Gossip (Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls album)

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 Kings 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 = https://www.amazon.com/Songs-South-Best-Paul-Kelly/dp/B000007VXC | date = 13 May 1997 | access-date = 23 September 2008 | title = Songs from the South: The Best of Paul Kelly }}

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 | newspaper = The Sydney Morning Herald | publisher = Fairfax Media | last = Horsburgh | first = Susan | date = 4 June 2007 | access-date = 23 September 2008 }} Gossip peaked at No. 15 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Charts, with singles chart success for "Before Too Long" which peaked at No. 15 and "Darling It Hurts" reaching No. 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 No. 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 news | url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE6D91339F93BA2575AC0A96E948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all | title = Two Rock Storytellers Hit Their Stride | newspaper = The New York Times | last = Pareles | first = John | date =18 September 1988 | access-date = 23 September 2008 }}

All tracks written by Paul Kelly unless otherwise indicated.{{cite web|title=APRA search engine |publisher=Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) |url=http://www.apra.com.au/cms/worksearch/worksearch.srvlt |access-date=23 September 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070517150759/http://www.apra.com.au/cms/worksearch/worksearch.srvlt |archive-date=17 May 2007 }} Note: requires user to input song title e.g. Last Train to Heaven

1. "Last Train to Heaven" – 4:51
2. "Leaps and Bounds" (Paul Kelly, Chris Langman) – 3:25
3. "Before the Old Man Died" – 2:35 Remixed by Scott Litt for North American issues
4. "Down on My Speedway" – 3:25
5. "White Train" – 2:47^^
6. "Randwick Bells" – 3:38
7. "Before Too Long" – 3:24
8. "Adelaide" – 3:39^^ Omitted from North American LP and CD issues
9. "I Won't Be Torn Apart" – 2:51 Omitted from North American LP issue
10. "Going About My Father's Business" – 3:34 Omitted from North American LP issue
11. "Somebody's Forgetting Somebody (Somebody's Letting Somebody Down)" – 3:41
12. "The Ballroom" – 2:02 Omitted from North American LP and CD issues
13. "Tighten Up" – 2:57 Remixed by Scott Litt for North American issues
14. "I've Come for Your Daughter" – 3:21 Omitted from North American LP and CD issues, 1993 Australian CD issue
15. "So Blue" – 3:32 Omitted from North American LP and CD issues
16. "The Execution" – 5:17 Remixed by Scott Litt for North American issues
17. "Incident on South Dowling" – 3:13^^
18. "Maralinga (Rainy Land)" – 3:57 Omitted from North American LP and CD issues
19. "Darling It Hurts" (Kelly, Steve Connolly) – 3:19
20. "Look So Fine, Feel So Low" (Kelly, Maurice Frawley) – 3:22^^
21. "Stories of Me" – 2:45
22. "Don't Harm the Messenger" – 3:47
23. "Gossip" (Kelly, Chris Coyne) – 2:56 Omitted from North American LP and CD issues, 1993 Australian CD issue
24. "After the Show" – 3:17 Omitted from North American LP and CD issues, 1993 Australian CD issue

^^ = previously recorded on Kelly's 1985 solo release, Post

Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls

• Paul Kelly — acoustic guitar, vocals
• Michael Armiger — bass guitar (tracks 8, 14, 20)
• 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)

2011 CD Remastered by Rick O'Neil at Turtlerock Mastering.

Art work

• Cover Art — Ann Redmond
• Photography — Wayne O'Farrell

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{{Certification Table Entry|artist=Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls|title=Gossip|type=album|relyear=1986|certyear=1986|region=Australia|award=Gold|certref={{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofau00mcfa |format=doc |last=McFarlane |first=Ian |author-link=Ian McFarlane |publisher=Allen & Unwin |year=1999 |isbn=1-86448-768-2 |access-date=26 August 2008 |url-access=registration }}}}

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Category:1986 albums

Category:Paul Kelly (Australian musician) albums

Category:Mushroom Records albums