We often analyse the influence seminal bands have had on the next generation of music, but forget that their cultural impact can go far beyond that.
The audience at Tuesday night’s Australian Performing Rights Association awards at Carriageworks in Sydney were delivered a heartfelt reminder, when Cold Chisel accepted a lifetime achievement award from their biggest fan: one of Australia’s most celebrated contemporary visual artists, Ben Quilty.
Quilty, who won the Archibald prize in 2011 and the Prudential Eye award in 2014, said that presenting the band with the Ted Albert award was “probably the highlight of my career”. He made the most of the moment, delivering a wide-ranging speech to the four remaining members – Jimmy Barnes, Don Walker, Ian Moss and Phil Small – which spoke to the enormous impact the band has had on his career and on Australian culture.
“They said I had three minutes, but I had a few other things to say,” Quilty began. “My wife said: ‘Why the fuck did they ask you to do this?’”
Quilty related growing up in the 80s listening to the band’s 1980 album, East, in a tape player, every night as he went to sleep. He took the habit with him into his first studio.
“The way I listen to music is probably the way I look at art: if I like the album the first run through, I play it again. And then I play it again. And I’ll keep playing it. And [someone] who works in my studio came down the first day and said: ‘If you play that fucking album again I’m going to blow my own brains out’.”
“I am a fan, and that’s why I’m here,” Quilty said. “It’s a rare privilege to have lived through a period where Cold Chisel has had such a profound effect on the way we see ourselves as Australians, the way the community is built, the fundamental basis upon which we bring up our children, and the music that runs through the streets of our cities around the country ...
“It is probably the highlight of my career to be here tonight to award the Ted Albert award,” Quilty said.
“The love of music that they have and the patience that they’ve had with each other for so, so long has literally changed the face of Australian culture.”
Cold Chisel has certainly had an influence on Quilty’s art. Three years before he won the Doug Moran national portrait prize for his painting of Jimmy Barnes, Quilty interpreted the song Khe Sanh for a 2006 exhibition called Art of Music, in which 18 famous Australian songs were interpreted by 18 artists to raise money for Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy.
“It still is the only time I’ve ever – and will ever – smoke a joint in the Art Gallery of NSW. With Megan Washington!” the artist laughed.
“What that event made me realise was that ... across the board, us artists need to stick together in this country,” he said. “We are the thinkers of the community that we live in, and we do need to stand up and be counted and say what we think, and look after the young people who are coming through and build nurturing, good communities to tell the stories of the community that we live in. It seems pretty simple to me.”
Nurturing young artists was a theme of the night, which was dominated by emerging global talent like Peking Duck, songwriter Alex Hope (who co-wrote Troye Sivan’s Wild), Jarryd James, Tame Impala and Courtney Barnett.
In her opening remarks, chair of the Apra board, Jenny Morris, reminded the audience that more Australians attend live music than sport, with more than 40 million attending contemporary music events, bringing $2bn into the economy. “That’s a healthy industry, and live music venues are critical to the future health of that industry,” she said, listing the various organisations and government bodies Apra is working with to “stem the effects of the lockout laws”.
Don Walker of Cold Chisel accepted the Ted Albert award, flanked by the remaining members of his band. Melanie Prestwich stood in for her father Steve, who died in 2011.
“When we started out more than 40 years ago, contributing to the Australian music industry was very low on our list of priorities, as was accepting awards,” Walker said. “I like to tell myself we did whatever we did all on our own, but the truth is we had help.”
Walker took time to name the known and unknown individuals that had helped Cold Chisel’s career through the decades – from roadies to managers to bar tenders to fans, to the people who gave them couches to crash on. He also paid tribute to Rod Willis, who managed the band for 32 years before parting ways with them in 2009. Willis and his wife had accepted the band’s invitation to sit at their table.
“It would be fraudulent for us to accept any lifetime award without Rod being part of it,” Walker said.
He also gave a nod to controversial recent changes in Australian arts funding policy, which were recently described by national arts leader Michael Lynch as “a disgrace”.
“We’ve never had any government grants, apart from a couple of years on the dole in the late 70s. We’re supported by the money people spend on what we do after they’ve paid their taxes,” Walker said.
“It would be great if Opera Australia could say the same thing.”
Apra music award winners
Song of the year – Let it Happen, Tame Impala
Songwriter of the year – Courtney Barnett
Ted Albert award for outstanding services to Australian music – Cold Chisel
Breakthrough songwriter of the year – Alex Hope
Overseas recognition award – Phil Barton
Most played Australian work overseas – Chandelier, Sia
Most played Australian work – Take Me Over, Peking Duk featuring Safia
Country work of the year – Spirit of the Anzacs, Lee Kernaghan
Blues & roots work of the year – Days of Gold, Busby Marou
Dance work of the year – Take Me Over, Peking Duk featuring Safia
Rock work of the year – Anchor, Birds of Tokyo
Pop work of the year – Do You Remember, Jarryd James/Joel Little
Urban work of the year – Cosby Sweater, Hilltop Hoods
International work of the year – Uptown Funk, Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars
