As well as being the King of Pop and an incredibly gifted songwriter himself, Jackson was also co-owner of Sony/ATV Music Publishing and the prized Northern Songs catalogue, containing nearly all the Lennon-McCartney songs recorded by The Beatles and hundreds, if not thousands, of other artists, which he famously purchased in the mid-80's. His death will have a huge impact on the global music industry as well as his millions of fans around the world, on the same level as the deaths of Elvis Presley and John Lennon.

Lead singer David St. Hubbins with Tony Moore

Spinal Tap pose with the Classic Rock crew

The Hard Rock tent also contains an exhibition of Woodstock memorabilia and other items to mark the 40th anniversary of the famous festival, including clothing and instrument owned by Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Richie Havens, Graham Nash, John Lennon, Joan Baez and many others. SongLink's David Stark bumped into Little Stevie Van Zandt at the launch, the guitarist being in town for Bruce Springsteen's headline slots at Glastonbury and Hyde Park Calling.

Click here for video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Db-TOCD_YI

Watch it here: http://www.honeyryder.co.uk
Click 'Select Video' at bottom right for Love In Time

More Roy stuff here: http://www.royorbison.com/news

Manchester band Elbow were among the big winners at the Ivor Novello Awards held in London on May 21st, scoring a double whammy in the two most prestigious song categories. Also honored were Smokey Robinson, Vince Clarke, Edwyn Collins, the Ting Tings, Eg White, Steve Booker and others, while Don Black and David Ferguson were made Fellows of the BASCA, the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers & Authors.

click here for full list of winners

On the eve of today's Ivor Novello Awards, three iconic British songwriters gathered at London's Gibson Studio yesterday to play and talk about their hits at a London Songwriters Week event hosted by SongLink editor David Stark. "Stories Behind The Songs" featured Chris Difford (Squeeze), Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols) and Scottish legend Jim Diamond playing "in the round" Nashville-style....

Congratulations to Norway's Alexander Rybak (actually from Belarus) who won the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow on May 16th with a record-breaking 387 points for his excellent self-penned "Fairytale." Congrats as well to veteran British songwriter/producer Chris Neil (Celine Dion, Sheena Easton etc) who ended up in 2nd place....

SongLink has just received the sad news (via Gloria Bristow of Fenix Media) that legendary session drummer Bobby Graham has been diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer. His doctors have now confirmed that he has a few weeks, at best, but the end could come at any moment...

The second London Songwriters Week takes place from May 18th - 22nd to coincide with the Ivor Novello Awards on May 21st. The busy programme of events includes "Stories Behind The Songs" hosted by David Stark with special guests Chris Difford, Graham Lyle + others to be confirmed at the Gibson Studio, 29-35 Rathbone Street W1 from 4.00-5.30pm. All welcome + free entry, but you need to register at the website.

The SongLink event at City Showcase went very well, with a high standard of singer/songwriters playing one song each to the panel, who all gave valuable feedback to each performer. L-R: David Stark, producer/engineer Haydn Bendall (who replaced Andy Wright at short notice), legendary singer/songwriter Judie Tzuke and songwriter Martin Sutton.

SongLink editor David Stark's band the Dave Stark Five were among the specially invited guest artists at the recent Roy Orbison Birthday Bash and iTunes/CD launch, held at the Gibson Studio in London on April 23rd, which would have been Roy's 73rd birthday. The event was organised by Roy's widow Barbara Orbison who introduced the show, along with their two sons Roy Jr. and Alex, who hosted the evening...

City Showcase 2009 takes place in London from May 7-9th, and David Stark will be hosting an event at the Apple Store in Regent Street on Saturday May 9th from 4.00-5.30pm. The "SongLink Feedback" panel will critique songs played live onstage by a selection of upcoming singer/songwriters, with the panel including artist/writer Judie Tzuke, producer Andy Wright (Simply Red etc) and songwriter Martin Sutton (Celine Dion, Blue, Lulu etc). All welcome + free entry, but you need to register at the City Showcase site for a wristband.

The unveiling of the Blue Plaque for rock drummer Keith Moon at the site of the old Marquee Club on London's Wardour Street on March 8th was a big success, being the culmination of years of lobbying by longtime Who fans Gary & Melissa Hurley, in conjunction with the Heritage Foundation and Westminster Council.

Attendees included Roger Daltrey, Kenney Jones, Zak Starkey, PJ Proby, Dougal Butler (Keith's PA) and members of Moon's family including his mother Kit (now 88), his two sisters, nephews, nieces, friends and many others, along with the Mayor of Westminster, Councillor Louise Hyams, who revealed she had seen The Who in their 60's heyday at a London college gig.

"I've had more cuts through SongLink than through any other method."

Los Angeles subscriber Gordon Pogoda has had worldwide success in several mediums and has achieved many of his cuts thanks to leads published in SongLink over the past few years. In film, his credits include two songs featured in the Academy Award winning motion picture "Little Miss Sunshine", the top 5 film "Josie and the Pussycats", a Disney film starring Lindsay Lohan, and several others. In television, Gordon's songs have been featured in over 45 shows including "Sex and the City", "Hannah Montana", "CSI: Miami", "ER", "Will and Grace", "King of the Hill", "Everwood", "Samantha Who", and the Disney shows "Kim Possible" and "Suite Life of Zack & Cody"

AS WELL AS MARKING THE LAST-EVER UK PERFORMANCE by The Police, who are set to headline the second day of this weekend's "Hard Rock Calling" in Hyde Park, the date of Sunday June 29th also marks another milestone anniversary in rock history: it will be 40 years to the day since Pink Floyd headlined the first-ever free concert in Hyde Park on June 29th 1968, along with Tyrannosaurus Rex (aka Marc Bolan), Roy Harper and the up-and-coming Jethro Tull, who hold the honour of being the first band to take the makeshift stage, of which more below.

Music industry veteran David Stark attended that first concert as a 15-year old schoolboy, just a couple of weeks before he gate-crashed the world premiere of the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" film in July '68 and ended up sitting directly behind the Fab Four... but that's another story. Jeff Dexter was the DJ and master of ceremonies at most of the concerts in Hyde Park, being a seminal figure on London's underground music scene of the 60's. Together Stark and Dexter have researched the history, line-ups and some of the stories behind every one of the 16 free concerts which took place from 1967 - plus the "one that got away", a spectacular that was to headlined by Crosby, Stills & Nash and the Grateful Dead in 1969 but which was cancelled at the eleventh hour.

16/06/08: SongLink's David Stark is pictured at London's Hard Rock Cafe with Gail Renard, owner of John Lennon's original handwritten lyrics for "Give Peace A Chance", which will be auctioned by Christie's on Thursday July 10th, along with the original hand-painted Sgt. Pepper bass drum and many other iconic rock & pop memorabilia items.

Renard was given the lyrics by Lennon himself after the historic recording of the famous peace anthem at Montreal's Queen Elizabeth Hotel on May 26th, 1969. Gail was a 16-year old student who sneaked into John & Yoko's hotel suite and ended up running errands for them and looking after Yoko's daughter Kyoko, and subsequently stayed in touch with Lennon over the years. Click here to read more about her fascinating story and the upcoming auction at Christie's.

Gail's escapade was very much in the spirit of David's own encounters with the Fab Four - just a year earlier, on July 17th, 1968, he gate-crashed the London premiere of The Beatles' Yellow Submarine film - hard to believe it's 40 years ago.. Click here to read more about this and David's other Beatles connections.

David Stark - aka the "Zelig of Rock" - proved true to form at this year's Ivor Novello Awards, mingling with the likes of Robert Plant, Diane Warren, Trevor Horn, Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford of Squeeze and Mika among others. Other winners at London's Grosvenor House Hotel on May 22nd included Phil Collins, Amy Winehouse, Gabrielle and David Gilmour. Click here for all the results.