00:00:00
Speaker 1: It is always a delight and a thrill to speak to. My next guest, the Great Paul Kelly, has written a new song and a new album that is the sequel to the classic How to Make Gravy. It is called Rita wrote a letter. It's on the new album seventy, which will be released on the seventh of November. He joins me, the Great Paul Kelly. Welcome, lovely to have you on, Paul.
00:00:20
Speaker 2: Thanks, how you going?
00:00:21
Speaker 1: I'm very well, thank you. Nice work on the song. Excellent work on the song. Thirty years on.
00:00:28
Speaker 2: Yes, I've been wanting to write a sickle for a little while. I always thought readers should have a bit more saying. It only gets mentioned in passing and the first song.
00:00:39
Speaker 1: Well, it's interesting, isn't it, because we meet Dan and Joe and Rita. One of Australia's most beloved songs in How to Make Gravy the unconventional Christmas song if you like. But then you don't just leave it as a song. It's actually they're real characters and it's a real story. Was it something you've been thinking about over those three decades or more recently, have you been thinking this needs another chapter? Story.
00:01:01
Speaker 2: No, not for three decades. I think more around about five or six years ago, I thought it would be great to write a song, you know, as a follow up featuring Retail. And then it's sort of I had just I wrote the title down about five years ago, reach wrote a letter of thought, that's a good title of the song, and it's just sort of been sitting there, which often happens. You know, often writes things down, phrases or lines or song titles, and they they just sleep for a while before they get a start.
00:01:33
Speaker 1: And you would have seen the media blitz Paul too. So many people are so excited the fact that you've continued this narrative.
00:01:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm never quite sure how song's going to land, you know, I know I thought, oh, maybe people are going to be upset, but Joe, Joe died. But you know, it's a song. It's a fun song to write. It's pretty playful. Fact is that though I've killed Joe off, he still won't stop talking. I mean, you still get talking out. Really got a bit more of a say in this song, but he's just in the course of and then that Joe's everywhere else.
00:02:07
Speaker 1: Well, I think it's terrific. I think it's going to be one of those songs, much like Gravy, that people will just love and it will resonate for a long time. It's not just a song for the now. I think this is going to be one that people will love in the future going forward to was it your idea? Was that the publishing company, your promotional team. I mean, we saw an article in the newspaper in the notice section, a commiseration message if you like, kind of the narrative to the story. That's a great bit of publicity and intrigue in Easter Egg for the Fians.
00:02:36
Speaker 2: Paul, I think I think it might have been you know, I don't know who put the noticing. I think it's could have been one of one of the great arts. It could have been Winifred or rab They like to be a pretty old school. They get the newspaper and course with the classifies and death notice of each day, so maybe they did well.
00:02:57
Speaker 1: Whoever did, hats off to you because it at the start, you know, Dan and Rita Stella, Roger Mary Angus, Frank Dolly, So go okay, this is a traditional death notice. Then all of a sudden He's mentions of Gravy and Junior Mervyn and the rest, which is so I love that. That's a nice little thing for fans I think to get very excited about that. They know something's coming. So the film clip itself too to the song Riada wrote a letter is excellent with Justin Clark, one of Australia's favorites. You in there as well. That's a great narrative and a great addition to the song and the story.
00:03:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, directed by Imogen mcclasky as Sydney director. And you know that was to sort of make a video where you sort of visit sort of a member. I've seen memoi between the two worlds, Yes, death and life and yes beautiful. We don't really happy with it.
00:03:50
Speaker 1: The new album seventy is released on the seventh of November. You turn seventy in January. First, before we talk about the album, the cover itself the two photographs of you, a young Paul Kelly and today's Paul Kelly.
00:04:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd like to sort of alternate or covers, the photographic cover or graphic covers.
00:04:11
Speaker 1: You know.
00:04:11
Speaker 2: The last the last cover was more and more of just you know, no photos of me or the band just just desire the graphic more of a graphic color.
00:04:20
Speaker 1: Yep.
00:04:21
Speaker 2: I want to start with a photo this time, and then I've got just have a full, you know of a close up, close up, straight ahead portrait. And we decided to make the new the new photos match in the lighting and in the frame of the old fighters from thirty five years ago.
00:04:42
Speaker 1: Does seventy as an age sit.
00:04:44
Speaker 2: Well with you, Yeah, yeah, it's a it's a it's a kind of a it's a great number, seventy, and it's you know, it's a biblical number. It's a number that I guess it's sort of for a long time, it's been the expected span of a human life is seventy years. I know that's I guess that's changed. But it's it feels like a mark. It feels like a sort of a market. As you've reached seventy, I think you're a feel fortunate that I've you know, live the life thus far. And yeah, everything else is, you know, everything else is gravy.
00:05:22
Speaker 1: I guess everything else is gravy. The album itself, You've got so many great new songs on there, and I like that. It's it's a little different too. You know there's some poetry to music. There's a beautiful song about your granddaughter. So even with so many albums and great songs under your belt, there's always inspiration for new music. Yeah.
00:05:43
Speaker 2: I mean that's my main job, writing songs. So that's you know. I can managed to write several songs or half a dozen or ten songs every year. It's start to add up after a while and just matters they as they a pretty simple.
00:06:03
Speaker 1: We've always known you're a good guy, Paul Kelly, but I didn't realize quite how long the band's been together. I was reading that in the release. Pete's been with you for three decades, Dan and Bill for twenty. Even your newcomers in Cameron and Nash have been with you. What the best part of eighteen nineteen years.
00:06:20
Speaker 2: Yes, it's two thousand and seven. They're a newbies. Yeah. I love those guys. They're so well, they're just good people to be with. I think that's important when you're in a band and do a lot of travel together, you go to or get along and just we're still find each other, you know. Funny and if someone means to entertain ourselves. As Charlie watched, I said, being in a rock and roll band a lot of time waiting around, So it's good to have good people to be with, and not only musically. They're they're they're just so eclectic and they listened to a wide range of music. So every time I bring a song to them that I've got different colors to add and they always surprising ideas that come up with You.
00:07:07
Speaker 1: Would hear that musically too, when you've been around for so long. I mean, it's more than just a band, isn't it, when you've got that longevity.
00:07:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean they're going to have a band. You've got to have. I guess every writer wants to be surprised other than when they're writing or you know that. For me, there was a few stages writing the song is one thing, and then then take it to the band. I take it to the band, it's pretty pretty bare bones and they often say surprised, Now if the song turns out the way I hadn't thought it would, And that's that's what you're going to ask for.
00:07:39
Speaker 1: It's a perfect musical marriage. The Great Paul Kelly is my guest. The new album is called seventy and it's released on the seventh of November, Reta wrote a letter is the single which we will play in just one second. We get to see you, which is always exciting. Paul, You're coming back home here in Adelaide on the Entertainment Center on the fourth of September. Tickets from Frontier and from ticket Tech. You're playing the biggest arena tour around the country, so it'd be great to see you here in Adelaide again. Yeah.
00:08:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, really looking forward to us. We've got planning a good show for you all.
00:08:09
Speaker 1: One last question for you, and I'm sure you're excited about this. Your football team, Paul Kelly, is on fire. And if I can take you back to the last time you played the Grand Final at the MCG remember.
00:08:23
Speaker 2: Number twenty three Andrew McCowan ninety seven.
00:08:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, you got a little feeling about twenty twenty five for the Crows.
00:08:33
Speaker 2: Oh you never know, I mean, trying to keep a lid on it.
00:08:37
Speaker 1: It's kind of hard.
00:08:39
Speaker 2: I think. I think one thing you know that to be cautious about is that it might be much experienced, not much ex finals experience in the team compared to say, teams like the Cats and the Lions and the Pies. I've pay a lot more finals, but that group of players, but it'd be great. It's be great to techs and pull it off.
00:09:02
Speaker 1: And the number twenty three running around now goes well too. He may not be Andrew McLeod, but he's on the way. Isaac Rankin's a beauty.
00:09:10
Speaker 2: He's a beauty.
00:09:12
Speaker 1: Paul, you're the best. Congratulations on the new single, Congratulations on the new album. You know, it's always great to be able to listen to you, but to be able to see you and hear you at the same time, which we can. Fourth to September Entertainment Center, the great Paul Kelly on stage. Always lovely to have you on the show. Paul, thanks so much for your time.
00:09:30
Speaker 2: Pleasure.
00:09:30
Speaker 1: Great to catch up Paul Kelly. The new album seventy November seven, the show here in Adelaide. Fourth to September
Speaker 1: It is always a delight and a thrill to speak to. My next guest, the Great Paul Kelly, has written a new song and a new album that is the sequel to the classic How to Make Gravy. It is called Rita wrote a letter. It's on the new album seventy, which will be released on the seventh of November. He joins me, the Great Paul Kelly. Welcome, lovely to have you on, Paul.
00:00:20
Speaker 2: Thanks, how you going?
00:00:21
Speaker 1: I'm very well, thank you. Nice work on the song. Excellent work on the song. Thirty years on.
00:00:28
Speaker 2: Yes, I've been wanting to write a sickle for a little while. I always thought readers should have a bit more saying. It only gets mentioned in passing and the first song.
00:00:39
Speaker 1: Well, it's interesting, isn't it, because we meet Dan and Joe and Rita. One of Australia's most beloved songs in How to Make Gravy the unconventional Christmas song if you like. But then you don't just leave it as a song. It's actually they're real characters and it's a real story. Was it something you've been thinking about over those three decades or more recently, have you been thinking this needs another chapter? Story.
00:01:01
Speaker 2: No, not for three decades. I think more around about five or six years ago, I thought it would be great to write a song, you know, as a follow up featuring Retail. And then it's sort of I had just I wrote the title down about five years ago, reach wrote a letter of thought, that's a good title of the song, and it's just sort of been sitting there, which often happens. You know, often writes things down, phrases or lines or song titles, and they they just sleep for a while before they get a start.
00:01:33
Speaker 1: And you would have seen the media blitz Paul too. So many people are so excited the fact that you've continued this narrative.
00:01:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm never quite sure how song's going to land, you know, I know I thought, oh, maybe people are going to be upset, but Joe, Joe died. But you know, it's a song. It's a fun song to write. It's pretty playful. Fact is that though I've killed Joe off, he still won't stop talking. I mean, you still get talking out. Really got a bit more of a say in this song, but he's just in the course of and then that Joe's everywhere else.
00:02:07
Speaker 1: Well, I think it's terrific. I think it's going to be one of those songs, much like Gravy, that people will just love and it will resonate for a long time. It's not just a song for the now. I think this is going to be one that people will love in the future going forward to was it your idea? Was that the publishing company, your promotional team. I mean, we saw an article in the newspaper in the notice section, a commiseration message if you like, kind of the narrative to the story. That's a great bit of publicity and intrigue in Easter Egg for the Fians.
00:02:36
Speaker 2: Paul, I think I think it might have been you know, I don't know who put the noticing. I think it's could have been one of one of the great arts. It could have been Winifred or rab They like to be a pretty old school. They get the newspaper and course with the classifies and death notice of each day, so maybe they did well.
00:02:57
Speaker 1: Whoever did, hats off to you because it at the start, you know, Dan and Rita Stella, Roger Mary Angus, Frank Dolly, So go okay, this is a traditional death notice. Then all of a sudden He's mentions of Gravy and Junior Mervyn and the rest, which is so I love that. That's a nice little thing for fans I think to get very excited about that. They know something's coming. So the film clip itself too to the song Riada wrote a letter is excellent with Justin Clark, one of Australia's favorites. You in there as well. That's a great narrative and a great addition to the song and the story.
00:03:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, directed by Imogen mcclasky as Sydney director. And you know that was to sort of make a video where you sort of visit sort of a member. I've seen memoi between the two worlds, Yes, death and life and yes beautiful. We don't really happy with it.
00:03:50
Speaker 1: The new album seventy is released on the seventh of November. You turn seventy in January. First, before we talk about the album, the cover itself the two photographs of you, a young Paul Kelly and today's Paul Kelly.
00:04:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd like to sort of alternate or covers, the photographic cover or graphic covers.
00:04:11
Speaker 1: You know.
00:04:11
Speaker 2: The last the last cover was more and more of just you know, no photos of me or the band just just desire the graphic more of a graphic color.
00:04:20
Speaker 1: Yep.
00:04:21
Speaker 2: I want to start with a photo this time, and then I've got just have a full, you know of a close up, close up, straight ahead portrait. And we decided to make the new the new photos match in the lighting and in the frame of the old fighters from thirty five years ago.
00:04:42
Speaker 1: Does seventy as an age sit.
00:04:44
Speaker 2: Well with you, Yeah, yeah, it's a it's a it's a kind of a it's a great number, seventy, and it's you know, it's a biblical number. It's a number that I guess it's sort of for a long time, it's been the expected span of a human life is seventy years. I know that's I guess that's changed. But it's it feels like a mark. It feels like a sort of a market. As you've reached seventy, I think you're a feel fortunate that I've you know, live the life thus far. And yeah, everything else is, you know, everything else is gravy.
00:05:22
Speaker 1: I guess everything else is gravy. The album itself, You've got so many great new songs on there, and I like that. It's it's a little different too. You know there's some poetry to music. There's a beautiful song about your granddaughter. So even with so many albums and great songs under your belt, there's always inspiration for new music. Yeah.
00:05:43
Speaker 2: I mean that's my main job, writing songs. So that's you know. I can managed to write several songs or half a dozen or ten songs every year. It's start to add up after a while and just matters they as they a pretty simple.
00:06:03
Speaker 1: We've always known you're a good guy, Paul Kelly, but I didn't realize quite how long the band's been together. I was reading that in the release. Pete's been with you for three decades, Dan and Bill for twenty. Even your newcomers in Cameron and Nash have been with you. What the best part of eighteen nineteen years.
00:06:20
Speaker 2: Yes, it's two thousand and seven. They're a newbies. Yeah. I love those guys. They're so well, they're just good people to be with. I think that's important when you're in a band and do a lot of travel together, you go to or get along and just we're still find each other, you know. Funny and if someone means to entertain ourselves. As Charlie watched, I said, being in a rock and roll band a lot of time waiting around, So it's good to have good people to be with, and not only musically. They're they're they're just so eclectic and they listened to a wide range of music. So every time I bring a song to them that I've got different colors to add and they always surprising ideas that come up with You.
00:07:07
Speaker 1: Would hear that musically too, when you've been around for so long. I mean, it's more than just a band, isn't it, when you've got that longevity.
00:07:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean they're going to have a band. You've got to have. I guess every writer wants to be surprised other than when they're writing or you know that. For me, there was a few stages writing the song is one thing, and then then take it to the band. I take it to the band, it's pretty pretty bare bones and they often say surprised, Now if the song turns out the way I hadn't thought it would, And that's that's what you're going to ask for.
00:07:39
Speaker 1: It's a perfect musical marriage. The Great Paul Kelly is my guest. The new album is called seventy and it's released on the seventh of November, Reta wrote a letter is the single which we will play in just one second. We get to see you, which is always exciting. Paul, You're coming back home here in Adelaide on the Entertainment Center on the fourth of September. Tickets from Frontier and from ticket Tech. You're playing the biggest arena tour around the country, so it'd be great to see you here in Adelaide again. Yeah.
00:08:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, really looking forward to us. We've got planning a good show for you all.
00:08:09
Speaker 1: One last question for you, and I'm sure you're excited about this. Your football team, Paul Kelly, is on fire. And if I can take you back to the last time you played the Grand Final at the MCG remember.
00:08:23
Speaker 2: Number twenty three Andrew McCowan ninety seven.
00:08:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, you got a little feeling about twenty twenty five for the Crows.
00:08:33
Speaker 2: Oh you never know, I mean, trying to keep a lid on it.
00:08:37
Speaker 1: It's kind of hard.
00:08:39
Speaker 2: I think. I think one thing you know that to be cautious about is that it might be much experienced, not much ex finals experience in the team compared to say, teams like the Cats and the Lions and the Pies. I've pay a lot more finals, but that group of players, but it'd be great. It's be great to techs and pull it off.
00:09:02
Speaker 1: And the number twenty three running around now goes well too. He may not be Andrew McLeod, but he's on the way. Isaac Rankin's a beauty.
00:09:10
Speaker 2: He's a beauty.
00:09:12
Speaker 1: Paul, you're the best. Congratulations on the new single, Congratulations on the new album. You know, it's always great to be able to listen to you, but to be able to see you and hear you at the same time, which we can. Fourth to September Entertainment Center, the great Paul Kelly on stage. Always lovely to have you on the show. Paul, thanks so much for your time.
00:09:30
Speaker 2: Pleasure.
00:09:30
Speaker 1: Great to catch up Paul Kelly. The new album seventy November seven, the show here in Adelaide. Fourth to September
