Brian Kelly

I began playing traditional Irish music at the age of 7 on the tin whistle in London under the tutelage of Clare man Brendan Mulkere. I took up the mandolin aged 9 and the banjo aged 10 and it wasn’t long before I made my mark on the Irish scene winning at my first attempt the All Ireland Championship aged 11 on banjo, going on to win eight All Ireland Championships in total in various age groups (four each on banjo and mandolin). (www.comhaltas.com)
I am currently teaching 1:1 banjo and mandolin, for which I have 2 All Ireland winners to date. I hold a weekly musicians workshop for Killinkere Comhaltas, Cavan and continue to play gigs extensively throughout Ireland and the UK.
I built my musical reputation through residencies in London including two years in The Swan, Stockwell with Gino Lupari (4 Men And A Dog) and five years in The Stags Head, Camden Town with Paddy Gallagher. In addition to this I also have a residency at Festival Interceltique de Lorient, France since 2007 to the present day https://www.festival-interceltique.bzh/
I have had substantial success in the Irish charts with the dance-trad fusion band Dance to Tipperary, enjoying two Top 10 Hits and five Top 20 singles as well as a Top 12 album. Dance to Tipperary produced “The Fields of Athenry” Single CD in 2001 as the Celtic Football Club anthem and performed it live at their home ground in front of a capacity 67,000 crowd. We also performed at the Guildford Festival, Point Theatre Dublin, “Beat-on-the-Street” Tralee and Expo Ireland in the Olympia, London among others.
In December 2003 after returning from a year living/playing in New Zealand and Australia I joined Shane MacGowan and The Popes and toured with extensively in Ireland, the UK, Europe and USA until May 2005 when Shane rejoined The Pogues permanently.
I formed The Long Notes who released two albums our most recent being “In The Shadow of Stromboli” in 2012 (www.thelongnotesmusic.com).
I also have toured comprehensively in the USA/Europe/China and Russia with Gaelforce Dance, Dance Masters & Celtic Nights Irish Dance shows. (www.gaelforce-dance.com)
I have collaborated with Mark Nevin of Fairground Attraction on his album Stand Beside Me in the Sun in 2011 & Steve Wickham of the Waterboys on the soundtrack of the film The Raven in 2012.
I joined Creeds Cross in 2014 and we released the album Gods & Fighting Men in 2015 & toured the UK theatre circuit broadly until 2018.
I most recently shared the stage with Sting and Bob Geldof at Stings UK residence in December 2022.
I have played on numerous Radio shows/stations both in the UK and Ireland including RTE’s ‘Ceili House,’ BBC Radio’s 2, 4 & GLR and also LBC. My TV appearances include “The Kelly Show” on UTV Northern Ireland; the TV3 Breakfast Show; “Fleadh” for RTE, “Geantrai” for TG4 & “Good Morning” show TV1 New Zealand.