Partly inspired by Elvis Presley’s legendary 1968 ‘comeback’ special and more simply by a desire to perform in a smaller, more intimate environment, Ringside captures the iconic Cold Chisel up close and personal. Recorded across 4 shows in June 2003 (and originally released in November 2003), Ringside turns the normal Cold Chisel concert experience on its head. With a rotating stage set in the middle of Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion, no member of the audience was more than 30 metres from the band. Cold Chisel also upended their setlist, playing rarely-heard gems like Plaza, Rosaline, Pretty Little Thing and “F-111, as well as unveiling three totally new songs - two Steve Prestwich penned and sung tracks, Lovelight and All I Wanna Do and Fallen Angel, written and sung by Don Walker. The album is also unique for its covers – Johnny Cash’s Big River, Arthur Hamilton’s torch song Cry Me A River and Dragon’s Sunshine “We loved playing those shows,” recalls frontman Jimmy Barnes. “I remember the band had a real swing about it. And it was great mixing up the set list, playing some obscure tracks and covers like Big River and Sunshine. This is the first time this unique and intimate album has ever been released on vinyl!
The band is also releasing a limited edition Deluxe set, combining the double CD with the normally separate DVD. The Deluxe package features new cover art. “When our management started digging into the archive for Ringside, they lucked upon a design that we did for these shows,” says Don Walker. “It was an image created by Carl Bellesini from Love Police and it captured the romance of the travelling tent boxing shows, back at the start of last century.” The Ringside DVD was directed by Robert Hambling, Cold Chisel’s long time film documentarian, and for all those who didn’t get to see one of these unique shows, the DVD is the next best thing to being there.
Tracklisting
- Home And Broken Hearted
- The Things I Love In You
- Rosaline
- Breakfast At Sweethearts
- My Baby
- Houndog
- Shipping Steel
- Pretty Little Thing
- Forever Now
- Khe Sanh
- Cry Me A River
- Lovelight
- All I Wanna Do (Steve Vocal)
- F-111
- Big River
- You Got Nothing I Want
- Rising Sun
- Flame Trees
- Water Into Wine
- Sunshine
- Goodbye (Astrid, Goodbye)
- All I Wanna Do (Jimmy Vocal)