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LUNCH RECORDS and STREAMS
Nick Kelly (The Fat Lady Sings)
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"A god, a songwriter of such passion and beauty as to transcend mortality" - Irish Hot Press writer John Walshe
After releasing two critically acclaimed albums for Atlantic Records, Nick Kelly - former lead singer of the band The Fat Lady Sings - dropped out of the music business and gave up music for good. It wasn't until his overwhelming demand from his fans that prompted him back to the stage and eventually into the studio to record what became his first solo record: Between Trapezes. But it wasn't that easy to lure Kelly back into the spotlight. Nick Kelly founded The Fat lady Sings in Dublin in 1986. Operating from London, they quickly began to garner plaudits from critics on both sides of the Irish Sea. From the band's inception, the quality and scope of Kelly's song writing in particular was consistently admired. Between 1986 and 1989 they released four independent singles: "Fear And Favour" on Good Vibrations, "Be Still" on Harbour Sound, and "Arclight" and "Dronning Maud Land" on their own Fourth Base Records.
releases
The reaction to these four songs, and the enormous fan base that The Fat Lady Sings built up touring led to their signing a major record deal with Atlantic/East West Records in 1989, and to Kelly being signed as a songwriter by Island Music. In 1991, The Fat Lady Sings released their debut album Twist on East West to widespread acclaim. "Twist" performed well in the British and Irish charts and also provided the band with their first American success when the album's first single "Man Scared", on Atlantic Records, entered the US Alternative Charts.
In 1993 their second album, Johnson, was released to further praise, and the single "Drunkard Logic" provided The Fat Lady Sings with their highest ever UK Chart placing.
In the same year, the Peace Together Project, an initiative towards reconciliation in Northern Ireland through music jointly instigated by former TFLS-member Robert Hamilton and Ali McMordie, released a version of Kelly's "Be Still", featuring performances by stars including Peter Gabriel, Sinead O'Connor, Feargal Sharkey and Nanci Griffith. In January 1994, following an extensive and successful US. tour, Nick Kelly announced that he had decided to split The Fat Lady Sings. Since July 1995, Kelly has played several low-key live shows in Britain, Ireland, New York and Tokyo.
These acoustic sets, composed exclusively of previously unheard and unrecorded songs written by Kelly during his eighteen months of self-imposed exile from the music business, have been greeted in rapturous terms by fans and critics alike.
In June 1996, Sinead O'Connor invited Kelly to accompany her in a special performance of one of his songs, "Republic", at a state reception hosted by visiting Czech President Vaclav Havel for Mary Robinson in Johnny Fox's pub in Kilternan.
In November of 1996, Ani Difranco invited Kelly to the US. to open her sold out show at The Orpheum Theater in New York City as well as sharing the stage with Dead Can Dance's lead-singer Brendan Perry.
May 1997, Kelly put the final touches on his record Between Trapezes and releases it first in Ireland and then in England on his own Self Possessed Records.
August, 1997, Kelly made a guest performance with Patti Smith and shared the stage with Nick Cave, David Gray and Ron Sexsmith in West Cork, Ireland.
