The Gospel According To Leo

On the one road… SAT24FEB24

till trying to figure out what the frets might be for on his new guitar, the 14-year-old Leo O’Kelly was more than a little surprised when his mum came home from work one day and told him that he was in a band.

One of her co-workers, Michael Foley, led The Tropical Showband, and they needed a guitarist.

That was way back in 1964, and little did the young Leo O’Kelly realise at the time, but this would be his life for the next 60 years. And counting.

“I just kind of did what I was told,” he smiles as we sat down to lunch at Café Grey this sunny Saturday afternoon. “My mum was more cunning than Colonel Tom Parker, and I realised much later on that she may have just needed the extra income. As opposed to thinking that her talented young son was destined to give his life over to music…”

Tropical Showband 1965 Back: John Payne, Leo O’Kelly, Hugh O’Kelly, Paddy Byrne. Front: Paschal Tomlinson, Michael Foley, Gregory Nolan.

Indeed, a life in music is something that the bould Mrs O’Kelly could never have imagined for her boy, and the outcome seems to have taken Leo by surprise too. Not long after his 1964 live debut though, he went from playing in showbands around his native Carlow to forming one of Europe’s most successful progressive folk outfits of the early 1970s, Tir na nÓg, alongside Newtown boy-done-good, Sonny Condell.

1st photo of Leo & Sonny, London 1970. Pic: Deirdre Mason.

From 1971 to 1973, they released three highly acclaimed albums and toured with everyone from Jethro Tull to The Who. The relentless 7-nights-a-week gigging took its toll though, and by 1974, both O’Kelly and Condell were back in Ireland, nursing touring hangovers and pursuing separate musical paths, the latter going on to form the much-loved Scullion whilst Leo began recording solo albums and setting out on what has effectively been his own Never Ending Tour.

“As much as I love creating new music in the studio, the stage is really where I’m most comfortable,” he says. “And playing live has been my constant, ever since that very first gig back in 1964. Even during Covid, I needed an outlet, and so I moved online, which has been a revelation…

“Every second Friday, I just dive into this huge back catalogue, and then throw in a few surprises too. Having people tune in from Tipperary to Tokyo – requesting songs, sharing memories, or just saying hi – has brought a whole new level of intimacy, and electricity, to these gigs…”

With plans afoot to return to his beloved Greystones where, from The Woodlands Hotel to Dann’s, O’Kelly ruled Friday nights for many a year – thanks to his trademark trippy hippy shake – for now, you can catch Leo live every second Friday on Facebook here. And you can throw a few pennies into the hat on PayPal here or Revolut @leookelly here. And do it now. These toasties ain’t free, baby.

In the meantime, with our coffees on the way, we talk combatting musical indifferences, going electronica and staying fresh…

Again, you can check out Leo live on Facebook fortnightly right here, and donate on PayPal here or Revolut @leookelly here. You can check out the man’s influences here, and his love of Donovan right here.