Lenny Smallman Songwriters Competition

Last night (Sunday 16th) I took part in the 'Lenny Smallman Songwriter's Competition' at the Leicester Square Arts Theatre. Appearing with me were Emma Boyle on vocals and Adrian Jeckells on keyboards. This idea has been brewing for a while now - in fact, several projects have been going on involving both parties: - Em recorded my song 'In The Spotlight', taken from my recent CD 'Diamonds' with Adrian on keys recently, whilst simultaneously we have been rehearsing three songs for last night's contest, namely 'Spotlight', You Don't Know' and 'I Hear The Rain'. I should mention that as Adrian is closely associated with the production of the show, any accusations of nepotism were to be avoided at all costs, hence the name of the game was 'we're only here to play'. Disappointingly, my publisher Tom Evans texted me to say that he wouldn't be able to attend just before we started to play last night, which was a bit of a downer. I had invited him along as he is working my song 'I Hear The Rain' and I wanted him to hear Em's version. Having said that, he had mentioned from the outset that it was 50/50 as regards whether he'd be there or not, as he has been moving flat. Ah well. I turned up just as Adrian arrived yesterday. There are several things that I haven't mentioned about my life that might put things into a bit of context I suppose. I worked for BT for 18 years and recently took early release (i.e. a fair bit of money as severance pay). The job was always a pain in the rear but it allowed me to keep body soul and family together. I quit at the end of Jan and as I wandered along through 'London's bustling Theatreland' yesterday, I was suddenly overcome by a terrible feeling of, not loneliness but more a feeling of being 'apart'. No job, no real prospects and a feeling of 'what the hell am I doing still schlepping about to gigs and contests etc?' suddenly hit me. It soon passed and seeing Adrian's beaming smile took all doiubts away, but the feeling of being somewhat divorced from the everyday life that had been my routine for so many years has crossed my mind a few times lately. Anyway, we went into the theatre together and initially met Richard Lumsden (who is 'Lenny') who was busily preparing everything for the evening's show; lighting, sound etc. We spoke briefly and I mentioned how much I loved the Catherine Tate Show (he appears in it as 'Mart'n' in a regular sketch) and it was clear from the off that he is a great guy and a good writer, too. He hosted the event and proved to be a great MC. The contest was held in the upstairs room above the main theatre, which is where the 'Rise and Fall of Lenny Smallman' is being staged. The concept is basically as follows: Lenny is a fictional failed singer / songwriter hitting middle age and realising that he's not going to make it big. Sounds familiar. However, the twist in the tale is that Lenny gets a big break and the story begins with him appearing at a Glastonburyesque rock festival. The songwriter's competition and others before it (I think this was the third) was to decide who would open the play, appearing as the band who happen to be onstage prior to Lenny's Glasto set. It will be for a couple of weeks and then further contests will decide subsequent 'opening acts'. Lat night's judges included a television producer and a recognisable actor (don't know his name) and a female who seemed to be rather rude. We were on first and I think we did really well. Em was amazing vocally and I was even quite pleased with my performance for a change. The judges felt we were middle of the road and hence obviously not right for the part (we knew this), but one of the judges (TV producer) said that he found ' I Hear the Rain' ''really beautiful'' and all three enjoyed it and said there were some great melodic touches and lovely harmonies. Unfortunately, the female judge soured things a bit for me by saying that my song (I sang lead on just one song, 'You Don't Know') was 'Eurovision material' and compared me to Johnny Logan! Arrrrgghh!! No! Oh well. Could have been worse, could have been compared to Cliff. Anyway, my mate Brian came along and thought we were great, also he fell in love with Em (understandably) and then we settled back to watch the rest of the show, which unfortunately was populated by a lot of very earnest singer songwriters who all seemed to have songs about mental illness or lost family members, or, in one instance, a song about both! ('This song is about my uncle who went mad and then died two years ago..'). Good times..

The whole thing was filmed so I will put up the Youtube links as soon as possible.