Paul Kelly has announced one unmissable performance.
The legendary Australian singer-songwriter is returning to Kings Cross for a special one-off show, playing the Potts Point Hotel on Sunday, August 30th.
As any good Australia knows, Kings Cross is a major part of the Paul Kelly story.
“For decades, Sydney’s most storied neighbourhood has echoed through Kelly’s songs and stories — a place of late-night cafés, tiny live rooms, unforgettable characters and the beautiful contradictions that have long inspired one of Australia’s greatest songwriters,” as the press release puts it.
Kelly can’t wait to return.
“I haven’t played in Kings Cross for many years,” he admits. “In the mid to late eighties we played the Kardomah Café and the Manzil Room quite a few times. The Manzil Room was in the laneway behind the Potts Point Hotel. A wee hours sticky-carpet venue, attracting all the denizens of the night — street workers, bohemians, drug dealers, desperadoes, off-work musicians.
“We’d play three sets, starting around 1am. The painter Brett Whiteley sometimes dropped in to hear us. He had some expansive dance moves. My sister Anne, a Loreto nun, dutifully came to see us there once. Now that’s commitment!
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“Mayne she came twice, I don’t remember. There’s a lot I don’t remember, though I do remember staggering out into the dawn light many a time after the last set to head up Darlinghurst Road for bacon and eggs at Una’s Café.”
“Una’s [is] still there but the Manzil is long gone,” he adds. It’s a block of apartments now. I wonder if the residents sometimes hear our chattering ghosts, the faint, distant throb of our music.”
Two days before Kelly’s special show, he’ll release a deluxe version of Seventy, his most recent album, featuring new single “Stardust”, additional photos, and liner notes by Kelly himself. The original album debuted at No. 2 on the ARIA Albums Chart.
Fans can secure their chance to attend his special show by pre-ordering from the Seventy (Deluxe Edition) range via Kelly’s official store, and entering an exclusive ballot to win tickets to this once-in-a-lifetime performance — enter here.
The upcoming event also celebrates the recently completed Scottie Marsh mural honouring Kelly, which can be seen on the exterior wall of the Potts Point Hotel. In a generous show of affection for Kelly, the hotel donated the wall for the artwork, which forms the second chapter of Marsh’s Kelly mural series, following the first mural on Melbourne’s Esplanade Hotel in St Kilda.
