Lockdown puts Colin back on song...and on the airwaves

A lifelong love of music has led a Paisley man to pursue his dream during lockdown.

Colin Kelly, 42, started playing his own instruments when he was 11 but it went on the back burner after he pursued a career in journalism and broadcasting.

Then lockdown happened and his wife Emma challenged him to prove he could write songs after he’d been telling her for years he could.

Colin took himself off to his study, got in touch with his old school pal and singer Yvonne Lyon, right, who has performed at Celtic Connections and supported Eddie Reader, and the result is Fierce Planet.

They’ve now released their first single, Dancing in the Light, which is receiving airplay on Paisley FM and Pulse FM in Barrhead.

Colin said: “I always used to say to my wife, ‘I could write a song’ and one day she snapped and told me, ‘Go off and do it if you think you can!’.

“That was at the start of lockdown. I’ve had these songs in my head, notes I’d taken down over the years.

“I started working with Yvonne and suggested we do something a bit more poppy. She’s more used to acoustic and folk.

“We started writing together over Zoom. When we did Dancing in the Light we thought it was good enough to take forward. We got it produced and put it out there and so far it’s doing really well.”

Colin, who lives in Bishopton with Emma and their sons Michael, eight and Lewis, who’s six, admits the band would never have happened if it wasn’t for lockdown.

“It would have been just one of those things I would have driven my wife mad with,” he joked.

“We’ve got two young kids and it was a bit of an escape. All our leisure activities stopped for a few months so I had time to do something.

“Lockdown was a great opportunity to have a go at it.”

Colin, pictured right, said he’s not looking to get signed by a label and is happy keeping things independent.

He added: “It’s a little bit more than doing it for fun. I’d like to take it as far as I can go with it.

“It’s a really good time for independent artists. You don’t always need to be signed to a record label.

“Yvonne has performed all over the UK, she’s had about eight albums out and is making a living out of being a singer.

“If radio keeps playing the song and people keep streaming it then we’ll see how it does.”

Colin and Yvonne, who were at Gryffe High in Houston together, are still writing together and have more songs they’d like to release in the next few months.

To listen to the single and find out more about Fierce Planet, go to www.fierceplanet.co.uk