Fundraising songwriter signs publishing deal

Neil Fitzpatrick and Mike Read
Neil Fitzpatrick and Mike Read

Neil Fitzpatrick and Mike Read: appearing on the Showbiz TV show Tin Pan Alley

After raising almost £30,000 for charity, Neil Fitzpatrick joins Peer Music and will appear on a TV show about songwriting

Scarborough songwriter, Neil Fitzpatrick – who raised almost £30,000 for Cancer Research UK – has signed a publishing contract with Tin Pan Alley, administered by global independent music publishing company, Peer Music Group. Fitzpatrick wrote the emotive ballad Apart when his friend’s sister was diagnosed with and subsequently lost her battle with bowel cancer. He won the 2014 UK International Songwriting Contest and released the song in April that year following the death of his father to lung cancer, just two days after Christmas.

“It was an awful time and witnessing first hand the devastation that cancer causes pushed me to want to raise as much as possible for research into the disease,” explained Fitzpatrick. “It’s pretty amazing to sign with one of the world’s most respected music publishers and I’m really hoping someone with huge appeal will take my song to a global audience, so we can raise hundreds of thousands, if not millions of pounds to fund research into this awful illness.”

He was offered the publishing deal at the same time as being shortlisted to appear on Tin Pan Alley – a TV show about British songwriters, which airs on Showbiz TV on 2 October and will be hosted by former Radio 1 DJ Mike Read. Ironically, two days after signing, Fitzpatrick discovered he’d been shortlisted as Unsigned Songwriter Of The Year by The Songwriting Academy, which he was unable to accept and said it was “a great predicament to have.”

Apart is still available to buy at apartsong.co.uk and on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon and Google Play, with all proceeds going to Cancer Research UK.




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