Brian Beacom

BILL Martin's appearance comes as a little bit of a surprise.

The Scots songwriter may have been responsible for multi-million sellers such as Congratulations, Puppet On A String and Shang A Lang but he's wearing a Saville Row suit, hand made shirt and silk tie.

You'd imagine the man who once hung out with the Beatles (he once owned Lennon's mansion, Kenwood) and banged the tambourine on Van Morrison's first three records would look a little more bohemian than merchant banker.

"I always wear a smart suit," he says, smiling and sipping a glass of wine. "I like the image that gives off."

Bill Martin's image matches his major success. The man born in a tenement just nine yards from Glasgow's Fairfield Shipyards now lives in London's Belgravia and has a home in Portugal.

And he's keen to talk about his incredible pop journey. Born William Wylie Macpherson, he left school aged 15 to start as an Apprentice Marine Engineer in the shipyards.

However, he'd already been writing songs since the age of ten.

"When I was a kid I said to my father 'Show me how to vamp, like Jerry Lee Lewis.' And he did. Meantime, I studied music, to Grade Eight. However, my teacher warned me; 'If you're going to keep playing Jerry Lee Lewis you'll destroy your musical career, and you're as well not coming back.' So I didn't."

Bill, a tough footballer ("They called me The Animal") who once had trials with Partick Thistle), managed to finish his apprenticeship but was determined to become a songwriter and took off to London to seek his fortune. He was 'too young and too rough' and moved to South Africa to start a new life but that didn't alter Bill's desire to become a song writer.

He came up with a song for Adam Faith."I sold the song and made enough money to get back to London where I got to write the B sides of the Bachelors records, making sixty quid a week from my royalties," he recalls. "I was in."

However, Wylie Macpherson was out. This was 1963, the dawn of the Swinging Sixties, and the songwriter was told he had to change his name to 'something more showbiz'.

"Someone said 'Call yourself Bill Martin, it's got ten letters, just like Chuck Berry, Cole Porter and John Lennon. It was only later I realised that people like Oscar Hammerstein had way more than ten letters."

Bill Martin would go on to win three Ivor Novellos and two Eurovision Song Contests but in the early days he'd sell his songs on Tin Pan Alley.

"I'd sell songs to the likes of music publishers Box and Cox, Publishers," he recalls.

"This pair once had a hit with Yes, We Have No Bananas and I knew they liked novelty songs, so one day I went in and pitched them a song - not even written - but with the title When Banana Skins Start Falling, I'll come Sliding Back To You."

He adds, laughing; "They gave me twenty five quid for that one."

In Demmark Street in 1965, Bill met a young piano-playing hopeful called Reg Dwight. "He worked as a storeroom boy for Mills Music," Bill recalls.

"I was at Mills' so often people thought I worked there and Reg was in charge of the print section.

"He wore an overall, was a lovely guy, always nice and would always open the door for you. But I wouldn't let him play at the office Christmas party. No. You see, he'd play the piano in block chords and I wanted to hear tunes. So I just told him not to bother."

It didn't seem to hamper the future Elton John's career.

That same year, Bill teamed up with Irishman Phil Coulter. The pair had their own little Baker Street office in which they would write Monday to Friday. "We had two chairs, a piano and a wash hand basin. We used to p*** in the sink. But we were good. We'd write six songs a day and I sold lots of them."

Their talent saw the pair offered the chance to write for Eurovision in 1967. "Puppet On A String romped it, putting us right on the map," he says, of Sandi Shaw's hit.

"It still makes us money every time it's played."

How much money, Bill? "When Irving Berlin was asked what he made out of White Christmas he answered 'Do you know the song?' And that tells you all you need to know."

The big money keeps coming in because Martin learned that when you sold a song to a Sixties music publisher, the royalties paid were tinier than Chrissie Shrimpton's mini skirts.

Along the way, Bill's marriage to Glasgow-born sweetheart Margaret broke up. (He is now happily married to second wife, Jan.

In the Seventies, Martin and Coulter's songwriting and publishing business success rolled on, enjoying huge success with Billy Connolly, and glam rock band Kenny, who had hits such as Fancy Pants.

And there were the Bay City Rollers of course. Saturday Night sold 12m in Japan alone. The hits continued, another Eurovision win with Dana's All Kinds of Everything and meanwhile Bill Martin also published Van Morrison songs.

In 1975 he wrote a hit for Elvis for My Boy, but Bill Martin never looked to follow the King into the drugs-related madness so many succumbed too. "My mother brought me up too well for that."

Bill Martin's incredible success and work for charity resulted in his MBE, yet strangely, Glasgow is still to honour it's songwriting legend with a Honorary Degree. How could his home town ignore the man who wrote the cool background music for the Batman TV series?

"I don't know," he shrugs. "It's a good question."

Right now, he's working on his autobiography, packed full with tales of the likes of The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and the showbiz legends he's met.

"I'm a salesman, you see. I'm a hustler," he sums up, smiling, his chest almost visibly rising.

"I knew everyone. I still do. That's why I'm still a success."