Gossip (album)

Infobox Album
Name = Gossip
Type = studio
Artist = Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls


Released = September 1986 (AUS)
July 1987 (USA)
Recorded = Trafalgar Studios, Sydney (March–May 1986)
Genre = Australian Rock
Length = 81:38
Label = Mushroom/White (Australia)
A&M (U.S.)
Producer = Alan Thorne, Paul Kelly
Reviews = * AllmusicRating|4|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:d9fixq95ldde~T0 link]
Last album = "Post"
(1985)
This album = "Gossip"
(1986)
Next album = "Under the Sun"
(1987)
Misc = Singles
Name = Gossip
Type = single
Single 1 = Before Too Long
Single 1 date = June 1986
Single 2 = Darling It Hurts
Single 2 date = September 1986
Single 3 = Leaps and Bounds
Single 3 date = January 1987
Single 4 = Look So Fine, Feel So Low
Single 4 date = July 1987
Single 5 = The Execution
Single 5 date = 1987 Extra album cover 2
Upper caption = "Gossip"
Type = album


Cover size =
Lower caption = 1987 North American/European release (A&M Records)
Border = |

"Gossip" is the double LP debut album by Australian rock group Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls.cite book |title=Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop |url=http://web.archive.org/web/20040930231503/www.whammo.com.au/encyclopedia.asp?articleid=978 |last=McFarlane |first=Ian |authorlink= Ian McFarlane |publisher=Allen & Unwin |year=1999 |isbn=1-86448-768-2 |accessdate=2008-09-23 ] Produced by Alan Thorne and Paul Kelly,cite web |url=http://hem.passagen.se/honga/database/k/kellypaul.html |title=Paul Kelly |publisher=Australian Rock Database |editor=Magnus Holmgren |accessdate=2008-09-23 ] it was released on Mushroom Records in September 1986, it peaked at #15 on the National albums charts,cite book |title=Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 |format=doc |last=Kent |first=David |authorlink= David Kent|publisher=Australian Chart Book, St Ives, N.S.W. |year=1993 |isbn=0-646-11917-6 |accessdate=2008-09-23 ] and achieved gold record status. There was singles chart success for "Before Too Long" which peaked at #15 and "Darling it Hurts" reaching #25. "Gossip" was released in different forms, initially as a double album with 24 tracks, it was edited down to a single 15-track LP for North American and European release on A&M Records, when released on CD in North America, it featured 17 tracks.

Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls had been named for a lyric in Lou Reed's song "Walk on the Wild Side", but all North American and European releases were credited to Paul Kelly and the Messengers due to possible racist interpretations.cite book |url=http://nla.gov.au/anbd.bib-an41896781 |title=Molly Meldrum presents 50 years of rock in Australia |last=Jenkins |first=Jeff |coauthors=Ian Meldrum |year=2007 |publisher=Wilkinson Publishing |location=Melbourne, Vic. |isbn=9781921332111 |accessdate=2008-09-23 ] "Darling it Hurts" peaked at #19 on the "Billboard" Mainstream Rock chart in 1987.cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:hifyxqe5ldse~T5 |title="Billboard" singles charts |publisher=allmusic |accessdate=2008-09-23 ] The initial 1987 Australian CD release contained 21 tracks; in 2005, a special deluxe 2-CD version was released in Australia which contained all 24 tracks.

Background

After relocating from Melbourne to Sydney in 1985, Paul Kelly had recorded and released a solo album "Post". Kelly then began to play and record with a full-time band, which included Michael Armiger on bass guitar, Michael Barclay on drums, Steve Connolly on guitar, eventually bassist Jon Schofield, and keyboardist Peter Bull joined. Through a joke based on Lou Reed's song "Walk on the Wild Side", the band became known as Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls. Their first release was "From St. Kilda to King's Cross" but it did not chart. The line-up of the Coloured Girls changed rapidly with some stability late in 1985 as Barclay, Bull, Connolly and Schofield. Stuart Coupe, Kelly's manager, advised him to sign with Regular Records due to difficulty re-signing with Mushroom's Michael Gudinski. Michelle Higgins, Mushroom's Public relations officer, was a Kelly supporter and locked herself into a Sebel Townhouse Hotel room for nearly a week in mid-1986, refusing to leave until Gudinski had signed Kelly to a two-album recording contract. [cite web |url=http://www.amazon.com/Songs-South-Best-Paul-Kelly/dp/B000007VXC |date=1997-05-13 |accessdate=2008-09-23 |title="Songs from the South: The Best of Paul Kelly" |publisher=Amazon.com ]

In September 1986 Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls released the 24-track double LP "Gossip". The album included remakes of songs from "Post" and also featured "Maralinga (Rainy Land)", a song about the effects of British atomic testing on the Maralinga Tjarutja (indigenous people) of Maralinga, South Australia.cite news|url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/culture/song-lines/2007/06/04/1180809383262.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2 |title=Song lines|publisher="The Sydney Morning Herald"|last=Horsburgh |first=Susan |date=2007-06-04|accessdate=2008-09-23] "Gossip" peaked at #15 on the National albums charts, with singles chart success for "Before Too Long" which peaked at #15 and "Darling it Hurts" reaching #25. A single LP version of "Gossip" featuring 15 tracks was released in North America and Europe by A&M Records in July, 1987. Due to possible racist connotations the band changed its name, for international releases, to Paul Kelly and the Messengers. They made an American tour, initially supporting Crowded House and then head-lining, travelling across the United States by bus. "Darling it Hurts" peaked at #19 on the "Billboard" Mainstream Rock chart in 1987. "The New York Times" rock critic, John Pareles wrote "Mr. Kelly sang one smart, catchy three-minute song after another - dozens of them - as the band played with no-frills directness." following the band's performance at the Bottom Line Club in New York. [cite web| url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE6D91339F93BA2575AC0A96E948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all |title=Two Rock Storytellers Hit Their Stride|publisher="The New York Times" |last=Pareles|first=John|date=1988-09-18|accessdate=2008-09-23]

Track listing

All tracks written by Paul Kelly unless otherwise indicated.cite web |title=Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) search engine|publisher=APRA |url=http://www.apra.com.au/cms/worksearch/worksearch.srvlt |accessdate=2008-09-23 Note: requires user to input song title e.g. LAST TRAIN TO HEAVEN]
# "Last Train to Heaven" - 4:51
# "Leaps and Bounds" (Paul Kelly, Chris Langman) - 3:25
# "Before the Old Man Died" - 2:35 ""'Remixed by Scott Litt for North American issues
# "Down on My Speedway" - 3:25
# "White Train" - 2:47
# "Randwick Bells" - 3:38
# "Before Too Long" - 3:24
# "Adelaide" - 3:39 ""'Omitted from North American LP and CD issues
# "I Won't Be Torn Apart" - 2:51 ""'Omitted from North American LP issue
# "Going About My Father's Business" - 3:34 ""'Omitted from North American LP issue
# "Somebody's Forgetting Somebody (Somebody's Letting Somebody Down)" - 3:41
# "The Ballroom" - 2:02 ""'Omitted from North American LP and CD issues
# "Tighten Up" - 2:57 ""'Remixed by Scott Litt for North American issues
# "I've Come for Your Daughter" - 3:21 ""'Omitted from North American LP and CD issues, 1993 Australian CD issue
# "So Blue" - 3:32 ""'Omitted from North American LP and CD issues
# "The Execution" - 5:17 ""'Remixed by Scott Litt for North American issues
# "Incident on South Dowling" - 3:13
# "Maralinga (Rainy Land)" - 3:57 "Omitted from North American LP and CD issues"
# "Darling it Hurts" (Kelly, Steve Connolly) - 3:19
# "Look So Fine, Feel So Low" (Kelly, Maurice Frawley) - 3:22
# "Stories of Me" - 2:45
# "Don't Harm the Messenger" - 3:47
# "Gossip" (Kelly, Chris Coyne) - 2:56 ""'Omitted from North American LP and CD issues, 1993 Australian CD issue
# "After the Show" - 3:17 ""'Omitted from North American LP and CD issues, 1993 Australian CD issue

Chart positions and releases

Personnel

Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls
* Paul Kelly — acoustic guitar, vocals
* Michael Armiger — bass guitar (tracks 8, 19)
* Michael Barclay — drums, vocals
* Peter Bull — keyboards, vocals
* Steve Connolly — guitar, vocals
* Chris Coyne — saxophone, saxophone (tenor) (tracks 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 19)
* John Schofield — bass, vocals

Additional musicians
* Richard Burgman — electric rhythm guitar
* Joe Camilleri — saxophone (track 3)
* Mike Cleary — piccolo trumpet
* Wayne Freer — trombone (tracks 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 19)
* Graham Lee — pedal steel guitar (tracks 1, 11, 21)
* Grant McLennan — talking (track 21)
* Astrid Munday — vocals (tracks 7, 17)
* Brian Nixon — timpani
* Dianne Spence — saxophone (track 20)
* Chris Wilson — harmonica (tracks 1, 11, 16)

Recording details
* Producer — Alan Thorne, Paul Kelly
* Engineer — Alan Thorne
* Remixer — Scott Litt (tracks 3, 13, 16 for North American release)

Art work
* Cover Art — Ann Redmond
* Photography — Wayne O'Farrell

References