Jonathan Kelly (born Jonathan Ledingham, 8 July 1947 – 2 May 2020) was an Irish

folk rock Folk rock is a fusion genre of rock music with heavy influences from pop, English and American folk music. It arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music re ...

singer-songwriter, who enjoyed a varied career in music, playing with many musicians and groups, including

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English Rock music, rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s l ...

and

Tim Staffell Timothy John Staffell (born 24 February 1948) is an English rock musician, visual artist, model maker and designer. He was a member of Smile, a band that included guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor. Upon Staffell's departure, Smile w ...

. He formed Jonathan Kelly's Outside in 1973.

Biography

Born in

Drogheda Drogheda ( , ; , meaning "bridge at the ford") is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, north of Dublin. It is located on the Dublin–Belfast corridor on the east coast of Ireland, mostly in County Louth ...

, County Louth, he attended

Drogheda Grammar School Drogheda Grammar School is an Irish co-educational multi-denominational school, located on Mornington Road, Drogheda, County Louth. History Drogheda Grammar School was founded under Royal Charter in 1669 by Erasmus Smith and is one of the ol ...

. He played bass guitar for

Humpy Bong Humpy Bong were an English folk rock band formed in London in 1970, by former Bee Gees drummer Colin Petersen and Irish folk rock singer Jonathan Kelly. Beginnings Colin Petersen was a child actor in Australia and drummer with the Bee Gees. J ...

which featured former

Bee Gees The Bee Gees were a musical group formed in 1958 by brothers Barry Gibb, Barry, Robin Gibb, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio was especially successful in popular music in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers in ...

drummer

Colin Petersen Frederick Colin Petersen (24 March 1946 – 18 November 2024) was an Australian musician and actor. He played as a member of the bands Steve and the Board, the Bee Gees and Humpy Bong. In August 1969, he left the Bee Gees and he was replaced ...

. The band did not progress but released one single, "Don't You Be Too Long". Kelly would then retain Petersen as his manager and release two albums through

RCA RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...

, ''Twice Around the Houses'' and ''Wait til They Change the Backdrop''. Outside was made up of Kelly,

Snowy White Terence Charles "Snowy" White (born 3 March 1948) is an English guitarist, known for having played with Thin Lizzy (permanent member from 1980 to 1982) and with Pink Floyd (as a backing guitarist from 1977 to 1980), and later for Roger Waters' ...

and Chas Jankel on guitars, Dave Sheen on drums and Trevor Williams (ex-

Audience An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature (in which they are called "readers"), theatre, music (in which they are called "listeners"), video games (in which they are called "players"), or ...

) on bass guitar. White went on to play with

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...

and

Thin Lizzy Thin Lizzy are an Irish rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. The band initially consisted of bass guitarist, lead vocalist and principal songwriter Phil Lynott, drummer Brian Downey, guitarist Eric Bell and organist Eric Wrixon although Wr ...

before a successful solo career, and Jankel later played with

Ian Dury Ian Robins Dury (12 May 1942 27 March 2000) was an English singer, songwriter and actor who rose to fame in the late 1970s, during the punk rock, punk and new wave music, new wave era of rock music. He was the lead singer and lyricist of Kilburn ...

and the Blockheads. One album was recorded, '' ...Waiting On You'', in 1974, with an accompanying single "...Waiting On You"/"Outside", before the band members went their separate ways. Kelly stopped performing in 1976. However, between 2004 and 2007, he returned to performing a few solo acoustic concerts at small venues. Kelly died on 2 May 2020, after a long illness.

Discography

Albums

*Jonathan Kelly: LP ''Jonathan Kelly'' (Parlophone PCS 7114) – (1970) *Jonathan Kelly: LP ''Twice Around The Houses'' (

SF 8262) – (1972) *Jonathan Kelly: LP ''Wait Till They Change The Backdrop'' (RCA SF 8353) – (1973) *''as Jonathan Kelly's Outside:'' LP '' ...Waiting On You'' (RCA LPL 15022) – (1974) *Jonathan Kelly: LP ''Two Days In Winter'' (RCA SF 8415) – (1975)

Singles

*''as The Boomerangs:'' 7" single "Dream World" / "Upgraded" ( Pye 7N 17049) – (1966) *''as Jon Ledingham:'' 7" single "Without An E" / "She's Got Me" (Pye 7N 17422) – (1967) *''as Jon Ledingham:'' 7" single "Love Is A Toy" / "Thank You Mrs. Gilbert" (Pye 7N 17488) – (1968) *Jonathan Kelly: 7" single "Denver" / "Son John" (

Parlophone Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 1923 as the Parloph ...

R 5805) – (1969) *Jonathan Kelly: 7" single "Make A Stranger Your Friend" / "Daddy Don't Take Me Down Fishing No More" (Parlophone R 5830) – (1970) *Jonathan Kelly: 7" single "Don't You Believe It" / "Billy" (Parlophone R 5851) – (1970) *''as

:'' 7" single "Don't You Be Too Long" / "We're Alright 'Til Then" (Parlophone R 5859) – (1970) *Jonathan Kelly: 7" single "Madeleine" / "Sligo Fair" (RCA 2223) – (1972) *Jonathan Kelly: 7" single "Let The People Stay" / "Mother Moon" (RCA 2370) – (1973) *''as Jonathan Kelly's Outside:'' 7" single "...Waiting On You" / "Outside" (RCA LPBO 5030) – (1974)

References

External links

* as Jonathan Kelly * as Jon Ledingham {{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Jonathan 1947 births 2020 deaths People from Drogheda Irish male singer-songwriters Irish record producers Irish male singers Musicians from County Louth 20th-century Irish singer-songwriters 21st-century Irish singer-songwriters