CHISEL show must go on...

Rip It Up, Issue 62, 1 September 1982, Page 8

CHISEL show must go 0n...

Ann Louise Martin

At the Logan Campbell Centre, Saturday August 7, Cold Chisel broke attendance records with 3750 adrenalin-primed people. With medicine from the wings and something else in front of Steven Prestwich's drum kit, Jim Barnes gave all he could sick," he said. What can a man do when he's trapped by the physical? He raged against it, delivering the best the band could under the circumstances. The crowd passed a unanimous vote of confidence in Chisel's showmanship. Sounds like they need a rest? "No," says Don Walker. "A change. This band was always like a shark. Extremely mobile and flexible. It keeps alive by moving on." Cold Chisel are free to chance it anywhere. The next tour is likely to be Europe. More recording is scheduled in the new year. The USA received the band well, the only date which didn't "happen," according to Jim, was an afternoon family picnic mis-match with Marshall Crenshaw. He was not, however, enamoured with some of the people he met. 'You Got Nothing I Want' was written about his experience with the Porsche driving, cocaine snorting type of dude. The other songs on Circus Animals are a mix of lan Moss, Steve Prestwich and Don Walker tunes.

For Jim the album has a more R&B feel than earlier material. The arrangements are less deliberately pop. Don Walker explains they set out to achieve a sound which would hold up on radio and record, but one which would also allow variation in the live performance. "We've always been good at arranging songs for live presentation because that's what we've always been, a live band that somehow managed to con its way into a recording studio. Then we hooked up with Mark Opitz for East and learned how to arrange songs for radio and record.

"What happens with most bands when they start to record is that the methods for arranging songs on record eventually take precedence over all else and the live performance becomes a clinical reproduction. This was starting to happen to us after East because none of the songs had any room to stretch. On Circus Animals I wanted to get away from that so there would be room to move live, because whatever you record you have to play for the next 18 months and we're not very good unless we're having fun. "It's numbing to play 'My Baby' (East) for the 654th time. Not because it's worse than the others but because there is only one way of playing it that works, whereas in a song like 'Taipan' you can do just about anything you like and it won't fall apart." This approach is also evident on the spacious 'Numbers Fall' and Wild Colonial Boy' where, as Don points out, the rolling bass and drum could go on for hours without depending on other instruments ror support. "Numbers Fall' is a reflection on taking chances. "In the space of 18 months with bits and pieces of tape and stray lines there were maybe three or four things I was writing about. Obviously there's something which has been obsessing me about taking chances or not, although I didn't realise at the time it was worrying-me. "In the old days I used to have more time and I'd sit down and say here is a problem with the world. I'll write about this. Now, even if I had time, I wouldn't write like that because it's the height of conceit. What you end up with is shallow." There is something streetwise about Cold Chisel. Perhaps that is why New York has accepted the band and their material gets airplay while LA chooses to Took the other way.