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Jimmy
Barnes
 After his tenure
as part of the successful Cold Chisel, Jimmy Barnes' solo career
outstripped Chisel's record sales and enshrined him as one of the biggest
selling Australian recording acts of all time.
James
Dixon Swan was five on January 7, 1961 when he arrived in South Australia
from Scotland with the rest of the family - Jim Sr, Dorothy and their six
children. Jim Sr's drinking eventually led Dorothy to leave her husband for
Reg Barnes, a clerk at the local Kelvinator plant. When younger sister Lisa
was taunted at school about being adopted, Dorothy and Reg put it to the
children that they might change their surname. All but the oldest son John
Swan decided to become Barnes.
Brothers
John Swan and Jim Barnes were both keen on music and hung out together
listening to bands. John joined a band, and soon Jim found one to join too.
John Swan had just replaced Bon Scott as lead singer in Fraternity when he
was approached by a new band just forming about becoming their lead singer.
He recommended his 17 year old brother Jim instead. That was the start of
Cold Chisel.
From the
beginning to the end, Jim's tenure with Cold Chisel was volatile. On their
way to success he quit more than once, and the band never bothered to look
around for a replacement, with the excellent voice of guitarist Ian Moss to
fall back on. More than once Jim left in the hope of being in the same
group as "Swanee". He'd quit the band again in 1978 (just before
Cold Chisel signed a record contract) to join John in Feather, but enjoyed
his farewell performance so much he changed his mind again and stayed.
 Five
years later, Jimmy was feeling restless again. The biggest band in
Australia, Cold Chisel were struggling to make an impact internationally.
They'd just come back from a gruelling tour of Germany and were straight
into Australian gigs. Jimmy, now supporting a wife and a child, and less
frugal than the others, needed some money. He asked for a 10,000 dollar
advance. The way the band worked, if he received 10,000, the other band
members would have to as well. Jimmy was told no, but a meeting was called
to discuss it anyway. During that meeting Cold Chisel decided to call it a
day with a farewell tour and album.
After
Cold Chisel's final performance on December 12 1983, Jimmy jumped almost straight into his
solo career. He still had that wife and child to feed. He had the Dingoes
in mind when he formed his initial backing group, which included a couple
of Dingoes alumni. The Dingoes were the original inspiration, but the first
album, 'Bodyswerve' was more like the Cold Chisel Jimmy everyone loved and
wanted to hear. The album shot to No.1.
Straight
away Jimmy turned his attention to the international market and recorded
extra tracks in Los Angeles and New York to incorporate in the American
version of his album, using American musicians, including Jonathan Caine
from Journey. Jonathan came up with a song called 'Working Class Man'. He
was also so struck by Jim's no-nonsense attitude in the studio he
considered asking Jim to join Journey. In Australia the American sessions
were released together with seven remixes from 'Bodyswerve' as the double
"EP" 'For The Working Class Man'....another No.1. The American
version didn't make an impression. Back at home Jim engaged in a quick
recording session with INXS, which included an unreleased version of
'Locomotion'. The track they put out to promote their joint Australia Made
tour was a version of the Easybeats' 'Good Times'.
For the
next couple of years Jimmy divided his time between Australia and America,
forming a songwriting partnership with Jim Vallence of Bryan Adams' fame
for the album 'Freight Train Heart'. A double live album 'Barnstorming'
followed, before Don Gehman (REM, John Mellencamp) produced 'Two Fires' at
Jimmy's home studio in rural Bowral in New South Wales. The singer's
biggest selling album followed in November 1991, a tribute to his favourite
soul/r&b performers of the sixties, and featuring the John Farnham duet
'When Something Is Wrong With My Baby'. 'Soul Deep' would be also be
Mushroom's biggest selling album ever, with more than 600,00 sold. All six
of Jimmy's albums so far had been No.1 in Australia.
Don Gehmen
returned to produce 1993's grunge-era 'Heat', the first album not to reach
the top. The album's highlight was Jim's reunion with Cold Chisel
songwriter Don Walker for 'Stone Cold'. 'Heat' was followed by 'Flesh And
Blood' an acoustic album characterized by guest appearances from the
Badloves, Deborah Conway, Archie Roach and Diesel.
In the
space of nine years Barnes had recorded eight albums and toured almost
constantly, not just to satisfy the singer's love of performing, but also
to cater for his live-now pay-later lifestyle. In 1994 it all caught up
with him. He was forced to sell his vast property, home and studio to help
pay unpaid taxes and took his family to live in France, where he recorded
1995's 'Psyclone'. Apart from a triple platinum 'Hits' album (a record
seventh number one) album, the days of the big selling albums seemed to be
over.
In 1997 the event Cold Chisel fans dreamt of
eventuated, with the band reforming for the highly anticipated but
ultimately disappointing 'The Last Days Of Summer" album and tour.
Barnes followed up with an 11th solo album 'Love And Fear' in November
1999, peaking at #16, his final for Mushroom. With the departure of friend
and former manager Michael Gudinski from Mushroom Jimmy saw the chance to
make a fresh start, back with Cold Chisel's record company Warners. He
travelled to Memphis to take his 'Soul Deep' adventure one important step
further, recording that kind of music where it was born, with the musicians
who were part of it. The result was 'Soul Deeper'.
In 2004,
Jimmy Barnes recorded an album with Deep Purple guitarist Steve Morse,
Uriah Heep drummer Lee Kerslake, bass player Bob Daisley and keyboards
player Don Airey under the name Living Loud. The self-titled album featured
a number of songs originally written and recorded with Ozzy Osbourne by
Kerslake, Daisley and Airey.
In July
2005 Jimmy released 'Double Happiness', an album of duets, with other
Australian recirding artists as well as his three children. It debuted at
#1, Jimmy's eighth chart-topping album. Jimmy Barnes was inducted into the
ARIA Hall of Fame on the 23 October, 2005 for his solo career efforts.
'Bird On
A Wire' the Double Happiness track recorded with Troy Cassar-Daley, and
produced by Nash Chambers was the starting point for 'Out In The Blue',
Jimmy's first album of new material since 2001. Nash ended up producing the
album in eight productive days at Jimmy's home studio. On the way to
collecting ideas and songs for his new album Jim learned that he needed
open heart surgery to replace a faulty aortic valve. He underwent the
operation in February 2007, and wrote the title song for the new album 'Out
In The Blue' in his hospital bed recuperating. The operation and the chance
to reflect on his life and family became the central theme of the album. On
the cover Jimmy bares his scar and the tattoo of wife Jane's name over his
heart.
During
his recovery period Jimmy Barnes also became patron of the Choir of Hard
Knocks, a choral group formed by Jonathon Welch and consisting of homeless
and disadvantaged people in Melbourne. The formation of the choir was
documented by the ABC as a five-part series aired in May 2007. Barnes took
an active part in the teaching of the choir and even busked with them.
In May
2009 travelled to the USA again, where at Conway Recording in California
under producer Don Gehman Jimmy recorded what he describes as a
"prelude" to his soul albums ‘Soul Deep' and 'Soul Deeper', this
a tribute to the blues and r&b which shaped soul music. Gehman produced
both those earlier albums, after first working with Jimmy on 'Two Fires'.
Assembled in the studio to record 'The Rhythm And the Blues' were a
collection of local musicians experienced in recording those old songs
quickly, live in one take, the way the originals would have done. The album
returned Jimmy Barnes to the top of the national charts for the seventh
time in his solo career.
The
relationship with Don Gehman continued with another album of originals, ‘Rage
And Ruin’. He has stated that the ideas for most of the lyrics and song
themes came from a journal he kept during a period in his life (late 1990s
to early 2000s) when he struggled with drug and alcohol addiction. Proving
his willingness to forge forward creatively and take risks he worked with
two new songwriting collaborators. The full story behind the album can be
found here
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