Word on the street (and Jimmy Barnes’ wife Jane’s Twitter page) is that legendary Australian band Cold Chisel is in the studio and working on demos for a new album. Kevin ‘The Caveman’ Shirley who produced their last two studio albums, No Plans in 2012 and The Last Wave of Summer in 1998, is thought to be producing this one with Jean-Paul Fung engineering. The band’s last output was “The Live Tapes”, the live recordings of their 2012 tour at the end of 2013. An album of new material would be the first Chisel record without input from original drummer Steve Prestwich, who tragically died during the recording of No Plans. Some of Steve’s drum takes appeared on that album, the remainder were played by Charlie Drayton, husband of the late Chrissy Amphlett. At this point, Cold Chisel’s Facebook page merely reads “Some exciting news on the horizon”
Producer, Kevin Shirley has also been working on both Jimmy Barnes’ 30/30 Anniversary album (released August 29) as well as Jim’s daughter Mahalia’s album (to be released in early 2015). Shirley made his name working on projects for bands like Rush, Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin.
The 30/30 album sees Jimmy re-recording 15 of his biggest hits as collaborations with some of his favourite artists; Keith Urban, John Farnham, Bernard Fanning, Journey, Little Steven Van Zandt, Shihad, Tina Arena, Baby Animals and Jon Stevens plus more.
Barnes has also just announced a November/December A Day On The Green tour along with The Living End. The tour will feature a Greatest Hits Spinning Wheel, whereby fans will be invited on stage to have a spin and help decide the set list. The Baby Animals, You Am I, Ian Moss, Troy Cassar-Daley, Mahalia Barnes and Nick Barker – some of whom have recorded duets with Jimmy for the album – will play variously across the shows
Jimmy Barnes’ brother John Swan, more commonly known as Swanee released his new album ‘One Day At A Time’ last week too. It includes ten tracks co-written with producer Darren Mullan and features some incredible guitar licks from James Muller. The hero of the album however, is definitely Swanee’s powerful and soulful voice.