Awards honour young tunesmiths

Blue's songwriters were honoured for the hit All Rise

Young songwriters who have worked with Dido, Marti Pellow and Lisa Roxanne were among those honoured by the British Academy of Songwriters and Composers on Monday.

The Chart Newcomer Awards at London's Landmark Hotel go to young British songwriters whose songs have entered the top 20 for the first time.

Presenting the awards for May and June 2001 were veteran songwriters Doug Flett - who co-wrote songs for Elvis Presley - and Gary Osborne, a lyricist for Elton John, Kiki Dee and others.

DJ Mike Read and Jona Lewie, writer and performer of 1980's Stop The Cavalry, also gave awards.

'Compliment'

Fifteen-year-old Palm Pictures signing Lisa Roxanne received an award along with songwriters George and John Hammond-Hagan and Allan Simpson for their co-written hit No Flow.

Ms Roxanne told BBC News Online: "It was a very unexpected compliment.

"This co-write was our first song to chart and to get it recognised this way is so memorable."

Lisa Roxanne: Honoured for her contribution to No Flow

Songwriter Paul Herman, who was honoured for his part in Dido's hit Thank You, said that he "forgot" about the song until it was sampled by rapper Eminem.

"Dido had a chorus and I had a song and we put it together," he told BBC News Online.

"Then I forgot about it - next thing, I got a call from her saying that Eminem was going to use it after hearing the song in the film Sliding Doors."

Number one

R&B band Blue's songwriters Simon Webbe and Daniel Stephens were honoured for the band's hit All Rise, and Aaron Soul, Tony Briscoe and Mohammed Jelian received an award for the song Ring Ring Ring - sung by Aaron Soul.

DJ Pied Piper's writers Steve Wickham, DT and Ashley Livingstone were honoured for the number one Do You Really Like It, while another dance record, Booo! By Sticky won an award for song creators Richard Forbes and Ms Dynamite.

Finally Marti Pellow's hit Close To You won an award for James Hallawell, who wrote the song with Pellow and Squeeze's Chris Difford.

This was the third Chart Newcomer Awards ceremony, which was initiated earlier this year.