Ex-Cold Chisel Manager To Release Memoir

This Halloween, you can celebrate the spooky season with something that isn’t too scary: Cold Chisel’s former manager, Rod Willis, is releasing a memoir about his time with the band entitled Ringside.

With the tagline, “A tale of music and mayhem from the man behind rock and roll superstars Cold Chisel,” Ringside tracks Willis’ journey to the UK in the 1960s before his return to Australia. Inspired by a booming international music scene, Willis was ready to find an all-time great band that could catapult Australian music to the top.

Enter Cold Chisel, a band with which Willis maintained an incredible 32-year partnership. Willis vows to take fans to backstage areas with the group, follow on as he established the Dirty Pool Management Agency, be there as Cold Chisel released one of the highest-selling Australian albums of all time in East, their Last Stand tour, and more.

The blurb for Ringside continued, “During his 50-year wild ride, Rod would encounter everything and everyone from The Beatles, notorious groupies, mobsters, to music industry legends while witnessing the creation of a musical catalogue that has become an integral part of the great Australian songbook.”

You can pre-order a copy of Ringside here.

In October 2020, Cold Chisel announced the fifth edition of their Live Tapes archival series. Captured on two multitrack tapes on a Friday night in Sydney in February 1980, the iconic Aussie outfit released The Live Tapes Vol 5 - Live at the Bondi Lifesaver in December 2020.

“In 1980, we were fighting fit and hungry, playing every show like it was our last – and often it almost was,” vocalist Jimmy Barnes said.

“We were still playing pubs, with the audience spilling onto the stage and the band spilling into the audience.

"I was living just around the corner from the Lifesaver - and probably half the audience ended up back at mine."