Lucy Kiely Archive

Winter on Italy’s Amalfi Coast brings a vague melancholy: a hangover from too many proseccos the summer past. The tourists have dissipated back into their real lives and most businesses have closed up for Christmas. From the outside looking in, the coast …

In the early 1980s Carmen Bradford walked right up to legendary band leader Count Basie and said, “if you hire me I’ll make you a million dollars”. The young jazz vocalist had been booked to open a show in Texas for the …

If classical saxophonist Amy Dickson’s new album was a Hollywood movie it would be set in the 1960s on the Mediterranean and its leading lady would be lounging by the pool in a long gown with her hair done and a cocktail …

Iconic Divinyl’s song “I Touch Myself” caused quite the stir upon its 1990 release. Gutsy, sexual and empowered, there was nothing quite like it on the radio at the time. With her trademark pout firmly in place, Aussie frontwoman Chrissy Amphlett purred …

“There are only two kinds of people in this world,” Nina Ferro tells me. “There are men and there are women.” Taking to the stage alongside her exceptional band at Sydney’s 505 on Monday 13 January, songstress Nina Ferro launched her soulful …

To say Emma Pask has had a busy year is somewhat of an understatement: the 36-year-old scatted her way on to season 2 of The Voice Australia; made a very special friend in none other than Ricky Martin; was signed to Universal Music; …

My six-hour journey to this year’s Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues is punctuated only by roadkill and the land itself, burnished and charred by bushfire. The trees lie out eerily by the roadside, black and skeletal, topped by amber leaves. After …

From Tom Waites to Claude Debussy, 31-year-old Australian classical saxophonist Amy Dickson’s musical tendencies are as far reaching as dusk is from dawn. Dickson’s latest offering, titled Dusk and Dawn, is a stylish reworking of classical, jazz and popular tunes including Chopin’s “Nocturne”, Bellini’s …

I don’t generally spend my Saturday nights watching middle-aged women pose nude in front of strategically placed baked goods and floral displays, but when I do I make sure it’s for an excellent cause. Epicentre Theatre Company’s production of Calendar Girls at …

The 1980s. When dreams were big and hair was bigger. When we all thought we were gonna live forever. Chatswood Musical Society’s upcoming production of FAME: The Musical takes a look at the grit and glamour of New York’s High School of …