Cold Chisel announces new Blood Moon tour

(Mostly) clad in leather, Cold Chisel announces return to stage with 13 concerts across six states.

Cold Chisel members Ian Moss, Jimmy Barnes, Don Walker and Phil Small announce their tour on Bondi Beach today. Picture: Nikki Short

There aren’t many Australian rock bands who could justify holding a press conference to announce its return to playing music together, but with its four-decade history and rich catalogue of beloved songs, Cold Chisel is undoubtedly one of the few.

After nearly two years away from the stage, the quintet will begin a national tour on New Year’s Eve in Fremantle. Named Blood Moon, the run of 13 concerts across six states marks the first time that the group has undertaken a summer outdoor tour.

At Sydney’s Bondi Pavilion on Wednesday afternoon, singer Jimmy Barnes was sat beside guitarist Ian Moss, bassist Phil Small and pianist Don Walker. Only Moss opted not to wear a black leather jacket; he sported a black coat instead.

In Sydney, Barnes suggested that news of its ninth studio album is about a month away, which would be its first collection of new songs since 2015’s The Perfect Crime.

Absent from the conference was US-born drummer Charley Drayton, who has played with the band since 2011, following the death of founding percussionist Steve Prestwich.

The Blood Moon tour begins on December 31 at Fremantle Park, accompanied by Western Australian bands including Birds of Tokyo, Jebediah and Gyroscope.

The same configuration will visit the WA city of Busselton on New Year’s Day, followed by a hometown show on January 4 at Adelaide’s Glenelg Beach alongside Paul Kelly and The Teskey Brothers.

From there, the tour winds its way through Victorian wineries in Rutherglen, Yarra Valley and Geelong, while on January 19, Cold Chisel will headline a show at Tamworth’s Scully Park in the midst of the city’s annual country music festival. Its companions on that occasion - which festival organisers are predicting to be one of the biggest music events ever held in Tamworth - will include Paul Kelly, Kasey Chambers and Troy Cassar-Daley.

The quintet will play at Sydney’s Bankwest Stadium on January 24, and onto Wollongong, Canberra and Orange. After a trip across the Tasman to play at a stadium in Tauranga, on New Zealand’s north island, the Blood Moon tour will conclude on February 8 at a winery at Mount Cotton, near Brisbane, with support from Birds of Tokyo and Magic Dirt.

Pre-sale tickets are available from October 16, with general public access to tickets from October 21.

Formed in 1973 as a blues-influenced rock band, Cold Chisel’s last performance was in March 2018 as part of the annual Adelaide 500 supercar race. A couple of nights before that show, the quintet performed a warm-up gig at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre under its old alter ego, The Barking Spiders, which made its first appearance in 35 years.

For the band members, the time away from the stage has allowed space for extracurricular activities. In recent years, Barnes has become a best-selling and award-winning memoirist; his two books have sold about 500,000 copies combined.

Barnes is currently mid-tour in support of My Criminal Record, his 17th studio album, with a performance at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena scheduled for Saturday, October 12.

On the same day, pianist and songwriter Don Walker will perform at Melbourne’s Out on the Weekend festival with his band The Suave F..ks, having recently published a book of his lyrics named Songs. Guitarist and singer Ian Moss, meanwhile, will begin a run of theatre shows in Sydney on November 1.