Cold Chisel's original drummer and co-founding member Steve Prestwich passed away in January from a brain tumour. He had been recording new material with the iconic Australian rock band.

Cold Chisel's songwriter Don Walker says in a statement:

"We'd already recorded a number of new songs with Steve prior to his passing. (...) Hopefully Charley can help us complete the work we began together. Steve was totally into everything we'd been planning for 2011 so while the last few months have been very difficult to deal with, we all feel that he would want us to complete the plans we made together."

No release date has been set for the recordings, which will their first new album since the 1998 reunion album 'The Last Wave of Summer'.

Cold Chisel also announced their entire back catalogue will be re-issued later in 2011, including being released digitally for the first time, with unreleased material.