One of my great songwriting heroes has always been Sugar Miami Steve Van Zandt aka Little Steven aka E Street Band guitarist and producer aka Silvio Dante of The Sopranos.

The aspect I’ve always loved is the spellbinding mix of garage rock energy and soulful music and lyrics as manifested in the 1970s Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes records (plus a triumphant return in the 1990s with Better Days) as well as his solo records as Little Steven and The Disciples Of Soul. The latter became more political and rock-influenced in the 1980s until a hiatus of more than 20 years culminated in a 2016 return to a 15-piece touring and recording band replete with 5 horns and 3 female backing singers. Powerful stuff and a great source of inspiration for my own material.

I met him at the Hard Rock Cafe in London the night before he played the latest Summer Of Sorcery songs at The Forum in Kentish Town, London.

Apart from that highlight, this year has been incredibly busy with devising and delivering some 3-part evening courses on Lyric and Melody writing for London Songwriters, one of the best Derbyshire retreats yet in April, our 10th Anniversary in May and then participating in the MIDEM music industry event in Cannes for the second year.

We are coming up to our 2019 Summer Songwriting and Recording Camp in Box Hill Surrey at the end of August – follow the link if you want a great value, inspiring week of Songwriting Sorcery and Musical Magic!

2015 was an interesting year.

It was certainly one of innovation. Three highly successful London Songwriters retreats in the beautiful Derbyshire countryside were attended by 35 writers, all of whom rated the overall experience 5 out of 5.

Alongside the monthly collaboration workshops I also inaugurated a songshare format for London Songwriters, which proved both popular and useful and we had some great industry speakers, including Norman Dolph, David Stark and Don Gallacher.

The two concerts we organised for the homeless charity Crisis At Christmas at the end of the year were a huge success and we raised £1062 at the same time via our Donation Page.

Organising these events took up the bulk of my time but I also made sure I did some of my own writing, which was gratifying. I even entered a song for the Eurovision Song Contest with the aid of a singer who contacted me. Boom-Bang-A-Bang!

Inevitably there were disappointments too but they say you should only carry forward the good memories, so here’s looking forward to a positive attitude to the challenges ahead and a happy 2016!

At the end of April I facilitated my first retreat for London Songwriters and 11 of us spent a wonderful week writing in the picturesque Derbyshire countryside. I have been attending retreats with a dozen or so friends every 6 months for the last 10 years and thought it would be a nice idea to share the experience with the London group.

Amongst the many positive testimonials was this one ‘‘I thoroughly enjoyed the retreat spending time in lovely surroundings with lovely people. Was impressed with the facilities provided for writing and performing our songs and the overall support of Murray for the whole time. Can’t wait ’til the next one!’

I will be hosting another retreat at the beginning of August – at the time of writing there are still a couple of places remaining if anyone wishes to contact me.

Alongside the regular monthly Collaboration and Songshare/Feedback events in May we also held a very successful Song Pitching special with NYC Lyricist/Publisher/Author Norman Dolph, who offered some highly constructive and gracious comments on the commercial pitchability of our members songs.

In between I have also found some time for writing and co-writing and I hope to be progressing the recording of more of my own catchy pop/rock and introspective folk songs 🙂