G'day!

It's a lovely Spring day, and the Adelaide 500 (Vailo) has just been won by Will Brown in his Repco Supercar 'Redbull Ampol’ Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 (witnessed by 260,000 fans and attendees). This was the 25th anniversary of the Adelaide 500, and it’s highly regarded by all, being considered the best race track/event on the circuit down here.

In fact, this was the last race of the season, and what a great ending! This race event is really accessible to everyone, and you can get close to the cars and drivers etc. Along with multiple Motor-Racing events and displays, there was an excellent and extensive fly-past with stunts, by a ‘Super-Hornet’ Jet from the RAAF (Australian Air Force), as well as a ground-based display of vehicles and equipment for all the family from the ADF (Australian Defence Force).

On to more pressing WRC matters!……… it’s Cold Chisel’s 50th anniversary tour (actually it’s 51 years that they’ve been going now, but hey, what the hell), and it’s named the ‘The Big Five-O’. The anticipation is really building down here in Adelaide, given that this was Cold Chisel’s formation City back in 1973, before they relocated to Sydney, via Melbourne, in 1975 or so (and the rest is as they say, history).

Crowded House played yesterday (Saturday 16th November), and by all accounts, that was fantastic, a real shame to have missed that but we were still out of town. Well worthy of note - a General Admission entry ticket to the Adelaide 500 (Vailo) gives you access to the Racing and Music/Festival too, (that being on a daily basis), so it’s a great deal all around ….. approx £55 for the whole day/evening, which is a bargain!

Back to the music for today!, this bill had four acts, mostly Adelaide sourced, and it was a great lineup on paper. Attendance is in the region of 30,000 people, so it’s a decent sized festival. First on were Tonix, a more recent Adelaide band (I missed them, due to walking the Adelaide 500 race track at the time!), but they sounded good from a distance. They played their creative electronic Indie-Pop with panache and went down a treat! They’re associated with the ‘Space Techno Jazz’ scene I believe. Nice!

Next up were the SuperJesus, another Adelaide band, formed back in 1994. They were excellent, really lifting the crowd and getting a large portion of them going. This band are a treat, with a great back-catalogue, and I’m not sure why they haven’t made more of an impression in the UK (maybe my ignorance of course!), anyways, they play something akin to ‘punky power-pop’, .... let’s call it Alt Rock. They finished with a punchy version of ‘Dancing with Myself’ by Billy Idol. A great show.

So, next, we’ve got The Cruel Sea, they are an Aussie Indie Rock band from Sydney (formed in 1987, as an instrumental band by Dan Rumour), but then they added Tex Perkins on vocals and changed their offering! They’re now a great Aussie Indie-Rock band with twists of Jazz and Blues, it’s difficult to pigeon-hole easily, let’s just say a great band with ‘nifty-quirkyness’! You can hear Booker T & The MG’s as an influence, as well as INXS sometimes, the Jayhawks etc. These guys are just too unique (let’s face it, Antipodean style is out on it’s own). 'Straight into the Sun', a new song, is really memorable. Their back catalogue material is all really engaging and challenging, as well as being fun and groovy too! Really enjoyed it!

Now to the main event, Cold Chisel! .. Aussie Rock legends! 🤘… Pub Rock to Stadium! …. with aplomb! I’ve never seen Cold Chisel before, only Jimmy Barnes and his solo band back at the last Ramblin’ Man Fair in 2019, pre-covid. He/they were great then by the way.

Cold Chisel are Aussie National Icons and music legends, a bunch of mates emerging out of Adelaide. Pretty much every Australian will know them, and hold at least one, if not more, or even all of their songs in reverence. It’s fair to say that Cold Chisel are ensconced into the Australian psyche and are synonymous with the mid to late 70’s into the early 80’s scene over here. Pub-Rockers be their badge!

The Band are still mostly from the 1973 Adelaide formation line-up…….. Ian Moss (guitar), Don Walker (keys), Jimmy Barnes (vocals), and of course not forgetting Phil Small on bass, joining back in the later ’70’s. Sadly, Steve Prestwich (drums) passed away back in 2011, ably replaced by Charley Drayton in that same year. They have very capable support players with them too, including a fine threesome of very tuneful ladies on vocals, including one of Jimmy Barnes' daughters too (Mahalia Barnes).

They played pretty much all of their expected back-catalogue material, all the hits!, even some from the ‘difficult’ 1982 reunion album ‘Circus Animals’. They did omit to play ‘Wild Colonial Boy’ here in Adelaide, having performed it at previous dates on the tour, maybe that was linked to Adelaide being Cold Chisel’s home town, maybe not. Anyways, no problem! They also did a great cover of ‘Georgia On My Mind’ (originally the Ray Charles song).

Jimmy Barnes can really sing still!, and Ian Moss is a great guitar player (and fantastic singer as well!), in fact, all the band were really truly excellent, keys, bass, and the guest brass/sax and harp players too! A brilliant performance by all of them. The sound in the arena was excellent, and a point of note to UK festival organisers/producers… the music in the band intervals was excellent, and also decently ‘loud’ enough to get into!……. please take note!

They played 24 songs, across 2 hours which included 2 encores. A consummate performance. Cold Chisel’s ‘The Big Five-O’ tour runs through to early 2025 (ending in January in New Zealand). To the best of my knowledge, there are no 2025 UK/Europe dates planned, but let’s hope for a few festival appearances! Please!

In summary, what a day….. very memorable……. ‘Ripper'!
Anyways, I’m signing off, but will be back very soon! Cheers Cobber!

Oz in Oz