Welcome

Kelly's Heels is a London-based band, whose special brand of guitar-crazed pop has caught the imagination of a loyal band of fans worldwide. 

Kelly's Heels have been keeping busy, and Bob has been working on a variety of "guest" projects, including recording new incidental and theme music for upcoming TV comedy drama, as well as playing some UK festivals (including Glastonbury) with the wonderful Bruise, playing with Edward Ball and The Times, with Chris Wilson of the Flamin Groovies, with mod/pop band Rinaldi Sings and with Northern Soul band, Hi-Fi Sneakers. 

While you're waiting for the next gig, you can satisfy your insatiable need for guitar, handclaps and tambourine, with the fantastic latest album, Playing Into Your Hands, out now!

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What They Say ...

"Oodles of hooks, harmonies and repeated choruses that won’t leave your head no matter how hard you try ... Kelly’s vibrato-flecked lead-vocals make the album wholly unique. “ Toast magazine

“The melody of the ‘60s injected with the mayhem of the ‘70s” - Gary Pig Gold

“An artist at once incurably romantic and incurably neurotic ... Musically, Kelly strikes me in many ways as a British version of the Rooks’ Michael Mazzarella, but with a voice and songwriting sensibility more reminiscent of Glenn Tilbrook. Boasts some first-rate influences - Beatles, early Costello and Lowe ... but what is especially impressive is his attention to songcraft.” Dawn Eden

"Majestically moving melodies and ludicrously strong vocals " Melody Maker

"Bob Kelly's basic mission is  to squeeze as much as possible into the two-and-a half minute audio-space ..... and he does it wonderfully ...non-stop-hooks that makes you hit the repeat button again and again ... gorgeous melodies and super-catchy choruses" - POPISM

"Kelly`s Heels is doing some of the finest, most consistently listenable, Fab Four-inspired, power pop on the planet. " - NOT LAME

"Urgent guitars, sticky-sharp hooks and harmonies to die (or kill) for ... Kelly's quite the tunesmith, penning and singing memorable numbers like "Someone, Somewhere" (a bloody classic, this one), "Tell Me When It's Over" and "Should've Seen Her."  No ballads to be found here, kids, just high-energy, killer pop toons.  Remember: it's not retro, it's timeless. " Goldmine Magazine, Three Chord Brag review

 “Starting off with a juicy chunk of Beatlesesque, sticks-to-the roof-of-your-mouth jangle, Kelly's Heels lights a real fire under the bum of informed Brit pop. Like an injection of pure energy, these folk have captured a kinetic momentum that saturates all five senses. Absolutely glorious pop writing. “ - CD Baby

News

The Party's Over 

With a marketing nous that makes the Heels' strategy of sneaking-it-out-while-nobody's-watching look like the satire on music-biz success stories it probably is, Rinaldi Sings unveil their new album - The Party's Over - this Summer just in time for the country's opening up cavortings! So why is it mentioned here?, you ask. Well, apart from being our friends, the album also features Jim Kimberley on drums and Bob Kelly on guitar and probably more backing vocals than anyone really wanted. The accompanying booklet also features pictures of alcoholic drinks. What are you waiting for??

LOCKDOWN LARKS 

Who'd have thought the middle of a global pandemic wouldn't be a good time to launch a new album? Uh, well, everyone except us, it appears. When the Music Business pulled up the drawbridge and posted armed guards around all of their suspended product, muggins 'ere thought it would be the ideal time to unleash SOUND PROOF on a stimuli-deprived world. Good in theory, but it hit more than a bump in the road when we discovered that, although you can get records pressed during a pandemic, you can't deliver them in to distributors! How we laughed as we designed a narrow walkway through our box-filled house and accepted this as the new living space for the foreseeable future.
The album's available as a download, of course (all the usual suspects), but while that's a convenient space-saver for anyone interested in hearing the album, it doesn't make any kind of dent in our inventory. Who knew a 'Limited Pressing' could take up quite so much room?? Well, us, obviously. With the benefit of hindsight. Sigh. Thank goodness we went with the Miniature LP/CD look for the sleeve - a traditional crystal case would've seen boxes spilling out into the street and the necessary installation of an honour box for payment.
Hmm. There's a thought...

OK. Good talk. More soon...

Helter, There & Skelterwhere 

Here's an interesting mash-up to get your teeth into:-

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eDwZBhXvW4I

The video is about as primitive as it's possible to be without just being a photograph, but it's a thing, I guess.

SELECTIVE AMNESIA 

Before Kelly's Heels, there were The Ashes. In fact Kelly's Heels was originally a name I came up with for a multi-tracked choir of backing vocals (all me!) on an Ashes album, which I wasn't allowed to use for some reason. At least it gave me a port in a storm when The Ashes collapsed during preparations to record our 4th album, which duly became the first Heels album. Selective Amnesia is the first of a possible trilogy of Ashes releases - I think volume 2 is supposed to be Picking Off Survivors and volume 3 is Tested To Destruction, but I'll have to check.
Anyway, 15 tracks from the 3 Ashes albums, which met a variety of different fates. Some may argue with the selection (we certainly did!), but for the moment it's what there is. A matching design to the Popboomerang Heels 'Best Of', this one is another Warnfuzz release.

RINGING IN YOUR EARS 

Originally planned as a mini-album to mop up some (subsequently finished) leftovers from Playing Into Your Hands, this eventually became the similar-sounding follow-up title to our 2015/6 album when I couldn't think of a better title for it. The leftovers mini-LP remains a figment of my imagination, though it does leave me with a small cache of unreleased material in case I need an odd track for something (No, I can't think of a situation at the moment, either). Housed in a relatively swanky gatefold digipack it does make itself easier to find amongst piles of CDs, though it's not as charity-shop-proof as the single-sleeved Playing Into Your Hands and Sound Proof (try locating those ones with a sweeping glance in your local Cats Protection League CD bin!). This was the first album entirely recorded and mixed by Julian Simmons, after Ian Shaw decamped to the Florida Keys to continue his sun-soaked recording adventure. (Defiantly English, the Heels choose to record when it's raining whenever possible. Or snowing.)(We can record when the Sun's out, of course, but we have to know that a feeble English Sun is wreaking havoc on the country's infrastructure simply by not being grey to be comfortable with it.) None of which tells you very much about these songs. Well, obviously I recommend snapping up the physical album while it's available, but you can always sample some of the songs on iTunes or Spotify, but if you buy the album as a download you don't get the booklet, which does deal with the songs in a slightly less opaque way. Aren't I annoying?

Remembering Richard & Jubilation Lee ...  

This week is the fifth anniversary of the death of our friend Richard. To mark the occasion we've taken a run at one of his earlier songs, Flyby, and enlisted Jane Watkins and Toby Kelly to provide their inimitable assistance on keyboards and saxophone, respectively. It's not completely finished yet, but it's certainly (or 'cat inky', as predictive text would have it!) far enough along to share with you.

Please join us in raising a glass to him this Friday, May 16th, wherever you may be.