Absent Friends (band)

Absent Friends were an ARIA Award winning band from Sydney, Australia. The band was relatively short lived, forming in 1989 and disbanding in 1990. It featured a number of notable Australian musicians including Sean Kelly (Models, The Dukes), James Valentine (Models), Garry Gary Beers (INXS), Geoffrey Stapleton (GANGgajang) and Wendy Matthews. Following the break-up of Models in 1988, Sean Kelly attempted to launch a solo career with the single "Thank You, Goodnight" (March, 1988) (which happened to be the name of Models last tour), but the single was not a commercial success and in early 1989 Kelly found himself at a loose end. Kelly contacted a number of friends, with a view of putting together an informal band to play a few gigs. The impromptu cooperative was initially dubbed Sean Kelly and His Absent Friends. The initial line-up varied, usually dependant upon the availability of individual members at any given time.