Ned Kelly

by Ashley Davies and Ian Jones

“It was the hit of the festival”

- Patrick Donovan, music writer The Melbourne Age.

Ashley Davies’ production of Ned Kelly is a raw, stripped back telling of a story that many Australians think they know. The live show incorporates a six piece band and visual display including photos, historical documents, footage of Kelly country, and text narrated by Ian Jones, Australia’s foremost Kelly historian. The performance transports the audience to key moments in the life of Ned Kelly. Among those events are Ned’s teenage years, his mother’s incarceration, the gang’s bank robberies, the last stand at Glenrowan and the court proceedings. It all makes for a moving, powerful and true account of the Kelly story.

How It All Began

When Davies first began reading about Ned Kelly the impact on him was profound. Apart from being inspired by the loyalty and courage of Kelly, he was shocked that he’d known so little of the story. He decided to make it a personal mission to share the story with as many people as he could.

Davies began writing an album of instrumental music and then approached noted historian Ian Jones asking him to collaborate. Impressed by Davies’ passion Ian Jones wrote a short story to accompany each of the fifteen tracks. “Ashley hasn’t used folk modes or tried to evoke a specifically Irish feel, but on some tracks I sense a strong Irish agony. He’s gone for the emotion of story.”

The album was voted Best Australian Debut in Rhythms Magazine Readers Poll 2001 and received critical acclaim.

Davies then went on to create the live show. The premier performances of Ned Kelly played to packed houses at the Apollo Bay Music Festival 2002. “It was the hit of the festival” - Patrick Donovan, music writer The Melbourne Age. Since then the show has travelled to the Perth International Festival, The Melbourne Fringe Festival, Port Fairy Music Festival, Kalgoorlie, and Ballarat.

Biographies

Ashley Davies is regarded as one of Australia’s most innovative drummers. He also plays and composes for guitar, piano, harmonica and voice. Five years ago he teamed up with blues guitarist Matt Walker and together they became a highly sought after live act. Their energetic and unique style of improvised performance landed them supports with Bob Dylan & Patti Smith, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and The Cruel Sea, as well as opening for Gomez, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, The Cowboy Junkies, ZZ Top, Cold Chisel and Junior Brown. In 2001 their album ‘Soul Witness’ took out the ARIA award for Best Blues Album. He has recorded and released more than 20 CD’s and toured with artists including Jeff Lang (Best Blues Album “Cedar Grove” 1999 Australian Blues Music Awards), Chris Wilson and the Crown of Thorns, The Blackeyed Susans, Lisa Miller and The Backsliders.

Ian Jones is Australia’s most respected Kelly historian and author. His published works includes Ned Kelly: A Short Life and The Friendship that Destroyed Ned Kelly. Also a highly regarded military historian, he has written two books on the Australian Light Horse. As a script writer, producer and director his credits include Homicide, The Sullivans, the mini-series Against The Wind and feature film The Lighthorsemen. With his wife Bronwyn Binns, he co-wrote and produced the award-winning mini-series The Last Outlaw. His most recent book is Joshua, The Man They Called Jesus.

What people have said about the Ned Kelly Show….

The Ned Kelly legend obviously still has resonances for many Australians, but to come across artists who’ve found such a fresh angle on it, as Ashley Davies and Ian Jones have with this richly drawn project, is especially exciting.

- Clinton Walker ABC TV

It was the hit of the festival.

- Patrick Donovan The Melbourne Age.

An evocative re-telling of the life of Australia's best known folk hero combining music, images, text and narration, this show was moving, informative and captivating...

- Rick Rutjens In Press magazine

The show is fabulous. I haven’t stopped raving about it and am insisting that everyone I know gets along to see/hear it.

- Jude Gun Melbourne Fringe

A tightly packed crowd sat transfixed by Ashley Davies’ Ned Kelly, the multimedia telling of Ned’s story.

- Louise Maskell Herald Sun

Powerful, captures the atmosphere and emotion of the Kelly saga.

- Clare Williamson Exhibitions Curator - State Library of Victoria

The story of Ned Kelly keeps on keeping on because it's a very dramatic tale, and in his new musical retelling Ashley Davies has nailed the many moods of this deadly yarn. From the cheeky larrikinism of young Ned's time as apprentice to bushranger Harry Power, through the horror of killing three police at Stringybark Creek, to the sadness of a young life wasted on the gallows, this music-story plumbs the full emotional roller coaster of Ned's life.

- Jan Wositzky Broadcaster ABC Radio 774

Archived photo of Ned in leg irons