes, probably in his quirty This is not.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
Going to be like a Midnight Oil where it turned
into half of Peter Garrett. This is actually just gonna
be Chisel.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
It's because Midnight Oil is boring. The only raason it's
interesting is because of Peter Garrett.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
And he is weird, weird dancing Walker quickly became the
band's chief writer, composing a lot of the band's best
known songs whole or in part. In nineteen seventy four,
he split off from the band to complete his last
year of studies in Armadale, New South Wales, graduating at
the end of the year with a degree in quantum

(14:02):
mechanics from the University of New England. Something you should
know about a lot of bands, actors, and people of
creative talents in general. Is it a lot of them
are highly educated in weird, weird context.

Speaker 1 (14:13):
Well, I believe Natalie Portman.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
She's a quantum physicist.

Speaker 1 (14:16):
Yeah, she's a quantum physicist. I think is a chemist, Yes,
he's a chemist. Dolph Langram, one of the members of
the Offspring, is a biologist. Quite an advanced biologist too,
like he would when he was taking breaks from heuring

(14:38):
he was working in the labs, like deep genetic work. Yeah,
so yeah, no, it's it's but yeah, I think most
people are multifaceted. You know, you'd be surprised at how
many people have different backgrounds. In my counseling course, well,
everyone needs a pack up. Yeah, and I think that

(14:59):
you know that stupid notion like when you're a little kid,
what are you going to grow up and be? You know, Rockstarn,
You're gonna be whatever fuck you end up being. A
lot of the time, it's gonna be through convenience or circumstance.
A lot of the time you're not gonna you know, there.

Speaker 2 (15:15):
Was I'm a butcher by convenience, even though I'd rather
be an egyptologist.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
Oh there was a guy I was, well, I'd love
to be able to write comics all day. You know.
There was a guy that I was working with who
at the time couldn't find any work in his very
advanced field of science, so he was working with us
filling shelves. It happens. Okay, never give up on your dreams.

(15:41):
That's that was my roundabout way of saying, like, don't
give up on your dreams. Trust me, like, keep them
in the background. Opportunity will strike and you can take
advantage of it.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
At the start of nineteen seventy four, the band shifted
from Adelaide, chasing fame and moved on to Melbourne. It
wasn't long before the gang decided that Melbourne was still
too quiet for them, and they relocated again to Sydney
that November.

Speaker 1 (16:05):
The truck we were leaving town in was an old
tip top bakers struck. It wasn't very big, but it
was perfect for us. We didn't have a lot of
money or gear at the time, so we piled what
we needed to make music into the truck and filled
the rest of the space with a mattress so that
we could have something to sit on through what little
luggage we had on top of the gear and we

(16:26):
hit the road. Cold Chisel even then felt special to me,
and I was sure it did to the others as well.
There was something that happened from day one that excited
all of us, a certain spark when we played music
that we hadn't felt before. As the sun was sinking
over the harbor, covering the city, and rays of brilliant
red light across the Sydney Harbor Bridge for the first

(16:46):
time in my life, and we started our long, slow
trip up the coast. Quote from Jimmy Barnes's Working Class
Boy Hoppercollins twenty seventeen, He's all working glass me.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
In nineteen seven five, Bassis Phil Small replaced Cosmek, finalizing
what would become the classic Cold Chisel lineup, a name
that they actually picked out in nineteen seventy four, inspired
by the name of one of Don Walker's earlier songs.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
Did they ever pay a royalty to Walker?

Speaker 4 (17:16):
Well?

Speaker 2 (17:16):
Walker was the band in the band. Oh sorry, so
Don Walker's their main songwriter and he's the piano.

Speaker 1 (17:24):
Play Yes, but he left to go back to school
for a bit for like a.

Speaker 2 (17:28):
Year, but he was also back. Yeah, every single time
that they performed, they picked a new song until one's stuck,
and that just happened to be the one that's stuck.
So they were stuff like that that they picked that
never actually stuck. So we could have had an Orange
is Our Big band if they'd stuck with it.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
So they just kept picking being names until one felt right. Yep. See,
I like cold Chisel, but then I guess that's other alliteration,
which you hate. Yep, But I don't know cold chisel.
It just it sounds working class.

Speaker 4 (18:04):
You know.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
It's like, if you think cold, it's sort of evocative
of you know, beer and chiseling away at something. You know,
you're working hard on a construction site. Like it just
feels I looked it up.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
You know, a cold chisel is actually a form of equipment.

Speaker 1 (18:20):
Well, there you go. So that's why it feels working
class and pubby. And yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
Small quickly proved himself to the band as more than
just a technician. He wrote My Baby, a ballad that
Walker had passed over, which later became a top ten
hit in nineteen eighty when sung.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
By Ian Moss What's an Ean Moss.

Speaker 2 (18:39):
Ian Moss is another member of the band.

Speaker 1 (18:43):
So they took turn singing. It wasn't always just Jimmy, so.

Speaker 2 (18:46):
When they split off into solo careers later on, they
would just swap songs around between each other.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
But they had successful solo careers.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
Three out of the five had successful solo careers. The
other two didn't try.

Speaker 1 (18:58):
That's pretty good.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
The other two didn't try.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
Yeah, the other two are like, no, where God, we
got Royaled, he's coming in from Cold Chisel stuff. We're good. Yep,
We'll just chill. That's fair.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
Barnes had a volatile relationship with his bandmates, to the
point where it would come to blows, especially between himself
and Prestwick.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
At one point, Jim's brother John Swann joined as second vocalist,
but then he was sacked too for beating up a roadie,
and then he came back temporarily as a drummer, while
it was Steve Preswitch's turn to leave and come back again.
The only original member who didn't survive was bass player
Les Kasmarak, who was replaced by Paul Small. All the while,

(19:38):
Don Walker was building up a strong catalog of original songs.
Whenever Jim left, the band carried on regardless since Ian
Moss was more than capable as a singer, and that
was the case. In November nineteen seventy five, when Cold
Chisel recorded their first demos, Jim had joined Fraternity again.
He returned went from Colchisel House space The Living History

(19:59):
of Our Music e for August two thousand and three.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
Fraternity was already an established institution on the scene, but
well and truly on its last legs. Frontman Bond Scott
had left Fraternity to join ac DC.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
Fraternity is the band that never could yep, Like they tried,
and they had the talent, they just couldn't land.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
It were considering two of their frontmen were literally Bond Scott.

Speaker 1 (20:25):
Yeah, Jimmy Barns Yeah, Like, I mean, what else do
you need?

Speaker 2 (20:30):
A good drummer John Swan known as Swaney came in
as his replacement. Swanne moved to drums and invited his
brother Barnes to be lead singer. With Fraternity falling apart,
Barnes took his leave and was accepted back into the
Cold Chisel fold just in time too.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
In May nineteen seventy seven, Cold Chizzel found a manager,
just as Jim decided to leave again, this time to
join brother John Swan in Feather. The farewell show went
so well he chose to stay after all. Within week's
WAA Records decided to take a punt by signing the
band to a record contract they were nearly four years old.

(21:10):
Quote from Cold Chisel House Space, The Living History of
Our Music, eighteenth of August two thousand and three.

Speaker 2 (21:17):
Cold Chisel set about recording their debut album, including studio musicians.
Dave Blight play harmonica, while Joe Camalleary and William Wilde
assisted on the sacks. Their debut album, Cold Chisel, arrived
in April nineteen seventy eight, with Peter Walker as producer
no relation to Don Don. Walker wrote all the songs

(21:38):
on his own, with the exception of Juliet, which he
shared credits with Barnes. This album included the quintessential Chisel song,
ca Sun, which had already become a pub favorite.

Speaker 1 (21:51):
I hear a song about a vat fucked up by war,
suffering PTSC cripplin drug addictions, who was about to journey
back to the last place where he felt alive. We've
got I was only nineteen When you're feeling introspective and
q San when you need to have a drink and
blow off some steam. They both tell much the same story,
only differently. Trenscard Redemption Reddit quilth of July two thousand

(22:15):
and three. Why you quote read it?

Speaker 2 (22:19):
Because I thought that was a good summation of why
I like those two songs. The same story is just
from a different perspective. The dude just as he goes
to war and the dude after it comes back.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
You know, mister Reddit person, you did well. You can
stay just this one. Yeah, it is like there are
two quintessential Vietnam songs and yeah I was only nineteen
in Casana are pretty much those two quintessential songs, you know,
sending over basically a child into one of the most

(22:51):
horrific war zones, and you know they go through that
lived experience and they can't get it out of their
head and they're suffering from PTSD and they evolve indicate
and then it turns into case on where you have
that person there and they just can't be integrate. They
can't go home, so they try and be home and
they can't and they you know, they suffer like bad

(23:13):
relationship after bad relationship.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
And drugs, so many drugs do the drugs.

Speaker 1 (23:18):
And then start flying helicopters again because that is as
close as they can get. And then they go back
to Vietnam to see if there's you know, some sort
of touch point for them there, but that's not there
anymore either, and so they just feel like a person
lost out of time. At least that's what Caeson feels
like to me.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
Despite being screamed in every pub that Chisel went through,
the song was banned from commercial radio for its frank
sexual references. The lines their legs were often open, but
their minds were often closed. Specifically, only Double J and
Sydney would play the song on air as.

Speaker 1 (23:56):
Crazy though it's the nineteen seventies, like Australia is such
we are one of the strangest countries where the Recently,
Holly and I went to Brivate. But it was an
interesting stage show about a film called Kemp Park which
was refused classification in Australia. The fantastic stage show. If
you can go and see it, it's called Refuse Classification.

(24:17):
I highly recommend it. I believe it just won an award,
and you know, the guys talked about how Australia has
this like should be right attitude, but we're also definitely
still governed by very puritanical people, and we have been
for a long time. I've just started reading a book

(24:38):
on Australian film censorship. It's strange how champion ourselves as
laid back and chill and you know, yeah, you know,
you can see a bit of a boob here or there,
or you know, someone can make a low joke, but
as soon as it becomes popular media, it's a problem
in this country. And I think to be fair that

(25:00):
problems still persists to this day. We can and probably
well do an episode of the great censorship debacle of
the late two thousands with video games.

Speaker 2 (25:11):
As Ksan was released in nineteen seventy eight and the
Australian withdrawal from Vietnam ended in nineteen seventy three, and
also considering the horrible reception BETS were receiving on their return,
there may have been some political reasons for them to
refuse to play the song Cold Chisel.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
Their manager and producer, Peter Walker, had high hopes for
the first album. They were going to have it mixed
in America and everything, but when WAA landed them a
support on a national tour by Foreigner, they were ordered
to wrap up the session so the album could be released.
The self titled album was released in April nineteen seventy
eight without setting the world on fire. Quote from Cold

(25:52):
Chisel Housepace, The Living History of Our Music, eighteenth of
August two thousand and three. Yeah, so at the time,
of course, you have two of the biggest recording hubs
in the world, one being America, the other being Germany.
And no, the why do you think it's Abbey Road?

Speaker 2 (26:12):
Everyone records at Abby Road.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
No, the Beatles recorded at so.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
Did Kylie Minogue, and so did quite a few other
of the bands that I like.

Speaker 1 (26:21):
And you know where David Bowie recorded, of course not
he recorded in Germany. You know where all the punk
rockers recorded.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
That's also because of its genre.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
A lot of them recorded in Germany. Germany has Germany
has some of the finest sound engineers in the world.
They continue to do that. I mean they headphones you're
listening to on this right now, Holly are sen HAI's
German engineered headphones.

Speaker 2 (26:51):
I just crossed my eyes trying to look at them.
That's silly.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
And the rest of our Gearras Road, which is an
Australian own company. But yeah, so you know it's those
are the two places you want to be at. And
like I said, yes, Abby Road, no one can say
that it wasn't you know, that quintessential part. And that's
why I did say Europe. But did I say Europe
or Germany?

Speaker 2 (27:15):
I think you said Europe in general as well.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
Yeah, of course Abbey Road is very important. Is it
historically important for the Beatles? I don't particularly like the Beatles.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
I honestly don't know anyone who does.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
There are people who do.

Speaker 2 (27:32):
There are some who like specific songs.

Speaker 4 (27:34):
You know.

Speaker 1 (27:37):
For me, I have a really hard time with the
Beatles in the respect of is it really good music
or was it these guys really hit hard and produced
a lot of music.

Speaker 2 (27:54):
Is it the one Direction's form or is it the
Backstreet Boys?

Speaker 4 (27:57):
Well?

Speaker 1 (27:58):
Yeah, and you know so for me, I'm a Rolling
Stones fan and I'll always be a Rolling Stones fan.
I think they were the ones that you know that
that direction is where I go in music with a
little bit more of a harder edge. I don't necessarily
think the Beatles quite have that. I think that their
music where their talent really laid in storytelling, in their music,

(28:21):
but they also had songs like we All Live in
a Yellow Submarine and Ringo Star's Greatest contribution to History,
which is an Octopus's Garden.

Speaker 2 (28:30):
It's funny because I started playing Yellow Submarine in my
head before you said it.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
We want to be any you know, so, I like,
I understand why people love the Beatles, I really do,
and the storytelling in their songs is fantastic. But I
am not a fan, not really. A thousand musos just
cried out all at once.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
Holly was silenced.

Speaker 3 (28:57):
Hey guys, BINDI here. I'm not interrupting anything.

Speaker 1 (29:01):
Am I already have?

Speaker 3 (29:03):
Oh well, may as well keep going. Speaking of weird
crap in Australia, my band corlt Park has just released
our debut album, Powell Place is full of raw and
gritty Australiana rock. Our latest single, in Murdock We Trust,
dives into the media and misinformation healthscape that we all
try and push our way through. Here's a quick taste

(29:24):
in Dash and Gas to das we consume.

Speaker 4 (29:33):
It's my sitting darts.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
This time.

Speaker 4 (29:42):
Wow, as this boat stocks four lights.

Speaker 1 (29:51):
Of free life.

Speaker 2 (29:55):
The Cold Chisel LP peaked at number thirty one on
the Kent Music cu but it was Chisel's ferocious live reputation,
not record sales that made them fans.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
Also, WEA Records would eventually become Warner, or was Warner
at the time, because the Australian division was anorious penny
pinching assholes. Now I know this from experience, so I
you know, we combined our collection with some of the
records we inherited from Graham, and I went through and

(30:30):
set up my discog and all that as you do.
And there was a particular led Zeppelin album and I
just couldn't find it right. And I found out that
this particular version of the led Zeppelin album, the gatefold
was shit. The pressings were fucked and cheap, and the

(30:51):
labels had spelling errors in them because Warner Music at
the time released WEA Records released a shit of these cheap,
nasty bargain bin LPs. They were sort of like you
know when you used to walking too, like a petrol
station and you would say, like, wus rock CDs everywhere? Yeah, right,

(31:15):
which you would have bought in the dozens.

Speaker 2 (31:17):
No, I'd burnt my CDs like a responsible eighteen year old, right.

Speaker 1 (31:22):
Uh, that's what these records were so yeah, wea. It
does not surprise me that they cheaped out and rushed
through production on the LP because they were notorious for
doing shit like that. In Australia, we don't press our
own LPs anymore. I don't believe, at least in all
the modern records I'm getting usually pressed.

Speaker 2 (31:42):
In Eastern Europe, Cold Chisel released You're thirteen You're beautiful
in your mind? That Yeah, I don't want to Yeah, nope, no, no, no,
November nineteen seventy eight. I read and Cool that said
that it was ironically titled, and I am very questioning

(32:04):
of that. I think that that is a retrospective. I
don't think that that is a truth.

Speaker 1 (32:09):
There's a lot of dad rock that was like, you know,
she was only like fifteen years old, but I knew she.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
Was a woman, you know, yeah, as your daddy home.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
Oh yeah, that fucking song. Yeah man. There's some that's
some weird, like Guess was notorious for it as well.
Like you know, standards have changed for the better, and
there are things that are going to make you feel
icky and uncomfortable now or they might not bother you,
and both are fine depending on which era you grew

(32:43):
up in and so you know, I don't think it's
it's not as big as like you. I don't think
it's It's silly to retrospectively judge trying cancel culture, right
because culture is representative of the era that it's produced in. Right,

(33:06):
So when they write a song like that nineteen seventies, yeah,
it was fine for a fucking twenty year old to
date a thirteen year old. Fuck when I was growing
up in the nineties, in fucking tumor, you would see
nineteen year olds dating thirteen year olds, twenty one year
old dating thirteen year olds. Right. That was in the

(33:26):
fucking nineties. It was still perfectly acceptable. So yeah, I
think to retroactively go back and purity test pop culture
is a waste of everyone's fucking time's that's my personal judgment.
And if you're personally you're like, look, I can't the note.
This triggers me, it makes me feel bad, et cetera,
et cetera. That is also perfectly acceptable and you don't

(33:49):
have to engage with it, is it? Ever? Do I
have I given everyone mission to exist? I think I
covered everyone.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
Yep? Fuck it, what the world's did You're Thirteen was
a direct recording of their show at the Regent Theater
in Sydney in nineteen seventy seven, when they were supported
by a small band at the time called Midnight Oil.
It reached number thirty five on the Kent Music charts
and Cold Chisel was later certified gold, which meant that

(34:18):
it sold twenty thousand units.

Speaker 1 (34:21):
Also, if you'd like to know more about Midnight Oil,
you can go check out our series that we did
on them, the series that would.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
Not end because Holy stretched it out to make Matthew Soffer.

Speaker 1 (34:31):
We have that quote here. Cold Chisel, if you haven't
already seen them live, are a solid rock and roll
band who wisely leave the surface, flash and dazzle to others.
A pint four piece bass, drums, guitar, keyboards plus vocals,
Cold Chisel is a hard rock band whose major influence
has been the British heavy metal supergroups, but they are

(34:52):
energetic and original. But it is pinus Slashed organist Don
Walker who is most impressive, particularly as a songwriter. His
post Vietnam saga Quisan and the dark Exotic Dustkuisine are
excellent songs, combining a sense of both imagination, social relevance.
Cold Chisel is overall a good, solid rock and roll

(35:14):
album from the runka Tuesday six of June nineteen seventy eight,
page twenty one Music Shortcuts.

Speaker 2 (35:23):
In February nineteen seventy nine, Warner released Breakfast at Sweethearts,
produced by Richard Batcham. Bacham's time at the Equalizer softened
the Chisel sounds. While some reports say that Chisel was
okay with that, there are also a few who said otherwise.
Despite this mixed reception, the album hit platinum, which meant
that it sold fifty thousand units.

Speaker 1 (35:45):
Beginning as a young jamming rock band in Adelate about
three years ago, Holds Chisel sobd through various pub circuits
in Australia to arrive on the recording scene and in
the rock curriculum. I can see this band doing honors.
Player who writes the group's original material seems to be
the one who gets all the talent together. The backbone

(36:06):
Glasgow born Jim Barnes. It's funny like I've the referring
to him as Jim Barnes and nois the shit out
of me because it's not Jim Barnes. Jimmy Barnes. It's
always fucking being Jimmy Barnes, and when you put on airs,
it's fucking pointless. The Vands raspy, full roted vocalist as
an all rounder who can handle anything from a raging

(36:28):
card rocker to a late night blues as in Just
how Many Times Young lead guitarist Ian Moss proves to
be a very competent handler. He is just starting. The
percussion rhythm section consists of Steve Small on bass and
Steve Prestwitch on drums, who both put up a tight,
lively performance. Additional instrumentation is provided on some tracks by

(36:50):
Dave Blight on harmonica, peaking on Northbound and producer Peter
Walker ex Bakery leads his talents on acoustic guitar on
a couple Jojop and the Falcon sex Man, Joe Camarelli
and Elba Wild also helping on Rosalind Camera Times for Friday,
the twenty third, twenty first of julyne, nineteen seventy eight,

(37:12):
page twenty one Rock Music.

Speaker 2 (37:14):
There were two fuck ups in that article, and that
was on the Camera Times. His name isn't Steve Small
and his name isn't Elba Wild.

Speaker 1 (37:25):
Yeah, I haven't an Elber. That's not a very Australian name,
you know. Recently it was actually asked on Reddit, of
all places on the Camera sub the Camera times were
still relevant to the city of Camera. Well, look it's

(37:45):
not really. The building has gone and you do have
a small group of Fairfax Press Corps and a lot
of it's done out of Sydney in New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
Even as they were growing more popular, the behavior of
the band because came wilder. By the time nineteen eighty
rolled around, Barms claimed he'd slept with more than a
thousand women and drank at least one seven hundred mil
bottle of vodka at every show, at least as the.

Speaker 1 (38:12):
Show wasn't drunk and had sex with one woman like
five hundred times.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
I don't either way, it's too much.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
I mean, look, when it came to Jimmy Barnes and
has set himself multiple times, he was an alcoholic. He
was taking whatever whenever and for him to be able
to perform like he did as often as he did,
he would start with a bottle of whiskey at the
start of the night and be finished by the end

(38:42):
of the set. He is an amazing talent when it
comes to his vocal capacity and to keep doing what
he was doing. I can understand why he was drunk
all the time.

Speaker 2 (38:55):
That's the question. Though Jimmy Barnes, Bonds, Scott and Brian
Johnson all have the same rasby scream two out of
three scotsman.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
Well, I believe when you know they've looked at gimme
Barnes's adenoids or He's vocal cords, something along those lines
as saying about them being overdeveloped, and that allows for
that sort of pitch. I could be wrong about that,
but I believe that is the It's either true or

(39:29):
an urban legend.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
Well, look at that when we do his episode. As
part of their movement to a new direction, the band
dropped producer Batchem in late nineteen seventy nine. To that end,
they got to work finding a new producer and moved
to Mark Opitz. He was given the job of producing
Chisel's next single, Wire Girl, which released November nineteen seventy nine.

(39:53):
It hit a peak of number fourteen on the charts,
which is surprising considering that Walker has since confirmed that
he wrote it about a boy and then with the
band's signature song Quisan being an ode to the outside
of Vietnam veterans. This isn't as shocking like Mid Died Oil.
Cold Chisel use their voice to bring notice to problems
that they saw in the society around them. You just

(40:15):
never knew that that's what they were doing. This was
released in June nineteen eighty, recorded at Paradise Studios and
Studio three zero one with opits. It debuted at number two,
staying in the top confirmations for weeks. The album mixed
tight rockers like Peep Wine and Best Kept Lies with
storytelling songs such as Rising Sun, four Walls, My Baby

(40:38):
and Tomorrow. He speaked at number four, became the top
Australian album of the year and was eventually declared five
times platinum. For those keeping track, that's two hundred and
fifty thousand albums.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
It's not bad. It's not bad for the era.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
It's not their highest.

Speaker 1 (40:56):
There were punk rock bands around the same time thinking,
you know, gotta be careful with you fucking museose because
you get real upset with me when I fuck things up.
Are there Ramones active in the seventies, that's a question.
I think they're eighties. There are definitely punk rock.

Speaker 2 (41:21):
Bands that we active from nineteen seventy four.

Speaker 1 (41:23):
There you go, haha, ha ha ha. So you know
they're struggling to make it big, but there's touring. You know,
they're doing gigs in New York, They're doing little tours
throughout America, They're going over to Europe. They're touring in Europe.
That's why. You know the song I Want to Be Sedated, yep,
A lot of people have a lot of interpretations of

(41:45):
that song. He just didn't want to fucking travel, Like
you found a boring traveling from spot to spot in
Europe the car by himself, and he was like, Oh,
I just wish I was sedated. That's it. It's not
much of a song, you know. So there are punk
band equivalents because you know, the Cultures is a pub

(42:06):
rock band. But there are punk rock equivalents who we
consider famous today, which are knocking in weaning the numbers
of cultures.

Speaker 2 (42:16):
To be fair, considering the fact that the artist level
has exploded while the audience has imploded on music and
stuff like that, it's always surprising when numbers get anywhere close.

Speaker 1 (42:29):
Well, I mean, let's talk about the top of the
Spotify charts right now, right, and it's ridiculous, so we
have to say Spotify charts. Let's talk about the number
one on the Spotify chart right now, which is hollywat.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
Golden from the K Pop Demon Hunter's soundtrack.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
Right, obviously all original music, and it's not it's not
outside the realm to see a number one hit from
an animated film.

Speaker 3 (42:56):
You know.

Speaker 1 (42:56):
We think about Elton John and his country Abutians to
the Lion King for example, that was a big hit.

Speaker 2 (43:04):
Would You let Me to tell you? Who would Let
It Go?

Speaker 1 (43:07):
Was another big hit?

Speaker 2 (43:07):
Would you let Me tell you? The top ten at
the moment, okay go. At least the artists.

Speaker 1 (43:12):
Taylor Swift is definitely going to be in there.

Speaker 2 (43:14):
Five of the ten are from the K Pop Demon
Hunters soundtrack.

Speaker 1 (43:19):
Yeah, that's very interesting.

Speaker 2 (43:20):
Numbers one, four, five, six and ten they're of from
the key Pop Demon Hunters. Then you have in number
two Somber, who I believe is French, Alex Warren, in
number three, Justin Bieber in number seven, Lady Gaga in
number eight, and Billie Eilish number nine.

Speaker 1 (43:37):
Justin Bieber is still in the charts.

Speaker 2 (43:39):
Yes he is, and really Taylor Swift is nowhere near them.
Sabrina Carpenter is closer to number one.

Speaker 4 (43:44):
She is.

Speaker 1 (43:44):
Swift's about to launch a new album, so you watch
her go right to the top again. The Swiftskes can't
help it because they're a fucking coult. Yeah, they're a
fucking cult of mediocre music. Yeah, they I've never heard
like I know you like my phrasing, Holly when it
comes to this, but I always refer to Taylor Swift

(44:05):
as aggressively fine.

Speaker 2 (44:08):
Or aggressively average is also what you use.

Speaker 1 (44:10):
Aggressively average. And I will never I will never, I think,
in my life come across something so manufactured again, from
top to bottom. That woman, in her entire career is
the most manufactured thing that has ever existed in music.

(44:33):
It is more manufactured than the fucking boyband era of
the late the late sorry, the early two thousand's, late nineties.

Speaker 2 (44:44):
I resent that because the boyband era started in nineteen
ninety four.

Speaker 1 (44:50):
Which band Backstreep it was?

Speaker 2 (44:52):
It was either Backstreet Boys or Human Nature. I can't
remember which one, but it was.

Speaker 1 (44:56):
You're the only person who remembers of the boy bands.

Speaker 2 (44:59):
Look my muse. It taste span from about nineteen ninety
eight to two thousand and five. And that's it. That's
the majority of my music knowledge.

Speaker 1 (45:08):
Look, tastes are subjective. Yours is just bad anyway. So
that's the top of the chart. So that gives you
a bit of a comparison. You will not I don't
think in my lifetime I will ever say again.

Speaker 2 (45:26):
No, it's all individual artists.

Speaker 1 (45:28):
Yeah, and it's not even rock. Rock isn't popular anymore,
you know, punk rocker isn't popular. Rock rocker isn't popular.
Metalism popular, New metal was never popular. Puck off. So
maybe Lincoln Park. I like Lincoln Park. You know, the
problem is that I think, like what you said earlier,

(45:52):
is that the audience has remained somewhat stagnant for new music,
even with population growth factored in. But the explosion of
musicians being able to find audiences that keep them afloat,
I'll put it to you that way.

Speaker 2 (46:13):
Well, it's like when Able or Foxtel or whatever you
want to call it became a thing and you no
longer had five channels. Suddenly there was two hundred and
something channels to watch, but you still only had twenty
million people watching. Yeah, it's an explosion of supply and.

Speaker 1 (46:30):
No demeand you know, like a good friend of ours, Mariami,
you can go check out her music on Twitch. Mary's
released a couple of CDs. You know, she's done. She's
always working on her music and fifteen million other fucking.

Speaker 2 (46:44):
Projects considering she's a mum, yeah a million.

Speaker 1 (46:47):
Yeah, and is also still doing the streaming and there's
performed in front of decent sized crowds. In my opinion,
you know, I got to rub shoulders with a couple
of celebrities every now and through conventions and things like that.
While her music is very it has a particular niche

(47:07):
been I guess nerd pop. Some of her albums are
radically different. You know, she makes a living, and for
a lot of musicians out there at the moment, that's
what they're doing. They're making a living. They're making enough
to survive. But you will, outside of their dedicated audiences

(47:29):
that they find through their own marketing, their own social
media presence or Twitch or you know, drawing people that
they're Spotify doing sets, whatever they're doing or they're ever
going to make is a living till there is maybe a.

Speaker 2 (47:48):
Until there's a collapse in the platforms going to happen.

Speaker 1 (47:51):
Yeah, I think Spotify needs to die a little bit,
or there needs to be other to be other platforms
that once would track talent for incentives for new musicians
to get into that field. Anyway, that's a lot of
social commentary. We better wrap this episode up because we've
got another part to talk about.

Speaker 2 (48:13):
The songs on this album featured vineguettes of Sydney's underbelly
and emotional fragility. Kui Girl in particular dealt with the
abortion through the poetic lens and became their first top
twenty radio hit in December that year. Walker was again
responsible for the majority of the album, this time with
assistance on Goodbye Astro Goodbye with Barnes and Moss's assistance

(48:36):
with Dresden. It's beIN Sure's songwriting and emotional breadth won
the Band Awards and Critical Acclaim. East picked up the
Best Australian Album at the nineteen eighty Countdown Awards. East
later secured itself a place at number four in Rolling
Stone Australia's two hundred Greatest Albums of All Time, with
Cold Chisel's Circus Animals close behind at the same ranking.

(48:59):
The album was so influential that the in Moss Pen
song Never Never Before was the first song aired on
the newly christened Triple J radio station.

Speaker 1 (49:09):
On the FM band. If you're not familiar with the
radio or radio station or Triple JR, fuck off. Yeah,
so that was a big deal. Triple J. I see
this is where it used to be good. But see
that's the problem is every generation says that, you know

(49:32):
what I'm saying, Every generation thinks that their version of
Triple J was the best.

Speaker 2 (49:37):
I I never listened to us. I don't really care.

Speaker 1 (49:41):
Really, you're a Sydney Sider, though.

Speaker 2 (49:43):
My family listened to one oh four point one, which
was Kyle Sandalans and Jackie O. And I regret that
very much to this day today. Im nowadays it's Amanda
Keller I think it is and her offsider, I think
is what goes on my parents' house, and then my
grandparents have very hadley and no one of any consequence

(50:05):
or of any negative in my household at all. It
just didn't happen.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
I was listening to Triple J a lot, probably between
I'm going to say two thousand and seven through to
did I when did we move in together?

Speaker 2 (50:27):
You met me in twenty eleven.

Speaker 1 (50:28):
Yeah, so I'm going to probably say it was probably
around two thousand and nine to twenty eleven. I'm listening
to Triple J a lot, and that is because I'm
doing a lot of traveling because my my girlfriend lived
in Yas so I had to drive to two hours
to go and see her. So I listened a lot
of talkback radio.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
Whereas I burned my CDs and just listen to the
same twenty songs on repeat because I lost my iPod.
After the release of East, the band headed out into
the Youth in Asia tour, which started in May nineteen eighty.
Live performances surged in urgency. Their double live album Swingshift,
which was released in nineteen eighty one, captured them at

(51:09):
their savage best with tracks like Star Hotel Bow River
and of course Goodbye, Astra Goodbye. It was so popular
that you two eventually took to covering Goodbye at every
Australian stopped during their nineteen eighties tours.

Speaker 1 (51:24):
They say stop, they say tour. We say we were
forced to deal with them.

Speaker 2 (51:30):
You got five shows and we kicked out of everyone.
Fuck off. It was recorded on the Youth in Asia
tour and released at number two, eventually climbing to number
one and certified four times platinum, so two hundred thousand units.

Speaker 1 (51:46):
A capacity crowd watched Australian rock group Poltures Will Make
almost a clean sweep and the TV week Rock Music
Awards at the Regent Theater last night. You know TV
week magazine still exists. I'll fuck off it still exists.
It's still being sold.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
I mean, I guess people need Pulo papers somewhere.

Speaker 1 (52:05):
We could do an episode on TV Week. Col Chizel
won the Major Award for the Most Outseeing Achievement and
also that for the most and also for the most
Popular Australian Group for nineteen eighty This is the camera
times again. Fucking hell. They needed to hire an editor.
Their album East was most Popular Australian Record and the
Best Record Cover Design. Their songwriter Don Walker was Best

(52:26):
Australian Songwriter and East producer Mark Opits was Best Producer.
The awards were televised live throughout Australia. James Rayne of
Australian Crawl took the award for the most Popular Australian
Male Performer. From Cold Chisel's Jimmy Barnes quote from the
Camera Times Monday, twenty third of March at nineteen eighty one,
page seven, Cold Chisel named top rock band.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
The USA. Release of East dropped in nineteen eighty one,
with the band's first US tour launching soon after. In July,
the album peaked at one hundred and seventy three in
the Bill Charts, proving that as powerful as Barnes and
the Boys were in Australia, they still didn't have the
power they needed to dominate the US like In Excess
would do only a decade later. It also didn't help

(53:12):
that on their tour of the USA, they supported acts
like Cheap Crek, Ted Nugent and Joe.

Speaker 1 (53:18):
Walsh Ednugen That's a weird one.

Speaker 2 (53:21):
None of whom are even close to Chisel's target audience.
Though Walsh is a little bit close being part of
the Eagles.

Speaker 1 (53:28):
Yeah, but not that close.

Speaker 2 (53:30):
No, it's like the closest, but it's still a wide mile.

Speaker 1 (53:33):
It's that those are sort of like good old, good
old boys sort of music and slapping some Australian around.
That is very strange.

Speaker 2 (53:43):
Again, like the Blues Brothers walking into the Hodown Public
in April nineteen eighty one, Old Chisel were involved in
a bit of drama at the Countdown Awards that year.
They were there to perform, but instead they smashed up
the set in protest of how the industry was Australian
artists versus the internationals.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
Well, I mean it was a fair point to make,
especially around this time. I mean we have our own
version of Countdown again. For those who note not familiar,
Countdown was a weekly music show and the UK their
version of Countdown. Here we had our version of Countdown here,
but our version of Countdown played just as many international
acts as the UK version did, So what was the

(54:24):
fucking point of having it? Molly Meldrim.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
The final straw was when Split Ends, a New Zealand band,
was nominated in the Australian category for awards. Preswick knocked
over his drum kit, Mawson Walker smashed the set while
Barnes fronted it all.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
I remember the TV appearance of the nineteen eighty Countdown
TV week Rock Awards April nineteen eighty one. The band
at scoop the awards on the back of the runaway
success of East, but they weren't comfortable as the Kings
of pop, Kings of Pop, what the fuck.

Speaker 2 (54:56):
And that's exactly why they weren't.

Speaker 1 (54:58):
Happy irustrations by refusing to personally pick up any of
the awards and closing the evening with a brawling reworking
of Barnes Rockabilly gem My Turn to Cry, which, in
its rewritten versus damn the awards and savage TV Week
for its supervisial support of the music industry and its
sudden embracing of the band, has barn screamed something like

(55:19):
you won't find me on the cover of your TV
Week and repeated where were you when we needed you?
The demolished their instruments and the set a Lada who.
It was probably Cold Chizzl's most confrontational and controversial public moment,
and it drew the line if you didn't get it,
you didn't get Cold Chisel quote from all their desperate harmony.
John O'Donnell, nineteen ninety one, Culchizzel dot com.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
In March nineteen eighty two, Circus Animals Arrived. Recorded from
September to December nineteen eighty one, The album debuted at
number one date on the charts for forty weeks and
produced Australian radio stables like Forever Now, which was written
by Prestwick and peaked at number four. When the War
Is Over the most covered Chisel song by a mile,

(56:06):
including twice by John Farnham, numbers four World Colonial Boy,
Letter to Alan and You Got Nothing I Want. Walker's
lyrics were stories of suburban wanderers, ex soldiers, broken masculinity.
Prestwick contributed Forever Now and co wrote Flame Trees with Walker.
In May nineteen eighty two, the band traveled to the

(56:27):
USA and Europe for a tour, but they continued to
fail to make an impact outside of the Australian scene,
which has been dominated by pub rock for a while now.
They were continually outdone by bands like.

Speaker 1 (56:38):
Journey, Don't Stop Believe, Then, Don't.

Speaker 2 (56:42):
Stop Believing Guys, and Styx the Mister Roboto Guys. To
this end, they gave up and returned to Australia, preferring
to cultivate the audience they could command, and command they did.

Speaker 1 (56:54):
Ladies and gentlemen. That is where we will leave it
for this week's look into the lives and times of
the rock band A Cold Chisel. If you would like
to check out Cold chiselor you can go to your
local library, got.

Speaker 2 (57:08):
To your record record store and pick up the LP.

Speaker 1 (57:10):
Yeah fuck yeah, No, Look, this is how I buy LPs.
It's from a soundtrack from a movie I like. I'll
generally pick it up because first and foremost, the way
I convinced Holly to let me buy ol Peas was
that I was like, hey, it's just an extension of
my film collection.

Speaker 2 (57:27):
Hey, I can buy I can buy you the Nightmare
Before Christmas album.

Speaker 1 (57:31):
Which I did, all right, which I did. So this
is how I buy olpiece right. I usually jump on Spotify,
listen to the band. If I like the band, I
go and support the man by buying the physical media.
Maybe you like CD still, that's that's definitely still a
very valid reason and an option of buying physical media.

(57:52):
You like me, and you kind of like the whole
vibe of the LP, you know the look. It's a
nice collectible too. I think it's a great little collectible.

Speaker 2 (58:01):
To have, And sometimes the discs of Fun Colors and the.

Speaker 1 (58:04):
Album Aren't is always really really cool as well. No,
that's how I buy LPs. So if you're inspired by
this episode, you're listen to cultures and you're like, hey, man,
I really like these, you know, go buy the album,
go buy the CD. Like a little LP stores and
music stores, they I would rather support them, you know,

(58:27):
let's support like our little locals. You know, we've been
big proponents of Impact comics for a very long time.
Mal has done a lot of work helping to get
our books out there into the world.

Speaker 2 (58:37):
Episode volume six out now.

Speaker 1 (58:39):
Volume six out. Now. You've got places like land Speed
Records here in Camera, which was voted one of the
best final record stores in the country. You have Grenville
Records down in Melbourne, which was great to us, very friendly,
very knowledgeable. You know, You've got all of these really
exciting little music shops and they don't survive unless we

(59:00):
support them. And I know that times are tough, but
when times are tough, these are the guys who always
suffer first because what always gets cuts that discretionary spending.
And I'm not saying that, you know, you need to
go without shoes in order to go buy an LP.
That's not what I'm saying at all. But if you
really love music and you dig this sort of stuff,
then yeah, go check out because there are plenty of

(59:21):
them around. Camera has lots of them all right Before
I let you go, just a couple of quick things here.
Don't forget to reach out to us on the social media.
You can find us by typing in week crapt in
Australia into the search bar of your social media of choice,
or you can send us a good old fashioned email
through to week crap in Australia at gmail dot com.

(59:41):
You can help support the show in a couple of ways,
first and foremost being our Patreon. So the reason that
we're shouting out our friends Kuralta Park. They reached out
to us and said, hey, you know, we'd like to
buy some advertising, and Holly and I had a discussion
about that and we were like, you know what, it's

(01:00:02):
probably not the right thing to do to hit up,
you know, little indie bands for advertising dollars. Our rate
is reasonable, but not, in my opinion reasonable for artists
who were just trying to make it out there.

Speaker 2 (01:00:21):
If all worse saw someone like that came after us, yeah,
three grand mate, ten seconds.

Speaker 1 (01:00:29):
We'd hit them for everything that we fucking could. So
I sort of had this idea, what you know, we
get they subscribe to Patreon for a few months and
we'll give them some airplay, you know, put out their
their song as part of their new album. At the
end of this episode, we'll tied into a music episode,

(01:00:51):
and I want to just invite anyone in the creative
field to reach out to us. You know, we've done
ads for charitable organizations before. We do those for free.
If you're a small indie band, or if you're a musician.

Speaker 2 (01:01:07):
If you've got a book coming out.

Speaker 1 (01:01:08):
If you've got a book coming out, just sign up
to our Patreon. It only has to be for a
couple of months. It's only five dollars USC a month,
and we can help you out with a little bit
of promotion or you know, fuck, in this case, a
decent amount of promotion. You would have had the little
break we had there in the middle. You're going to
hear their song and we'd like to extend that out

(01:01:31):
to the creative community. It's hard enough being out there
being a band and trying to make it without also
having to find huge amounts of money in order to
get a little bit of recognition. We know how hard
it is. Just ourselves. We are still pushing that rock
up that hell, man, there's not a lot of money

(01:01:53):
out there for podcasters. There's not a lot of money
out there for musicians and artists and all of these
individuals out there trying to make it so. If you
are like a Coroalta park and you want to get
the word out there about your thing, shoot us an
email were Crappant Australia at gmail dot com, sign up

(01:02:14):
to our Patreon for a couple of months and we
will help you out. If you're a regular Joe and
you'd like to check out our Patreon, we do a
weekly minisode where I take a look at the headlines
of this week and add some commentary. They get a
bonus minisode every week as well as these episodes released
to them uncut and add free. You can also grab

(01:02:35):
a week crap in Australia T shirt from our Tea
Public and Red Bubble stores and a bunch of other
match and as Holly alluded to, book sixers out now,
the first twelve issues sitting on the shelves at Impact
Comics signed by us. We will not do another signing
with those books unless we do a special signing Dame,
which cause you know book.

Speaker 2 (01:02:56):
I can tell that you're a comic reader because you
said the first twelve issues, and I'm.

Speaker 1 (01:03:01):
Like, what is the first half copies? So you Holly
for picking me up on that one. First twelve copies
that they stock are all signed by us. You can
get those books, and I tell you what again, in
order to help out our mates, if you add some
of the other books there, We've got volumes one actually

(01:03:21):
volumes one I think is about to be restocked if
you buy some other volumes. Greet through an email and say, hey, guys,
said if I bought more books from you guys, that
Matt would go down and sign them for me. So
we were happy to do that for those first twelve issues.
I did it again for those turs those first twelve copies.

(01:03:44):
Bundle them up with some other books and we'll go
down and sign them. We really want to help out
our little stores, man, they really really need our help.
At the moment. Ah, that's it. Holy. I think I
think I've covered everything and it's now time for your
final words.

Speaker 2 (01:04:00):
So when we were talking and discussing this, I asked
them to give me what they think was their best
song off the album. And I actually think that they
missed with this, Like we're going to play in Murder
We Trust, because that's the song that you heard at
the beginning. But I think you should all go to
Spotify and actually listen to Walls, because I think that's
actually a much better song.

Speaker 1 (01:04:19):
Holly coming in with the hot takes.

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
Yes, the hot take is go listen to the album
and tell me that my song is a better choice
than what pictors as their showcase song.

Speaker 1 (01:04:29):
No, look, that's that's I think that's a nice plug anyway.
So this is this is their new album, Holly, which
is Poor, Our Place, Our Place, and I think it's
an I think it's interesting. Honestly, I really dig the
vibes here. I like what they're putting down. It's that
nice little mix of Australian I think it's heavily influenced

(01:04:52):
by punk rock. I could be wrong about that, you know,
influencers in the eye of the beholder. I feel it's
a bit punk rocky, which is really cool as I
dig my punk rock. I like what I've heard from
uh from these guys. I think you're gonna like what
you hear from these guys, And like Holly say, go
check out the rest of their album on Spotify without

(01:05:12):
further ado, Holly if you would like to introduce the song.

Speaker 2 (01:05:16):
So this is in Murder Recrost by Carolta Park.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
We will see you next week. From more We're crap
in Australia till then bye. For now, she's dust to dust.

Speaker 2 (01:05:35):
It's not.

Speaker 4 (01:05:50):
The two taste like myself. It makes me see can
down to my stuffs.

Speaker 1 (01:06:41):
The Weird Crap In Australia podcast is produced by Holly
and Matthew Soul for the Modern Meltdown. If you've enjoyed
this podcast, please rate and review on your favorite podcatching
app m HM