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MUSIC FEATURE

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SHAKE SOME ACTION HOW I GREW TO BECOME A COLD CHISEL FAN – AND LIVED TO TELL THE TALE Words Stuart Coupe

F or many decades I felt that I was in danger of having my Australian citizenship withdrawn and being cast aside from society as I knew it. Why would this possibly happen? What could I possibly have done to incur the wrath of the bulk of the population of this fine country? The truth is – and it’s time for me to come clean

restaurant at the Sebel Townhouse in Sydney doing an interview with John Farnham. Someone introduced me to Don Walker and Jimmy Barnes. They didn’t say anything, they weren’t rude, but their body language and deadpan facial expressions spoke volumes. They said: “This pr-ck hates us. F--k him.” And that’s how it stayed with me and Chisel for some time. That was until years later – many years – when I really started to listen to and engage with their music and songwriting. I’ve now seen Chisel and the individual band members perform multiple times:

Jimmy Barnes and Stuart

– for several decades I had carried with me an unspeakable secret, an

opinion that I was extremely careful about expressing in public unless I was amongst my closest friends. And

even amongst them there were those I would never admit this to. Occasionally I’d slip if I’d had a few too many drinks and immediately regret opening my mouth. I DIDN’T LIKE COLD CHISEL. OK, there you have it. I’ve said it. Please be gentle with me oh Chisel obsessives. This story does have a happy ending. Let’s face it, I shouldn’t have felt this way. I grew up in the world of Chisel and as a card-carrying Australian music fan as Chisel came of age and grew to dominate the Australian music landscape. It’s a go-figure thing, really. I loved Rose Tattoo, to an extent the late-’70s Angels, The Sports, Mental as Anything, Divinyls, Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons, and the bulk of the other classic Australian pub rock bands. But I just didn’t get Chisel. I didn’t connect with them at all. I can’t explain why. Maybe I was being a bit of a musical snob – but that doesn’t explain my passion for the Tatts and Angels and so forth. Maybe it just wasn’t the right time for me and Chisel. And I was surrounded by many, many people – most of whom I totally respected for their musical taste

Ian Moss and Stuart

Don Walker and Stuart

at the Sydney Entertainment Centre and outdoors in Tamworth, Don Walker at the Camelot Lounge and most recently magnificently at the Factory Theatre, Ian Moss at the Enmore Theatre. I even managed to get into a Barking Spiders (aka Chisel) warm-up gig at the Factory Theatre in Marrickville. There hasn’t been a dud show amongst them. Jimmy Barnes gave me great quotes for the covers of my Michael Gudinski biography and Roadies book and was interviewed for the latter. Ian Moss and Don Walker have been on my radio shows a number of times, and Don drove me to Melbourne airport after a regional writers’ festival, where I interviewed him for my Paul Kelly book and appeared on a panel alongside him. And as soon as tickets went on sale for their tour later this year, I dropped everything to get the best possible seats for the Sydney shows. And the thing is, Cold Chisel haven’t changed. I have. I like that.

They said: This pr-ck hates us. F--k him.

– who were complete and utter Chisel heads. But not me. And the band knew it, too, as I’d never written about them and had, from time to time, been fairly overt in conversations with others about how I didn’t understand what all the fuss was about. Opinions seemed to travel fast in those circles, especially as one of the people I mouthed off to was a senior figure in promotions and publicity at their record company – and very much embedded in Chisel World. I remember one day being in the

18 AUGUST 2024

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