My friend Nick Kelly, who has taken his own life aged 52, was a music writer, journalist and photographer who managed to combine critical acumen with good humour and kindness, an uncommon skill. Nick worked for various publications in the UK and Ireland, conveying his huge knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, various bands and artists in crisp and entertaining prose.
I first met him in 1993 at University College Dublin, where we bonded over a shared love of what was then called “independent” music, of books and writing, and of talking gibberish in Dublin’s bars.
