Songwriters Executive
The Songwriters Executive are:
Ray Davies
Doug Flett
Brian Hodgson
Richard Kerr
Mick Leeson (Director)
Steve Levine (Director)
Barry Mason
Gary Osborne (Chair/Director)
Tom Robinson
Peter Sarstedt
Peter Sinfield
Brian Willey
Ray is Chairman of the Gold Badge Awards. He also Chaired the PRS Members Fund for the past six years and considers his involvements with the Members Fund together with BASCA to be some of the most satisfying undertakings he has committed himself to during his many years in the music profession. He has won numerous prestigious awards all over the world for his compositions and songwriting.
Doug Flett
www.dougflett.com
Doug has enjoyed a significant career as a songwriter. Working with collaborator Guy Fletcher, their songs have been recorded by scores of International stars and some of the defining icons of 20th century popular music, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Joe Cocker and Tom Jones. Doug has received both Ivor Novello and ASCAP awards. His “Fallen Angel”, is featured in the multi-award winning Broadway musical “Jersey Boys”, four companies are presenting the Show in the USA, plus London’s West End, and Melbourne March. ’09. Doug was active in Music Industry Writers’ Organisations for a number of years.
Brian Hodgson
www.albertleeandhogansheroes.com
In his early years he toured and recorded with Billy Fury, Marty Wilde and many others. In the late 70’s he worked with Neil Innes and Fatso, Eric Idle and George Harrison on the acclaimed BBC TV series “Rutland Weekend Television” which featured the first appearance of “The Rutles”. Brain was a member of 80’s rockabilly rebels Matchbox and wrote and produced many of their records. He also co-wrote and produced “Why Do I Always Get It Wrong” which was the runaway winner for the UK 1989 Song for Europe. In 1992 Brian was elected onto the Council of BASCA. In 1993 he co-wrote and produced a hit single for Manchester United “United We Love You” (and he doesn’t care who knows it!). Brian has written/produced for a wide variety of artists including Shakin Stevens, Dennis Waterman, Billy J Kramer, Johnny Halliday, Peter Sarstedt, Mike Berry, Sonny Curtis, Christopher Lee, Albert Lee, Matchbox and Kirsty McColl and Lonnie Donegan’s final studio album, featuring Van Morrison. He has played live with most of the above plus Marty Stuart, Dave Edmonds, Mike Berry, Sir Paul McCartney and many more. Film, TV and Video/DVD credits include “Savage Hearts” (starring Richard Harris), “Beyond Belief”, “Fauna”, Vinnie Jones’ “Great Balls of Fire”. The theme to Jeremy Clarkson’s BBC TV series “Clarkson” and the music to Clarkson’s last eleven DVDs. Brian continues to play bass in “Hogan’s Heroes” led by one of the world’s greatest guitar heroes, Albert Lee.
Richard Kerr
Richard Kerr has composed the music for such major hit songs as “Mandy”, “Somewhere in the Night”, “Looks Like We Made It”, “I’ll Never love This Way Again”, “Shine On”, “No Night so Long”. Of the many songs Richard has written these six titles alone represent 11 BMI special awards, 2 Grammy nominations, 1 Grammy award, more than 12 million airplays and the sale of approximately 40 million records in the USA alone. From Barry Manilow to Frank Sinatra, from Roy Orbison to John Denver, from Kenny Rogers to Kim Carnes, Dionne Warwick to the Righteous Brothers, Natalie Cole to Herb Alpert, Richard Kerr’s classical melodies have been recorded and sold in huge numbers. “Somewhere in the Night” for example has been recorded by 40 plus different artists. An accomplished musician and singer, Richard has himself recorded four albums and written title songs for motion pictures and television, mainly with his most frequent collaborator, Academy-award winning lyricist Will Jennings. “Mandy” was a No. 1 in the UK for Westlife and won Record of the Year, in 2003. Richard was a member of the Songwriters Executive for many years in the BASCA years and early BAC&S years and was re-elected in 2008.
Mick Leeson
Amongst many other songs, Mick is best known for “Would I Lie To You” By Charles and Eddie, “For Your Eyes Only” from the James Bond film of the same name and “Justice” by Lemar. He is a Trustee of the PRS Foundation, a MCPS Director and Deputy Chairman of the PRS Board.
Steve Levine
www.stevelevine.co.uk
Steve is best known as a producer and has worked with The Clash, XTC, the Beach Boys, Honeyz, China Crisis, Gary Moore, Ziggy Marley, Louise, Motorhead, Mis-teeq, 911 and many others. Steve produced three multi-platinum albums for Culture Club. He has composed a number of film scores, including “Eversmile New Jersey” (starring Daniel Day Lewis) and “Mister Frost” (Jeff Goldblum, Alan Bates). He has also been commissioned to create music for a number of TV shows, including the 20- part sci fi series “She Wolf of London” for MCA/Universal TV; now cult viewing! Steve has collected a number of prestigious awards, including BPI Producer of the Year, Musicweek Top Singles Producer and a Grammy for his work with Deniece Williams. Steve is a regular guest speaker at various pro-audio seminars for Yamaha, Korg & Apple Computers, including production master-classes at the London Apple store. Yamaha have again invited Steve to judge their annual talent competition “Make It Break It”. Radio 2 has commissioned Steve for a third series of “The Record Producers” radio documentary series, which focuses on the art of record production from the producer’s perspective. Steve presents a radio show; ”Live@Levines” on BigL every Saturday. He has also appeared on many radio and TV programs, is a regular guest on BBC’s 6 Music and the author of the “Hit Kit” and the “Art of Downloading Music”. Steve is also busy producing exciting new bands for his new label, Hubris Records and is a Board member of PRS/MCPS and BASCA.
Barry Mason
www.barrymasonsongwriter.com
One of the world’s leading lyricists, the artists performing his songs include: Tom Jones, Rod Stewart, Annie Lennox, Sting, Barbara Streisand, The Drifters, Englebert Humperdink and Elvis Presley. The recipient of 5 Ivor Novellos Award, 13 ASCAP and BMI awards from the USA. His classics include Delilah, The Last Waltz, Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes), There Goes My First Love and the beautiful Irish ballad, ‘1,2,3 O’Leary’. Over the years Barry’s one-man show, ‘Remember Delilah’, has raised millions for charity and graced some of the worlds leading venues. In July of this year, accompanied by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, he headlined the Prague Proms 2005.
Gary Osborne
Gary Osborne is best known for co-writing songs for five Elton John albums, including 'Blue Eyes' 'Part Time Love' and US million seller 'Little Jeannie'. He wrote the original lyrics for Jeff Wayne's Ivor winning ' The War of the Worlds’ album, which has so far sold over 14 million copies. Recently the live show of “The War” has played to nearly 200.000 punters during two sell-out UK tours. Another tour is planned for next year. Other hits with Osborne lyrics include Kiki Dee’s ‘Amoureuse’ and Forever Autumn' by Justin Hayward. In 2006 Gary provided lyrics for the Lil' Chris debut album which went Gold and included the top 3 single 'Checkin' It Out'. Gary has been a Director of BASCA since it’s inception and now Chairs the Songwriters Executive. He takes a particularly keen interest in the Academy’s activities and events, having been closely involved with The Ivors and The Gold Badge Awards for over two decades. Gary is currently Chairman of The Ivor Novello Awards Committee. As a member of The Society Of Distinguished Songwriters, Gary was King SOD the 33rd in 2004.
Tom Robinson
www.tomrobinson.com
Tom Robinson presents the radio show "BBC Introducing: Fresh On The Net" on Saturday and Sunday nights for digital station BBC 6 Music - in which he plays 30-40 unknown artists a week from around the world, using tracks sourced solely from the internet. Tom's music career began in the early 70s as a member of acoustic trio Café Society in London. Ray Davies of The Kinks produced their debut album, though it sold only 600 copies. The more overtly political Tom Robinson Band (TRB) had a hit in 1977 with "2-4-6-8 Motorway". His next band, Sector 27, made a critically acclaimed album with Steve Lillywhite and played Madison Square Garden with The Police, before splitting in 1981. After a subsequent Top 10 hit with "War Baby" Tom was offered work in 1984 as a radio DJ - first on the BBC World Service and then standing for Janice Long on Radio One. From 1992-95 he fronted The Locker Room on Radio 4 - a series of weekly magazine programmes for men - and later presented Home Truths for 12 weeks after John Peel's untimely death. Unusually, he's presented programmes on all the BBC's main radio networks - Radios 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Live, 6 Music, BBC 7, World Service and GLR - where his documentary "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" won a Sony Radio Award in 1997. Tom has provided the voiceover for The Ivors soundtracks for the past few years now.
Peter Sarstedt
www.petersarstedt.com
Since 1966 Peter has composed and recorded many hundreds of songs. His first release, 'Where Do You Go To My Lovely' became one of the great love songs of the last thirty years, constantly heard on compilation recordings and radio stations around the world. 'Where Do You Go To' was awarded the Ivor Novello Award in 1969, especially memorable as it was a shared award with David Bowie's 'Space Oddity'. Peter has continued to compose and release some of the best examples of the art of the singer/songwriter. 'Beirut', 'Mulberry Dawn' and 'Tall Tree' from the 70s stand tall among contemporary works.
Peter Sinfield
Peter Sinfield is a lyricist, songwriter, record producer & computer geek of international renown. His career has been a journey from King Crimson to Celine Dion via ELP, Bucks Fizz, Cher & a couple of awards. It includes a previous sojourn on the Bac&s Songwriters & Executive committees. More detail regarding Peter's musical life together with musings on song writing & word smithery can be found on songsouponsea.com, his web site, which, since its inception in 1998, has received over two million hits. During his previous spell at Bac&s Sinfield initiated & successfully fought for the UK writers share of a song, making it eligible for Ivor nomination, to be lowered from 50 to 33 percent. He is happy that, against strong opposition, he persuaded BASCA bring in an Ivor Novello award for outstanding achievement & inspiration by non-UK resident songwriters. This award is now a highlight of the ceremony. Peter is happy that BASCA, under new capable management, now knocks on important European doors & continues to shout "THE BEGINNING IS THE SONG" in ministerial ears; but thinks there are still grass roots changes to be made.
Brian Willey
OK, so I admit I have been around for quite a while, beginning with the Songwriters’ Guild of Great Britain, for which I was Deputy-Chairman and then remaining as such when it merged with two other composer organisations to become BASCA. On the establishment of BASCA I was elected to its Board of Directors, stepping down two years ago to make way for more powerful political brains – a great necessity in current times. The Ivor Novello Awards Committee also occupied a great many years of my life, serving as its Chairman – during which time I worked as a BBC radio producer. I was a PRS Director for 14 years and am currently Deputy Chairman and Finance Chairman of the PRS Members’ Fund. One notable song of mine, co-written with the late Ronnie Bridges, is an anthem written for Gibraltar, which is now regarded by its populace as a second national anthem. I am still very committed to serving BASCA on the Songwriters’ Executive Committee and (am glad that) the membership still wish me to be involved in all its incredible endeavours.
