One of Australia's greatest rockers has sold out two intimate shows in Newcastle | poll

Barnes will play Lizotte’s in Newcastle on September 12  and September 13.

Barnes has had 15 Top 40 albums with Cold Chisel and 15 charting solo albums – including 10 Number Ones – and holds the record for the most hit albums of any Australian artist. Cold Chisel’s farewell tour, The Last Stand, is still the highest grossing concert series by an Australian band ever.

Last time Barnes played at Lizotte's Dee Why, Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman even rocked up. Urban joined Barnes on stage for several songs including the Cold Chisel classic, Flame Trees. 

“Every time Jimmy has gone on sale at Lizotte's we have sold out faster than a thirsty man can drink a beer,” Lizotte’s owner Brian Lizotte said. 

Barnes sold out his last two dates at Lizotte’s in May 2012 within hours of the pre-sale offer to Lizotte’s mailing list. 

Price was no barrier again, with tickets for the September dates at $135 for bar seating and $195 with dinner included.

A spokesperson for the venue said they were exploring additional dates for Barnes due to ticket demand. 

Barnes is  promoting his new album, Soul Searchin', which marks 25 years since Soul Deep, his most successful LP.

In recent years, Barnes also made an album with Cold Chisel and finished a national tour with them - probably their last full tour. He has made an album with the Wiggles and written children's books. He has also played a steady stream of solo dates with his own band.

Somewhere in there, Barnes went on a road trip through the southern United States with producer Kevin Shirley and DJ-photographer Pierre Baroni. It was a pilgrimage through the legendary musical sites of Nashville and Memphis.

The Soul Searchin' album is a collection of mostly obscure R&B songs. Much of the recording was done with "the Memphis Boys", a group of legendary session players who cut some of the greatest records of the 1960s.

When Barnes recorded the heartbreaking country-soul classic The Dark End of the Street, its songwriter Dan Penn was present and added backing vocals. Steve Cropper, guitar virtuoso who played on hits by Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin and countless others, was also available for Barnes' sessions.

"It all just fell together," says Barnes. "It was great to rediscover that southern laid-back style. They know how to sit back in the song and give the singer room to move." Barnes also appreciated the old-school work ethic of completing three songs in a session. "They said they hadn't done that since Elvis had been there. I think that's the way great records are made. I do two takes, three takes and that's usually it."

His autobiography, Working Class Boy is published by HarperCollins on September 19.

Here’s review of that May 2012 Barnesy show at Lizotte’s in Newcastle:

Biblical proportions

REVIEW LIVE

Jimmy Barnes

Lizotte’s Newcastle

May 8, 2012

REVIEW By JIM KELLAR  

HE started with gospel and ended with Elvis, but the two hours in between was a hefty helping of pure Jimmy Barnes.

Although Cold Chisel has picked up the tools and toured recently with a renewed gusto, this wasn't a show for those fans. Rather, this was Jimmy in retrospective mode, picking and choosing an array of old favourites that were not mainstream Chisel-flavoured tunes.

Barnes kicked off with Wade in the Water, a 111-year-old gospel classic that trumpeted the talents of Lachy Doley on keyboards, Mahalia Barnes on vocals and son-in-law Ben Rodgers on lead guitar.

"I thought 'I'm going to start off church-like because I swore so f - - - ing much last night," Barnes told the crowd.

He sang his only song from Chisel's new No Plan album, Missing A Girl, before reeling off a string of songs from his own 1993 long-player Flesh and Wood, including It Will Be Alright, Let It Go and Brother of Mine.

The night peaked with Still On Your Side with Barnes reaching his highest emotional note of the gig.

The fire stayed hot as he followed with an infectious version of The Weight (sharing the vocals), the bluesy Guilty with just Barnes and Doley on keyboards, and a classic rendition of Flame Trees.

Although Flame Trees was not penned by Barnes (Don Walker and Steve Prestwich wrote it), he owns it musically. From the opening line, "Kids out drivin' Saturday afternoon, just pass me by" the audience was locked in for the journey. The biggest round of applause of the night followed as Barnes and the band rolled straight into a funky version of the classic Resurrection Shuffle.

While the house was subdued for the finish, Catch Your Shadow, the encore must have satisfied whatever hunger was left for a piece of Barnesy. When The War Is Over, written by Prestwich and a huge hit for Chisel, featured Mahalia Barnes opening with Jimmy joining in and taking over.

The encore finished with an impromptu version of Just Seventeen and Love Me Tender.

He may be 56, but he's still got plenty of mileage left in those lungs. A pro at timing, he knows when to let the band go on a run and how to stir the punters at the right moment.