As those who read Chisel would know, there is an incredible amount of material out there to collect. This column will be a regular one in The Barking Spider, each issue looking at a different area, and of course updating collectable materials as they app
ear.
In this edition I'm going to look at the Australian releases. These are probably the most common (and obvious) collectibles and a logical starting point for any collector.
The band's first release was the first album. It has been available in three formats, vinyl LP, CD and as a two-in one CD package with the Breakfast... CD. There was also a similar two-in-one cassette package, although cassettes are generally not considered as collectable. This may change somewhat as that format decreases in popularity, as appears to be the case at the moment.
There are distinctions within these three formats. As mentioned in the first issue of TBS, producer Peter Walker notes two versions of the album being issued, one mastered in Australia, the other in America.
Your ears are really your only guide to distinguish one from the other as there is nothing printed on either version indicating where it was mastered, although as mentioned in TBS 1, Peter Walker states that to his ears the CD version is the inferior Australian master and only a small number of vinyl Issues only were issued from the US master.
The Khe Sanh single was the next release. A rare version was issued on CD in 1994 with proceeds going to the Vietnam Veterans Association. See accompanying sleeve picture.
Below is a discography of the Australian single releases, some with the prices you could expect
to pay for them. Note these are only 7" vinyl releases in Australia. If no price is indicated expect to pay around $5 for the item.
Discography - Australia
7"
KHE SANH / JUST HOW MANY TIMES ($60)
ATLANTIC - 100073
GOODBYE (ASTRID GOODBYE) / GEORGIA ON MY MIND ($30)
ELECTRA - 100078
NOTE: Georgia ( studio version) unavailable on LP. This cut is from the first album sessions. This is also a different take of Goodbye to that which appears on the Breakfast album.
BREAKFAST AT SWEETHEARTS / PLAZA
ELECTRA - 100085
SHIPPING STEEL / SHOWTIME ($100)
W.E.A.
This is technically the rarest Cold Chisel single, reports suggest that something like 187 copies went into circulation.
CHOIR GIRL / CONVERSATIONS (live)
W.E.A. - 100133
KNOCKING ON HEAVENS DOOR / PARTY'S OVER ($35, with East L.P.)
W.E.A. - 100134
This is a studio version of The Party's Over, the same as that released on the Teenage Love CD.
MY BABY / MISFITS
W.E.A. - 100148
YOU GOT NOTHING I WANT / NUMBERS FALL
W.E.A. - 100191
FOREVER NOW / BOW RIVER
W.E.A - 100202
Possibly the finest single ever released in Australia ?
WHEN THE WAR IS OVER / WILD COLONIAL BOY ($40 With Picture Cover)
W.E.A. - 100216
HOLD ME TIGHT / NO SENSE
W.E.A - 7-259773
SATURDAY NIGHT / PAINTED DOLL
W.E.A - 7-259621
This is a different mix of Saturday Night.
TWENTIETH CENTURY / ONLY ONE
W.E.A - 7-259492
FLAME TREES / RIVER DEEP MOUNTAIN HIGH (live)
W.E.A - 7-259410
The B-side of this is the same superb take which appeared on the 3 Big Ones single series.
KHE SANH / MY BABY (reissue)
FLAMINGO FLA - 1001
KHE SANH / CHEAP WINE (reissue)
SUNDOWN - 0535
ALBUMS
AUSTRALIA
COLD CHISEL
ATLANTIC 600038
BREAKFAST AT SWEETHEARTS
W.E.A. 600042
EAST (1st 10,000 came with bonus 7') ($35)
W.E.A. 600064
SWINGSHIFT
W.E.A. 800003
CIRCUS ANIMALS
W.E.A. 600113
TWENTIETH CENTURY
(1st 1,000 Came with poster)($10 with poster)
BARKING SPIDERS (With obi strip and poster)
W.E.A. 251525.1
RADIO SONGS
W.E.A. 252362.1
RAZOR SONGS (With Razor cover)
W.E.A. 600148.1
The 'Razored cover' was an earlier version of the cover-it features as the background to page 4 of TBS Vol. 1 Iss. 3.
CD SINGLES
AUSTRALIA
MISFITS / MISFITS (Radio version) - Promo
EAST WEST PRO-CD-CCI
MISFITS / MONA AND THE PREACHER / FOUR WALLS
EAST WEST 903175547-2 ($25)
KHE SANH / JUST HOW MANY TIMES
EAST WEST 45099 52842 ($15)
3 BIG HITS (3 CD Singles)
Disc 1 - Hands Out Of My Pocket / Teenage Love Affair / It Aint Wrong / H-Hour Hotel / On The Road
EAST WEST 45099 73742
Disc 2 - Nothing But You / When The Sun Goes Down / River Deep Mountain High (live) / Lets Go Get Stoned (live)
4509975152
Disc 3
Yesterdays / Wild Colonial Boy (live) / Only One (live) / Build This Love (live) / Letter To Allan (live)
4509975162
In addition to the many audio tapes in circulation, there are a number of videos. These are material that has been used for promotional purposes, but have not been commercially released. In each edition of TBS I'll try to look at one of these.
Video: August 27 1978, ABC
Studios Sydney. Songs broadcast Khe Sanh / One Long Day . Goodb)ffl, Conversations,l Dresden /' ne Door / I'm Gonna Roll Ya /Shipping Steel Breakfast At Sweethearts / Georgia
Length: 30 '
Quality: Excellent professional television footage. Colour.
Comments: Part of this video was released on the Seeing Is Believing video (the one song "Breakfast At Sweethearts")
The footage shows the band in a pub-like environment (it is in fact a television studio) doing what they did best at that stage. While the quality is exceptional, some version s have a lesser quality "Georgia'. The show was broadcast on cable TV in Australia soon after that mediums introduction here' - but 'Georgia' was omitted, although I am aware of excellent quality versions of it in circulation. Conversations has Ian improvising different parts to those recorded on the album while Dresden shows itself to be a much better live song than the album would suggest. A powerful version of The Door sees Jimmy completely lost in the passion of the song at the climax and Breakfast features a very tasty guitar intro. The lyrics of Shipping Steel are different. Jimmy sings "sometimes little girls get hot yeah" instead of "hikers on the edge of town" as well as a couple of other lines which are indecipherable. Perhaps the highlights of this performance are the only 'released' footage of Georgia and One Long Day, which are not available (in Australia) on video in any other form..
Overall this is an impressive document of the live shows the band was giving in late '78. A raw and unpolished gem.
This is also the earliest Cold Chisel live video document of any length. A must for the serious Chisel fan.
'* Some notes on video trading.
1. Videos lose 10% quality with each dub or generation. Your copy will be noticeably, but not greatly, inferior to the original. Serious collectors always seek low generation copies.
2. Some videos are stereo, usually dependent on the machine they were originally recorded on and the source of the broadcast. While many collectors aren't concerned about this, some are.
3. Not all countries use the same video system as Australia.
4. Videos can usually be divided into pro (professional, i.e. television) and amateur, that is, shot from someone in the audience, usually with one camera.
The latter type are not yet common with Cold Chisel, but I imagine they will be. Some people avidly collect this type of video while others find it unwatchable. the quality varies from most enjoyable to, unwatchable. The Cold Chisel videos in circulation are from television sources, often being rare due to the fact that they were broadcast before video was popular.
"Some notes on the tapes in TBS 2. The Townsville tape has a number. of cuts in it, probably done to fit it onto a 90 minute cassette Complete versions are rare.
The 1977 demo often has the last song Bunny's Blues, in inferior quality to the first three. When Melbourne DJ Billy Pinnell played this tape on the air a few years back, Bunny 's Blues was not included. I have found other songs from the live portion of this tape and I will look at them in a future issue.
Audio Tape. Sydney, 1/12/79, Pooled Resources Tour.
Approximate Length: 60 minutes
Track list: Shipping Steel / Shakin' All Over / Goodbye Astrid / Choir Girl / Wild Thing/ My Turn To Cry / Conversations / Khe Sanh / Breakfast At Sweethearts (cut) / Tomorrow / Juliet / Best Kept Lies / Standing On The Outside / The Door / Merry-Go-Round / Four Walls / One Long Day
An excellent soundboard tape.
This was one that a wanted notice on the now nonexistent first official Cold Chisel web site unearthed. After first hearing about it, via e-mail, further e-mails and some trading materials were dispatched, but the tape did not arrive. enquiries revealed that the person concerned no longer worked at this address.
More chasing and I was able to speak with the owner of the tape, who promised to dispatch it immediately. This was not to be and further calls went no further than someone else's answering machine. More than six months had passed when a small package with nothing but a single cassette in it arrived one day.
The source of this tape (as told to me) is that it was made by someone working for Flowers (Icehouse), who also played on that particular tour. It is definitely a soundboard recording and a find worth all the effort required to get it.
A large proportion of this set is made up of at that point, unreleased material from the East album. The performance has the band working against the elements (it was a 40 degree day) at an exciting point in their career. The songs are in the order I received them. which is obviously not the order in which they were played. there is also a cut in Breakfast At Sweethearts Points of interest include superb playing from Ian many lyrical alterations on the new songs and perhaps the finest of the unreleased Chisel covers Shakin' All Over.
One Long Day has the blues intro, The Door was soon to be dropped from the set, but this is an amazing rendition and Four Walls features accapella style backing vocals. I asked Don Walker about this and he had no recollection of Four Walls being performed in this arrangement.
There are a number of other fascinating variations on the well known arrangements of songs such as Conversations, Tomorrow, Best Kept Lies, and Standing On The Outside, all of which make this tape a valuable find.
Hopefully more of this sort of tape will appear in future.
In other news on the underground scene, rumours were rife of an underground tape circulating of the album tapes, but I never actually saw one.