Tin Shack Blues
Here is where you get to meet one of the band members of the Tin Shack Blues Band!
This page is dedicated to vocalist and bassist frontman, Terry Roberts!
Terry Roberts
Terry Roberts is the vocalist and bass guitarist of the band. He's been around for more years than the other two guys, being the oldest member of the band - an honour he would rather not be the proud holder of!
With some thirty years of playing behind him, Terry has been in a variety of bands since he was at school in Tottenham, North London in the 1970s and played many venues in and around the capital. However, to go into all of that would likely take up a book's worth or writing, so to keep it readable, we'll begin this particular tale of music artistry after Terry moved to Spain in 2002.
In the summer of 2002 Terry Roberts joined the Catfish Blues Band, fronted by actor and singer Eddie Webber (of Oh Marbella! fame), guitarist Paul Newman and drummer Stuart Belcher. This band gigged in some very nice places including the chic Marbella beach resort of "Silks on the Beach", where they played at the end of filming party for the Oh Marbella! team.
At the end of 2002, the band split up, so Terry and Paul joined the Mama Paula Blues Band which was to prove to be a very interesting move. The band consisted of Mama Paula, the legendary blues/rock guitarist (at least here in Spain), Terry on bass and vocals, Paul on guitar, harmnica and vocals, "Chicago" Jim Greene on electro-acoustic guitar and vocals and Miguel Morales (the only Spaniard in the band) on drums. In a roller coaster ride that lasted nearly three years and saw this band change as first Paul, then Jim left to pursue other interests, they gigged prolifically, often working four or five nights a week in peak periods, which for the Costa del Sol is pretty amazing considering the glaring lack of decent live music venues.
The Mama Paula Blues Band played every Monday night at Biddy Mulligans, a large and popular bar in La Cala de Mijas for over two of those years always to a large and appreciative crowd. Other regular venues included every Friday night in Joe Bar (a popular bikers bar in La Cala), alternate Thursdays in The Cotton Club, a twice monthly Saturday in Sal's Paradise and once a month at The Eagle Bar in Fuengirola. Other venues that they played repeat bookings at were The Sports Bar in Los Boliches, Biker Town in Estepona, Mario's Nightspot in Cabopino, several smaller bars in Calahonda, Coín, Monda, Alhaurin el Grande, Alhaurin de la Torre and also Málaga.
Added to these were the bigger gigs that included a regular annual spot at the La Cañuela Blues Festival at Periana at which big names like Arthur Brown and Lena Lovich headlined, as well as the massive Joe Bar annual Bikers Event that attracted over a thousand bikers each year, the last of which and the biggest they were joined on stage by Peter Donnegan.
The also played at each of the after gig parties for both Van Morrison and Deborah Harry at "Silks on the Beach" in Marbella, after which they took a regular Saturday afternoon gig there through the summer of 2004.
As an aside and to keep busy during the day, Terry also found himself teaching guitar and bass guitar at a local English run private music school in Fuengirola, called The Music Factory.
After Mama Paula split the band by embarking on a small tour of Ireland which both Terry and Miguel were against, Terry joined forces with Steve Silva, a very talented local bass guitarist and they played as an acoustic duo with Terry on electro acoustic guitar and vocals and Steve on electro acoustic bass and backing vocals, twice a week in a small bar called El Vagabundo, in Los Boliches. During this time, Terry and Steve also formed the three piece rock band "Dutch Courage" (the name of a band Terry was a member of in the late 1970s) with John Lloyd on drums and Terry on lead guitar and vocals. They gigged in a few bars along the coast but were fairly short lived with Steve having to leave to return to the UK.
During the same time, Terry went back to the bass guitar and joined a Madness tribute band, the seven piece "One Step Beyond" and played several gigs along the coast, most noteably in Sal's Paradise in Fuengirola, Aguamania in Coín and The Monte Carlo in Benalmadena. This was also fairly short lived as keeping seven musicians together is an almost impossible task!
In early 2006 he joined one of the coast's most proficient guitarists, Marcelo Saenz to play bass for their Rolling Stone tribute band, "Get Stoned". This also had some success with several gigs in a variety of locations up and down the coast until it came to an end at the end of 2006.
Terry dropped out of the music scene altogether following this and did not reappear until 2008 when he returned to Biddy Mulligans playing bass with the Music Factory band, "So Far So Good". At the same time, he also got the call from drummer Tony Bryant asking if he'd be interested in forming a small blues band... and along with Simon Barraclough, the "Tin Shack Blues" band was born!
Tin Shack Blues