Oh man - Terry Hall.
Me and some pals have an occasional covers band - weddings, parties, anything. Due to all of us having worked in 'the biz' we've brought in some powerful ringers to sing with us over the years...
Me and some pals have an occasional covers band - weddings, parties, anything. Due to all of us having worked in 'the biz' we've brought in some powerful ringers to sing with us over the years...
James Bradfield, Tim Burgess, Lila Moss, Suggs, The Magic Numbers, Edwyn Collins. Even - no shit - Chas & Dave. Anyway, some years back, maybe 2008, we wind up doing a Guilty Pleasures gig at Hackney Empire for our friend Sean Rowley...
Suggs is doing 'Love is In The Air' and Terry Hall is doing 'Islands In The Stream' with Cerys Matthews. Suggs and Terry both come to rehearsals on the same day. Now this is quite a trip for us, watching these guys do their numbers in front of each other...
Terry is lovely and sweet and vulnerable as he deadpans through the Kenny Rogers part while Cerys - as you'd imagine - gives it hell as Dolly. Suggs isn't one for over-rehearsing and contaminating our purity, so after a bit we go across the road to the pub.
Suggs and Terry are hilarious together: constantly sniping and barbing at each other, ribbing over poor singles, bad chart positions etc. Not only can they both seemingly remember every commercial detail of each other's careers, they're not shy of taking the piss about it...
Two heavyweights with very different styles obv: Suggs, as the pints do down, voluble, verbose, coming out swinging. Terry, much quieter, but deadly and sarky. But after a bit, Suggs makes quite a heartfelt wee speech about how, piss taking aside, he's always rated Terry...
and what a magical time they had in the late 70s and early 80s. And at least they both had a no 1 single BITD, eh? With this Suggs heads off to get another round in. Terry watches him go fondly. A beat of perfect comic timing and then Terry turns to the table...
He holds out a cupped hand on either side of him, palms up in the traditional 'scales of justice' manner and, weighing them, says - 'mmm. 'Ghost Town...House of Fun...Ghost Town...House of Fun.'
We pissed ourselves.
We pissed ourselves.
Anyway, this has rambled on a bit. I know that when someone as beloved as Terry dies I like reading things like this because it gives you another tiny piece of them. And I feel very lucky to have had a couple of nights out with the man back then.
Bye Terry. Sail on, Sailor.
Bye Terry. Sail on, Sailor.
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