Karlie Brady

Journalist

Legendary Australian singer-songwriter Paul Kelly is set to play in Port Douglas this July as he tours the East Coast on his On The Road Again tour.

The tour will make its way to the Port Douglas Yacht Club on 17 July.

Kelly will have his full band in tow, including Vika and Linda Bull, Bill McDonald, Peter Luscombe, Ash Naylor and Cameron Bruce, when he hits a string of regional centres in July and August.

“The band and crew and I have really missed each other over the last eighteen months as shows after shows were first postponed then cancelled,” he said.

“We put our toe in the water with a one-off New Year’s Eve performance for TV but now we’re really looking forward to stretching out and playing music night after night.

"We want to see the whites of your eyes, you lovers of sound, joy and fury; we want to charge the air around us and change each other and send you home singing into the night.”

While 2020 may have brought live tours to a halt, the ‘To Her Door’ and ‘How To Make Gravy’ singer didn’t sit idle, releasing a surprise lockdown-recorded album ‘Forty Days’ while also collaborating with pianist and composer Paul Grabowsky to release ‘Please Leave Your Light On’.

Manger of the Port Douglas Yacht Club, Sam Leo, said the performance will take place on the club’s lawns overlooking the Dickson Inlet. There will also be street vendor foods on offer and a support act still to be announced.

“We are very excited to have the iconic man Paul Kelly himself at the Yacht Club,” he said.

“He is an industry icon.

“It is very exciting to have such a big name play in Port Douglas and it will be the first of many.”

General public tickets for the show go on sale on on Frontier Touring on Thursday, 20 May at noon, while Frontier Members can get access to pre-sale tickets from Tuesday 18 May.