Let The Music Begin

City Showcase, London's festival for new music, hosted an extremely successful masterclass on 4 December in association with ASCAP, SongLink and Gibson Guitars.

Led by David Stark (SongLink) and ASCAP's VP of Membership Seán Devine, in excess of fifty City Showcase/SongLink performers and writers across all musical genres - including Von Kleet, Fiona Bevan, Belle Humble, Lady Lykez, Jennifer Clarke, Peter Brame and AHAB - gathered at The Gibson Studio in London for a songwriting masterclass with lyricist Gary Osborne (Elton John etc), legendary 'Chinnichap' writer Nicky Chinn, hit writer/producer Bill Padley (Atomic Kitten, Shayne Ward), and member of the band Zohar and composer of the score for the hit film Borat, Erran Baron Cohen.

"It was fantastic to see so many extremely talented people collaborating together to hone their craft and seek guidance from such iconic writers" said Nanette Rigg Director of City Showcase.

The writers that attended the masterclass will be returning to showcase the new works created as a result of their collaborations in March 2008. When it comes to writing songs Bill Padley has high standards having penned four number one hits himself "what a pleasure to talk to young people trying to get a start in the music business who are so KEEN to learn and genuinely interested in hearing what we all had to say!"

For further information:
www.myspace.com/cityshowcase
www.songlink.com