Paul Kelly: the crowd was stunned into silence after Archie Roach sang Took the Children Away

Archie Roach and Paul Kelly met backstage at the Melbourne Concert Hall in 1989, when Roach was the support act for Kelly’s band the Messengers. Kelly and bandmate Steve Connolly went on to produce Roach’s first album, Charcoal Lane Photograph: Courtesy Tony Mott

Sometimes the most memorable gigs are the worst but I don’t want to talk about the worst, which was at Mittagong RSL. I want to talk about the first time I met and played with Archie Roach.

It was 1989 and it was with my band, the Messengers. We’d been offered a show at the Melbourne Concert Hall [now Hamer Hall]. And it was a big deal for us – it was like, “All right, this is the big time,” so we wanted to do a special show. Around that time, [the late] Steve Connolly, who played guitar for me, saw Archie Roach singing Took the Children Away on an ABC TV show called Blackout. He said to me we should get this guy to come and open for us at the Concert Hall. I hadn’t heard the song but I trusted Steve.