Andy Goggin: What's Happening?

The South East Songwriters Club got off to a flying start with a weekend co-writing workshop the 8th. and 9th. March. It was an excellent weekend thanks to Brett Perkins and Tom Kimmel not to mention the fantastic participants! here is our group photo. More photos here.

BACK ROW:
Niels Hvid; Henrik Kragelund; Anders Roland; Jens-Ole Paulin; Kalle Kjemtrup; Jesper Bo Rasmussen
CENTRE ROW:
Andy Goggin; Dorthe Diness; Dorthe Eggertsen; Dorte Brodka
FRONT ROW:
”Geordie” Garriock; Tom Kimmel; Anja Hornhaver; Ida Beenfeldt; Brett Perkins

We are off to a great start with The South East Songwriting Club. I started this club in the hope of establishing a network for the songwriters in the south eastern areas of Denmark.
One of the first activities will be a weekend workshop (8th & 9th March 2008) We have been really fortunate to get hold of Brett Perkins (USA/Denmark/Sweden) and Tom Kimmel (USA - Nashville) to run the workshop! This is really a scoop for the new-started songwriters club. Brett Perkins is "the" man as far as the Danish singer-songwriter circuit is concerned. He is also known worldwide for his various songwriter retreats from California to Spain to Ireland and many other exotic places!
Tom Kimmel has written hit songs for many recording artists including Johnny Cash.
To all my Danish visitors - Watch out for us on TV Øst (East) very soon!

I would like to humbly announce that MY SONG SHUT YOUR MOUTH! has just reached # 1 in the Soundclick charts. At the time of writing, there are 27,624 songs in these charts.

I can't believe how many great people I "meet" through the various websites on the net. I just have to tell you about Jeff Brown

Jeff writes great songs and we share the same musical tastes. Click here. to hear some of Jeff's great songs!!

I have been lucky enough to persuade Jette Jørgensen, a well-respected Danish artist, to draw a sketch based on the music and lyrics of my song "The Waking City". It is unbelievable how close to the picture I had in my mind when writing this song, this fabulous drawing is. Thank you so much Jette.

The story of the song is as follows:
Early in the morning some years ago, I was walking past The Central Railway Station in Copenhagen. On one of the platforms I could see an old man lying, beside of him an empty wine bottle. Several people walked by him without giving him a second look. I watched the scene for a while - how the commuters were completely occupied with their own selves.
What if this elderly man was dead? No-one would know and probably no-one would care!
And me......What did I do? Nothing of course. After a while, I too, just walked on and went my own way.
This song is maybe a way of saying sorry to the old gentleman on the cold platform that morning.
(P.S. - The Spanish feel of the song came by me trying to imitate the rythmn of the trains!)

I have now a page on the Songwriters Directory. :-)



And of course, you ALL know about my page at Soundclick!!!!!!!

As some of you may know, I have a site at Broadjam.com At the moment three of my songs are doing very well in the various Top Ten Charts.

BEYOND THIS POINT THERE ARE DRAGONS is at this moment # 4 in the POP CLASSIC CHARTS

SIITING ON THE BACK SEAT is # 6 in the SCANDANAVIAN CHARTS
BEYOND THIS POINT THERE ARE DRAGONS is # 10 in the SCANDANAVIAN CHARTS

SITTING ON THE BACK SEAT is # 3 in the DANISH CHARTS
BEYOND THIS POINT THERE ARE DRAGONS is # 5 in the DANISH CHARTS
I HOPE I DON'T BLEED ON YOUR CARPET is # 10 in the DANISH CHARTS

I recieved some very sad news the other day. John Oddie, the brilliant keyboards player/organist in Silhouette, apparently died a couple of years ago.
John, wherever you are, I just want to thank you for being who you were. I will miss you my friend even though we last saw each other in the late seventies. Rest in peace.
I have just replied to the e-mail telling me of John's death and I think it sums up my feelings pretty well. So instead of re-writing everything again, I am taking the liberty of copying the reply here.

Hi N****
Thank you so much for your e-mail even though I too, am devastated at the
news of John’s death. Strangely enough, as soon as I had sent the reply to
your last e-mail, I had a funny feeling that John might not have been
alive. Even though I haven’t seen or heard from John since the late
seventies, I will miss him greatly. I always thought that I would get in
touch with all the members of Silhouette at some time but now it appears
as far as John is concerned that I am too late. I really do have only fond
memories of John. I can honestly not remember a single time when we have
argued – an amazing feat in a band! We had some great discussions but I am
sure we never really argued. Do you happen to know how he died?
When John stopped at Theatre Mobile (I don’t know why he stopped) he
joined Silhouette as a roadie around 1974 or 1975 but as soon as we heard
him play his C3 (I remember now – the B3 is a bit bigger isn’t it?) he was
shanghaied into the band! It would be true to say that he took over us
amateurs and gently nudged us from a very poor ABBA copy band to a half
decent pop/rock band (With strong influences of Keith Emerson!!) We toured
Italy and Holland and I think we also had a few jobs in Germany. I have
also some great memories of our three tours of Belfast! We even had a tour
of Scotland supporting Frank Ifield! We also released a single at this
point. However we didn’t play the instruments ourselves and it wasn’t a
big hit!! I am afraid I don’t have a copy of the single, but if John was
on this record it was only as backing vocals.
I am not quite sure of the dates but as far as I remember it would have
been around 1976 when I and the original drummer (Mike Vicary – from
Cornwall) left and formed another band in the North East. We had had some
differences of opinion with Rita Davey the lead female vocalist and John’s
girlfriend at that time (from Rawtenstall – again I think it was
Rawtenstall. I could drive you there from Burnley and I can see the town
as clear as anything………) Anyway, after I left the band things went really
well for them!!! They toured South Africa (I froze in South Shields and
Doncaster) They were on "New Faces" (I pulled my face!) Their replacement
drummer Paul (This is getting embarrassing but I can’t remember his last
name) was a friend of John’s and if I remember correctly he was also in
Tobias Wolfe. At this point they made an EP (The one I told you about) As
you can work out, yours truly does not feature on this record but both
John and Paul do. The tracks recorded are:
1. Pearl’s a Singer.
2. Rhondo
3. I Believe in Love
4. America
Then I rejoined and things started to go downhill for the band again!! I
don’t actually remember how, why or when exactly Silhouette came to an
end. I only know that my next job was with another band where we toured
Denmark and that was the start of another long story as to why I have now
become a sort of Viking Light living here in the land of bacon and Lurpak.
I have a couple of old photos of John and the band so I will get them
scanned and send them to you along with the mp3 of the EP. If you have any
pictures of John I would love to have a copy.
As far as the other band members are concerned it would be great if you
could track any of them down. I am not having much luck on the internet!
The members I would really like to get in touch with are:
RITA DAVEY – RAWTENSTALL (The last I heard, she had become the licensee of
a pub in the center of Rawtenstall. She was married and had at least one
child. Then she moved on I think)
MIKE VICARY – CORNWALL Mike joined a country band called Mustang – they
won some kind of country prize and played at Wembley Stadium sometime in
the seventies.
MARTIN O’NIEL (or O’NEAL) & JULIE O’NIEL (or O’NEAL) Martin was the
original guitarist in Silhouette. He came originally from Belfast but
lived in Burnley. He married JULIE who was one of the two female singers
in the band. Last I heard, they were both still living in Burnley – but
this is 25-30 years ago!
And finally, PAUL the drummer who I have absolutely no idea where is!

Anyway, I won’t ramble on any more! Thanks for getting in touch with me
(despite being the bearer of sad news) I look forward to hearing from you
again and I will try and e-mail the things I promised as soon as I get
organised.
All the best
Take care
Andy

I must introduce you to a lovely lady whom I "met" on the Broadjam.com website


Felice writes really great songs in the traditional classic pop style as well as music and songs for film. I love songs that have a great melody as well as good lyrics and this lady is an expert at both!! Check out her song "Why did I Lose You?" on Broadjam. At the time of writing Felice is number one on the Broadjam pop classic charts, while yours truely is a mere number five with Beyond This Point There are Dragons. Good luck in the future Felice!!!

I have been fortunate to "meet" John Lord through Broadjam.com. John is also an Englishman living in exile! John lives in Belgium


There is a rumour that John and I will be co-writing a new song when John gets back from his hols!!

Hi everyone!
Well, here is my latest song I HOPE I DON'T BLEED ON YOUR CARPET. Once again Jeff has done a great job with production and WAMMY award winning Kris Fath is as usual brilliant on vocals!!!!! Thanks to you both!

Well, here is my latest.
YOU POLLUTE MY DAY
Produced brilliantly by Jeff, and sung like no-one else can by Kris Fath. Thanks to you both!

Well, it won't be long before I can present my newest song for you all. The vocals should be recorded at the end of this week if all goes to plan and then the final mix..........

Wow, where the hell did May go?
I guess I blinked. I have just invested in a 16 track harddisc recorder, so I have been trying to figure out all the different functions! No excuse I know - so sorry!
I will try to be more agile in the writing department next month!
THOUGHT OF THE DAY
(Provided by Jeff Severson )
HIT SONGS ARE NOT WRITTEN - THEY ARE RE-WRITTEN!

Since I started my website and promoting my music in late December 2005, I have come across some really nice people!
I have already mentioned Jeff Severson but I am sure he won't mind me singing his praises once more!!


I have never before come across a busy producer who is willing to use so much of his precious time to give extremely useful advice and encouragement without asking for a dime! Jeff has helped me in a completely new direction of songwriting and I really look forward to getting my "new-type" of song produced by Mr. Severson.

Another person who has spent time mailing to me is Andy Martin. I came across Andy on the web whilst trying to investigate a lead I had been given.

Not only was Andy able to help me with my enquiry but he too gave me some invaluable advice. As luck would have it, Andy is also writing a book on the music business which he tells me should be out in the summer.

I recieved an e-mail today from Jack Bishop of Lujamor Music in Los Angeles.

I am hopeful that we can work together in the very near future.

I have been in contact with Jeff Severson from Jeff Severson Productions I have a really good feeling about Mr. Severson! Not only did he take the time to visit my website but he also gave some very good advice. This along with the incredibly great sounding demos on his web site makes me sure that we are going to work well together in the future.
Now I just need to get ten of my songs together so we can decide which ones should be recorded!

I am pleased to announce that Pegasus Music from New Zealand have just agreed to publish two of my songs.


I look forward to future collaboration with both Errol and Ginny Peters.
The two songs are:
"Don't Play My Songs On The Radio" (Thanks Galen!) and
"Beyond This Point There Are Dragons"

Hi Chris Berrill from Lancashire/Germany. Thanks for your interest in "Don't PLay My Songs On The Radio". You didn't leave your e-mail address so I hope you read this message!
Have a great day!

Well, I'm pleased to announce the arrival of my newest single from Nashville. The song is called "Don't Play My Songs On The Radio" - This is NOT an instruction.