Brian Kelly
born 8.10.1944 in Liverpool, England
died 5.12.2000 in Bremen, Germany

This webpage is dedicated to the memory of Brian Kelly. I met Brian sometime in 1978 and introduced him to the Anglo-German Club, Bremen where together with Wilfried Drygala, we founded the Idle Fellows folk group in 1979. The group's name was taken from the title of one of Brian's favourite folk songs, Dammed Idle Fellows. Over the following 14 years, we regularly played together both in the Idle Fellows or briefly (2 years) as a folk-duo. It was Brian who introduced to me a huge number of folk songs for which I am deeply indebted. In addition to having a wonderful voice, his knowledge of folk-music was wide-ranging and vast. He was a larger-than-life figure with a huge appetite both for food and folk-music and, as my father would say, "The lad loved his pop". His gusto for life, comparable with Brendan Behan or Fats Waller, no doubt lead to his untimely demise. He lives on, however in the memory of his friends and the music he left behind. So here, in his memory, Brian's songs and recordings can be found iby "clicking" the tabs above.
Thank you, Brian.

Geoff Grainger, Bremen-Vegesack, June 2001

Brian himself made no recordings and, as far as I believe, never had any ambitions of making recordings or any kind of studio work. He was a natural, and the natural place to perform folk music is in a pub. (At least that's what I always thought and I think Brian would agree with me - he loved his pubs). All that remains are three lousy cassette tapes made just for transcription purposes in Wilfried Drygala's cellar bar, the place where we carried out our monthly rehearsals. There are also two video tapes made by Heinz Seidelmann as mementoes in 1992 in the Treppchen. From these unlikely sources, 10 songs have been rescued and have been compiled as a CD Brian Kelly In Memoriam upon which one-verse samples of these songs can be heard on this website. This CD, vastly over-priced, was once available as a DAM-CD at mp3.com. There are no plans for its re-release..

This is by no means a list of all Brian's songs in his repertoire, the list is merely those of songs which he sang together with the Idle Fellows. His repertoire must have covered hundreds of songs. He had a vast knowledge of North English songs as well as songs connected with the labour movement both in England and Germany. He sang all these songs by heart and scorned the use of songbooks on stage. The complete folk musician was our Brian!

The Banks of the Roses	High Germany	The Maid on the shore
The Banks of Newfoundland	The Holy Ground	A Mon like thee
Blow the Candles Out	Dammed Idle Fellows	Off to Sea Once More
Bog Down in the Valley Oh	The Irish Rover	The Old Dun Cow
Bold Thady Quill	Johnny Todd	Whiskey in the Jar
Byker Hill	The Jolly Waggoner	The Ploughboy and the London Cockney
William Brown	Kelly the Boy from Killane	The Waverley Polka
The Wraggle Taggle Gypsies	The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter	Tackuanna
The Star of the County Down	Way Down to Lamorna	Three Gypsies
Four Drunken Maidens	The Leaving of Liverpool	Three Score and Ten
Fareweel to Tarwathie	My Liverpool Home	Turpin Hero
The Gypsy Girl	Maggie May