1974–1999: early years Dan Kelly grew up in
Queensland, on the Gold Coast, attended a Catholic school, in Beenleigh, and was the second oldest of six children. He learnt the guitar at thirteen and later studied Environmental Science at Griffith University in
Brisbane. He formed his first band, Nord, in Brisbane before moving to
Melbourne in 1996. Kelly reflected saying "I moved down to St Kilda in '96 and lived with my uncle [Paul Kelly] and aunt and worked as a dishwasher for years. Then I was the kitchen-hand and after that I worked as a cook. I was making my way up through that world, just meeting people and trying to play in bands, and by the end of that period, probably around 2000, I had made enough friends and played in enough bands that I built a little bit of confidence to write my own songs."
2000–2003: first solo recordings & Man O Mercy In 2000 he started playing solo shows under the name Dank Alley, not wanting to trade on his famous uncle
Paul Kelly's name. Kelly said "The songs were basically taken from jokes said around the kitchen table and they all referenced my flatmates. We were slightly mad back then. The songs are still pretty gag-heavy but we didn't want the album to be a joke. I didn't want to be a joke writer, a comedy writer, that's a whole different world – I didn't want to hang out with comedians the rest of my life." Their second album,
Drowning in the Fountain of Youth, released in August 2006, was awarded Album of the Year by Melbourne-based music magazine
Inpress. Kelly received his third nomination for ARIA Award for Best Male Artist at the
ARIA Music Awards of 2007. In early 2007, Kelly announced his backing band, the Alpha Males, were to disband for an undecided amount of time to allow the individual members to focus on other projects, a pertinent example being the addition of Dan Luscombe to the line up of
The Drones. Kelly again joined his uncle, performing on his 2007 album,
Stolen Apples and subsequent national tour, and has often returned to his touring band since.
2008: Dan Kelly and the Ukeladies In 2008 Kelly teamed up with Melbourne faux Hawaiian duo, The Ukeladies, to release "The S.U.V Song", undertaking a number of headline shows and support shows with
Augie March, in October and November 2008.
2009–2014 : Dan Kelly's Dream Band In late 2009 Kelly commenced work on a new album, ''Dan Kelly's Dream''. The first single, "Bindi Irwin Apocalypse Jam", was released in April 2010. Kelly undertook a national tour with a new line up called Dan Kelly's Dream Band comprising Dave Williams & Kiernan Box (
Augie March), Indra Adams (
Ground Components) and Ryan Nelson (
SubAudible Hum). Dallas Packard (
Ground Components) and Kelly's teenage cousins Madeleine and Memphis Kelly (daughters of
Paul Kelly) also featured on the album, with the girls frequently joining the touring band on stage to provide backing vocals.
Dan Kelly’s Dream made a number of best album of the year lists, notably
Faster Louder, Mess and Noise and
The Age. At the
EG Awards of 2010, Kelly won the award for Best Male artist and was nominated for Best Male Artist at the
ARIA Music Awards of 2010.
Dan Kelly’s Dream was nominated for the 2010
AMP award for best Australian album.
2015–present: Leisure Panic! In October 2015, Kelly released
Leisure Panic! on
ABC Music. The album was recorded over two years in
East London,
Northern New South Wales,
Melbourne and
Sydney with members of the Dream Band and long time collaborator Aaron Cupples. The album spawned the singles "Never Stop the Rot" and "Everything's Amazing". It was met with critical acclaim culminating in its nomination for the
2015 AMP award for best Australian album. In 2016, Kelly embarked on the 'Australian Dreamers' national tour with Alex Gow (
Oh Mercy), with both artists taking the stage together. In 2019, Kelly celebrated 15 years of
Sing the Tabloid Blues by performing the album in Australia. == Discography ==