Live Act

Don Walker

Don Walker was born in Ayr, North Queensland, in 1951.

As a member of and main songwriter for Cold Chisel between 1973 and 1983 he wrote “Saturday Night”, “Cheap Wine”, “Standing on the Outside”, “Four Walls” and “Khe Sahn” along with many others, and co-wrote “Flame Trees”.

In 1989, after a break from music spent traveling, he released “Unlimited Address” under the band name Catfish.  As a touring band Catfish also included guitar player Charlie Owen.

In 1991 the second Catfish album, “Ruby”, was released, recorded with James Brown’s rhythm section of drummer Tony Cook and guitar player Ron Laster.  Slim Dusty had a hit with his version of “Charleville”, which he then invited Don to re-record as a duet.

In 1993 his first collaboration with Tex Perkins and Charlie Owen, “Sad But True”, was released in Australia and Europe. 

Tex Don and Charlie followed twelve years later, with the widely acclaimed “All Is Forgiven”.  In 2006 “All Is Forgiven” was nominated for the inaugural Australian Music Prize.

In 1994 Don Walker recorded his first solo album “We’re All Gunna Die” over four days at Electric Avenue Studios in Sydney, with a touring band featuring David Blight and Red Rivers on guitar.  Released in 1995, it was reviewed as “a masterpiece” and “possibly the best Australian album released in years”. 

In 1998 Cold Chisel released their first studio album for fifteen years entitled “The Last Wave of Summer”, which entered the national charts at number one, and followed it up with a 22 date national tour.

In July 2006 Don’s second solo album, “Cutting Back”, was released by Warners, and he toured live with the Suave Fucks, featuring Red Rivers on guitar.

Over the years Don’s songs have been recorded by many people, including Jeff Lang, Mick Harvey, Troy Cassar-Daley, Jimmy Little, Jimmy Barnes, Ian Moss, Anne Kirkpatric and Missy Higgins.  In 2000 he wrote the title song for Slim Dusty’s hundredth album “Looking Forward, Looking Back”.

Don’s first book, “Shots”, was published by Black Inc. in 2009.

In 2012 Cold Chisel released a new album, “No Plans”, on the back of their Light The Nitro tour, the largest tour ever by an Australian band or artist 

Don released his third solo album, “Hully Gully”, in 2013.

A song from Hully Gully, “The Perfect Crime”, became the title song for the Cold Chisel album of that name in 2015.

Don continues to tour from time to time with the Suave Fucks