Had quite a bit to do with Terry for about 18 months; I'd say from the Spring of '59 to the summer of '60. Drinking mate, though Terry was never a 'proper drinker' as I was.
Record sessions too on Sunday afternoons at his parents' house in Vine St was it, or John St? We were both into American Southern Blues, but whereas he leaned towards R n' B and Rock n' Roll, I favoured New Orleans Jazz. The two genres ran alongside each other -routed in the same social deprivations allied to racism.
Wednesday nights we'd meet up in the Museum pub or Shakespeare as early as 6.30pm in George St Newcastle, -or even the Waterloo a few doors down, which closed in the mid-sixties I think.
We'd have a game or two of skittles, sink a couple of pints and then by 8.30pm, set off across the road to the Crystal Ballroom -'birdin'. Terry always got the best girl on the floor; a right charmer was Terry -good with the ladies. In that regard I more or less 'tagged along' -more in hope than expectation.
On Friday nights, Terry would occasionally 'sit-in' on piano upstairs at the Embassy, adding to the line-up of the Crescent City Stompers, in which I was on banjo. (Not to be confused with the Ceramic City Stompers who held 'top spot' on the 'heaving ground floor')... jammed solid every week.
Good days, finding our youthful way in the world. For Terry the rest is history, he leaving the playing behind and putting all his energy into the commercial side of the business.
It was no surprise when years later I heard he was doing so well, had expanded and was 'making a mint'. No surprise because, whenever, at the end of a gig, when we'd all been invited to attend an 'all-night' party', he, by 1am would have disappeared, not necessarily gone home, but secured a spare bed for the night, locked the door, and at 9am the next morning, whereas the rest of us would be bleary eyed and hung over, he would be as fresh as a daisy -sprucing himself up, immaculately dressed in suit n' tie, -and after a piece of toast and a cuppa -he'd be gone -to work, committed to career, not as the rest of us were still pursing hedonistic satisfaction. Even then at age of 21 he knew where he was going. He was, to put it simply, very ambitious from a much earlier age than the rest of us.. R.I.P. Terry.
Mick Penning
10/02/2021