Live Irish music with a backdrop of Super 8s
Sean Kelly will bring his show of Irish music played to the backdrop of Super 8 films from his father’s collection. The sensory-rich experience will blend authentic Irish music together with authentic imagery, with a goal to entertain and enlighten, leaving the audience with an elusive sense of wonder.
Originally from Ireland, Kelly came to New Zealand in 1990 and has been playing music every year since then. He started working as a full-time musician around 12 years ago and has been loving it. The show will feature his original music alongside a curated collection of songs from other artists. He will also share dialogue on a tumultuous time in Northern Ireland’s history, as well as the short films, which were captured by his father in Derry and Donegal from 1958 to 1988.
“He’s recorded incidents of trouble and also urban landscapes of Derry and people, also rural landscapes in Donegal, where we used to escape any trouble to the sanctuary of, which is in the Republic of Ireland,” Kelly says.
BBC Northern Ireland learned that Kelly’s dad had some good footage of historic events, including the Pope’s visit to Ireland, and an orca that came up the River Foyle that was named Dopey Dick. They offered to digitise the his entire collection of movies as long as they were able to use them.
“I didn’t, sort of, realise the significance of this historical record, particularly in the likes of Derry, that was badly affected by the troubles. Buildings that my dad took pictures of and videos of in the 50s and 60s, which were blown up in the 70s – they don’t exist anymore – so there’s that great historical record that I, and we, now have access to.”
Kelly saw the stories on BBC Northern Ireland and felt that they needed to spread further, which is why he decided to take them around New Zealand, and hopes to continue on to as many countries as possible.
“It’s also entertaining. Some of the movies are funny and I have either written songs to go with the music or used other people’s songs that seem to fit in to what’s on the screen. But it’s taken an awful lot of editing to get 20 songs either edited or written to sync up.”
Kelly explains that beyond the Irish history shown, it’s just a nice time casual capsule of a period that is gone – people will often come up to him after shows commenting on old cars, the lack of mobile phones, the fashion, and more.
“30 years of special occasions and special events makes quite interesting footage, rather than today, where people are posting pictures of their breakfast.”
Kelly will tell stories alongside each of the videos – some short, some much longer – as well as about the accompanying music. He’ll also be on vocals, whistles, bodhran and guitar, accompanied by Jono Lonie on fiddle and electric mandolin, and Maree Limpus on AV and cello. While he doesn’t want to give away all the music in the show, you can expect to hear Amazing Grace, Nothing Else Matters by Metallica, and The Time I Love So Well by Phil Coulter.
“And in my tribute to Elvis, we sing Can’t Help Falling In Love, which runs the show out. There’s videos of couples and it represents everybody that’s in love – I think it’s always a nice thing to leave people with. Some of the stuff is quite profound, we have people laughing, we have people crying, but I think leaving people with that sense that love conquers all is a nice way to finish off the show.
Sean Kelly will play at Arrowtown Athenaeum Hall on Friday, 22 May, at 7.30pm. Tickets and more information can be found at events.humanitix.com/sean-kelly-and-the-super-8
