Former Cold Chisel manager Rod Willis explains the secret of their success

"Because they had songs," Willis says.

"I can't get away from that. People would say to me 'what's the secret ingredient?'. With great bands, to be brutally honest it's got to be songs."

Willis has documented his decades as Cold Chisel's manager in his new book Ringside, which also touches on his own upbringing and early music career as someone behind the scenes rather than on the stage.

Read more: Port Kembla skate park plans to get rolling

The obvious explanation for the title of the book comes from the 2003 Chisel shows of that name, when they performed on a rotating stage at the Hordern Pavilion in front of smaller crowds. But Willis recognised it was also a reflection of his own life in music - he was always standing ringside rather than being in the thick of it.

That started in high school via a mate who lived across the road in the North Shore suburb of Roseville.

"He was a musician and when the surf craze came in he formed a band with his mates at Chatswood High School and they'd play surf music," Willis says.

"They played up at the St Ives Masonic Hall. There were lots of girls up there. I used to help carry the gear in as the quasi-roadie because then the girls would see me as being part of the band."

Musically, Willis was a fan from an early age - he wagged school to see The Beatles during their 1964 Australian tour, then caught The Rolling Stones shortly after that.

The love of music saw him spend the 550 pounds he'd saved while working for his stepfather at 18 on a plane ticket to England.

"This desire just built up to be able to see really what was going on, because we were just this big island stuck down the bottom of the globe and everything was happening in England," Willis says.

"My parents surprisingly actually said 'okay you can go'. I think they only thought I was going for two years but it lasted 11 years."

That time was spent checking out bands and working as a roadie before stepping up to be a tour manager. When he returned home, he decided to climb to the next rung on the ladder - a band manager.

And he soon decided on his target - Cold Chisel.

"I really believed from seeing them the first time they had amazing potential," he says.

"I was questioning myself because the first time I saw them there were three women dancing in the middle of this dingy nightclub in Sydney's Chinatown. I thought the band was absolutely amazing but I couldn't understand where were all the trainspotters? Where were the suits? Where were the fans?"

The industry wasn't interested in Cold Chisel at the time. The band had parted ways with plenty of managers in the past - no-one wanted anything to do with them. Except Willis - who signed a three-year contract and never signed another for the 32 years he was with Chisel.

While Willis has included a lot of detail about his pre-Chisel years in Ringside, he said that was more for his children and grandchildren. When it came to the general public, he knew they'd only be interested once Cold Chisel appeared in the pages.

"I've been in the business of marketing - that's what I basically do as part of my management," he said.

"So I realised that if I was going to do a real book that obviously Chisel's the selling point. That's the gold."

For a sizeable chunk of the 32 years of managing Cold Chisel, there wasn't really a band to manage. They split up in 1983 and didn't reform until 14 years later in 1997. During that time, Willis was keeping the band's name in the spotlight - releasing various live and compilation albums.

Surprisingly for a band that didn't exist, those albums went into the top 10 and reached multi-platinum status.

"When the band broke up in '83 I could see where Jim was going. and I could see that he was going to make a successful transition into his solo career," Willis says.

"I had invested five years in Cold Chisel and I really believed in them and I'd seen the end and was very disappointed. In a way it wasn't really even to keep the thing going for the other guys, it was also a bit to do with my own ego - 'I'm gonna keep this band alive'.

"I don't think there was anything like thinking these guys are going to get back together 10 years down the line. So I took it on myself to keep the brand alive and I managed to keep it together for about 13-14 years without the band reforming."

The band members all knew Willis was writing a book; Walker even encouraged him to do it himself rather than bring in a writer. Willis said they never asked to see in advance what he was writing or wanted him to leave things out - quite the opposite. Jimmy Barnes reportedly told someone that he hoped Willis "puts all the dirt in".

He met up with the members at a recent 50^th anniversary of the band, telling them the books would be in their mailboxes on the Monday.

"So Monday morning came, I didn't hear anything. It's about midday - still haven't heard anything.

"Probably around three o'clock the phone rings and it's Jimmy going 'I f---ing love the book' and then there was Mossy sending a selfie of himself pointing at the book. They've just been so supportive of me and the book."

Ringside by Rod Willis is published by Allen & Unwin.

Our news app has had a makeover, making it faster and giving you access to even more great content. Download The Illawarra Mercury news app in the Apple Store and Google Play.