Jimmy Barnes, Jon Stevens, Eskimo Joe, and Sarah McLeod

James Dixon was born in Glasgow, Scotland but grew up in Elizabeth, the city that he and his family moved to when he was four years of age. His parents divorced soon after they settled down and the young James would later take the name of his stepfather Reg Barnes, but through the hard times, they remained a musical family. Because of this, he and his brother Jon would form and play in several different rock bands over the course of their teenage years, and by the end of 1973, Barnes had formed the first incarnation of Cold Chisel, the band that would catapult him to stardom. The band made a name for themselves almost immediately, but Barnes had a tempestuous relationship with the rest of the group, leaving and re-joining them at little more than a moment’s notice. By 1977 he was all set to leave Cold Chisel and join his brother’s band Feather, but his farewell gig was so astonishingly good he changed his mind, and a single month later, the band signed their first record deal.

In three years the band became the biggest rock group in Australia, and Barnes himself became notorious and loved for his hard-drinking, rock and roll lifestyle. The problem was that the internal friction in the band didn’t let up, and the band acrimoniously split in 1983, almost precisely a decade after they first formed. Barnes was still Australia’s highest profile rock musician however, and a month after the band split he began his solo career, signing to Mushroom Records for the release of his 1984 debut “Bodyswerve”. Ever since then he’s remained one of the most beloved Australian rock stars of all time, talked about in the same breath as Angus Young and Nick Cave in his home country. With over four decades of experience, few musicians can rock quite like Jimmy Barnes, and for that, he comes highly recommended.