Paul Kelly will return to Sydney’s Kings Cross for a one-off performance at the Potts Point Hotel on 30 August, coinciding with the release of the expanded edition of his 2025 album Seventy and marking another chapter in his long association with the neighbourhood that helped shape his songwriting.
by Paul Cashmere
Paul Kelly will perform an intimate one-off show at Sydney’s Potts Point Hotel on Sunday, 30 August, to coincide with the release of Seventy (Deluxe Edition), an expanded version of his acclaimed 2025 album. The performance also celebrates Kelly’s enduring connection to Kings Cross, a suburb that has featured prominently throughout his songs and career, and follows the completion of a new public mural honouring the songwriter.
The announcement links Kelly’s latest release with a location that has played a significant role in his creative life. The deluxe edition of Seventy will be released on 28 August and features the new song “Stardust”, along with additional photographs and new liner notes written by Kelly. Fans can enter a ballot to attend the Potts Point performance by pre-ordering the deluxe edition through Kelly’s official store.
The event also coincides with the unveiling of a mural by artist Scottie Marsh on the exterior wall of the Potts Point Hotel. The artwork is the second in Marsh’s Paul Kelly mural series, following the mural at Melbourne’s Esplanade Hotel in St Kilda. Together the works acknowledge the importance of both Melbourne and Sydney in Kelly’s career.
Reflecting on his return to the area, Kelly recalled the venues where his band regularly played during the 1980s.
“I haven’t played in Kings Cross for many years,” Kelly said.
“In the mid to late eighties we played the Kardomah Café and The Manzil Room quite a few times. The Manzil Room was in the laneway behind The Potts Point Hotel. A wee hours sticky-carpet venue, attracting all the denizens of the night, street workers, bohemians, drug dealers, desperadoes, off work musicians.”
Kelly remembered beginning performances around 1am, often playing three sets before dawn. Among those who occasionally attended was painter Brett Whiteley, whose distinctive dancing left an impression, while Kelly also recalled his sister Anne, a Loreto nun, making the journey to see the band perform.
“There’s a lot I don’t remember,” he said. “Though I do remember staggering out into the dawn light many a time after the last set to head up Darlinghurst Road for bacon and eggs at Una’s Café.
“Una’s still there but The Manzil is long gone. It’s a block of apartments now. I wonder if the residents sometimes hear our chattering ghosts, the faint distant throb of our music.”
Originally released in 2025 as Kelly entered his seventieth year, Seventy debuted at No. 2 on the ARIA Albums Chart. The record featured the widely discussed song “Rita Wrote A Letter”, a companion piece to Kelly’s enduring classic “How To Make Gravy”, revisiting characters connected to one of Australian music’s best known narratives. The accompanying video starred Australian actor Justine Clarke.
The forthcoming deluxe edition continues a busy period for Kelly following his first Australian arena tour, which drew audiences across the country and celebrated a catalogue spanning more than four decades. Throughout his career, Kelly has repeatedly drawn on Kings Cross and inner Sydney as settings for songs that document Australian life, cementing the district’s place within his body of work.
Alongside the Seventy (Deluxe Edition) announcement, Kelly has also confirmed a 40th anniversary edition of Gossip. The landmark 1986 double album will be reissued as a two LP set on blue and yellow vinyl, with each copy including one randomly selected replica handwritten lyric sheet commemorating the album that established Kelly as one of Australia’s leading songwriters.
The Potts Point performance takes place two days after the release of Seventy (Deluxe Edition), with access available through the ticket ballot linked to pre-orders.
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