triple j’s #hottest100 of Australian Songs – #8 Khe Sanh, 7# Flame Trees.
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Live at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Saturday, 23 November 2024
Releases to feature over 90 minutes of bonus material – including previously unseen performances and interviews plus previously unheard recordings
Release date: Friday, 8 August 2025
Few bands have gone to the heart of our country like Cold Chisel. Formed over 50 years ago in Adelaide, Cold Chisel found their audience their own way. Ultimately, the band’s early years of struggle gave way to their incredible songs, incendiary performances and legendary defiance – leading to them becoming one of the biggest and most lauded bands in Australian music history. Since then, their evocative lyrics and melodies on songs like Flame Trees, Khe Sanh, Bow River, You Got Nothing I Want, My Baby, Choirgirl, When The War Is Over, Standing on the Outside and more have become embedded in our national psyche.
In late 2024 and early 2025, Cold Chisel undertook their sold-out 50th anniversary tour, The Big Five-0, which was seen by over 250,000 people across Australia and New Zealand. During these concerts the connection between the audience and the band was like nothing seen before in this country, with the audience almost overpowering the band as they sang along to their favourite songs. It was cathartic to witness and to be a part of.
“Every show on our Big Five-0Tour had something special, but the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne, with 37° temperatures and an incredible audience, really brought out a blistering and joyous performance from all of us onstage,” says frontman, Jimmy Barnes. “The crowd nearly drowned us out, they sang so loud and proud. It was a show we will never forget,” he continued.
24 of the songs were captured from the band’s entire setlist on Saturday, 23 November 2024. Three additional tracks (Plaza, Mr Crown Prosecutor and Wild Colonial Boy) were recorded on Friday, 22 November and were not played at the Saturday show – and these have been included on all formats. The live Vinyl album and CD were produced and mixed by the band’s longtime collaborator, Kevin ‘Caveman’ Shirley.
The Vinyl album is to be released in 3 special formats
- Classic black vinyl (for indie stores)
- Red vinyl with black splatters (an exclusive version for JB HiFi);
- A direct-to-consumer Picture Disc format which will only be available as a Limited Edition version via the band’s merchandisers, Love Police ATM.
The live album is also available on double CD with a 6 page booklet.
The DVD of this amazing concert is a unique and special release. The concert film of The Big Five-0 Live was produced by Beyond Productions and Cold Chisel in association with the Seven Network. Beautifully directed by Andrew Lord and written and produced by Paul Clarke, the film captures the energy, passion and power of this powerhouse tour. The documentary reveals a concert full of emotion and raw power – and more than a few tears. Along with interviews with each of the band members, the film explores Cold Chisel’s incredible story and interweaves the narratives of the band’s history with some never-before-seen photographs, footage and stories from their 50-year archive.
The film premiered on the Seven Network in May this year but it is substantially expanded here across two DVD discs and includes an extra 10 songs and more than 60 minutes of additional interviews with the band’s members and friends not seen before.
“50 years old, Cold Chisel are on fire in this film – I’ve never seen audiences punching the air one moment and openly sobbing the next,” says producer Paul Clarke. “I feel like we caught Cold Chisel on a brilliant night in Melbourne. According to the band, they have never played better.”
Click above to view special Promo video
The Big Five-0 Live on CD, DVD and Vinyl will be released on Friday, 8 August 2025 through Universal Music Australia. Pre-orders are open now from here.
“Cold Chisel gave fans one of the greatest shows in Australian music history … There is something noble about witnessing a band at the strength of their powers at this stage of an illustrious career.”
Kathy McCabe – Daily Telegraph
“What we’re seeing is five musicians giving a masterclass in how a top quality songbook can sustain you, but only if you’re willing to meet it with the full intensity it deserves.”
Andrew McMillen – The Australian
“Cold Chisel at 50 show why they’re one of the world’s great rock bands! (We) bellowed every word to ‘Standing on the Outside’ like we’d assembled for rock ‘n’ roll church under the big top at Flemington. But the second song, ‘Letter to Alan’, put a lump in my throat and something in my eye that pretty much stayed there for two hours.”
Michael Dwyer – The Age
“Cold Chisel fires up the chilly night before a 10,000-strong crowd with a blistering 24-song set that exemplifies their decades as a fixture on Australia’s rock’n’roll landscape.” ★★★★★
Andrew Stafford – The Guardian
COLD CHISEL
Jimmy Barnes – Vocals
Ian Moss – Guitar/Vocals
Phil Small – Bass/Vocals
Don Walker – Piano/Keyboards/Vocals
Charley Drayton – Drums/Vocals
Andy Bickers: Saxophones
Dave Blight: Harmonica
Mahalia Barnes: Backing Vocal Arrangements
Eliza-Jane Barnes: Backing Vocals
Juanita Tippins: Backing Vocals
Bek Jensen: Backing Vocals
Audio Recording Mixed by Kevin ‘Caveman’ Shirley at The Cave Studios, Manly.
Recording captured by Colin Ellis.
A Beyond Productions feature documentary produced in association with the Seven Network
Directed by Andrew Lord
Written and produced by Paul Clarke
Produced by Frank Chidiac and Susanne Morrison
Line produced by Fiona Hewish
Executive Produced by Mikael Borglund for Beyond Productions
and Robert Hambling for Cold Chisel
50 Years of Hits. One unforgettable story. Cold Chisel: The Big Five-O celebrates five decades of anthems that defined Australian music, from Khe Sanh to Standing On The Outside and Flame Trees.
Crank it loud and relive the soundtrack of a nation. 8.00pm Sunday, 11 May on Seven and 7plus.
Last night COLD CHISEL wrapped up the Australian leg of their Big Five-0 tour at the QUDOS Bank Arena in Sydney – and wow, what a freakin’ tour!
The guys gave it everything they had. All 23 shows (24 counting the mighty Barking Spiders in Thirroul) featured something unique, and each member of the band has remarked on just how incredible this tour was … the perfect way to commemorate their 50th Anniversary.
Thank you to all 225,000 people who joined the party and brought so much joy and emotion. Your reactions and ‘backing vocals’ were unforgettable. You brought all your memories and made some new ones. You were deafening and beautiful. We can’t thank you enough!
Thank you to Cold Chisel’s partners in crime across the country – The Cruel Sea, Karen Lee Andrews, Birds Of Tokyo and The Superjesus. You all brought The Pure Stuff.
To the band’s touring party of over 50 people – onstage and backstage – including the incredible crew, plus the hundreds of local riggers, drivers, security people, caterers, etc … a huge thank you for keeping this special show on the road.
But it’s not over yet! Still to come? 3 big festival shows in New Zealand in January! CLICK HERE for tickets.
LIMITED EDITION FRAMED LITHOGRAPH POSTER!
Also per other recent tours, we have created a special, hand signed and framed lithograph poster to commemorate The Big Five-0 Tour. The poster was personally autographed by all members of Cold Chisel and is strictly limited to 600 copies. It is $400.00 plus postage and, importantly, an amount will be donated to Foodbank for each lithograph sold. Order now to get it for yourself (or someone else) before Christmas.
MERCH RANGE
And if you didn’t get a chance to grab our tour merch while we were out on the road, we have it here in limited numbers and sizes just for the next 10 days. It’s going to fly out and then it’ll be gone forever (now).
Melbourne review wrap: Cold Chisel at Flemington Racecourse
Well, that was emotional.
I can’t speak for the other 9999 Cold Chisel fans who bellowed every word to Standing on the Outside like we’d assembled for rock ‘n’ roll church under the big top at Flemington. But the second song, Letter to Alan, put a lump in my throat and something in my eye that pretty much stayed there for two hours.
★★★★★
There would be plenty of songs for us – Choir Girl, My Baby, Breakfast at Sweethearts and Forever Now all followed in a breathless rush. But this Letter was for them: for the memory of roadies Alan Dallow and Billy Rowe, killed 44 years ago in a car accident, a turn in the same cursed and miraculous road that delivered the band here.
Jimmy Barnes sang it with every atom of his visibly scarred body. Pianist Don Walker, guitarist Ian Moss, bassist Phil Small and “new” drummer Charley Drayton (since 2011) played like their lives were on the line. From there until the traditional closing slammer Goodbye (Astrid Goodbye), that was the deal. Play like there’s no tomorrow.
It’s possible to break down the elements that make Chisel, even at 50, one of the world’s great rock ‘n’ roll bands. First, add to Barnes’ paint- stripping delivery Moss’ sweet soul voice and unique feel as a blues player, best illustrated in the immense dynamic arcs of One Long Day and Bow River.
Second, from the larrikin dropkick of Cheap Wine to the bereft war vet of Khe Sanh, Walker’s songs – and plenty by his bandmates – comprise a panorama as rich and unflinchingly real as any Australian has written. As a band, they lay back like 4am jazzers in Plaza Hotel and swing like a rockabilly gate in a gale in Rising Sun.
It’s much harder to parse why it all means so much to 10,000 people making like the world’s most ecstatic pub choir in every second song. Maybe, like when Barnes relates a dream he had about late drummer Steve Prestwich, we’re all remembering old friends, here and gone, who we sang with way back then.
One song Prestwich co-wrote tells that story – about memories and loss, good times and good friends gone, and the impossibility of ever really going back – with such devastating beauty and eloquence that that thing in my eye acts up big time. Is Flame Trees the best song ever written? It is tonight. The fact that it’s almost certainly the last we’ll all spend together makes it almost unbearable.
Cold Chisel play at Flemington Racecourse on Saturday, October 26.
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