Cold Chisel Announce Epic 50th Anniversary Tour

Cold Chisel have announced a massive national tour to celebrate their 50th anniversary, honouring their inimitable legacy over ten unforgettable shows.

The run will kick off in Armidale – where Cold Chisel cut their teeth over 1974-75, while keyboardist Don Walker was studying at university – with a Red Hot Summer show booked in for Sunday October 5 at Petersons Winery. They’ll head to the Gold Coast next, playing the Convention & Exhibition Centre on the following Tuesday (October 8), before taking to Sydney’s Entertainment Quarter a few days later on Friday October 11.

The next week will see Cold Chisel perform in Wollongong (Tuesday October 15 at the WIN Entertainment Centre) and Caversham (Saturday october 19 at Sandalford Wines, another Red Hot Summer show). October’s slate will end with a gig at the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne on Friday October 25, and November’s will start with one at Victoria Park in Brisbane on Saturday November 2.

Rolling on, the band will play the Newcastle Entertainment Centre on Wednesday November 6, a few days before they round out their Red Hot Summer run at Victoria Park in Ballarat (with that gig scheduled for Saturday November 9). Last but not least, they’ll take to the stage at MyState Bank Arena in Glenorchy on Wednesday November 13, and perform at the VALIO Adelaide 500 that Saturday (November 17).

Cold Chisel will be joined by The Cruel Sea at a solid handful of the shows, with the latter band tagging along in Armidale, Sydney, Caversham, Melbourne, Brisbane, Ballarat and Adelaide. Karen Lee Andrews will also open up the festivities in Armidale, Sydney, Caversham, Melbourne, Brisbane and Ballarat, and serve as the main support act in Wollongong, the Gold Coast, Newcastle and Glenorchy.

In a press release, Cold Chisel vouched that their Big Five-0 tour will be particularly special because it doesn’t come in support of a new album or campaign, but rather “because we all love playing gigs together”.

In his own statement, Walker said of the run: “We’ll be going all out to celebrate a milestone birthday like this. Bookending the tour in the two places where we first welded the band together, building these circus tent shows in three cities, bringing along some great guests and doing a set which reaches back across our whole song catalogue should all make The Big Five-0 a tour to remember.”

The sentiment was shared by guitarist and singer Ian Moss, who added: “We wanted to celebrate our 50th birthday by revisiting all of our best work from across the years. As we prepare the setlist, there are a minimum of 15 songs that our audience demands to hear. This time we’ll be playing all of them plus we’ll be throwing in lots of musical surprises as well.”

Also weighing in was bassist Phil Small: “Gold is obviously associated with 50th anniversaries, so we thought it would be fun to pull the tour into Ballarat – Australia’s gold-mining capital. We’re looking forward to playing the Gold Coast, Newcastle, Wollongong and Hobart too because each of those cities have been important to us in various ways over the last 50 years.”

And of course, co-frontman Jimmy Barnes is keen as mustard for this career-defining expedition: “Cold Chisel are never apart. We’re as close as brothers. Some of the best moments of my life have been spent on stage with those boys, and I hope we keep going ‘til the day we drop. The Big Five-0 is a landmark moment. There have been plenty of times where I never thought I’d live to see this day so I’m going to make the most of it. I can’t wait to celebrate with my mates and with all the fans who have been such a big part of our story. We’re gonna smash it!”

COLD CHISEL

‘THE BIG FIVE-0’ AUSTRALIAN TOUR

Saturday October 5 – Armidale, Petersons Winery *^ª
Tuesday October 8 – Gold Coast, Convention & Exhibition Centre ^
Friday October 11 – Sydney, Entertainment Quarter *^
Tuesday October 15 – Wollongong, WIN Entertainment Centre ^
Saturday October 19 – Caversham, Sandalford Wines *^ª
Friday October 25 – Melbourne, Flemington Racecourse *^
Saturday November 2 – Brisbane, Victoria Park *^
Wednesday November 6 – Newcastle, Entertainment Centre ^
Saturday November 9 – Ballarat, Victoria Park *^ª
Wednesday November 13 – Glenorchy, MyState Bank Arena ^
Sunday November 17 – Adelaide, VALIO Adelaide 500 *^

* with The Cruel Sea
^ with Karen Lee Andrews
ª with Birds Of Tokyo and The Superjesus

Tickets: coldchisel.com