Editing Cold Chisel (section)

===1981-1982: ''Swingshift'' to ''Circus Animals''===
The Youth in Asia Tour performances were used for Cold Chisel's double live album, ''[[Swingshift]]'' (March 1981).<ref name="McFarlane"/> Nimmervoll declared, "[the group] rammed what they were all about with [this album]."<ref name="Nimmervoll"/> In March 1981 the band won seven categories: Best Australian Album, Most Outstanding Achievement, Best Recorded Song Writer, Best Australian Producer, Best Australian Record Cover Design, Most Popular Group and Most Popular Record, at the ''Countdown''/''[[TV Week]]'' [[Australian pop music awards#1980|pop music awards for 1980]].<ref name="Warner"/><ref name="Kimball Count"/><ref name="Count1980"/> They attended the ceremony at the [[Sydney Entertainment Centre]] and were due to perform: however, as a protest against a TV magazine's involvement, they refused to accept any trophy and finished the night with "My Turn to Cry".<ref name="Warner"/><ref name="Kimball Count"/><ref name="Count1980"/> After one verse and chorus, they smashed up the set and left the stage.<ref name="Creswell Fabinyi"/>

''Swingshift'' debuted at No&nbsp;1,<ref name="McFarlane"/><ref name="Kent"/> which demonstrated their status as the highest-selling local act.<ref name="McFarlane"/><ref name="Nimmervoll"/> With a slightly different track listing, ''East'' was issued in the United States and they undertook their first US tour in mid-1981.<ref name="McFarlane"/><ref name="Nimmervoll"/> Ahead of the tour they had issued "My Baby" for the North America market and it reached the top&nbsp;40 on ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]''{{'}}s chart, [[Mainstream Rock (chart)|Mainstream Rock]].<ref name="Billb S"/> They were generally popular as a live act there, but the US branch of their label did little to promote the album.<ref name="Creswell"/> According to Barnes' biographer, [[Toby Creswell]], at one point they were ushered into an office to listen to the US master tape to find it had substantial hiss and other ambient noise,<ref name="Creswell"/> which made it almost unable to be released. Nevertheless, the album reached the lower region of the [[Billboard 200|''Billboard'' 200]] in July.<ref name="Billb A"/> The group were booed off stage after a lacklustre performance in [[Dayton, Ohio]] in May 1981 opening for [[Ted Nugent]]. Other support slots they took were for [[Cheap Trick]], [[Joe Walsh]], [[Heart (band)|Heart]] and [[the Marshall Tucker Band]].<ref name="McFarlane"/> European audiences were more accepting of the Australian band and they developed a fan base in Germany.

In August 1981 Cold Chisel began work on a fourth studio album, ''[[Circus Animals]]'' (March 1982), again with Opitz producing.<ref name="McFarlane"/><ref name="Holmgren"/> To launch the album, the band performed under a circus tent at [[Wentworth Park]] in Sydney and toured heavily once more, including a show in [[Darwin, Northern Territory|Darwin]] that attracted more than 10&nbsp;percent of the city's population.<ref name="Creswell Fabinyi"/> It peaked at No.&nbsp;1 in both Australia and on the [[Official New Zealand Music Chart]].<ref name="Kent"/><ref name="NZ Charts"/> In October 2010 it was listed at No.&nbsp;4 in the book ''[[100 Best Australian Albums]]'' by music journalists Creswell, [[Craig Mathieson]] and [[John O'Donnell (music journalist)|John O'Donnell]].<ref name="ODonnell"/>

Its lead single, "[[You Got Nothing I Want]]" (November 1981), is an aggressive Barnes-penned hard rock track, which attacked the US industry for its handling of the band on their recent tour.<ref name="Zupp Circus"/> The song caused problems for Barnes when he later attempted to break into the US market as a solo performer; senior music executives there continued to hold it against him. Like its predecessor, ''Circus Animals'' contained songs of contrasting styles, with harder-edged tracks like "Bow River" and "Hound Dog" beside more expansive ballads such as the next two singles, "[[Forever Now (Cold Chisel song)|Forever Now]]" (March 1982) and "[[When the War Is Over]]" (August), both written by Prestwich.<ref name="McFarlane"/><ref name="Nimmervoll"/><ref name="Zupp Circus"/> "Forever Now" is their highest-charting single in two [[Australasia]]n markets: No.&nbsp;4 on the Kent Music Report Singles Chart and No.&nbsp;2 on the Official New Zealand Music Chart.<ref name="Kent"/><ref name="NZ Charts"/>

"When the War Is Over" is the most-covered Cold Chisel track – [[Uriah Heep (band)|Uriah Heep]] included a version on their 1989 album, ''[[Raging Silence]]''; [[John Farnham]] recorded it while he and Prestwich were members of [[Little River Band]] in the mid-1980s and again for his 1988 solo album, ''[[Age of Reason (album)|Age of Reason]]''. The song was also a No.&nbsp;1 hit for former ''[[Australian Idol]]'' contestant [[Cosima De Vito]] in 2004 and was performed by [[Bobby Flynn]] during that show's 2006 season. "Forever Now" was covered, as a country [[waltz]], by Australian band [[the Reels]].