Nick Dent-Robinson talks to songwriter Guy Fletcher about his years in the music industry

Wantage-based Guy Fletcher has been one of the UK’s most prolific songwriters since the Sixties. Ever since his early days with legendary record producer Joe Meek when he was a session singer, a trumpeter and a songwriter, Guy has worked with some of the biggest names in UK music.

His songs have been recorded by Cliff Richard, The Hollies, Joe Cocker and Tom Jones, as well as by Frankie Valli, Helen Reddy, Ray Charles and Elvis Presley. Guy also enjoyed international success with his own band, Rogue, in the Seventies. He also discovered singer-songwriter Chris de Burgh.

These days Guy is highly regarded as a music industry guru. In 2005, he was honoured by the Queen with an OBE for services to British music. He is chairman of the Performing Right Society (PRS) and is very active in fighting the erosion of composers’ rights. By the time he was attending grammar school in Rochester, Guy was an accomplished trumpeter and chorister who could read, write and arrange music. He played in the school orchestra, sang in the choir and was also developing a keen interest in jazz.

While in his mid-teens, Guy’s family moved from Kent to Maidenhead and Guy started to play trumpet with a local trad jazz band. In concerts at venues such as Oxford Town Hall, he found himself supporting popular jazz performers of the time including Kenny Ball and Acker Bilk.

He also enjoyed the American vocal jazz groups fashionable in the early Sixties such as the The Four Freshmen and The Hi-Los. Their sophisticated, four-part harmonies fascinated Guy.

“I was just blown away by what those people were doing,” Guy recalled. “So I formed a little vocal group with my brother Ted and his wife, Barbara, both of whom later became professional session singers.

“We bought all The Four Freshmen’s records, learned them and started entering talent competitions. We were usually up against the same band in the finals. They were The Checkmates, later famous as Emile Ford and The Checkmates for their big hit What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For? “The Checkmates’ piano player Alan Hawkshaw, later a top composer, became a good friend. “One day he mentioned that The Checkmates had a new recording manager called Joe Meek who was looking for someone to provide vocals on some of his records.

“Joe Meek was amazing. He was a pioneer of many recording techniques, hugely talented and years ahead of his time. He was weird but kindly with it.

“Joe Meek became a legend, really. Since his tragic death when he shot himself back in 1967, there have been TV documentaries, a radio play, a stage play, a feature film plus a detailed biography about him. “We auditioned and Joe took us on. Very soon, from 1962, I was writing and arranging for him plus I’d sung on over 100 singles before I was 20 and I was meeting some of the biggest names in music, too. “So many people wanted to record with Joe. He’d produced Tom Jones, Sounds Incorporated, Shirley Bassey, Billy Fury, Frankie Vaughan, John Leyton, Mike Berry, The Tornadoes, Chris Barber, Gene Vincent — I remember singing on Gene Vincent’s records.”

Guy worked furiously over the next few years writing pop songs and networking constantly as more and more major names recorded his material. His earliest hit was I Can’t Tell The Bottom From The Top for The Hollies.

Guy met Cliff Richard for whom he later wrote several songs and he became good friends with Bruce Welch and Tony Meehan, of The Shadows. It was Tony who introduced Guy to lyricist Doug Flett who was to become Guy’s song-writing partner — a partnership that still exists. One of Guy and Doug’s most exciting opportunities came through a contact of Meehan’s. They were signed as songwriters by the American publisher Freddy Bienstock who was in partnership with Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis Presley’s manager. One day Freddy heard one of their songs, Wonderful World, and said: “I want Elvis to hear this; it is fantastic.” Freddy played the song to Elvis who to Guy and Doug’s astonishment decided to use it as the opening number in his last film, Live a Little, Love a Little. Afterwards, Elvis requested a series of songs from Guy and Doug, who became the first British writers to be recorded by Elvis.

“That was a huge thing for us,” Guy said. “It was almost impossible to penetrate the Elvis camp. We hadn’t dreamed we’d ever get a Presley cover and when we ended up writing more songs for Elvis we could scarcely believe it.

“A few years later, we decided to try writing a song for Ray Charles. It was called Is There Anyone Out There? We made a demo of it and headed out to Los Angeles to find Tangerine Records — Ray Charles’ record company. We rented a car and just drove to the district in LA called Watts where the company was based.

“We were both very naive. We had no idea about Watts and the racial tensions there. They were so amazed that these two white English guys had dared to drive there that they played the song to their head of A & R. He listened to a few seconds and said ‘Mr Charles will not record this’.’' “We didn’t give up. It was turned down several times more. And then, five years later, I suddenly had a call from someone new saying ‘I’ve found one of your songs that I think would be just right for Ray Charles’ — it was the same song. Ray Charles listened to the demo. He loved our song and recorded it within a week.”

Guy’s songs have been recorded by a huge range of artists from Tom Jones to Joe Cocker to The Shadows and The Bay City Rollers to Helen Reddy and Louise Mandrell who each had big US hits with Save Me.

His song Fallen Angel was a hit for Frankie Valli and features in the musical Jersey Boys still running on Broadway, in Las Vegas and in the West End. Along the way back in 1971, Guy discovered and then managed the singer-songwriter Chris de Burgh. Guy has also written music for TV. And for TV commercials — which he didn’t enjoy.

He is also chairman of Conexion Media, a major music and TV/film rights management company.

“I came through a period in music business history where publishers used to treat songwriters really badly.

“So, as soon as I was in a position to do so, I spent many years campaigning to improve the songwriter’s position.

“Rights management is what I do. I believe passionately that songwriters should have legal ownership of all their own copyrights and should be managed by professionals.

“The PRS, which I chair, has over 700 staff, a turnover of £750m and a massive international presence. It takes up a lot of my time and I rarely write music these days.”

With all his responsibilities, Guy gets little spare time, but how does he like to relax? “I enjoy fly fishing. My son Justin now has his own very successful TV career in children’s entertainment, but he and I still find time each week to fly fish together which is a great way to relax.

“I like family things and love being here with my wife Cherry at our home in Wantage, just looking out from our conservatory at the miles of open Oxfordshire countryside. That always helps keep things in perspective.”