Paul Kelly

With special guest:

• Stuart Coupe
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

Paul Kelly is woven into the fabric of Australia. But it was not always so, as our guest today Stuart Coupe tells us. After first picking up a guitar at the age of 18 and writing his first song at 20, it did take a while and a number of rejections before Paul Kelly was accepted as a performer.

In his new book called Paul Kelly: the man, the music and the life in between, Stuart shows that he knows his subject well; so well that he can add this book to the canon on Paul Kelly’s life which already includes Paul Kelly’s lengthy autobiography.

It is exciting to delve into the good and the bad parts of Paul Kelly’s life. From a big and loving secure family, who were motivated on the big issues of the day, Paul has emerged on the national scene. He is our storyteller but he could also have been one of our favourite sportsmen if things had turned out differently. Paul showed a lot of ability in cricket, Australian Rules football and also tennis. All that Australian sporting life as well as a taste of University and hard manual labour has informed what he can tell us about ourselves.

Stuart does not shy away from the dark side of Paul Kelly’s life. He reveals for us the relationship breakdowns and drug abuse. But through it all Paul has attracted the best quality people to support him in his art. We hear about Paul’s current backing group called The Squad which includes the fabulous Vika and Linda Bull and in this person’s estimation Australia’s best rock guitarist, Ash Naylor.

We get to ask Stuart particularly about the effect of Paul’s family on his development. Stuart draws on his choice of a song for the program to give us some of the answers. In his song Adelaide, Paul Kelly talks about some of the big influences in his life including his father who tragically died at a young age and was never to see Paul’s success. Perhaps the sisters in Paul Kelly’s family gave him the insight to write songs so eagerly sought after by female artists such as Renee Geyer.

Paul’s special ability is to master so many different genres. He has produced books on his favourite poetry, collaborated with some of Australia’s finest jazz musicians, and written songs that are in the nature of folk music. The song he co-wrote with Kev Carmody, From Little Things Big Things Grow, has become almost an anthem for the hopes of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Stuart Coupe is often described as Australia’s best rock music journalist. In this book which is so wide ranging, and by turns informative and inspirational, we get to see why both his subject, Paul Kelly, and Stuart himself are so celebrated.

Stuart Coupe

Stuart Coupe is an author, music commentator, independent artist publicist and radio broadcaster who has been involved with music all his life. Amongst the books he has written, edited or collaborated on are The New Music (1980),The New Rock ‘n’ Roll(1983), The Promoters (2003), Gudinski (2015),Tex (2017) and Roadies (2018).

Song selection by our guest: Adelaide by Paul Kelly

Listen Now (mp3)