OLD DOGS NEW TRAX JOIN SONGLINK

SongLink founder David Stark is celebrating his 40th year in the music business in 2014, and just ahead of his 37th trip to MIDEM in Cannes was reunited with a songwriter pal whom he first met in 1974. David's first job was as a runner for Dick James Music (DJM) headed by legendary publisher Dick James who famously signed John Lennon & Paul McCartney, and who later struck gold again by signing Elton John to his company.

David Stark & David Martin

"DJM was a fantastic place to start out in the 70's," recalls David, "and although I was just a lowly runner at the time I got to meet great people such as Elton and his band, producers Gus Dudgeon, Phillip Goodhand-Tait, Phil Wainman & Johnny Goodison - and hit songwriters Arnold, Martin & Morrow, whom I distinctly remember being extremely friendly whenever I had to deliver or pick up a tape or demo package from their Green Street office. Another colleague at DJM was in-house lawyer David Hockman, who only started a few months before me, and who eventually went on to be CEO at Polygram Music and later Sony/ATV Publishing. Now 40 years later I'm delighted to be reunited with him and David Martin, whom I've kept in touch with over the years, and whose new publishing venture - aptly named Old Dogs New Trax Ltd - I'm delighted to officially announce, as he and his writer partners become brand new SongLink subscribers."

Old Dogs New Trax Ltd is a new company spearheaded by hit singer/songwriter David Martin, who as part of the Arnold Martin Morrow songwriting team, has sold in excess of 30 million records worldwide. Their successes include Barry Manilow's "Can't Smile Without You" (No. 1 in the USA), Guys and Dolls' "There's A Whole Lot Of Loving" (No. 1 in the UK) and no less than four songs recorded by Elvis Presley - the most by any British writers. Plus many other covers by the likes of Cliff Richard (2 songs), The Shadows (2), David Essex (2), The Carpenters, Engelbert Humperdinck, Jack Jones, Mama Cass, Sandie Shaw, Cilla Black and many others.

David Martin, DS & David Hockman

Old Dog's writers include Anton Mullan, who David Martin has known for over 20 years, commenting "Anton is both a consummate musician and talented songwriter. These days he resides in Bristol although his roots are firmly planted in Liverpool, where as a young, up and coming guitarist, he played alongside John Lennon and George Harrison in a variety of start-up bands. His CV below speaks for itself and I am glad to welcome Anton as part of our creative team.

"I'm also delighted to have discovered and introduce my two good friends Graham Noon and Ian Williams to the team", says David. "They are both talented singer/songwriters: Graham has played with an array of artists over the years, including Geno Washington, Jimmy James, PP Arnold and Eighties band Blue Zoo. Graham also has his own busy recording facility, Eversfield Studio, while recent years have seen his songwriting skills develop, the evidence of which, can be heard on the site. Meanwhile Ian Williams is what we term a 'late developer' in the world of music. A successful businessman, his obvious and natural singing and songwriting skills, have played second fiddle to his working life. Launching this site enables me therefore, to not only bring new songs of my own to the music business but to also introduce the special talents of Graham and Ian, along with Anton and myself."

David Martin

David Martin - 'Silky Smooth Moments'

David's musical career began in the 70's, as a member of Butterscotch on RCA Records he enjoyed a UK hit with "Don't You Know She Said Hello", swiftly followed by performing the lead vocal on the Guys and Dolls No. 1 UK hit "There's A Whole Lot of Loving". A meeting with songwriters Chris Arnold and Geoff Morrow saw the birth of a formidable partnership and together they created immediate hits for Billy Fury, "In Thoughts of You" and "I'll Never Quite Get Over You". That 25-year partnership produced songs for Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard, Wayne Newton, David Essex, Dusty Springfield, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Edison Lighthouse, Sandy Shaw, Cilla Black, Mama Cass and many more. From 1979-82 David sang in the choir for the James Last Orchestra, entertaining followers around the world, the first of his forays back to his first love - singing.

However in 1975, David penned the above-mentioned "Can't Smile Without You" for Barry Manilow, for which David has received an Ivor Novello Award plus BMI awards in the USA for over 3 million airplays. Fast forward to 2010, and in addition to his songwriting we find David appearing and headlining alongside show singer Louisa Parry in the 'American Songbook' show at Hampstead's New End Theatre. This led to his latest solo project which was initiated in 2012 when David went back into the studio, with Graham Noon producing, to make an album of American Songbook classics, supported by the Terry Coffey Trio. A chance remark by Graham that a recording was "silky smooth" prompted the title of the album 'Silky Smooth Moments' which is being released in March. He has also written the music & lyrics for the highly-acclaimed musical revue A Bowl Of Cherries' which is heading for a national tour in autumn 2014.

www.davidmartinsingersongwriter.com

Anton Mullan

Anton Mullan (with Zoe Jackson)

Over the past 45 years, Anton has written music in many styles and genres, and for the last 20 years he has successfully written music for the BBC CBeebies children's channel. Two of his most successful and current shows include 56 episodes of 'Big Cook Little Cook' and two series of 'Get Squiggling'. Anton is also most proficient at writing to deadlines, and has often worked through the night to come up with a theme or two, for a producer who has been let down at the final hour. Anton was born and raised in Liverpool and served his ace guitarist apprenticeship, playing for a number of Liverpool bands, which also included John Lennon and George Harrison. In the late 60's, early 70's, he formed a new band, Trilogy, one of the first 'heavy/progressive' bands of its time. The band proved very popular on the college circuit, featuring amazing light shows, and strong professional stage productions! His prolific TV work includes music for Rod Hull & Emu, Cheggars Plays Pop, and A Question Of Sport, the long running sports quiz show, among many others.

Anton moved to Bristol in 1976 and started working for the legendary John King at the BBC Natural History Unit, for which he would write most of John's music including: The World About Us, and many shows by David Attenborough, Survival and others. For the past fifteen years, Anton has also written most of the music for ex-HTV man Richard Edwards' Element Productions, including West Country Farming, Canned Fillers and Welsh Crafts. Anton's talents even stretched to the the Far East, where he wrote Station Idents for STAR TV network, The Chinese Channel, with yet more idents for Mickey Mouse and The Disney Channel.

As Anton himself says, "All in all, I'm a (busy!) musical mercenary who loves the job. I listen to direction, don't miss deadlines and STILL have all my own teeth! Playing eight hours a night at the Blue Angel in Liverpool all those heady years ago, you learn to, as the great John Lennon once said to me, 'suss out your audience, Anton'...I hope I've managed to do just that."

Graham Noon

Graham Noon

Throughout the 1980's Graham's career flourished working with the likes of Chris Squire (Yes), Andy 'O' from New Wave band Blue Zoo, Enid Williams (Girl School) and Dave Parsons (Sham 69). At this time Graham also developed his production skills working in various studios as an engineer / producer. In 1985 a song writing partnership with Andy 'O' lead to a publishing contract with Warner Brothers Music. Throughout the 90's Graham continued his musical career and also forged a new partnership with Akai Musical Instrument Co and in 1999 he became UK President of the Akai Corp. In 2001 Graham set up Eversfield Recording Studios in Horsham West Sussex. It was at the studio that he met up with his ODNT partners Ian Williams and David Martin, and is also currently delighted to announce the release of his new solo album "Noon - 100 Years On".

www.noonmusic.co.uk

Ian Williams

Ian Williams

Ian is a successful business man, with car dealerships in Surrey and South London. However he has always been a music lover, playing guitar and keyboards as a young boy. Despite family encouragement, he never had the urge to sing or perform publicly. As a 'late starter, Ian stumbled into the music world by being inspired to write a song 'A Little Like You' for his late father who had died at a young age. He sent basic cassette demo off to a music publisher who loved the song, and Ian's first attempt at songwriting, amazingly, resulted in a publishing deal. Since then, fuelled with enthusiasm, Ian has taken his songwriting a little more seriously and now has a catalogue of ballads and love songs, based around his family and personal experiences. Ian was introduced to Graham Noon in 2002, which has proved to be a fruitful and very enjoyable relationship with Graham providing professional arrangements and productions of Ian's songs at Eversfield Studio in West Sussex.

Story Behind the Song

"I hope our songs strike a chord, concludes David Martin, "and as a precurser to exploring our website I thought this little 'story behind the song' might inspire any new writers who log in. Truth is, I had no idea that a card I was given from a close relative would inspire me to write "Cant Smile Without You". A song that would eventually reach the Number 1 spot in the USA, as recorded by the legendary superstar Barry Manilow. Neither did I know that the song would be recorded and performed by a host of other artists including The Carpenters, Engelbert, Boyzone, Andy Williams, and would also feature in a stage production of the same name, starring Chesney Hawkes, which toured the UK. The musical featured many other Manilow hits, and was produced by theatrical impresario Bill Kenwright. The song has also been featured in a number of big feature movies including Four Weddings And A Funeral, Hell Boy 2, Male Gigolo, Starsky and Hutch and is currently in the new Bruce Willis movie.

"All of this happened via my own original recording of the song and the belief of my publisher at the time, Arthur Braun, who worked for Dick James. It was Arthur who took the song to music mogul Clive Davies, boss of Arista Records, and it was Clive who persuaded Barry Manilow to record it. All of this just goes to show that any song we write may have such a potential fate, and if we believe enough, then our dreams can come true. I hope you enjoy exploring ODNT and remember that from little acorns large oaks can bloom and blossom. With the launch of this new website, we believe we have some real musical treasures waiting to be discovered."

UPDATE, March 2014: Only a few weeks after joining SongLink, Old Dogs New Trax Ltd. are delighted to announce, the signing of an administration, publishing representation agreement for the USA and Canada with Music Media International, out of Orange County USA and Beverly Hills. The company is headed up by its founder, music veteran Billy Meshel. David Martin for Old Dogs New Trax, says: 'I couldn't be happier with this tie-up with Music Media and Billy, which can only lead to our copyrights, being given stronger exposure in the USA and with all the connections, will ultimately result in successful recordings of our songs."

Old Dogs New Trax Ltd
The Barn, Brighton Road
Lower Beeding
West Sussex RH13 6PT

Tel: 01403 891944
e-mail: info@olddogsnewtrax.com
www.olddogsnewtrax.com
https://www.facebook.com/olddogsnewtrax