Cold Chisel to Play First Tour Nearly 30 Years After They Split

Aussie pub rock band Cold Chisel are to mount their first major tour in nearly 30 years in a trawl across Australia and New Zealand that will bring the reformed rabble rousers to some of Australia's wineries, clubs and arenas.

The 26-date tour Down Under will be their biggest run of concerts since they split in 1983 after their 'Last Stand' tour.

The band announced the reformation tour on Thursday, months after drummer Steve Prestwich, one of its founding members and writer of the band's biggest radio hit 'Forever Now,' died during an operation to remove a brain tumour, aged 56.

The band -- regarded as one of Australia's best-loved bands and with a back catalogue that has sold millions of albums, most since their 1983 split -- have played concerts intermittently since, but nothing on this scale.

Launching the Light the Nitro 2011 tour at a press conference in Sydney, the band's principal songwriter and keyboard player Don Walker said, "One of the big lessons from Steve's death is that you only have limited time. After some discussion we decided to complete the plans we had made with Steve."

Singer Jimmy Barnes said of their decision to play some of Australia's smaller cities (via The Australian), "We spent most of our career going out and playing in regional areas. The reason people relate to Cold Chisel is because we went to their home towns and played for them. Sometimes we got run out of their home towns as well."

One-fifth of the profits from the tour will go to Prestwich's children. Drummer Charlie Drayton will fill in on the kit for the tour.

The tour, which kicks off in October and features two arena dates in New Zealand in December, will be followed by a new album that is expected to be released in 2012. The album will include tracks Prestwich drummed on before his death.

Listen to Cold Chisel's 'Wild Colonial Boy'