Danny Kelly, Former NME and Q Editor, Dies at 69 in Ireland

Danny Kelly, the former editor of NME and Q, died on November 10 in Kilkenny, Ireland, aged 69. The obituary identifies him as a music journalist and broadcaster whose career joined two obsessions: music and football.

His talkSPORT colleagues announced the death on air the following day. The obituary calls him one of sports radio’s best-loved voices and says colleagues remembered a presenter whose knowledge, warmth and wit made listeners feel as though they were talking with an old friend. It offers no ratings to test that affection.

Kelly was born on December 23, 1956, in Islington, London, to Irish parents. He attended Our Lady of Sacred Heart in Eden Grove and then St Aloysius College in Highgate. The obituary traces his twin interests in music and football to that upbringing.

He began writing for the New Musical Express around 1983. The obituary describes the title then as the heartbeat of British music culture. Under the mentorship of editor Alan Lewis, Kelly rose through the ranks and succeeded Lewis as editor. Kelly later described Lewis as “someone who knew his way round a magazine flatplan or a public bar better than anyone.”

He led NME from 1990 to 1992; the obituary links those years to the Madchester and indie explosions. It records that he next moved to the monthly music magazine Q, where he was named British Magazine Editor of the Year, before leaving in 1995.

The obituary gives neither the awarding body nor the year for that honor. Kelly also launched the football monthly Total Sport.

In the mid-1990s, he hosted Under the Moon, a live late-night television sports chat and entertainment show that often ran for three hours or more. The account names neither the broadcaster nor the show’s ratings.

In 1997, Kelly founded 365 Corporation and created Football365, which the obituary calls one of the first and most popular football websites in the United Kingdom. It supplies no traffic or audience figures to test that description. He later helped launch the video knowledge service Videojugs in 2006 and created The Times’ first weekly podcast, The Game.

The obituary says Kelly formed an on-air partnership with fellow NME alumnus and football fanatic Danny Baker. They shared microphones on BBC radio, commercial radio and a weekly football podcast, then reunited for BT Sport’s Friday evening football coverage in 2013. They also co-wrote Classic Football Debates Settled Once and For All. The account does not name the weekly podcast or the individual BBC and commercial programs.

The obituary also lists a sports show Kelly presented on BBC London and his appearances in the films Divorcing Jack and The Football Factory.

Kelly joined talkSPORT in December 2007, first filling in on Hawksbee & Jacobs and Evening Kick Off. He fronted the station’s nightly football coverage during Euro 2008 and signed on permanently in August 2008.

The obituary lists his talkSPORT schedule over nearly two decades:

• The Full Time Phone-In, on Saturday nights.
• A Sunday-evening show with former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan.
• PressBox, on Monday nights with The Sun football editor Shaun Custis.
• Trans-Europe Express, covering European football.

A devoted Tottenham Hotspur supporter, Kelly hosted the club’s podcast, The View From The Lane, for The Athletic from 2021 to 2026.

The obituary records that in 2018 Kelly and his longtime partner, journalist Alex Clark, moved from London to rural Ireland, the land of his parents. He continued to broadcast from his new home, and the couple married in 2021.

In March 2026, Kelly told listeners that he was facing a serious illness and stepping back from the airwaves. He thanked talkSPORT for its support. The obituary does not name the illness or say that it caused his death, so the record supports no more specific medical conclusion.

What does Kelly’s death change for talkSPORT listeners?

The immediate change is the loss of a presenter who had anchored The Full Time Phone-In for nearly two decades and also hosted PressBox and Trans-Europe Express. The obituary names no permanent successor and gives no update on those slots. For regular listeners, the practical loss is the presenter; the future shape of the schedule remains unstated.

Kelly’s death removes a career built across magazines, websites, television, radio and podcasts, while the obituary leaves his talkSPORT succession unresolved.