Chapter 5 part 1 - End of the Century |
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Despite the recent disappointment with Rogue Waves escaping and heading for the hills; Terry now in his 30s , seemed content to stay put in California. Trading in the vagaries of weather and fortunes of his native Albion for the sun and unfettered optimism of his adopted home in America's Babylon: Los Angeles. Far from alone in his choice of domicile, the LA scene was liberally sprinkled with other UK rock exiles, both minor and major league. One such person was Jackie Lomax with whom Terry briefly collaborated in the ironically named Brit exile band Teabags. The kind of loosely connected line up common in musical colonies the world over.With a young family to provide for, life of course couldn't be all fun. Terry paid the bills by obtaining regular session work. With his superb voice and above average guitar skills Terry had no problem finding work. For him it was a question of turning up at the studio, asking "What's the song?", "What style? " , "OK here you go ..". A vocal technician is how he succintly described himself at the time.Terry worked with a number of people on a variety of albums often un-credited . Collaborations of note were with Jackson Browne ( still a good friend), Bonnie Raitt and Don Henley to name a few . So don't be surprised if on digging out an 80's recorded West Coast album you think you hear a familiar voice in the background ! Sadly a comprehensive list of these contributions doesn't exist , not even in Terry's memory. The whole 80s decade drifted on with not a song released; no new album to keep the faithful ticking over. The slow setting of Terry's sun on a pacific horizon? Thankfully no. Terry had been quietly (or perhaps not so quietly) stacking up demos of new songs and sending out feelers to people in the business, 'banging the phone ' as he put it. |
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| Over in the UK some of the demos got the ear of influential Warner UK chairman Rob Dickins. Apart from running the UK arm of a major global entertainment company Rob was a serious music fan, including Terry in his own personal list of favourites. Reaching out a particularly long arm he pulled Terry over to the UK and teamed him up with UK producer Trevor Horn. Trevor's track record included working with the likes of Cher , Grace Jones, Tina Turner, Enya , the list goes on. From earlier work in a pop group (Buggles !) Trevor was collaborating with a keyboard player Hans Zimmer (more of him later but, no, he had no involvement in Seed Of Memory's The Frame!) who was fast becoming a major talent in the film music industry. I'm not sure which project was in mind first but Hans was writing the score for an upcoming Tom Cruise film, Days Of Thunder and together with Terry and Trevor wrote a signature song for it, 'The Driver' (the film's based on a NASCAR driver's tale). The melody made it into the movie but the song didn't. Becoming instead the title track of another project, Terry's new album. Although not a major grossing film, as a Tom Cruise vehicle, it was nevertheless yet another tantalisingly close brush with success and greater recognition. So, anyway, if you've always wondered, "Why 'The Driver'? "now you know, nothing to do with Terry's secret ambition to burn rubber as his compadres exit a bank, guns blazing. A different track from the one intended, Terry's take on the Spencer Davis classic 'Gimme Some Lovin' did make the film, so all was not lost on the movie front. | |
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