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Gimme 5: Joe Kelly

today18 December 2024 28 4

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Award Winning Local Legend Spills the Beans!

Tell us about the first song you wrote. Do you still play it?

I started songwriting in high school and those first few tunes escape me now! I do however remember staggering home from a night out in Meze, fumbling my way through Kings Road (probably waking up half of Chepstow Road) and being sat on my bedroom floor writing There You Go Again (quite possibly whilst in a sorry state the following day). Both of which have been solid staples of the live set ever since.

Imagine you're going to spend a year on a desert island and you can take only one band's entire catalogue of music to listen to. What will you choose?

The Beatles, every time. Dylan’s a close second but there’s much more variety in the Beatles back catalogue. You can go from Mother Nature’s Son to Helter Skelter in three moves!

 

What music was being played at home when you were a kid. Has it influenced your own style?

There was a lot of Irish folk music knocking about which I think had a huge impact on how I approach songwriting. The seed was definitely planted long before I discovered Dylan and Woody Guthrie.

I got introduced to the Beatles and Stones, Oasis and Nirvana from being at my aunt and uncle’s house. Again, all this was way before I knew how to even hold a guitar but it definitely got pretty stuck in there!

If you could go back to being a teenager, would you do anything differently?

There’s always risks with time travel, you just don’t know how it’s going to turn out. I’ve made my fair share of idiotic mistakes but I’ve also fallen victim to unfortunate events that have been beyond my control. It’s easy to dwell on what could have been but I don’t think that’s good for the soul, you’ve just got to keep on trucking and in the grand scheme of things I’m pretty happy with how it’s all going. A lot of people of got it a lot worse and in this timeline I’ve got an incredible group of people around me.

So yeah, I wouldn’t dream of moving the chair.

Where in the world would you most like to visit?

I would love to explore Greece. I love ancient history and mythology so there’s so much more than just beautiful beaches. But yeah, beaches and clear water aren’t such a bad thing either!

Written by: Kym Frederick

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