Man claims to have co-written Amazing

A man says he co-wrote Alex Lloyd's hit song Amazing on the back of coasters in a
Sydney pub.
Mark Edward O'Keefe, who is taking action against Mr Lloyd for the rights to the
song, told the Federal Court in Sydney he spoke to the musician after they both
played a gig at the Bridge Hotel in Rozelle in April or May 1991.
Mr O'Keefe told the court on Tuesday that he and Mr Lloyd discussed the music
industry and the importance of musicians retaining artistic control of their work.
They then wrote a song together on the back of a number of coasters, Mr O'Keefe said.
Amazing was a hit for Mr Lloyd in 2001.
Under cross-examination from Mr Lloyd's solicitor Andrew Coleman, Mr O'Keefe said he
had no formal training in reading music.
"I cannot read by sight," Mr O'Keefe said.
When asked by Mr Coleman why he decided to write the song down on coasters, rather
than a pad of paper, Mr O'Keefe replied: "It's a pub. They've got coasters".
"I have written songs on coasters before."
The court heard Mr O'Keefe originally claimed to have written the song with Mr Lloyd
in 1989 and that they talked about the recent death of Mr Lloyd's mother.
After learning that Mr Lloyd's mother had not died until 1991, he now says they
wrote the song two years later.
Mr O'Keefe says he met Mr Lloyd for the first time in 1990.
"I'd lost a couple of years," he said.
Mr O'Keefe said he was sure he had met Mr Lloyd in late April or May 1991 because
his band What's Next had a six-week residency gig at the Bridge Hotel at the time.
Mr Coleman showed him advertisements from Drum Media magazine, which spruiked a band
called Club Acapella playing on Thursday nights during that period.
Mr O'Keefe said his band was a replacement for Club Acapella.
Mr Lloyd sat in the gallery on Tuesday alongside his wife Amelia Wasiliev.
The hearing continues before Justice Nye Perram.