A dream came true last year for Jamie Manning when he spent two days recording an original song in England after winning a competition that garnered 5,500 entries from — one could say — here, there and everywhere.
The Greenfield resident won the 2024 global songwriting contest created by Talent is Timeless, a community of songwriters 50 and older. He was rewarded in April of the following year with a trip to Abbey Road Studios, where the Beatles laid down numerous tracks with their innovative recording techniques in the 1960s.
“It was a surreal experience. It really was. You know, I’ve seen so many Beatles videos, so many Beatles photos, of that famous … Studio 2,” Manning said in his home studio on Pierce Street, about 3,400 miles from London. “And just to be in there with a 50-person chorus and a string section and working on this tune … it was an out-of-body experience.”
He found out about the free-to-enter Talent is Timeless competition while scrolling on Facebook and figured he had nothing to lose. He learned he had cracked the top 100 and then the top 10, though his eyes initially glossed over his name on that second list. He was eventually announced as the grand prize winner during an online ceremony, making him want to twist and shout.
“It was kind of just a mind-blowing experience,” he recalled.
The winning song was “Roadsigns,” which he wrote in 2006. It’s about a man who leaves his family due to an extremely stressful life, what he learns on the road and what brings him back home. The song was part of an album Manning made for parents of children with special needs.
Saskia Griffiths-Moore, founding director of Talent is Timeless, said she started the age-positive songwriting movement in 2020 because people older than 50 tend to be invisible in the music industry despite still having art to share. She told the Greenfield Recorder that Manning’s story is a perfect example of this.
“He was an absolute star from start to finish — rocked up in a full suit looking like he’d always belonged there, impressed everyone with his professionalism, and at one point even took over the drumming from our session drummer,” she said. “Afterwards, he and his brother Michael stayed up late in the Abbey Road canteen swapping stories and soaking it all in.
“Songwriting is a dangerous activity — you never know where a song is going to lead you, the people it’s going to connect with, or the adventures it might bring,” she went on to say.
Saskia Griffiths-Moore visited Greenfield for a portion of the nearly 22-minute documentary. Manning, now 61, spent a week in England with his brother, a fellow Beatlemaniac.
“For me, when I was there, having been a musician my whole life and been in studios a lot, it’s instinct. I walked in there, I was just all business. It was cool to look around, but I wasn’t starstruck. It was just like, ‘OK, let’s get to work,'” Manning recalled. “But for my brother, who hasn’t had that same level of experience, he was able to take in the vibe of it.”
Links to the song and the documentary are available at: jamiemanning.com.
Manning grew up in Stoneham and earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in music. He specializes in piano and drums, even drumming for Aretha Franklin and Carly Simon years ago. But the industry was put “in the back corner” about 20 years ago so he could support his family through a steady day job, which he said he does not regret. Winning the contest, however, has rekindled his career and generated some writing opportunities.
“I still do it part-time, but it’s productive part-time now,” he said. “I’m not writing for myself — there’s actual opportunities out there I can pursue.”
He said he wholeheartedly recommends songwriters 50 and older enter the Talent is Timeless competition, which gave him the opportunity to walk the same hallways and corridors — and the world-famous crosswalk — as the Fab Four. He even got to play the famous E chord that wraps up “A Day in the Life” on the same piano the Beatles used while recording the classic, the final track on “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”
“That was pretty amazing, in and of itself,” he said. “It was just like walking into the past.”
Manning said his first exposure to the Liverpool lads was the compilation albums “1962–1966” and “1967–1970,” commonly known as the Red Album and Blue Album, respectively. His love for the group has only grown over time.
“They were the best,” he said. “I’d say I admire all four of them for what they contributed. That’s what the Beatles were — just a perfect team.”
But, he said, picking a favorite song or album is a tall order.
“They’re all so great in their own ways, depending on what mood you’re in,” he said. “But I’m kind of partial to the ‘Rubber Soul’ era, that sort of mid-era, because you can feel the transition between their early pop stuff, and it really was a beacon as to where they were headed.”
More information about Talent is Timeless is available at: www.talentistimeless.com
