Background
Paul Kelly and the Dots, had released two albums in the early 1980s, Talk and Manila, but they had little chart success. Kelly had become involved with the Melbourne drug culture, the Dots disbanded in 1982 after numerous line-up changes and Kelly formed the Paul Kelly Band. Kelly's first marriage, to Hilary Brown, had broken up in late 1984; likewise the Paul Kelly Band had ended too. Kelly had moved to Sydney by January 1985, where he recorded Post in the studio of Sherbet guitarist Clive Shakespeare. It was self-funded (at a cost of $3,500), with Michael Barclay on drums and guitarist Steve Connolly (The Zimmerman), guest performers on the album included bass player Ian Rilen (Rose Tattoo, X), Peter Bull (Flaming Hands, Grooveyard) on keyboards and guitarist Graham Lee. They spent two weeks recording at Clive Shakespeare's studio, Shakespeare engineered the album and co-produced with Kelly, it was released in May 1985 on the independent label White Label Records, and licensed to Mushroom Records.
The term 'post' has a few layers of meaning for Kelly in this album, i.e. post Kelly’s childhood and youth in Adelaide, post his life in Melbourne, particularly post his involvement with the Melbourne drug culture, post the death of his musician friend, Paul Hewson. Kelly dedicated the album to Hewson, who was a keyboard player and songwriter for the Australian/New Zealand band, Dragon, he died of a heroin overdose in January 1985. 'Post' also relates to a marker or 'signpost', pointing to a new direction, and even a way to 'post' his account of the world. Kelly has described Post as a concept album dealing with addictions - not necessarily heroin addiction - but various forms, he has also denied that the songs were autobiographical but that he wrote about the world around him.The album was re-released in 1990 as one of Mushroom's Midprice Masters and was re-released again in 2006 by Mushroom.
Read more about this topic: Post (Paul Kelly album)
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