Special Guest Artist Nick Kelly returns to “At Last, The 1989 Show!” in The Odessa Club on May 8th 2008

Critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Nick Kelly returns as our musical guest for the first “At Last, The 1989 Show” in The Screening Room at The Odessa Club on Thursday May 8th, 2008. The following is adapted from Nick Kelly’s own web site www.nickkelly.ie.

The Fat Lady Sings

Nick Kelly founded his band “The Fat lady Sings” in Dublin in 1986. Operating from London, they quickly began to garner plaudits from critics on both sides of the Irish Sea. Between 1986 and 1989 they released four independent singles: “Fear And Favour” on Good Vibrations, “Be Still” on Harbour Sound, and “Arclight” and “Dronning Maud Land” on the band’s own Fourth Base Records.

The reaction to these four songs, and the enormous fan base that The Fat Lady Sings built up through touring, led to their signing a major record deal with East West/Atlantic Records in 1989, and to Kelly being signed as a songwriter by Island Music.

In 1991, The Fat Lady Sings released their debut album “Twist” on East West Records to widespread acclaim. “Twist” performed well in the British and Irish charts and also provided the band with their first American success when the single “Man Scared” entered the U.S. Alternative Charts.

In 1993 the band’s second album, “Johnson”, was released to further praise, and the single “Drunkard Logic” provided The Fat Lady Sings with their highest ever U.K. Chart placing.

In January 1994, following an extensive and successful U.S. tour, Nick Kelly announced that he had decided to split The Fat Lady Sings.

Nick’s Solo Career

For 18 months after he split The Fat Lady Sings, nothing was heard from Nick. Then in mid-1995 Kelly began playing low-key live shows in Britain, Ireland, New York and Tokyo. These acoustic sets, composed exclusively of previously unheard and unrecorded songs written by Kelly during his eighteen months of self-imposed exile from the music business, were greeted in rapturous terms by fans and critics alike. Kevin Courtney, writing in the Irish Times, raved about Kelly’s

“Luminous lyrics and bright, blazing vision”,

and Hot Press writer John Walshe concluded his Christmas issue review of 1995 by eulogising Kelly’s return to the live arena, describing him as

“A god, a songwriter of such passion and beauty as to transcend mortality”.

In June 1996, Sinéad O’Connor invited Kelly to accompany her in a special performance of one of his new songs, “Republic”, at a state reception hosted by visiting Czech President Vaclav Havel for President Mary Robinson in Johnny Fox’s pub in Kilternan.

In January 1997, Kelly released a debut solo album, “Between Trapezes”, in Ireland on his own Self Possessed label. The record was deliberately funded without recourse to conventional music business sources, the initial pressing costs being met by 260 of Kelly’s fans who agreed to act as sponsors of the project. The reaction of the Irish media was unanimously and extraordinarily positive. In May 1997 the album was released in the U.K., once again to exceptional critical reaction.

“Between Trapezes” was voted “Debut Album Of The Year” by the readers of Hot Press Magazine in their annual poll. Early in 1998 “Between Trapezes” was released in Sweden (on the Showtime label) and in the US (on Lunch Records). In March 1998 Nick embarked upon a very well received mini-tour of the U.S., including dates in New York, Boston, Chicago and a showcase at the prestigious South By South-West Musicfest in Austin, Texas.

In April 1998, Nick was granted the accolade of “Best Solo Male Artist” by Irish music critics at Ireland’s most important music awards, defeating Van Morrison, Christy Moore, Paul Brady and Jack L for the accolade (Nick was also nominated in the ‘Best Album’ and ‘Best Songwriter’ categories).

(Nick was also nominated in the ‘Best Album’ and ‘Best Songwriter’ categories.)

Over the next few years, Nick kept writing and performed live intermittently (often playing new songs at secret gigs only advertised to mailing list members). However it was not until January 2005 that Nick finally released the long overdue follow-up to ‘Between Trapezes’, ‘Running Dog’, once again to overwhelmingly positive critical acclaim. In February 2006, “Running Dog” was nominated as one of the 10 best Irish albums of 2005 at the inaugral Choice Music Prize Irish critics awards.

Having always had an interest in other forms of creative expression, Nick has spent much of his time pursuing these alternative interests when not writing and performing music.

In 1995 his short story “Expect Jail” was a winner of the Ian St James Awards, the largest UK awards for short fiction.

Nick’s Other Stuff

Having stumbled into writing advertising scripts following the break-up of The Fat Lady Sings, Nick has been responsible for the creation of major TV commercials for many of the largest and most prestigious brands in Ireland, including four global spots for Guinness. Nick’s advertising work has won numerous creative and ad effectiveness awards, including a Clio Award (the advertising equivalent of an Oscar) for his Guinness spot “Tom Crean” in 2003. He also wrote the Guinness “Quarrel” advertisement which featured the late Mic Christopher’s posthumous hit “Heyday”.

Nick has dipped his toes into the world of broadcasting, deputising for DJ John Kelly on RTE Radio 1’s “Mystery Train” for a week each in 2002 and 2003.

Nick has also expanded the ambit of his Self Possessed Records label to release music by acts other than himself. In 1998, Nick released his friend (and, subsequently, producer) Sean Millar’s second solo album “The Deal” on Self Possessed. In 2001 Nick instigated and organised the recording of the 2 last evenings of Dublin�s best-loved songwriter night, run by Dave Murphy in the International Bar. The resulting CD, “Songs From A Small Room” featured exclusive live performances by the likes of Glen Hansard, Gemma Hayes, Mundy and Damian Dempsey, and also a new song written and performed specially by Nick to commemorate the night, “A Songwriter’s Prayer”. Nick also released this album on a not-for-profit basis on Self Possessed.

Nick wrote and directed his own first short film, “Delphine” in the summer of 2003. Writing in the Irish Times, Michael Dwyer sung “Delphine”’s praises, noting that “this witty vignette packs a sharp punchline”. “Delphine” ran before SCHOOL OF ROCK in 26 screens across Ireland, has been screened at festivals around Ireland and internationally. It was selected by Jameson for inclusion on their “Take 5” programme for screening at Irish and UK airports, and was nominated for Best Irish Short at the 2004 Irish Film and Television Awards. So far “Delphine” has been bought for broadcast by TV stations in Canada, France, Spain and Japan. You can see “Delphine” on Nick’s web site.

Nick’s latest adventure in the screen trade is as writer and director of another short movie, “Why The Irish Dance That Way”. This 5-minute film, commissioned jointly by the Arts Council and RTE as part of their “Dance On The Box” series, involved a collaboration with sean-nos dancer and choreographer Ronan O’Riagain. This humorous piece, set in a queue of would-be customers outside a rural post office, was initially broadcast by RTE in April 2006 and was screened at the prestigious Montreal World Film Festival in August 2006.