NED KELLY by Ashley Davies - music, Ian Jones - stories

“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. Enough to leave Peter Carey gasping”. - Clinton Walker; Author Buried Country, Highway To Hell, researcher “ A Long Way to the Top”- ABC documentary series on Australian Rock and Roll and television music show Studio 22 presenter.

Early 2000’s a friend lent me a book entitled “Our Sunshine” written by Australian author Robert Drewe. It was a magnificent story and more importantly left me wondering about the Kelly myth. At school I was taught Ned Kelly was a murderer and a bank robber. “Our Sunshine” in its own way was giving another view - a view that I had never heard or read about. I became very interested and proceeded to study anything I could find on Kelly. As I got more into it I realised how much there was I did not know or for that matter was not told about in school. Around this time a new book about Ned Kelly hit the bookshops, it was entitled “A Short Life” by Ian Jones. It was brilliant. The definitive book on the Kelly history.

I was inspired by the Kelly story along with Ian Jones’s book and started writing music about different events in Ned Kelly’s life. I had already composed four instrumental pieces and this is how the idea came about of making a record. Previous recordings artists have made are folk orientated and lyric based. I wanted to do something that presented the life and times of Ned Kelly both emotionally engaging and historically accurate but not like anything that had been done before. To date there had been no soundscape/soundtrack recording made about the Ned Kelly story. This idea links instrumental music and printed narratives for a new representation. The music would create the emotion and the text will spur the unfolding of the stories in the listeners mind.

I had a copy of “A Short Life” on me one day and a friend happened to notice, they remarked that they knew Ian Jones and I immediately asked if they knew him well enough to tell him about my project and to see if he would be interested in talking to me (at this point I was going to write the narratives and I thought Ian would be of great help from a research standpoint). My friend got back to me and said Ian would be happy to meet. I was in some respects in awe of Ian Jones, as a writer and Kelly historian. It was a privilege to talk with him. I went through the project, what it was and what I hoped to achieve and that it was important to me that through this idea people learn the whole story about Ned Kelly. I had not planned it but I asked Ian if he would be interested in writing the narratives. It was a thrill to say the least when he accepted.

Ian and I had meetings and between the two of us selected what we thought were the most influential moments in Ned Kelly’s life and these make up the fifteen instrumentals and stories. I had already composed four pieces and set about writing the rest of the music. I wanted to make a record unlike what I had done before. Utilizing sound effects where appropriate, real, and those I created (I went to Stringybark Creek and recorded running through the bush to get the desired effect for when Ned Kelly was chasing Sergeant Kennedy, the drums for the horse riding show that ends Outlaws at Play and as the train in the intro for the Siege of Glenrowan) and musically incorporating classical overtones mixed with my own Rhythm and Blues, Rock and improvised style. I then chose a core line up of musicians that would play on most of the tracks and special guests to perform specific pieces. The record boasts some of Australia’s finest musicians. Adam Gare (Uncle Bill, Paul Kelly), Jen Anderson (Weddings, Parties, Anything), Jeff Lang (best blues album 1999 Australian Blues Music Awards, (which I played on), Matt Walker (Matt Walker and Ashley Davies duo “Soul Witness” ARIA award winning album 2000).

I produced the CD and Chris Thompson recorded and engineered at the ABC studios Southbank.

Ashley Davies is a composer and drummer from Melbourne, Australia. He has recorded and produced 6 albums and conceived 3 live theatre shows incorporating his own compositions. He’s a highly sought after session musician having played on over 60 albums, recorded for film and television soundtracks, and performed with various artists in Australia and internationally.