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When I was 14, in Carlow, my mum came home from work, and said, “I’ve got you a job in a band!”. It was The Tropical Showband, and was led by Michael

Leo JAN20 Pic: Jerry McCarthy
rom his breakthrough over 40 years ago with Tir na nÓg through
his decades as a solo artist finding the happy spot between folk, pyschedelic and electronica, Leo O’Kelly is clearly a man who has been there, strummed that.
A regular fixture on the Greystones live circuit, O’Kelly may be the only man on the planet who can make a Friday night in Dann’s feel like you’re in the hippest joint on the planet.

With Garvan Gallagher at Dann’s
Usually somewhere in the cosmic swirl of Dylan’s Tombstone Blues, as the opening guitar riff come roaring over the horizon.
About to play the Hot Spot, along with his old partner-in-thyme, Sonny Condell, Leo took time out to let us know about the songs that shaped him, and how he got into this ridiculous line of work in the first place…

With Sonny Condell
rom his breakthrough over 40 years ago with Tir na nÓg through
his decades as a solo artist finding the happy spot between folk, pyschedelic and electronica, Leo O’Kelly is clearly a man who has been there, strummed that.
Foley, who was a workmate of mum’s in Sloan’s, who had a branch in Carlow. I didn’t know then, but we probably needed the money… it meant I could pay for my schoolbooks (even if I didn’t have time to read them), and contribute a few quid to the household, as well as have money for LPs.
1 comment
Leo we were religious about going to the gig in walters.it wasn’t the girls.it was your stratocaster.rock on you rock monster!
When the gate squeaks!