News

Paul Kelly: Box Set Release and London Dates

• 1st Aug 2011

The inimitable Australian singer Paul Kelly releases a stunningly original retrospective of his career to date in August. Comprised of 100 of his songs performed across 4 nights, ‘The A-Z Recordings’ is an exhaustive 8-disc set that provides a key insight into how this most fertile of musical minds works, beginning with ‘Adelaide’ and following all the way through to ‘Zoe’.

To launch the collection, Paul will set up his stall at London ’s Bush Hall for 4 consecutive dates, from 30 August to 2 September, over which he’ll play a total of 100 songs in an exquisitely intimate setting.

‘The A-Z Recordings’ started life in 2004 as a series of 4 shows, during which Paul would play 100 songs from across his ongoing 30-year career in alphabetical order, 25 songs per night. The idea was to perform the songs “undressed, in many cases close to how they sounded when they were first written, before being arranged with a band.”

Yet in the process of having to re-learn, perform and re-evaluate each song, Paul found himself talking about the music and the context behind each piece. With an eye to providing some notes for an eventual collection, Paul wrote and wrote and wrote; the next thing he knew he had completed ‘How To Make Gravy’, a memoir – or “mongrel memoir” as he calls it – which was published last year. ‘The A-Z Recordings’ is the musical document of that process, with each night’s performance – minus the talking – spread across two CDs.

Paul Kelly is one of Australia ’s most prolific and important artists. Whether solo or with one of his many groups – including the Dots, the Coloured Girls and the Messengers – Paul has been creating snapshots of Australian life since his debut back in 1981. A searingly truthful, yet tuneful, songwriter in the mould of Elvis Costello or Ron Sexsmith, he is notable as much for his lyricism – which can be caustic and emotional or wryly humourous – as for his varied musicianship which draws from folk, rock, bluegrass, electronica and dub reggae.

A veteran of 25 albums – with his latest ‘Stolen Apples’ released in 2007 – Paul has won 8 ARIAS and been inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1997. Two of his songs are in the APRA’s Top 30 Australian Songs Of All Time – his biggest selling single ‘To Her Door’ and ‘Treaty’, which he co-wrote and performed with Indigenous band Yothu Yindi.

‘The A-Z Recordings’ is presented as a lavishly compiled hardback book. Made up of rarely seen photographs and quotes from ‘How To Make Gravy’ it is a truly staggering body of work from an artist whose muse is as restless today as it ever was.