1973–1984: Cold Chisel In September 1973, Moss, on guitar and lead vocals, formed a rock group, Orange, in Adelaide with
Don Walker, a songwriter and
organist, and Leszek Kaczmarek on bass guitar. Within months the line-up included
Steve Prestwich on drums and
Jimmy Barnes on lead vocals, and they were renamed,
Cold Chisel. After periods spent in Adelaide,
Armidale and Melbourne, Cold Chisel eventually settled in Sydney in mid-1977 and signed a recording contract with
WEA late that year. Moss's vocals feature on some of the band's best known songs, including the singles "
My Baby" (August 1980), "
When the War Is Over" (1982), and "
Saturday Night" (March 1984) and on
Circus Animals (March 1982) album track, "Bow River". Moss wrote "Bow River" about a
cattle station in the Kimberley region of Western Australia where his brother, Peter, had once worked; it has since become Moss's signature tune. It was also the B-side of "
Forever Now", which was released in the same month as the album. Moss sang lead on the group's version of "
Georgia On My Mind" which became a staple of their live shows, although their only recording is on the 1984 live album,
Barking Spiders Live: 1983. Their fifth studio album,
Twentieth Century, was issued in April 1984 with two tracks, "Saturday Night" and "Janelle", featuring Moss on lead vocals. for
East (June 1980), the track was the first one aired by national radio station
Triple J when it switched from AM to FM in 1980. Another Moss-written track is "No Good for You" on
Circus Animals. He also worked as a session musician for other artists, During 1988 Moss worked in Los Angeles for nine months preparing material for his debut album,
Matchbook. Moss's second single, "
Telephone Booth", was issued in June-1989 and reached number seven on the ARIA Singles Chart, and top 30 in New Zealand. In New Zealand it reached the top 20 on the albums chart. Australian musicologist,
Ian McFarlane, found the album displayed Moss's "exemplary, controlled guitar technique, but also highlighted his soulful voice ... [he] handled all lead vocals with considerable style and authority". At the
ARIA Music Awards of 1990 Moss won five categories
Album of the Year,
Best Male Artist and
Breakthrough Artist – Album for
Matchbook; and
Single of the Year and Breakthrough Artist – Single for "Tucker's Daughter". His touring band in support of
Matchbook consisted of Ian Belton on bass guitar (ex-
QED), Guy Le Claire on rhythm guitar(Mar-Sept 1989)(ex-
Eurogliders), Randy Bulpin on rhythm guitar (ex-
Mondo Rock), Danny D'Costa on keyboards, Steve Fearnley on drums and Mark Williams and Mary Azzopardi on backing vocals. In October 1991 Moss released his second album,
Worlds Away, which featured "songs largely co-written with Don Walker in the soul/R&B vein". Also that year Moss played in Don Walker's band Catfish, contributing guitar to their album,
Ruby. Subsequently, he made guest appearances on albums by
The Black Sorrows'
Better Times (1992) on a track called "Ain't Love the Strangest Thing", Richard Clapton's
Distant Thunder (1993), on Barnes' solo album,
Heat (1993), In
1993 Cold Chisel, with Moss as a member, were inducted into the
ARIA Hall of Fame.
1997–2004: Cold Chisel reunion From October 1997 to June 1998 Cold Chisel reunited to record a new studio album,
The Last Wave of Summer (October 1998), and subsequently toured. it was an acoustic album and included material from his time with Cold Chisel, his solo releases and cover versions of
Jimi Hendrix and
Creedence Clearwater Revival tracks. To support the release Moss undertook an extensive joint tour of Australia co-headlining with
Jon Stevens (ex-
Noiseworks,
INXS). Moss's next album, ''
Let's All Get Together'', was released in July 2007 on his own label, Mosstrooper (distributed by Liberation). It contained acoustic cover versions of Cold Chisel tracks and material written by Moss and/or his former band mates Walker, Prestwich and Small. The album reached the top 50 on the ARIA Albums Chart in October. Moss travelled to New York in August 2008 to record his next album,
Soul on West 53rd, which is a collection of mainly soul songs from the 1960s and 1970s. It was produced by Danny Korthmar, It was released in October 2009 and peaked in the top 40 in Australia. Antonios Sarhanis at Anagrammatically Correct felt it was a "good collection of covers, but why bother when the better originals are so freely available?". In December 2009 Cold Chisel reconvened for a gig at
Stadium Australia. In October 2010 Cold Chisel appeared at the
Deni ute muster. Alongside their old work they premiered new material and announced they were working on another studio album. Recording of Cold Chisel's album,
No Plans, was disrupted when Steven Prestwich was diagnosed with a brain tumour and died on 16 January 2011, aged 56. In October the group replaced Prestwich with former
Divinyls drummer,
Charley Drayton, and the album was issued in April 2012. Aside from lead guitar and backing vocals, Moss provided lead vocals on two tracks, "Too Late" and "Summer Moon". Cold Chisel supported the release with a national tour and then, in June, with performances in London. In 2012 he made a guest appearance on the TV soap opera,
Neighbours, playing a gig at Charlie's Bar. The episode was broadcast in the United Kingdom in October. In May that year
Australian Guitar magazine listed Moss at number-three on their Definitive Top Ten Australian Guitarists of All Time. In January 2013 Moss, as a solo artist, joined the Red Hot Summer Tour, headlining that tour was Barnes. During June Cold Chisel announced they were in a recording studio. In March 2018, Moss released
Ian Moss, his first solo album of all original material in 22 years. The album peaked at number 11 on the ARIA Charts. ==Personal life==