Simon Rushby: Press

A music teacher looks tipped for songwriting success after his composition reached the final of a song contest.

Simon Rushby, director of music at Reigate Grammar School, has been entering the UK Songwriting Contest since 2002 and was category winner in the 2003 competition out of 1200 entires.

This year he reached the finals of the event with I Won't Be There. The song reached the top 6% of 5000 entires after it was selected as one of 36 finalists in the pop category.

Now it and two others from his catalogue have been taken up by music publisher DWB Songs, a provider of chart hits to stars in Europe and Japan.

Simon said "I made the demo - it was just me on the piano. Since then it has been taken up by a publisher and they have made it into a full studio recording with professional musicians. It's very exciting."

Students at the school have been unaware of the latest developemtns in Simon's career.

he said "They know I am a songwriter because I teach composition at the school and quite a lot of the are interested in what I do but they probably don't know about this yet."

When aksed if he ever performed live, Simon said "I play in a function band who play covers but I don't play my own stuff."

"It is something I have thought about but I don't know if anyone would come."

A SONG written about learning disabilities can be downloaded to raise money for Mencap.

'This Is Me' was written by Reigate Grammar School's director of music, Simon Rushby, for a concert organised by 17-year-old student Abi Cox for Mencap, a learning disability charity. She raised £1600 through the concert and is hoping to raise more from downloads of the song.

'This Is Me' deals with the feelings of being misunderstood people with learning disabilities often experience. To hear or download it, visit www.simonrushby.com, or buy a CD of the song at £2 by calling Reigate Grammar School on 01737 222231.

A talented songwriting duo has hit the right note by scooping first prize in a national songwriting contest.

Simon Rushby, of Smallfield, and Matt Brimilcombe, of Lingfield, were overjoyed after winning the jazz and blues category of the UK Songwriting Contest.

The pair managed to beat off stiff competition from over 1,200 hopefuls with their song, 'Cheatin' Lover', which they describe as "an old fashioned blues and soul number".

As part of their prize, the pair will now receive a publishing deal for the song as well as membership of two exclusive songwriting associations that will help to promote their material. "We are absolutely thrilled," says Simon, 33, who is married with two children.

"This has really fired us up and given us lots of enthusiasm. We didn't expect it at all!"


Their achievement is all the more impressive when you consider that neither of them is a professional songwriter; Simon is the director of music at Woldingham School while Matt is a motorcycle patrol officer with the Metropolitan Police. "It certainly came as a bit of a surprise," admits Matt, 37, who is also married with two children.


"But we both really enjoy writing together and we've got quite a collection of songs now. We'll just have to see what happens."


And how have his police colleagues responded to his win? "They've been great - really supportive," says Matt. "I guess it's quite unusual because although you come across quite a few musicians in the police force there don't seem to be too many songwriters. I don't think I'll be giving up the day job yet, but who knows? It's a nice thought!"


The pair originally began writing together in 1995 after forming a 10-piece blues and soul band called The Late Shift.


When that group came to an end, they went on to form Cover Story; a covers band in which they still perform today. Although there was no longer a need for them to write songs for the band, they always kept up their interest in songwriting.


And, when they read about the UK Songwriting Competition while trawling the internet one day, they decided they had nothing to lose by entering. "We submitted three songs in the end, all from our days in The Late Shift," continues Simon.


"The other two songs did nothing at all but, to our surprise, the third one obviously won. The first we heard of it was when we saw the announcement on the web site, and we've been on cloud nine ever since!".


Their win certainly elevates them to a new status as songwriters and, suffice to say, they are starting to take their writing a bit more seriously.


"We had both been writing independently but we've now pooled all our stuff together and we're going for it big time," says Simon. "We have no desire to actually perform the material ourselves so we're hoping to find a really good artist - someone like Shakira would do! We'll just have to see how things go!"


As for the future, the pair are quite realistic about their chances of hitting the big time but they are keeping their fingers crossed that this could be the start of a new era in their music careers.


The publishing deal means that the well-respected company UK Music Ltd will be going all out to get record companies interested and, hopefully, to get their song matched up with a well-known recording artist.


"This has given us the enthusiasm and motivation to really make a go of it," adds Simon. "It is confirmation that something we have done is good - and you don't often get that in the music industry.


"The best thing about it all is that it's given us a chance."