Editing Cold Chisel (section)

===1979-1980: ''East''===
Cold Chisel had gained national chart success and increased popularity of their fans without significant commercial radio airplay. The members developed reputations for wild behaviour, particularly Barnes, who claimed to have had sex with over 1000 women and who consumed more than a bottle of [[vodka]] each night while performing.<ref name = "Creswell"/> In late 1979, severing their relationship with Batchens, Cold Chisel chose [[Mark Opitz]] to produce the next single, "[[Choirgirl (song)|Choirgirl]]" (November).<ref name="McFarlane"/><ref name="Kent"/> It is a Walker composition dealing with a young woman's experience with [[abortion]]. Despite the subject matter it reached No.&nbsp;14.<ref name="Kent"/>

"Choirgirl" paved the way for the group's third studio album, ''[[East (Cold Chisel album)|East]]'' (June 1980), with Opitz producing.<ref name="Holmgren"/> Recorded over two months in early 1980, ''East'', reached No.&nbsp;2 and is the second highest selling album by an Australian artist for that year.<ref name="McFarlane"/><ref name="Kent"/> ''[[The Australian Women's Weekly]]''{{'}}s Gregg Flynn noticed, "[they are] one of the few Australian bands in which each member is capable of writing hit songs."<ref name="Flynn"/> Despite the continued dominance of Walker, the other members contributed more tracks to their play list, and this was their first album to have songs written by each one.<ref name="McFarlane"/> McFarlane described it as, "a confident, fully realised work of tremendous scope."<ref name="McFarlane"/> Nimmervoll explained how, "This time everything fell into place, the sound, the songs, the playing... ''East'' was a triumph. [The group] were now the undisputed No.&nbsp;1 rock band in Australia."<ref name="Nimmervoll"/>

The album varied from straight-ahead rock tracks "Standing on the Outside" and "My Turn to Cry" to [[rockabilly]]-flavoured work-outs ("Rising Sun", written about Barnes' relationship with his then-girlfriend Jane Mahoney) and pop-laced love songs ("[[My Baby (Cold Chisel song)|My Baby]]" by Phil Small, featuring Joe Camilleri on saxophone) to a poignant piano ballad about prison life, "Four Walls". The cover art showed Barnes reclined in a bathtub wearing a [[kamikaze]] bandanna in a room littered with junk and was inspired by [[Jacques-Louis David]]'s 1793 painting ''[[The Death of Marat]]''.<ref name="Nimmervoll"/> The Ian Moss-penned "Never Before" was chosen as the first song to air on the ABC's youth radio station, [[Triple J]], when it switched to the [[FM broadcasting|FM]] band that year. Supporting the release of ''East'', Cold Chisel embarked on the Youth in Asia Tour from May 1980, which took its name from a lyric in "Star Hotel".

In late 1980, the [[Aboriginal Australian|Aboriginal]] rock reggae band [[No Fixed Address (band)|No Fixed Address]] supported the band on its Summer Offensive tour to the east coast, with the final concert on 20 December at the [[University of Adelaide]].<ref name=alpacalane>{{cite web | title=No Fixed Address Lane |series= City of Music Laneways | website=Alpaca Travel | url=https://maps.cityofadelaide.com.au/journey/f2104481-59df-11eb-96fe-067ec0c7e8f4/default/journeymapfeature:9fa2a08e-59e0-11eb-96fe-067ec0c7e8f4/info | access-date=22 April 2021|format= Includes map}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Gig History 1980's | website=Cold Chisel | date=31 October 2019 | url=http://www.coldchisel.com/gig-history-1980s/ | access-date=22 April 2021}}</ref>