Mark Moraghan - Moonlight's Back in Style - iaindale.blogspot.com

When celebrities try their hand at things outside their normal range of activity it usually leads to embarrassment. Nicky Campbell, however, has achieved something fantastic. He has written fourteen songs which have just been released on a CD called MOONLIGHT'S BACK IN STYLE, on which Mark Moraghan sings. It's a swing/jazz CD, very much

in the style of Harrick Connick Jr. And to be honest, it's not the sort of music I would normally go out of my way to listen to. I put it in my car CD player expecting to whizz through all 14 tracks and listen to each one for a few seconds before deciding to revert to Roxette and Cliff. But not a bit of it. I was entranced and listened to the whole thing. Indeed, on the return journey I listened to it again.

How on earth, I thought, did a news presenter learn to write songs like this? And Campbell didn't just write the lyrics, he wrote the music too. I've always fancied turning my hand to writing songs - well, maybe just lyrics! - but it would be difficult to top this. Mark Moraghan's voice is exactly suited to swing and he puts in a great performance on each and every song, starting with the excellent COME FOR THE RIDE (which he co-wrote with Campbell). WE'LL NEVER HAVE MANHATTAN has a genuine New York feel to it and it's a song you can imagine Sinatra would have liked to sing. In short, and bearing in mind this is not my sort of music normally, there isn't a weak track on this CD. If you like Connick Jr or Sinatra, you'll love it.