National Songwriter Festival in Moville in June
Moville Songwriter Festival
Songwriters from all over the country will be flocking to Moville from June 2nd to 6th as they hold their National Songwriter Festival.
It is their first songwriter festival they have had although they have had two highly successful Songwriter Contests.
The first one was won by Lawrence Hackett who is from Cork originally but now lives in Derry.
Here’s the song that won it on YouTube – When Do We Fall.
It’s a great song. One local journalist, with an interest in music, said it was one of his favourite songs of the year.
Beatles Manager
One of the judges was Beatles road manager, talent spotter (He discovered James Taylor and Eva Cassidy later) and PR guy, Tony Bramwell.
A local Moville duo, Debbie & Geraldine, were runners-up and Sean O’Neill from Dublin was third.
Derry was to the fore in the second songwriter contest in Moville taking the first three positions.
Winner was Matt Whoriskey, originally from Derry but who now lives in Manchester.
A narrow runner-up was Jack Craig who plays around Derry. Jack later played on national television.
In 3rd place was that great young band from Derry, Deadpool who were actually first in two of the four judges scorecards.
Tony Bramwell was also a judge.
Polydor Records
Tony, after his time with the Beatles, went on to become Head of major label Polydor Records with the Bee Gees, The Jam, Roxy Music and Slade on his label.
He was responsible for the music for Grease and Saturday Night Fever getting the Bee Gees to write the songs.
He was also responsible for the music for 5 of the Bond films getting Paul McCartney to do Live and Let Die.
Looking for Talent
On previous visits he took back CDs from the acts he liked and distributed them to his contacts in England which include Jools Holland and got them airplay there.
He took the Henry girls on a tour of England.
Now he is coming back again looking for more talent and more good CDs to take away.
Moville’s the place to be that weekend.
Tony will also be giving a talk on How to Make it In The Music Business.
I Tony about to discover another major talent?
Anyone who wants to take part or wants more info should contact the organisers at [email protected].