Canada-based Guyanese singer/songwriter Terry B. talks about his experiences in the entertainment industry
Terry B. was born Terry Bacchus in Georgetown Guyana in 1959 and attended the Dolphin Government School until his family migrated to Canada in 1971. For him, singing is a gift from God; a gift he accepts wholeheartedly, and which, he said in an interview with Guyana Times Sunday Magazine, chose him rather than he chose it.
Terry got his first gig just five years after arriving in a completely new world when he performed in 1976 at a Country and Western club in downtown Toronto, which was arranged by one of his teachers.
“The response from the large, all-Caucasian audience was tremendous – and this was in a time of high racism. So for me to get this kind of response showed that my talent was such that the audience forgot that I was not one of them,” he recalled.
While working as a fitter/welder, he would perform as lead singer in bands such as Electric Vision, Sage and Sapphire during the 80s, but left the music scene when his daughter Amanda was born in 1991.
Following her father into the music industry, Amanda is now also a singer/songwriter and goes by the name Manda B.
His wife Rena, whom he met in 1977 at a party at a mutual friend’s home, works in the insurance industry and is also his writing partner and public relations liaison for him as well as their daughter Amanda.
After Amanda was born, his love for singing and performing still strong, he returned full-time to the music business in 1999; and to solo performances.
“Bands were being phased out and the singers were going solo. But instead of joining this scene, I decided to re-enter with a CD, “If Everyday was Like Christmas,” he revealed.
“If Everyday was like Christmas”, according to his website, www.terryb.ca, is a collection of Christmas classics done in Terry B’s style: a little R&B, Soca, Reggae and Salsa.
The Christmas CD, released under the Spotlight Records label in 1999, “was well received back when it was released, and today it is still one of the top selling CD’s of its kind,” he recalled. “As a matter of fact, my family and I went to an Engelbert Humperdinck concert and were lucky enough to meet him after his show; we gave him one of these CD’s and another to his musical director. At his next concert in Toronto, the musical director contacted me and asked for another. He said that Engelbert had taken the one I gave him to his home in England and had taken the one from the musical director for his home in L.A. He said that Engelbert always has my CD in his carousel and plays it every Christmas.”
music scene
His other CD albums include “These Moments Last Forever” (2002) under Spotlight Records and “A Jackpot of Golden Hits Volume I”; while by request of many disc jockeys, his dance remix recording of The Temptations’ hit “My Girl” has been released on vinyl (45 RPM).
Recalling his early years trying to make it in an industry that is fraught with more failures than successes, he said that he was never discouraged, only frustrated. “The music business,” he pointed out, “is a very, very competitive field, and your competition did not want you to get ahead of them, so there was a lot of “back-stabbing” – no different from today.”
That is something he is obviously concerned about for his daughter. “[I am] trying to be a good role model for my daughter as she discovers the pitfalls of this business,” he revealed.
And he knows a thing or two about facing discrimination, despite his talent. “In the early days, there was discrimination, and my performances were restricted to “West Indian” clubs and events. But this is now reversed, as most of my paying gigs are outside the West Indian community and the discrimination I face is from the West Indian community,” he noted.
But it has not dampened his enthusiasm for performing in any community, so far in both the U.S and Canada. And, with his first love singing ballads he wrote and the old classics, he is satisfied with his successes in life.
“I am realistic enough to know that at my age and the type of music I sing, it is unlikely that I will ever make it big – I am comfortable where I am, getting paid for what I love doing best,” he stated.
That’s the best part of his work; the worst part, he revealed, is that he feels his fellow Guyanese don’t support him. But he plans to continue recording and performing until, as he put it, “…it is time for me to ride off into the sunset.”
Terry B has just completed what he described as a “lover’s rock CD”, and would love to be back home for a performance someday.(Guyana Times Sunday Magazine)
