History:
Due to the great
famine and much povety in Ireland halfway through the 19th century, about 1.5 million people
immigrated to America.
Sean O'Kelley, born 1839, was one of these people. He
was only a boy of 8 years old when he and his family moved from around Cobh, Ireland, to Michigan in USA.
In America, they changed their origional
name O'Kelley to Kelly, to sound less Irish and more American.
Sean grew up to
be a well-known violin player and musician in the area around where he lived, though back in Ireland he was already know as having a talent for the violin. He married and had children, one of them being
John, who was Papa Kelly's father, the Kelly's grandfather.
John married Caroline (details unknown), and they had 10 kids, 8 boys and 2 girls. One of these was Daniel
Jerome.
He was born 11th of October 1930 in Michigan, USA.
He grew up to be a teacher in maths, Latin and
philosophy, though he was more interested in antiques. He became a dealer of them and soon after brought an antique shop.
Dan married Jenny in
1957, and they had 4 children, Danny (1961), Caroline (1962), Kathy
(1963) and Paul (1964). Danny had a mental illness and never performed in the band.
At first they lived a normal modern life with TV, radio, cars ect. But Dan became sick of
the American way of Life. He wanted his kids to grow up away from that sort of enviroment, which they wouldn't find in the US.
May 1965 they
moved to Spain. In Spain they had no electricity, no
car, no water for a long walk. But through all this, they were now happy. Dan opened another antique shop, this time in Talavera.
He
emplyed two girls to help look after the children. One of these
girls was Barbera Ann Soukko, only 20 at the time. Soon they fell in
love. On
the 6th of November 1970, Dan and Barbera were married in New York.
In
1967 Dan and Barbara's first child, John,
was born in Talavera. They moved to a village
called Gamonal. There Patricia came in 1969, Jimmy in 1971 and Joey in
1972. It is said that Jenny only left when Patricia was born, and
Caroline went also to live with her. It is thought she went back to the
USA and joined a convict.
When his business became so successful that he became increasingly busy and was forced to travel a great deal, Dan quit the antique business. instead he tried to start a
living by breeding pigs. But because he didn't very much about the job, he had to depend on those who worked for him. But they used his inexperiance to trick
him, and in two years they has lost nearly all the money he had earned in
the nine years before when he was still in the antique buisness. The family didn't have any money left and they were still know as outsiders, so no one would loan them money.They were forced to leave for yet another home.
The family moved to Belascoain, a tiny village near Pamplona.
They didn't go to school, but were taught
by their parents and their uncle. Once a year they took a test from
an international school.
In
1974 they formed a band "The
Kelly Kids" and played together for the first time in a pub run by Dan.
The band consisted of Kathy, John, Paul and Caroline. Lots of people
enjoyed their music and they were asked to play at birthdays, Christmas
and parties by their small number of fans within the villiage. The kids
were sent to music schools were they lesrnt to play different
instruments.Some of the songs they learned to sing back then they have been playing
again many years later, like "Ares Qui" (Which you can watch at the bottom of the page.)
In
1975 they performed at a Spanish TV-show for kids. They became famous over
night. After that they took part in
many TV-shows.
The same year Barby was born.
It is said that during their journey through Italy their bus was robbed
and everything was gone but the Kellys' instruments. So they started
making music to gain money, playing on the streets of Rome, where Kathy's violin talent was discovered. She was invited to get free
violin lessons in Vienna, so the whole family went their. There
they met Bernhard Paul, founder of Circus Roncalli.
He was so impressed he let them play regularly.
In
1977 they went to Ireland in their double decker bus, where Paddy was
born, but Dan didn't like it there are soon went back to the continent.
They played at some TV-shows and collected money for a childrens
hospital. They stayed for 5 months, before they moved back to Spain.
In
1978 they bought a double Decker bus in USA, which became one of
their trademarks. They went on tour around with their bus in Spain and
Germany.
In Germany a producer discovered Kathy and John when they were singing on the street. He wanted to make a song with
them and after a short time "Danny Boy" was released, their ver first ever single.
In 1979 Maite was born in
Berlin.
They recorded their first album called "The Kelly
Family". Later that same year they found out the terrible news that Mama Kelly had breast cancer.
In 1980 they had their first no.1 hit in
Belgium and Holland, with the song "Who'll Come With Me" (David's Song)
sung by John, who was at the time only 12 (you can watch this in the section about John).
They played at over 40 TV-shows in a few
months.
At this time they settled in
Amsterdam, Holland. In 1981 their mother got worse and they
moved back to Spain.
Later this year her very last child came
into the world with a caesarean, since she was too sick to have a
normal birth. They all thought he looked like a little angel and so called
him Angelo Gabriele. Her last wish was to make a Christmas video with
all her children. It was taken 2 weeks before she died in
November 1982.
Her last words were "Keep on singing"
In 1981 they also started their
own record company called "Kel-life," because Dan didn't agree with some of the things the record company wanted to do, like sing playback.
A tour through England and the United States wasn't very successful, so the Kellys went back to Europe.
Back in Germany the Kellys started performing in a tent so it didn't matter so much about the weather. In Amsterdam they bought their legendary houseboat and started using it as a permanent home.
The boys began to let their hair grow long. Jimmy
was the one who started what would be one of The Kelly Family's
trademarks in the future.
In
1987 they went to America and performed in the streets of twenty
different US cities, before returning to Germany in 1988 and living on a riverboat called "Sean O'Kelley"
In
1988 they rented a tent with the capacity to hold 6000
people, though the risk was great, but it turned out to be a gigantic success and
they
sold out completely on both concerts.
Dan's ambitions made him set up their first concerts in a concert hall. The Philipshalle in Düsseldorf and
the Grugahalle in Essen were filled, and recordings of
these concerts were published on the video "Live".
Another concert was
filmed for East German TV shortly before the fall of the Berlin wall
and was released on video "Live In East Germany" in 1996.
Kathy Kelly married Vincent in 1990.
In 1990 Papa Kelly suffered a stroke. His right side was
paralysed, and he was forced to stay in bed. For the first time, the
siblings went on tour alone.
By this time, The Kellys had already performed in nearly
every European country.
New albums and videos were made and released under their own label
"Kel-Life"
Because of an event where hundreds on people tried to
squeeze into the concert tent which was only able to hold a small part
of that, the Kellys realized that their popularity had become a
threat to peoples safety and that they had to change. They started to play their concerts on a portable
stage on their tour truck or in concert halls. At that time the Kellys
played about 400 concerts per year.
1994 was the year of their final breakthrough.
They played on huge rock
festivals with bands like Aerosmith and their album "Over The Hump"
sold 4.5 million copies in Europe and stayed in the German charts for
two years. In two years they won all important media prizes, including:
Bambi, Goldener Löwe, Goldene Europa, VIVA Comet and BRAVO Otto.
They released three more videos, Tough road 1, 2 and 3. Dan was on this, his first appearance since the stroke.
For two years the Kellys toured through Germany. German teen magazine
BRAVO featured an article about the Kellys almost every week.
To bring back a little privacy they built a wall around
the where they had anchored their houseboat. The
media accused the Kellys of shutting out their
fans. They also had problems with their success, their lifestyle, their music
and the way they looked and dressed, such as the long hair.
They also went on to produce 'Almost Heaven' and In 1995, they brought out 2 more albums, "Live, live, live" and "from their hearts." Jimmy also left for a short while to study film making in Ireland. Their cousin came as a replacement, though fans did not much like him. Kathy and Vincent had a divorce.
In 1999, John left the band (see more about this in the section about John Kelly)
In 2000 the Kellys performed many shows throughout Germany with a completely new look and many new songs. There were also a lot of changes in their private lives. Joey became a father, Patricia married.A year later both Angelo and Patricia became first-time parents as well and John married his childhood love Maite Itoiz in Spain. The Kellys then only consisted of six active band members, and performed in smaller places, clubs and halls.
In 2002, papa kelly died. Their 15th album "La Patata" was also released.
Since many, many new Kelly babies have been born, and many solo projects started.
"Homerun" was relesed in 2004 and they once again joined the Roncalli Circus. That very year Paddy left the band to become a monk, and to study philospohy and theology.
keep on singing.