Luke Kelly

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Monument on King Street South Dublin

Luke Gerard Kelly (born November 17, 1940 in Dublin , † January 30, 1984 ibid) was an Irish folk singer and banjo player. He was a co-founder of the legendary Irish folk group The Dubliners , of which he was a member until his death.

Early years

Luke Kelly was born on Sheriff Street in proletarian north Dublin. His parents were Luke Kelly (1904-1966), worker in a biscuit factory , and Julia Kelly (1908-1976). He had three brothers and two sisters. According to his sister Betty, the family lived “in extreme poverty”. The fact that his maternal grandmother, née MacDonald , who came from Scotland , lived in the family is seen as one reason why Kelly later added numerous Scottish songs to his repertoire. He attended St. Lawrence O'Toole's School in Dublin; Although he was a good student, he had to finish school at the age of 13 and help support the family, as a delivery boy, worker in the same biscuit factory as his father, apprentice painter and other jobs. Due to the poor economic situation in Ireland, he went to England in 1957, where he initially worked as a construction worker in Wolverhampton with his brother Paddy . He was reportedly fired there for demanding a wage increase and better working conditions for the workers. He spent the next few years doing odd jobs of all kinds in cities like Birmingham , Leeds and Newcastle upon Tyne . There he came into contact with the emerging folk music movement and began as a street musician, playing and singing five string banjo in pubs and folk clubs . He became acquainted with the music of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger , made friends with Dominic Behan , with whom he performed together, and made contact with numerous well-known Irish and British folk musicians, including Ewan MacColl, who was admired by Kelly .

Parallel to Kelly's musical development, his political awareness was formed. He frequented communist circles, became a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain and the Connolly Association , a socialist-oriented organization of Irish emigrants, and was involved in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament . Not least because of his own proletarian origins, Kelly remained a staunch leftist throughout his life .

The time with the Dubliners

After a long stint as a street musician in Paris, Kelly returned to Dublin in 1962, where O'Donoghues Pub offered a rehearsal and performance opportunity for folk musicians. Here he met Ronnie Drew and Barney McKenna and became a founding member of the Ronnie Drew Ballad Group , with which he toured. When the group was looking for a catchier name, Kelly, who was reading Dubliners by James Joyce , suggested the name "The Dubliners".

Luke Kelly was with the Dubliners from 1962 to early 1964 and from late 1965 until his death in 1984. In the almost two years of his absence he went to England with the Irish-American actress Deirdre O'Connell (1939-2001), whom he married in 1965, to broaden his musical horizons. Here Ewan MacColl became his most important musical mentor in London . In 1965, Luke Kelly's first solo recording was released on an album by Liam Clancy . In the same year he returned to Dublin and rejoined the Dubliners, whose worldwide success began in 1967 with hits like Seven Drunken Nights .

Kelly shaped the image of the group significantly, both visually with his huge red curly hair and musically. Next to Ronnie Drew, Luke Kelly was the voice of the Dubliners. With his distinctive, powerful tenor, he conveyed bitter social accusation, savagery, triumph and cheerful exuberance as convincingly as compassion, pain and grief. It was not for nothing that John Sheahan called him "the soul of the band". Even as a successful artist, he never denied his political convictions. Ronnie Drew half-jokingly called him "a communist who gives something even to the poor." Many of the songs he sang dealt with social problems, arms races and war, and workers' rights, such as The Springhill Disaster , Joe Hill , The Button Pusher and his poem For What Died the Sons of Roisin , which he performed in concerts .

Some of the best-known songs sung by Luke Kelly include The Rocky Road to Dublin , The Town I Loved So Well , Scorn Not His Simplicity (a song written by Phil Coulter , then manager of the Dubliners, about his son with Down syndrome ) and On Raglan Road . He added this song to his repertoire after the poet Patrick Kavanagh , who wrote the lyrics of the song, asked him to do so. Kelly's version is still considered the authoritative rendition of the song.

In addition to his involvement with the Dubliners, Kelly found time for occasional stage appearances; In 1972 he played King Herod in a production of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar at Dublin's Gaiety Theater and appeared with the Dubliners in Brendan Behan's piece Richard's Cork Leg .

While Kelly's stage presence was sparkling with energy and vitality, privately he was considered a more introverted, thoughtful person with an insatiable hunger for reading. In addition to soccer and Gaelic football , which he had played in the club as a child, he also played golf. His excessive alcohol consumption was problematic; As early as the early 1970s, friends expressed concern about his heavy drinking. Kelly and his wife Deirdre, who founded and ran the Focus Theater in Dublin, had been separated since the early 1970s. From 1976 until his death he lived with Madeleine Seiler, a German born in Heidelberg .

It was only after the Dubliners disbanded in 2012 that statements were made public that Kelly was increasingly unhappy as a member of the Dubliners because he felt artistically limited by her hectic performance marathon and limited repertoire, but did not want to leave the group out of a sense of responsibility.

Sickness and death

On June 30, 1980, Luke Kelly collapsed on stage during a concert at the Cork Opera House . He had been suffering from headaches and forgetfulness for some time, which were attributed to his excessive alcohol consumption. A brain tumor has now been diagnosed. Although Kelly appeared again with the Dubliners after surviving surgery, his health deteriorated more and more. He forgot lyrics and always had to take breaks at concerts because he was too weak. On April 15, 1981, he collapsed again at a concert at the Embankment Inn in Tallaght (Dublin). In the summer of the same year he had to cancel a European tour of the Dubliners in Switzerland and pause until October. On March 31, 1983, a second tumor operation was performed at Richmond Hospital, Dublin. Even after that, Kelly recovered enough that he could perform again with the Dubliners. On his last European tour , the recordings for the last album with Luke Kelly, The Dubliners Live in Carré , were made while performing at the Carré Theater , Amsterdam . In autumn 1983 he fell off the stage in Traun (Austria) with a circulatory collapse . A little later he had to break off the tour in Mannheim and was flown back to Dublin after a short hospital stay in Heidelberg, where he had his last appearance in December 1983. He spent Christmas with his family, but was re-admitted to Richmond Hospital on January 28, 1984, where he died on January 30, 1984. Luke Kelly is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery near Dublin. His headstone bears the inscription: Luke Kelly - Dubliner.

Post fame

His untimely death helped make Kelly a legendary figure whose fame as one of the greatest Irish folk singers of the 20th century rose posthumously. The Luke Kelly Memorial Fund is dedicated to research into brain tumors. In Dublin, the Ballybough Bridge over the Tolka River was renamed "The Luke Kelly Bridge". In November 2004 the Dublin City Council decided unanimously to erect a bronze statue of Luke Kelly in the north of Dublin. However, this did not happen after the Dublin Docklands Development Authority withdrew its funding commitment. On the occasion of Kelly's 30th anniversary of death in 2014, numerous voices were heard calling for a memorial to Luke Kelly. In 2019 a statue and a larger than life Luke Kelly head were unveiled.

In 2001 the show The Legend of Luke Kelly premiered in Dublin , with singer Chris Kavanagh touring Ireland ever since. While the 1999 documentary Luke - A Song to Ireland and Ideology by Sinéad O'Brien primarily focused on the political person Luke Kelly, Michael Feeney Callan collected testimonies from contemporaries for his documentary Luke Kelly: The Performer , published in 2005 and musicians rare recordings of 19 songs sung live. Tribute to Luke Kelly are the songs Dublin Minstrel by Declan O'Donoghue that of Paddy Reilly was taken up by the Dubliners (sung by Patsy Watchorn) and Luke Kelly's Country of Pete St. John , which of the Dublin City Ramblers recorded .

Discography

Original publications (as a solo artist)

  • Liam Clancy - The Rocky Road to Dublin (1965) Vanguard CV 79169 (guest vocalist)
  • Thank You For The Days (1973) Ram RMS 1001 (Single)
  • The Luke Kelly Album (1981) Chyme CHLP 1016 (LP), CHCD1016 (CD, 1993)
  • Luke's Legacy (1986) Chyme CHLP 1031 (LP), CHCD1031 (CD, 1989)
  • Thank You For The Days (1999) Femdale Films FM 001 (CD) (early recordings from the early 1960s)
  • The Best of Luke Kelly (2004) CACD0201 ** (double CD, also contains previously unreleased recordings)
  • The Performer (2005) CACD0202 (CD)

Compilations

  • Luke Kelly - The Collection (1994) Chyme CHCD1041 (CD)
  • Songs of the Workers (1998) Outlet CDLUKE001 (CD)
  • Working Class Hero (2007) CACD0203 (CD)
  • The Definitive Collection (2010) CACD0205 (CD)

Tribute albums

  • Brian Roebuck: A Song for Luke (Blerp, 2005)

literature

  • Des Geraghty: Luke Kelly: a Memoir. Basement Press, Dublin 1994. ISBN 1-85594-090-6 (in English)

Movie

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ grave plaque on findagrave.com , accessed April 2, 2015
  2. ^ A b Willie Dillon: Big Dublin crowd mourn Luke Kelly. In: The Irish Independent. February 2, 1984, accessed April 2, 2015 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Senan James Fox: Remembering Luke Kelly 30 years on. (No longer available online.) In: The Irish Post. January 30, 2014, archived from the original on October 12, 2014 ; accessed on April 2, 2015 .
  4. ↑ According to other sources 1958.
  5. ↑ Luke Kelly - towering figure in Irish traditional music. In: Irish Music Daily. Retrieved April 2, 2015 .
  6. ^ A b The Dubliners: Luke Kelly (Biography) , accessed April 2, 2015
  7. ↑ Ken Sweeney: Luke Kelly 'felt trapped' as part of The Dubliners. In: The Herald. October 16, 2013, accessed April 2, 2015 .
  8. ↑ Elgy Gillespie: Luke Kelly - a singer of great conviction. Retrieved April 2, 2015 .
  9. ^ Council votes to erect Luke Kelly statue. In: RTE News. November 2, 2004, accessed April 2, 2015 .
  10. ↑ Sandra McLellan: Time for a statue to Luke Kelly. January 30, 2014, accessed April 3, 2015 (English, website of Sinn Féin ).
  11. ↑ Two statues unveiled to mark Luke Kelly's 35th anniversary. In: RTE News. January 30, 2019, accessed April 6, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Kelly, Luke
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kelly, Luke Gerard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish folk singer and banjo player
DATE OF BIRTH November 17, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Dublin
DATE OF DEATH January 30, 1984
Place of death Dublin