Steve Prestwich

STEVE Prestwich, a driving force in one of Australia's most important bands, Cold Chisel, died on Sunday, less than two weeks after being diagnosed with a brain tumour. He didn't regain consciousness after undergoing an operation.

Prestwich was a vital member in the Cold Chisel line-up, not just a dynamic drummer but also as a talented songwriter and singer.

An essential element of the band's success was that behind chief songwriter Don Walker, the other members, Ian Moss, Jimmy Barnes, Phil Small and Prestwich, all contributed important songs to the band's catalogue. Prestwich wrote two of the band's best-loved songs, When The War Is Over and Forever Now. He co-wrote Flame Trees with Walker.

The band reunited last year to play a club show and then played to 20,000 people at the Deniliquin Ute Muster in October, which was seen as a pointer to another full-scale reunion.

Prestwich was raised in Liverpool where he was taught drums by his father from age nine. His father played in a band at the time of the rock'n'roll explosion in the city that produced The Beatles. Steve would go to watch his father play and knew then exactly what he wanted to do with his life.

Prestwich, the eldest of seven boys, played his first gig at 11, filling in for a drummer who was ill. The £2 he was paid went toward buying his first drum kit.

Prestwich's family migrated to South Australia in 1971 and it was there he formed his first Australian band, Ice. He then joined a band called Orange which played covers of Led Zeppelin, Free and Deep Purple, but the line-up included keyboard player Walker and guitarist Moss. When Jimmy Barnes joined the band as vocalist in 1974 they changed their name to Cold Chisel.

When Walker went to the University of New England in Armidale to complete an honours degree in quantum mechanics, the band went with him, before moving to Sydney in 1977 when Small joined on bass to complete the classic line-up of the band. Cold Chisel signed to the Atlantic label and released debut single Khe Sanh in 1978.

With albums such as Breakfast at Sweethearts and East, they rapidly ascended to being the biggest band in the country, and one that took pride in singing about Australian subject matter. Prestwich came into his own as a songwriter on 1982's Circus Animals. The album went to No.1 and included Prestwich's Forever Now (which went to No.4 as a single).

Prestwich was forced to leave the band in 1983 due to back injuries from a car accident but rejoined for the record-breaking The Last Stand tour. He played Cold Chisel's last gig for 15 years at the Sydney Entertainment Centre in December of that year.

Prestwich then joined Little River Band for two years, and the band re-recorded When The War Is Over when John Farnham had joined as vocalist.

Work on Prestwich's first solo album was delayed when Cold Chisel reconvened to tour after The Last Wave of Summer album (1998), which featured Prestwich songs Way Down and Water Into Wine.

"This was never about money," Prestwich told me in an interview in Townsville as the band set off on their reunion tour in 1998.

"I was writing some songs for a solo project and I sent them around to the others to get some opinion. Then Phil and Ian came down to my place in the country and it seemed . . . it just felt all right. But from the first note we played, we were into new music."

When all five reconvened in a rehearsal room there were 100 new songs to consider. That competition between songwriters is part of the reason Cold Chisel's records had such staying power.

Prestwich's solo debut, Since You've Been Gone, was released in 2000. Cold Chisel reunited again for the 2003 Ringside tour and Prestwich released a second solo album, Every Highway, in 2009. He is survived by children Melody and Vaughan. He was divorced from their mother Joanne.

Noel Mengel