Born in 1969, Paul Kelly began juvenile life of problems. When only 16 days old, Paul was the first baby to ever be fitted with a brain shunt, to try & halt the ravaging effects of Hydracephalus, brought on by a brain haemorrhage at birth.
Fortunately the experiment worked, & by the time he was 9 years old he had had a further 8 brain operations for shunt problems & renewals. Within 6 months, Paul was facing further trouble with chronic Scoliosis. The next 5 years saw Paul have another 6 major operations tyo get his spine fused, from top to bottom, to help save his life. During one of his hospital stays of traction & immobility, Paul was given a cassette player & a Slim Dusty tape by his mother, which encouraged a very healthy interest in country music.Since then, Paul has accumulated a massive collection of country music memorabilia, & has surprised many people in the industry.For instance, part of the collection is a huge tribute to Slim Dusty, which has been acknowledged by several CM authorities as being vastly extensive, & possibly one of the largest in the world. Within this area, Paul has more than 800 press clippings, more than 300 photos, & over 500 autographs of Slim, Apart from 3 black Columbia 78's Paul has all recordings put out by Slim, many interview discs, lots of specially made articles signed by Slim, & a great number of posters, plus loads of other interesting things. Country music Doyen Peter Burgis has labelled Paul as a country music historian & "Slimdustyologist" which we think is very appropriate.Since starting collecting in 1978, Paul is still finding things & is also very grateful if people send him bits & pieces they no longer want. He is hoping to build a Country Music museum in the future, which will absolutely amaze CM lovers with its contents. Amongst the huge number of posters, are several very old ones, advertising some of Slim's early concerts in 1954, 1955, 1956, 1964, 1965 & 1968, all signed by Slim himself. Many photos of articles in his collection were used in the assembly of the accompanying booklet published for the box set of Slim's "Man Who Is Australia" put out by EMI.In early 2004 Paul was asked by the producer of the "Lights On The Hill" special which was aired on National ABC TV to appear with some of his collection, with many of his photos used throughout the programme.Paul was also asked by the Toowoomba Lions Club to have a display at their annual Hobby & Craft Show. The same week, regional ABC radio also did an interview with him about his collection. In all, Paul has done a lot of publicity for the Country Music industry over the years, which we are sure must be appreciated by the industry peers.Paul has got his 6th guitar fully autographed by Australian & Overseas artists. Many of the artists are very well known including Freddie Fender, Don Williams, Foster & Allen, Charlie Landsborough, Slim Dusty, Isla Grant, Don McLean, Stan Coster, Keith Urban, Topp Twins, Ted Egan plus lots more.In Paul's collection are some personally autographed photos of Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Dolly Parton, Buck Owens, Hank Williams Jnr, Glen Campbell, Kenny Rogers, Don Williams, Loretta Lynne, Charlie Pride, Freddie Fender, Tanya Tucker, Randie Travis, Reba McIntyre, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, June Carter-Cash, Porter Wagner plus hundreds more.
We are looking forward to seeing Paul's amazing collection asdsembled into a Country Museum, which we are sure will astound many interested people.
I also have a website promoting Country Music, if you go to :
