Gossip by Paul Kelly 1986

The first time I became aware of Paul Kelly was when I kept seeing his band, the Dots, playing at a few of the same places we played around Melbourne. Then he had this funny old hit called "Billy Baxter" and kept turning up on Hey Hey It’s Saturday when it was still a morning show.

Then I would bump into him at our friend Mandy’s house in Caulfield, where she had regular get-togethers. I really liked his early stuff. One night he even came round to my place and borrowed my acoustic guitar because it had an electric pickup. We even had the same manager for about a month.

When Rod decided to leave the Murders in 1984, our first choice for a new guitarist was Steve Connolly, but we were told that the Dots had split and Steve — who had been in the Cuban Heels with our bass player Chris — was going off to Sydney with Paul. And although Mick Barclay, our drummer, got us under the Uncanny X-Men’s management, he was soon off to join Paul Kelly for the Post album.

Weirdly, I then ended up with two of Paul Kelly’s band in Little Murders: Tim Brosnan, which allowed me to cover "Alive and Well", and Greg Martin, formerly of the Bushwackers. That final line-up only played three gigs.

None of this takes anything away from this fine album Paul Kelly released in 1986. A double album, no less. I bought it from a record shop just next to South Yarra Station — a shop I spent a lot of time in, but whose name escapes me.

I was hesitant about buying a double album, but I knew he was a great songwriter teamed with a great band. In those days you took the chance. No Spotify to pre-listen to it.

I wasn’t disappointed. The album was exploding with great songs.

When a few of them started turning up on the radio as proper pop songs, complete with accompanying videos, it was strange seeing Mick in the film clips — promotion to first-division rock star indeed. But I went along to the shows and it was all good.

Kelly wrote some absolutely fantastic songs on this and the subsequent albums with the Coloured Girls. And the shows were great too.