There’s nothing more Australian than hot sun, warm waves and Cold Chisel. The band’s classic songs like Khe Sanh, Flame Trees, Bow River, My Baby, Cheap Wine, Saturday Night and You Got Nothing I Want have become the soundtrack to our summers. It’s strange to think that Cold Chisel have never done a proper outdoor summer tour Australia-wide before, but that all changes on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day in WA this summer.
Catch them on Tuesday, December 31 at Fremantle Park before heading to Barnard Park, Busselton on Wednesday, January 1. Something of a mini-festival, Birds of Tokyo, Jebediah, Gyroscope, Carla Geneve and The Southern River Band will be in support at both shows.
It’s called the Blood Moon Tour 2020 – named after a rare lunar eclipse where the sun, earth and moon all briefly align before returning to their own orbits.
“You might get to see a blood moon once in your life”, explains the band’s main songwriter and piano player, Don Walker. “Apparently there’s going to be one just before dawn when we’re in Melbourne on this tour but we didn’t actually know that when we chose the name. Maybe it’s a sign.”
Since their legendary Last Stand way back in 1983, Cold Chisel has reformed for just four national tours, but they almost always played indoors and those gigs didn’t happen over the holidays. Now, for the first time ever, they’ll be playing 14 outdoor shows during summer. Between New Year’s Eve and the second weekend of February, they’ll do gigs on the beach, gigs by the river and gigs in the bush. You’ve never seen anything like it before.
Since forming in Adelaide in 1973 and blasting onto the national scene in the late 70s, Cold Chisel have created a uniquely Australian fusion of rockabilly, roughhouse soul, and blues. Between 1978 and 1983 the original line-up of Walker, Jimmy Barnes, Ian Moss (guitar/vocals), Phil Small (bass) and Steve Prestwich (drums) recorded five studio albums that became Australian classics. 1978’s self-titled debut and 1979’s Breakfast At Sweethearts initially received little support from mainstream media but eventually went gold based on nonstop touring. 1980’s East was their huge commercial breakthrough and 1982’s Circus Animals finally saw them top the charts. However by the time Twentieth Century was released in 1984 the band had already flamed out, making their unforgettable Last Stand in arenas around the country.
In 1998 Cold Chisel reformed briefly for a chart topping album and tour called The Last Wave Of Summer. An ‘unplugged’ style run of dates called Ringside followed five years later, then in 2011 the group was working on a new studio album that became No Plans when Steve Prestwich sadly died from complications during surgery for a brain tumour. Eventually Charley Drayton agreed to step in to help complete what Steve began and he’s played drums with the band ever since, including on the record breaking Light The Nitro Tour and 2015’s platinum certified The Perfect Crime.
The band is currently putting the finishing touches to some more new music they recorded earlier this year with Charley and they plan to release at least some of it before the Blood Moon Tour 2020. Further announcements will be made about that in the weeks or months ahead.
The Blood Moon Tour 2020 kicks off Tuesday, December 31 at Fremantle Park before heading to Barnard Park, Busselton on Wednesday, January 1. Birds of Tokyo, Jebediah, Gyroscope, Carla Geneve and The Southern River Band in support both shows. Tickets on sale 11am Monday, October 21 from Ticketmaster.
