16 Jul 2007 - It's Monkey Business for top UK songwriting competition!

The song Monkey Business by David Gasking, written for the children of Carr-Bridge Primary School, has been revealed as a finalist in the results of the prestigious UK Songwriting Contest 2007, announced yesterday.

Monkey Business, featured in Hey, Mr Big!, was written for the children of Carr-Bridge Primary School to sing at their annual School Fun Day on 7th June 2003, with the overall theme of the day being "The Jungle". The song, in bright samba style, tells the light-hearted story of monkeys who have secrets that they are unwilling to share with the other animals, because it's monkey business.

This occasion was particularly special because for Jamie and his classmates it was to be their very last Fun Day: after the summer holidays they would be moving up to the Grammar School in Grantown-on-Spey. It was a sunny day, the children stood outside the front of the school and sang to the parents and visitors, and it always seemed that, of all the new songs over the years, silly, comic Monkey Business was the one that they had most enjoyed learning and singing.

Jamie was to sing again only once more in public after that day - at the school's Talent Show on 23rd June, when he and his friend Bryce performed their memorable Fast Food Boys routine.

You can listen to the recorded entry for Monkey Business and read the words on-line by going to http://www.broadjam.com/ and using the search button at the top to locate the song by title.

On provisional figures, this year's UK Songwriting Contest attracted a total of around 5000 entries worldwide, spread across 10 categories. Of these some 200 or so songs are expected to have progressed through preliminary selection and semi-finals to the finalist stage.

Monkey Business was entered in the Miscellaneous category, for children's, comedy, novelty and such songs. Although Monkey Business was not ultimately chosen as a winner, or one of the three runners-up, it seems pretty certain that Jamie would have been well-pleased to see his final Fun Day song named amongst the top 20 or so songs in its class.

More details on the UK Songwriting Contest and this year's results are available at http://www.songwritingcontest.co.uk/. A link to the competition has also been added in a new Awards & Competitions section, via the Website Links button on the left of this page.

Monkey Business is the second of the songs featured in Hey, Mr Big! to have achieved wider recognition: in July 2005 (see earlier news item) the lyrics of the song Hold on to the smiles were chosen amongst the Forward Press Top 100 Poets 2005.