Terry Shaughnessy
April 2009ZANI chats to a slave to the song .
Terry Shaughnessy, is a musician from the North West of England, minus ego, plus fire. To him “the song is king”. But what did this mean and was it just a good sales pitch? I was intrigued, so I added him as a friend. He was very pleased I did.“I tried to send you a message last night” he said “but MySpace wouldn’t let me”. He went on to explain “I just wanted to introduce myself really and hopefully twist your arm into having a listen to my stuff and maybe consider me for some of your future gigs?” My friend was right, Terry was a nice person. Polite, with a hint of cheekiness and I warmed to him immediately. I never promise anything, but always say I’ll try my best as you never know what may come along tomorrow.
The months went by, then one day I got a phone call from Terry who’d noticed that one of my bands, top Small Faces tribute act Small Fakers, was playing at the Cavern Club in Liverpool on March 28th. As Terry lived up that way he asked if his band could support them. I admired this grasp of an opportunity and obligingly, after a quick check with the club, added Shaughnessy to the bill.
Terry wasn’t new to the Cavern Club of course as he’d played there a number of times before, including support for original Small Faces member Ian McLagan when he performed at the club during his 2007 UK tour.
A few weeks before the gig at the Cavern Club I got to see Terry and his lead guitarist Piet Koehorst perform an acoustic set at Filthy McNastys, a pub in north London known for showcasing new talent. Playing an acoustic set of songs that would normally be performed with a full backing band can often be lacking for obvious reasons. But there was a passion in his performance that made up for any loss of full musical accompaniment.
I arrived at the Cavern Club on March 28th in time for the sound check and to catch up with Terry so that I could find out a bit more about the man and his music.
Terry was born in Liverpool in 1979 but moved to Skelmersdale when he was quite young. He came from a typical working class background living on a council estate. Surrounded by lots of styles of music with four uncles and his mum all being into music. Two of his uncles were in bands and another 2 uncles were huge Beatles fans, going to conventions every year. His mum was a member of the Small Faces fan club, so sixties type music was being played a lot. Terry recalls being encouraged a lot by his uncles “I remember going to their houses and playing on tins or boxes. I’d go to their band rehearsals and pester them to play drums or guitar. I was only about 5yrs, but they encouraged me all the way. It was a bit later when I was about 11yrs that I started writing songs. I didn’t really play guitar at that time. To be honest when I first became a musician I played drums for a while. It was only about 8 or 9 years ago now that I really picked up the guitar because I was fed up with bands. It was apparent to me that if I really wanted to take this seriously I’ve got to do my own thing. So I went from one day playing the drums to a few days later doing solo acoustic sets playing guitar. I just wanted to get out and play my own songs.”
Terry performed solo for two or three years, doing as many gigs as he could. He laughs at the thought of the early stuff he used to write.
“It was the usual boy/girl stuff and about growing up on a council estate. But now I write more about nature in my songs. Someone said to me once that shine or sun seems to feature a lot.”
As a kid Terry was also into martial arts. He didn’t like school much and would bunk off school to write songs or do his martial arts training. “I really got into the philosophical side of the martial arts, and I guess the discipline that goes with it had a huge influence on my song writing.”
Although Terry didn’t like school much, he got quite good grades and admits the teachers did encourage him to go to college, but Terry had his sights set on being a full time musician.
“I left school and worked in a grocers for a while until I had enough money saved up to buy a drum kit.”
So, what does Terry think about the opportunities kids have today of learning music in school? He points out that in his days at school if you told your teacher “I want to be a musician” they would just scoff at you.
“The reason there is a lot more opportunity now is because the government realised during the BritPop era that music was a great export for the UK. There is nothing wrong with going down that formal route of learning those technical skills and it’s important to learn stuff like paradidles if you’re playing drums and learning the chords for guitar to see what works, but for me I prefer learning a bit of those skills then doing your own thing, otherwise the creativity is stifled. Some gigs I’ve been to you see bands on stage that look the part, but there’s no passion or fire in their bellies. I’m not against the fame type schools, but personally speaking they don’t get an opportunity to be creative and it becomes more about the competition than about expressing yourself. When it comes to an example of Terry’s own need to be creative, he remembers one producer saying “those chords don’t go together”, but Terry responded saying “I don’t care it sounds good to me.”
For Terry it took him a long time to get a band that works. He admits to loving songwriting. “It’s what drew me in when I was little and it still does. Although the perception is to have a front man and yeah I’m the front man singing, but ultimately you’re slave to the song. There must be no egos in the way. So it took me a long time to get a band that got it. I give them freedom to try things out, but if I say I don’t think that works they say no problem.”
The band playing alongside Terry is Chris Waring on bass, Dave Dobbins on drums and young Piet Koehorst on guitar, affectionately known as “the boy” As Shaughnessy rip into their set at the Cavern Club the audience respond positively from the energy of their sound oozing from the stage. One audience member leans over and shouts into my ear enthusiastically “They’re fucking great” I turn and smile at him before he continues “I can see the Paul Weller influence, but there is something extra here that is different from other bands playing this style of music.”
I think Terry has a new fan. Before my attention is drawn back towards the stage my new friend leans over again and says “Oh, but they need to change their name! It doesn’t reflect the sort of music they are playing. Shaughnessy sounds like an Irish band”. An interesting observation. But concerned that Terry may be offended by the criticism of his family name, I approached the subject with great caution when I caught up with him after the gig. I was so relieved to know that he wasn’t upset at all. Infact Terry revealed to me exclusively that the band had already decided a name change was necessary. “We’re changing it to “The Universal”. He must have sensed my confusion and went on to explain. “You know, after the Small Faces song”. Oh yes, of course. The Small Faces connection makes more sense. Terry adds they plan to unveil the new name in the summer to coincide with the release of a new album.
Things are looking promising for this musician from the North West of England. A number of companies have approached him with sponsorship deals. Terry explains “I’m endorsed by Ikon Footwear, Fred Perry, Three Stroke Scooter Clothing and Indie Guitars. I’ve been offered other endorsements, but the reason I was happy to work with these companies in particular is their clothes, shoes, guitars and their ethics, they all tie in with where I’m at and what I’m doing. They are all involved heavily on the music side of things and mostly, what they produce is rooted into the mid-sixties to early seventies era, which is right up my street.”
So, what does this partnership involve exactly? “I’d say it’s mutual promotion and admiration. By wearing or using their products at gigs, they also reciprocate by promoting me on their web sites and marketing material. It is a bonus that I’m genuinely into the stuff these companies produce. I couldn’t take on an endorsement for the sake of it. I have to be into their stuff for it to work.”
The band has just signed to an independent record label and presently in the studio recording new material for a new album. Their first album “Big Wide World” recorded over a year ago fell by the wayside after changes at the previous record company prevented it from seeing the light of day. Undeterred, Terry explains “We’ll take some songs off it, but the new stuff I’ve been writing is more up beat basically. So what people will buy with the new album is what they will get live and it’ll be a bit more passionate.”
The new album should be out in the summer and off the back of that the band are scheduled to play Reading and Leeds festivals, Liverpool Sound City, abroad in Dubai, Norway, France and a festival in Switzerland. Things definitely look set to gain momentum as the year goes on.
The one thing I have taken from talking to Terry is his strong feelings about his music “It may sound dramatic, but you’ve got to get on stage and play like your life depends on it. If you’ve got that honesty the audience gets off on it. They can spot a fraud.” He remains a slave to the song.
TERRY SHAUGHNESSY
LIFELINE
BORN: 24th Feb 1979
PLACE: Whiston, Liverpool
HEIGHT: 5’ 10”
WEIGHT: 11 Stone
COLOUR OF EYES: Blue:
HAIR: Brown
INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Guitar, Drums, Harmonica, Piano
HOBBIES: Reading, Playing Pro Evolution Soccer with the lads from my band
FAVOURITE FOODS: Chocolate, Curry, Eggs & Beans on Toast!, Pasta, Cakes
LIKES: Music, Buying Clothes, Liverpool FC
DISLIKES: Snow Patrol, Keane, Bon Jovi, Everton FC, Manchester United FC
AMBITION: To be recognised by my peers as great British songwriter and live performer
Val Weedon is a journalist and music promoter.
© Words – Val Weedon/ ZANI Ltd
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