LANCASHIRE’S Barry Mason, one of Britain’s foremost songwriters, is coming to Blackburn to support the town’s Empire Theatre and has written a new piece for the occasion.

Mason is the lyrical mastermind behind the song classics that made some of the industry’s biggest musical icons the legends they are today.

Tom Jones, Rod Stewart, Barbara Streisand, The Drifters, Englebert Humperdink, Charles Aznavour and Elvis Presley have all had hits penned by Barry and for one night only he’ll be at the Ewood theatre to tell the story of his life and to perform some of them himself in a show called, ‘Remember Delilah.’

Barry, who wrote Tom Jones’ mega hit Delilah, said: “When Tom Jones sang Delilah for the first time in 1968, I had no idea how much it would change my life.

“I stood on the pitch at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium when Tom Jones performed in front of 70,000 people a few years ago, and everybody was singing the words to the song I’d written on a tiny scrap of paper as a young lad at home,” he said.

“It was the most uplifting experience in the world, and even now I can’t describe the emotions I felt at that moment.”

Mason, who celebrates his eightieth birthday next year, added: “Whenever I hear Delilah I think about somebody tapping their feet to the tune in a restaurant or a little bar in Brazil, Australia or Iceland, because Delilah has travelled the world.

“Music is the greatest common denominator on the planet and that’s what my show at Blackburn will be about.”

Barry spent his early childhood in Coppull, near Chorley, before moving to Blackpool, where his mother ran a bed and breakfast in the resort.

“I would sit on Blackpool sea front thinking about how wonderful it would be to act or sing – that was my dream.

“I lived in Hollywood for three years, singing at all the major nightclubs on Sunset Strip. That was great fun.

“I even landed a role as an acting understudy to Albert Finney at Royal Court Theatre, but when I saw him perform I knew I’d never be as good as him.”

He recalled a teenage guitarist arriving at the studio doorstep some years later.

“He was a good looking lad with a shock of black hair. I heard him play and I said to him, ‘You’ll be a star one day’. It was Jimmy Page, who later formed Led Zeppelin.”

Mason produced Page’s first solo single, She Just Satisfies.

Barry, whose father was a journalist at the Wigan Observer newspaper, describes himself as a ‘sports addict.’ The rugby league enthusiast had a cricket trial for Lancashire when he was 17, adding: “I was a decent slow, left arm bowler, who could bat a bit.

“Sport is such unscripted drama – a bit like music - and that’s why I love it.”

He added: “I live in London, but I’ve always loved my county, and my new song I’ll be singing at the Empire is called Red, Red, Rose, a song dedicated to Lancashire.

He stumbled into songwriting and, after a couple of minor, hits the big ones followed, landing gold and platinum awards plus a string of top industry honours “I could be watching television and an old film might be on and they’ll come out with a corny line in the movie, and then I’ll think, ‘Well, that’s a great idea for a song’. I work a lot like that and it can be very instinctive.”

Empire Theatre chairman Michael Berry said: “When you look at the list of Barry’s hits, Delilah, The Last Waltz, Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes, There Goes My First Love, – you can only marvel that the songs that have become the soundtrack of our lives could have come from a local man.”

  • Barry Mason plays Thwaites Empire Theatre on November 1. £12, Box Office 01254 658500.