The Fat Lady Sings
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The Fat Lady Sings were a rock band from
Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...
, Ireland, fronted by singer and songwriter Nick Kelly. Almost immediately after forming in March 1986, they relocated to
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, and remained there for the rest of their career. Despite this, they consistently enjoyed more media attention and commercial success in their native Ireland, with a series of five top 20 singles in 1990/91, than they did in the UK.


Career

The band remained self-financed and self-managed for eighteen months, building a substantial live following, including sold-out gigs at London's Town & Country Club (now The Forum) and Dublin's
National Stadium Many countries have a national sport stadium, which typically serves as the primary or exclusive home for one or more of a country's national representative sports teams. The term is most often used in reference to an association football stadiu ...
. Having released a string of critically acclaimed singles on independent labels, The Fat Lady Sings signed to
East West Records East West Records (stylized as east''west'') is a record label formed in 1955, distributed and owned by Warner Music Group, headquartered in London, England. History Upon its creation in 1955 by Atlantic Records, the label had one hit with ...
. In October 1990, they released their first major label single "Man Scared", followed by the debut album ''Twist'' in May 1991. ''Twist'' spawned three more singles: a re-release of “Arclight” (April 1991), “Twist” (May 1991) and “Deborah” (August 1991). The second album ''Johnson'' was produced by
Steve Osborne Stephen John "Steve" Osborne (born 1963) is a British record producer, living in Bath, England. He has worked with a wide variety of musicians, including Suede, the B-52s, A-ha, New Order, Elbow, U2, Happy Mondays, Placebo, Gregory Porter, Do ...
and with Nic France replacing founding member Robert Hamilton on drums, was released in June 1993, following the lead single "Show of Myself". The second single, "Drunkard Logic", became the band's highest UK chart position, peaking at no. 56 in July 1993. The band spent six months on tour promoting Johnson, including three months in the US, concluding with a final show in New York's
CBGB CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in Manhattan's East Village. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters ''CBGB'' were for '' Country'', '' BlueGrass'', and '' Blues'', Kri ...
in December 1993. In January 1994 the band split when frontman and only songwriter Nick Kelly surprisingly quit the band. In 2005, the band reformed for a one-off show at Dublin's
Vicar Street Vicar Street is a concert, performing arts centre and events venue in Dublin, Ireland. Located on Thomas Street, Dublin 8, Vicar Street has capacity for 1,050 people for seated performances and 1,500 people for standing gigs. The venue is own ...
and released the two-album compilation ''The Fat Lady Sing(le)s / Opera Oscura'' containing singles, B-sides and rarities on Warner Bros. Records.


Post-TFLS careers

In 1993, drummer Robert Hamilton, who left before the second album, and Ali McMordie set up the charity project
Peace Together ''Peace Together'' was a 20 July 1993 fundraiser compilation album released by the Peace Together organisation, dedicated to promoting peace in Northern Ireland, which was initiated by Robert Hamilton, of The Fat Lady Sings, and Ali McMordie of ...
, which released a compilation album including versions of the TFLS track "Be Still" featuring
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,
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, and
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. Guitarist Tim Bradshaw and bassist Dermot Lynch enjoyed chart success in America as members of the band
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in 1995. Subsequently, Bradshaw worked as a session and live musician, producer and arranger for
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and David Gray. Lynch also played for David Gray and went on to work as a
tour Tour or Tours may refer to: Travel * Tourism, travel for pleasure * Tour of duty, a period of time spent in military service * Campus tour, a journey through a college or university's campus * Guided tour, a journey through a location, directed ...
and
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for Keane,
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and
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. Singer and songwriter Nick Kelly released his first solo album, ''Between Trapezes'', independently in 1997, and became the Best Solo Male Artist at the 1998–99 Irish Music Critics Awards. In 2005, he released his second album, ''Running Dog'', on his own label. More recently, he has recorded with the project Alien Envoy, who released the album ''Nine Lives'' in 2010. Kelly also works as a commercial director and released a short film called ''Shoe'' which made the Oscar shortlist for Live Action Short in 2011. In 2017, Kelly released his longform directorial debut ''The Drummer and the Keeper'', a film which featured Dermot Murphy, and Jacob McCarthy. In 2019, Kelly released "Hair Trigger" as part of an Irish supergroup called The Unelectables, a group which also featured Les Keye of The Wilde Oscars, Paul Byrne of In Tua Nua, Daragh O’Toole and Seán “Doctor” Millar of The Cute Hoors. With Doctor Miller, Kelly formed the duo DOGS, who played Glastonbury's Croissant Neuf stage in June 2023 as part of their Song Cycle tour, a series of dates which saw Kelly cycle 360 km from his home to Glastonbury playing a number of gigs in Ireland, Wales and Bristol on the way. Kelly was interviewed by the BBC for a feature about the Song Cycle tour and his trip to Croissant Neuf on BBC Two's Saturday Night Glastonbury coverage on 24 June 2024, with footage of DOGS playing their song "Old Dog, Young Dog" on the stage from the day before.


Personnel

*Nick Kelly – Lead vocals *Tim Bradshaw – Guitar *Dermot Lynch – Bass *Robert Hamilton – Drums


Discography


Singles


Albums

*''Twist'' (1991) *''Johnson'' (1993)


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fat Lady Sings, The Musical groups established in 1986 Musical groups from Dublin (city)