The Martians (band)

The Martians
The Martians Bedlam Edinburgh.
Background information
Origin	Scotland
Genres	Rock, Acoustic, Indie
Years active	2001–present

The Martians are an Edinburgh, Scotland based rock band, consisting of brothers John, Gerry and James Kielty. Their musical The Sundowe won the Scottish "Highland Quest For A New Musical" competition in July 2006. It was then produced by Cameron Mackintosh as a full stage musical, with the world premiere in November 2007 at the new Eden Court theatre Inverness, Scotland. Following a three-week run at Eden Court it toured the Scottish Highlands in January and February 2008.

The Sundowe is a musical set in Edinburgh about the rising dead, written by Edinburgh based writers and performers John, James and Gerry Kielty, and featuring their band, The Martians.

Head Martian and actor, writer and musician.

John Kielty had a lead role in One Life Stand film, and performed on the stage in Edinburgh. He writes musicals and also co-wrote David Sneddon’s album Seven Years Ten Weeks. Kielty developed his love of music at St Andrews school in Clydebank near Glasgow, where he learned all his instruments guitar, drums, keyboards, and bass. He acted in Youth theatre, and after leaving school he attended Drama college. He has performed in plays, radio, film and TV work in Scotland. He made his acting debut in Iain Heggie's play A Wholly Healthy Glasgow. In 2000 John had a lead role in the critically acclaimed independent and award winning film One Life Stand, which was released on DVD in February 2006. He has acted in plays and musicals at the Lyceum theatre in Edinburgh, and additionally played the title role in The Dream Dealer (Edinburgh Fringe 2006). In 2001 he played Arthur in Merlin the Magnificent, the Prince in Cinderella, Charlie in Guys and Dolls, plus a part in the TV show Taggart.

John met David Sneddon while performing in Romeo and Juliet. He was acting Juliet's father and David was acting Romeo. After playing some acoustic gigs together at the Tron in Glasgow in 2001, they decided to start a band and called themselves The Martians.