Brenda-Lee Heathcote
Originally from the small Northern Qld town of Ayr, Brenda-Lee’s love of music took her on many journeys through out eastern Australia.
The longest pit stop of which was a nine year visit to Tamworth, a place she came to love for the songwriting, and the sheer comradery of the individuals she encountered who are now more of an extended family.
Her songwriting flourished with the endless support from fellow musicians, and constant demand for her material.
During this time, Brenda-Lee picked up many accolades and recognition awards, some of those being “Starmaker Finalist” ‘94,Gympie Muster Grand Finalist 1995, (performing original songs) TIARA Songwriter of the Year 1999, to name a few, and much to Brenda-Lee’s delight, being asked to play alongside fellow songwriters and greats such as Ross Wilson, Alan Caswell, Brent Parlane, Bill Chambers, Audrey Auld, and so many others.
Brenda- Lee’s impressive list of songs which have been covered by artists keeps growing, and include, The Wolverines, Shaza Leigh, Bobby Cash, The Spencer Band, Fergal Flaherty (Ireland), The Silverstring Outlaws, Paul Mateki (USA) and more.
Brenda-Lee worked for many years touring the fishbowl circuit around Tamworth’s inner and outer circle.
From Tamworth, to Dubbo, Lightning Ridge, Orange, Bathurst, Parkes, Mudgee, Muswellbrook, etc she performed live shows in duo’s, trio’s and solo. In 2002, she went solo, and racked up around 2000klm per week in gigs, and wore out her trusty old Falcon wagon.
While living in Tamworth, Brenda-Lee was asked to perform a live version of “The Big Mac Chant”,
to advertise the newer healthier burger from the famous chain. She was a part of the National McDonalds campaign.
In 2007 she won the prestigious “Rudy Brandsma Award” out of over 4000 entries in the Australian Songwriter’s
Association National Songwriting Contest for the song “So This Is Life”.
She became a part of international songwriting company “Give-a-Song” in 2008. (Read more about Give-a-Song below) She is still a solid member of the team.
Over the last few years, her focus has been on Meat Pie Music. Meat Pie Music became an official member of APRA and AMCOS in March 2008. A lot of hard work and perserverence, is seeing MPM come to the fore, as a respected member of the indi publishing community. Brenda-Lee likes to be a little different, and even in offering a site such as this one, that is open to artists to browse, and listen to tracks, is a fresh new open approach to a changing industry.
In 2010 she was asked to write lyrics (to an existing music track) for 6 minute “Rock Opera” Spectacular, to be
performed by one of the original Ten Tenors, Roger Davy. Roger performed the track at a gala evening
(accompanied by “Aerial Angels” stunning aerial artists, who perform both gymnastically, and with apparatus)
in Brisbane’s city center to an amazing response.
Meat Pie Music is located in Coolangatta, Qld Australia. Brenda-Lee resides there with her husband Scott Lloyd Shelly, who also works from the premesis, with his company “Resonance Array”. Scott creates music for TV, Movies, Jingles, Documentaries, Games and just about anything that requires quality music! Scott and Brenda-Lee together wrote the “Motor Finance Wizard” jingle, and Brenda-Lee also records voices for many of Scott’s gaming creations. The latest being “Bouncer Boot Out”, an IPhone game app. They also work together in their duo, “Toucan Twango”. They were proud to be asked to be the entertainment for the “Grand Finale” night at Blackall, outback Queensland in October 2010 as a part of the “Angel Flight” Trailblazer Rally. The theme was “The 60’s” with a tribute to the late and great “Ellie Greenwich” performed by Scott and Brenda-Lee. John Paul Young was there, and sang “Love Is In The Air” and
Tania Kernaghan performed a stirring newly written track (for Angel Flight). Keep an eye out for that one.
