A leap into rare air for Paul Kelly after 50 years, with debut arena tour
At 69, it’s tricky for Paul Kelly to find firsts – but next year, the ARIA Hall of Fame-inducted artist will do something he’s never done before.
In a performance career now spanning 50 years, it’s tricky for Paul Kelly to find firsts: his character-filled songs are so entwined with the national psyche that they’re observed and appreciated with the consistency of sunsets.
Yet next year, the ARIA Hall of Fame-inducted artist will do something he’s never done before: play a series of arena shows that will form the largest venues he’s ever headlined in this country.
“I like to keep trying different things; it’s probably been a mark of what I’ve done over the years,” Kelly, 69, told The Australian. “It’s not like I wake up one morning and say, ‘I’ve got to play arenas!’
“It’s a team thing: our agents and management saying ‘I reckon you should do this, let’s try it’, and me saying, ‘Yeah, OK – I haven’t done this before, let’s see how this works’. It’s a little bit nerve-racking; it’s an unpredictable time in music, so you just hope it all goes well.”
The singer-songwriter’s nervy first gig took place in 1974, on a Monday night in a Hobart folk club, and the nascent showman was so relieved with having overcome the debut that he sank more than a few drinks afterwards.
Among the setlist that night in the Tasmanian capital was a Bob Dylan cover, and in a strange turn of fortune, decades later he was picked as a support act on Dylan’s tour of Australian arenas in 2001, and then again in 2011.
In 2009, Kelly was enlisted to support another songwriting great: Leonard Cohen, on his tour of large venues indoor and outdoor.
“Both of them, in very different ways, made those arenas very intimate,” said Kelly.
“I know I’ve got songs that have got a ‘bigness’ to them – in terms of energy, guitars, bass and drums – but I also have a lot of more intimate, storytelling, hushed kind of songs. Leonard and Bob showed that can be done, so I’ll be keeping them in mind.”
The tour announcement comes ahead of Kelly’s 29th album, titled Fever Longing Still, which will be released on November 1 via EMI Music.
Starting in Perth’s RAC Arena on August 26 and ending in Melbourne at Rod Laver Arena on September 6, the six-city run – presented by Frontier Touring – will mark Kelly’s only Australian concerts for 2025.
Supporting him on these dates will be six-time Grammy Award-winning US singer-songwriter Jason Isbell and his band the 400 Unit.
Joining as tour opener will be ARIA and Golden Guitar Award-winning NSW country singer-songwriter Fanny Lumsden, with whom Kelly has toured previously, including a run of shows booked and played on the fly in 2021 amid Covid border closures.
“We actually couldn’t get all the shows done that we had booked with her, so it felt a little bit like unfinished business with Fanny,” said Kelly. “She has a great connection with the audience, she’s fun, and she’s got great songs, too, so I thought she really makes up the trio of acts pretty well.”
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