Paul Kelly has announced his biggest shows in Australia and New Zealand to date, and his only live shows for 2025: nine huge arenas in Brisbane, Sydney, Hobart, Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne, Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland in August/September 2025… proudly presented by Frontier Touring, Triple M (AU) and Stuff (NZ).
Tuesday 26 August | RAC Arena, Perth, WA
Friday 29 August | Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane, QLD
Saturday 30 August | Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney, NSW
Tuesday 2 September | MyState Bank Arena, Hobart, TAS
Thursday 4 September | Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adelaide, SA
Saturday 6 September | Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, VIC
Tuesday 9 September | Christchurch Town Hall, Christchurch, NZ
Wednesday 10 September | Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington, NZ
Friday 12 September | Auckland Town Hall, Auckland, NZ
The tour news comes in the lead up to Kelly’s forthcoming studio album, Fever Longing Still, to be released November 1 and available for preorder now. His first album of new original material since 2018’s Nature, Fever Longing Still delivers 12 additions to a superb catalogue of love songs spanning more than 40 years. The title comes from a line in ‘Sonnet 147’ by Shakespeare, whose writing has thrilled and inspired Kelly ever since schooldays. Led by singles ‘Taught By Experts’ and ‘Houndstooth Dress’, it’s an album driven by a band in peak form – who fans can witness live onstage next year.
Awarded the Order of Australia in 2017 and with 17 ARIAs and five APRAs, few songwriters find ways to keep that creative fever burning for as long and as brightly as Kelly. The country of his birth, its emotional interior and geographical landscape, its heroes and villains, our hopes and failings, have all been a constant in Kelly’s long list of Australian-set songs: ‘To Her Door’, ‘Leaps and Bounds’, ‘From St Kilda To King’s Cross’, ‘How To Make Gravy’, ‘When I First Met Your Ma’, ‘Dumb Things’, ‘Before Too Long’… the list is endless. He has written about the country’s greatest cricketer, ‘Bradman’, and its most infamous bushranger, Ned Kelly, in ‘Our Sunshine’. ‘From Little Things Big Things Grow’, co-written with Kev Carmody, has taught more Australians about the history of the battle for land rights than newspaper headlines ever could.
From live recordings and compilations albums, Christmas standards and originals, variety has long been a key to Kelly’s recording career, which includes albums ranging from bluegrass and country (Smoke and Foggy Highway) to funk and soul (Professor Ratbaggy, The Merri Soul Sessions), alongside classic records such as Gossip, and Post. Kelly’s decades of touring have seen him play the kind of shows fans never forget.
In Australia, Kelly will be joined by special guest Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. Possessing “one of the strongest, truest voices in American roots rock” (Allmusic), the six-time GRAMMY winner emerged from Alabama as a member of Drive-By Truckers, before going solo with 2007’s Sirens of the Ditch. Together with his collective, Isbell’s latest release – 2023’s Weathervanes – won Best Americana Album at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards. Written while he was an actor on Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, the album features the rolling thunder of Isbell’s fearsome live band the 400 Unit, who’ve earned a place in the rock ‘n’ roll cosmos alongside the greatest backing ensembles, as powerful and essential to the storytelling as The E Street Band or the Wailers.
Opening proceedings in Australia is 2x ARIA and 9x CMAA Golden Guitar winner Fanny Lumsden, whose gone from growing up on a sheep farm in western NSW to playing Glastonbury. Her album HEY DAWN debuted at #1 on the ARIA Australian Album charts and was the fourth-highest selling country album of last year. Says The Australian, “One of the genre’s most esteemed performers”.
Meanwhile in New Zealand, singer/songwriter Reb Fountain invokes a blend of folk, art-pop and rock unrivalled in Aotearoa. After standout performances at WOMADelaide and extensively touring in Europe with Marlon Williams, Fountain’s reputation for an exceptional live show has gone global, her new single ‘Come Down’ out now.
With his incredible live band by his side – including members Peter Luscombe (drums), Bill McDonald (bass), Dan Kelly (guitar), Cameron Bruce (keys), Jess Hitchcock (vocals), and Ash Naylor (guitar) – Paul Kelly live is not to be missed. Tickets on sale next week!