Paul Kelly — Darling It Hurts

JUL 01 1986 · 12:00

Paul Kelly — Darling It Hurts (1986) Director: Claudia Castle Era: Australian Post-Punk & Pub Rock Renaissance (1986) - Mid-decade emergence of literate Australian roots-rock storytelling, coinciding with Paul Kelly & The Coloured Girls' debut double album 'Gossip' on Mushroom Records. High curatorial value as a primary document of mid-1980s Australian literary rock. The video is a rare verified, IMDB-confirmed directorial credit for Claudia Castle — one of Australia's most prolific female music video directors of the era — and represents the beginning of a documented creative partnership with Paul Kelly that yielded ARIA Award-winning work. The black-and-white aesthetic, fast cutting, and social-realist staging make it a valuable benchmark for Australian music video production norms of the period, predating the shift to colour HD video and MTV-driven production inflation. Context: Released in September 1986 as the second single from Paul Kelly & The Coloured Girls' debut double album 'Gossip' on Mushroom Records, 'Darling It Hurts' is rooted in the gritty street culture of Darlinghurst Road, Kings Cross, Sydney — at the time a well-known red-light district. The song's narrator confronts a former lover who has turned to sex work, with lyrical references to drug dealers and kerb-crawlers grounding it in Sydney's late-1980s urban underclass. Kelly has cited artist Toby Zoates' graffiti in Darlinghurst as the lyrical inspiration for the title. The video's black-and-white aesthetic reinforces the song's unvarnished social realism. The track reached No. 25 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart and, issued in 1987 on A&M Records in the US, peaked at No. 19 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Chart, demonstrating Kelly's crossover reach. Director notes: Directed for Paul Kelly & The Coloured Girls in 1986. The video is shot in black-and-white, showing the band performing in front of a dancing couple. Castle went on to direct several further videos for Paul Kelly's band, including the 1988 ARIA Music Award-winning video for 'To Her Door'. Her broader directorial credits include INXS: 'Disappear' (1990), Midnight Oil: 'Blue Sky Mine' (1990), Midnight Oil: 'Forgotten Years', Boy Meets Girl: 'Waiting for a Star to Fall' (1988), The Lemonheads: 'Into Your Arms' (1993), Transvision Vamp: '(I Just Wanna) B With U' (1991), and The Pointer Sisters: 'After You' (1990). Castle is the daughter of pioneering Australian documentary filmmaker Lilias Fraser.