Cold Chisel: The Pure Stuff

‘When there was all sorts of crap going down offstage, once we’d count the first song in, that was the pure stuff.’ Don Walker Cold Chisel were seven years in the making. Three years in the breaking and fifteen years in the remaking. They are the only Australian band to have sold more records after splitting up than before. Other bands to have done the same include The Beatles, The Doors, Led Zeppelin and The Eagles.Cold Chisel is Jim Barnes (vocals), Ian Moss (guitar, vocals), Don Walker (keyboards), Phil Small (bass) and Steve Prestwich (drums). On stage, the band is a clash of two elemental forces – the singer urging the band to play ever faster and louder, and four musicians determined to stay locked in perfect pitch and time. On a great night – and Cold Chisel have many great nights – they fuse perfectly.Offstage, relationships are often strained. Cold Chisel are five very different people. When, in 1998, the band announced a reunion album and tour the question was, would old conflicts resurface? From the early days in Adelaide to the recording of the number one album, The Last Wave of Summer, Cold Chisel: The Pure Stuff is the inside story of five young men who set out to be the greatest rock’n’roll band in the world.