Angelo Kelly

Angelo Gabriele Kelly
(Singer/Songwriter/Drummer/Producer)

1981 - Angelo is born on the 23.12.1981 in Pamplona/ Spain, and is the youngest of 12 children.

1982 - His mother Barbara Ann Kelly dies, her last wish, "Keep on singing",

1984 - He begins to sing and perform on stage with his family at the age of 2 1/2, while they are living and touring in France. Angelo also sings for the first time in studio to record the hitsingle "Hiroshima I'm sorry".

1986 - Moves with his family to the United States.

1988 - The Kelly Family is performing two shows daily in their own tent in Germany. Angelo starts to learn
the guitar from his sister Kathy, and his brother Johnny teaches him the first few snare drum patterns.
They also start to perform in big concert halls and record the album (and video) " Live".

1989 - Moves with his family to Amsterdam/Netherlands where they then live on a boat. He writes his first song and starts learning to play the percussion from Nippy Noya.

1991 - They move with their boat back to Germany.

1992 - His family gives him his first drumset for Christmas which he wished to have for a few years. Immediately he starts to practice and shortly after is playing the drums on stage.

1993 - Things are starting to take off for the band. They sell more then 300 thousand albums with their own record company Kel-Life and this only through their concerts and mail order.

1994 - Angelo records with his family the album "Over the hump" and with over 3 million copies sold it becomes the most selling album in Germany till this day. He also sings the first hitsingle "An Angel" which sells over 2 million copies.

1995 - While the Kelly Family is touring through europe playing in football stadioms, they start recording the album "Almost heaven". On this album Angelo starts to co-produce and play the drums for the first time.

1996 - "Almost heaven" is realeased and sells more then 5 million copies world wide. The first single
"I can't help myself" is a song written by Angelo and it goes number 1 in the charts of 8 countries. The Kelly Family moves to Ireland looking for peace from the media and that's when Angelo starts taking drum lessons from Billy Cobham.

1997 - Living in Ireland Angelo discovers the joy in horse riding and soon after wins a few local horse jump turniers. His song "Because it's love" goes number 1 in countries such as South Afrika and Belgium. Angelo also gives his first drum clinic on the Musik Messe in Frankfurt. This is something he will be doing more in the following years to come.

1998 - The Kelly Family move back to Germany. They release their album "From their hearts" and tour as usual.

1999 - Angelo is constantly in studio and on tour with his family. They bring out "The Best of" 1 & 2 and do a lot of promotionwork.

2000 - The band takes a break and only performs about 20 concerts. He uses the time off to learn the piano, and
in december Angelo together with his teacher Billy Cobham produces the instructional video "Call & Response".

2001 - The Kelly Family decide to go in studio to make their first album since 3 years. Angelo's fiancée Kira gives birth to their first child Gabriel and the band performs about 90 concerts.

2002 - Finally after almost four years, the Kelly Family brings out a new album entitled "La Patata". Next to the promotion work for the album they also do a lot of touring.
Due to the decreased health from his operation before christmas (2001) his father Daniel Jerome Kelly peacefully passes away at the age of 71 on the 5th of August 2002 surrounded by his family at home. Shortly after his burial in Ireland and the memorial ceremonie for the public, the Kellys complete their schedule apperances and continue touring. In november Angelo and Kira receive their second child Helen Josephine.

2003 - The year 2003 is a very busy one for Angelo, because he spends over a 100 days in studio producing a new album with his brothers and sisters and performs with them on more then 80 concerts. He also plays the drums for Uli Kurtinat on 10 gigs, plays his first two jazzgigs and in oktober of 2003 goes on a short drum-clinic tour with Billy Cobham.

2004 - Angelo performed with his family over 150 concerts and their double album "HOMERUN" was released. He gave many drum clinics and in this year started with his drum teaching program. His first drum DVD with Billy Cobham entitled "Call & Response" got released in April. Angelo did a lot of different studio jobs and also played drums for a band called "SIX" on about 40 gigs. In november Angelo presented his new concept "PIANO DRUMS" on a few drum festivals.

2005 - In this year Angelo did many different things such as: Touring with "The Kelly Family", Teaching, drum clinics, studio jobs, Producing other bands and DVD's such as "HOMERUN" & "PIANO DRUMS" Live '05. He went on a Solo Drum tour called "PIANO DRUMS" Tour '05 which became a big success. Angelo also produced a charity album for The Kelly Family called "HOPE" and it was released in november. On the 1st of May Angelo married his fiancée Kira with which he already had his first two children.

2006 - Angelo released his debut album on the 7th of July and his first solo tour with his band started on the 13th of July. Angelo and his wife Kira have had their third child. Her name is Emma Maria Kelly and was born on the 6th of March 2006.

2007 - on 11.05 Angelo released his second solo album "Rejoice and be glad" and recorded videoclip to the song "Let me dream".
He went on successful europen tour and played on few festivals. At the end of the year 2007 Angelo went on "up close - solo and acoustic tour".

2008 - on 28.03 Angelo will release his third solo album - "Lost song". He recorded clip to song "Smile for the picture" which will promote new cd. From 03.04 to 20.04 Angelo will go on "LOST SONS" European Tour '08.


With a total of over 20 million albums sold and over 2 million videos/DVD's to their credit, the Kelly Family can look back after 30 years of band history on a thoroughly successful career. Worldwide, the singing family have collected countless awards and 48 platinum discs til this date. This biography is only an attempt to give one a glimps of the life from Angelo Kelly and for his 24 years a most impressive career