Terri Hooley
Terri Hooley was the driving force behind the punk scene in Belfast in the seventies discovering bands and signing bands such as The Undertones and The Outcasts.
Good Vibrations is the film about his life, starting the record story Good Vibrations, the bands he discovered and the trouble in Belfast at the time.
We caught up with Terri to talk about the movie, the reservations he had about making a film and what it was like during that time.
- Good Vibrations is about to be released onto DVD so can you tell me a bit about the film?
The film is a story of Good Vibrations in Belfast and how I set up the shop and then went around and discovered punk bands and set up the label. Seventies Belfast was a horrific time in the history of our small city as a lot of my friends were bombed and killed.
A lot of my friends took up sides; they either joined the loyalist paramilitaries or the Republican paramilitaries. I didn’t believe in either side, and I said that I didn’t give a shit about either side.
So, I spent my time trying to get the bands played on national radio in England, which was very difficult at the time. I was also trying to get the bands signed up and let the world know that there was more going on in Belfast than just bombs and bullets.
I don’t know whether we succeeded or not, but I am very proud of my role in what we all call here ‘the punk wars’. A lot of the bands that I was involved with such as the Outcasts and the Undertones are still touring the world.
- The movie is based on your life so how did the film come about? And when were you first approached about the project?
It’s a very true story. It was very frightening to say, and it was very frightening for me to see it the first time; I was crying the whole way through. I think that the film is very honest and true.
The film came about one night after I had worked late in the shop, and I called into the Crown Bar for a pint of Guinness and a brandy.
Glenn Patterson was with two film producers, and he invited me over. They started asking me about my life in Belfast and how I had kept my sanity through the hunger strikes, and I just said ‘what sanity?’
So I was telling them about my life and how I grew up in easy Belfast and how my father was an English Labour man. A couple of days later Glenn Patterson said ‘I can’t get that conversation out of my head; I think that would make a great film’.
So Glenn went away and worked on a bit of a script. Two film companies from Dublin were interested. Glenn got Colin Carberry on board as well. We were nearly going to do it with one of the Dublin companies, but I said ‘no, I would rather not’.
I am so proud of being from Belfast, and I didn‘t want... They had everything, and we were jealous of them; they had nightclubs, radio stations that were playing the local bands.
They were living in heaven, and we were living in hell. I believed that we had to hold on to our identity, and I wanted to wait until the right people from Belfast came along.
So the wait was well worth it. I am glad we didn’t rush it and waited until we got the right people because director Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Barros D’Sa were fabulous.
Originally, Michael Fassbender was going to play me, but when Richard Dormer did the pilot, we just knew that nobody could do it better than Richard. I am very proud of Richard’s performance; in fact, he does me better than I do myself.
- Did you spend some time with Richard talking about your experiences of that time?
We didn’t spend a lot of time together. When we met we actually had a late breakfast and then went to the pub. We were in the pub, and he was asking people about me, and they were like ‘I have never seen Terri as quiet’.
But when a few friends came in and the Guinness and the brandy went down, and he saw me hugging and kissing my friends; he knew what I was all about. That is what he brought to the performance.
I think he had watched a few documentaries about punk and Belfast and observed me in those. He quickly went with the idea that I was the village idiot, and I was easy to portray (laughs).
- Was the film something that you immediately jumped at, or was it something that you did have a lot of reservations about?
I did have a lot of reservations at the beginning. I had to go and talk to my family, especially my daughter, about it; in fact, it was my daughter who told me to turn down the other contracts. But she has a part in the film, and she played the nurse who delivered her - I thought that was great.
My son is thirteen now, and he had a role in the film as well. I couldn’t be left out so I played an old folk accordion in the studio; I didn’t want to be the only Hooley not in the film (laughs).
- You have touched on this already but what did you think when you saw Good Vibrations for the very first time? And how have you found the reaction to the movie so far?
They told me to bring some family and friends to see the movie; you know what my guest's lists are like and so a lot of friends turned up. I turned up with my ex-girlfriend; after my first wife, I lived with my ex for twenty years.
I have been going out with my current girlfriend for seven years; but I still lived with my ex for two and half years while going out with her. The only thing that I am truly good at is I get on extremely well with all of me ex’s.
My ex-wife wasn’t there - I think she was away at the time - so I was with my ex-girlfriend and my current girlfriend.
My ex-girlfriend said how wonderful the movie was and how proud she was of it. And then we all went to the pub and had a party. My friends loved it; they would have been the worst critics.
My friends have been very loyal to me, and if they hadn’t have liked it they would have been the first people to tell me.
I knew that it was going to be good because Gary Lightbody and Jonny Quinn, who are both good friends of mine, told me that it was fantastic, and that I had nothing to worry about.
I wasn’t in any hurry to see the film after two people like that said those things. But when I did see the film, I thought it was brilliant, and I just cried my eyes out.
Because I was focusing on who was playing who that it wasn’t really until the third time that I saw the film that I really got to know the movie. I have seen it fifteen times now and I never get tired of seeing it. I am looking forward to having my own DVD.
I am very proud of the film. It is very difficult when you make a film like that, and the person is still alive. But it hasn’t changed me; I am still as mad as ever. I am still down in Belfast on a Thursday night at Voodoo playing my records. I am still waiting for an audience to turn up (laughs).
- What made you want to open a record shop in the first place?
I use to work for Kodak and one night when I came out of work three gunmen tried to grab me in a car and take me away; a few friends were taken away in cars and never seen again. I put up a bit of a fight. But then two guys who had told me every day that they hated me jumped in and saved my life. I decided after that ‘right, I am going to set up a record shop before they kill me’.
So that was basically the inspiration. I have always been fanatical about records, and I have always wanted to open up a decent record shop in Belfast that would sell more obscure stuff and more the stuff I like. So it was a dream of mine.
There were three of us that set up the building; a whole food shop in the ground floor, the community printing press on the top floor and us. The first thing that we did was have a party; and when we moved out of that building the last thing that we did was have a big party (laughs).
- What do you think that shop meant to the people of Belfast at that time?
It meant that world to people; the original shop still means the world to people. Years ago, before any mention of a film the public demanded... there is a thing in Belfast called the Tree of Stars. Cliff Richard, Elton John, Curly Watts out of Coronations Street; anyone who came to Belfast, they got a tree.
A lot of the public wrote into the Belfast Telegraph and said ‘if there should be a tree anywhere in Belfast, then it should be outside the original Good Vibrations shop for Terri Hooley and what he did for this city’. I was the first place to have the public demand for a tree, and that was a big day.
I invited some ex-paramilitaries along who had done bad things but are completely changed now; they go out and tell young people not to get caught up in sectarian violence.
I said ‘these are ex-terrorists’ and I want everyone in this country to be an ex-terrorists, and they are going out and changing young people‘s opinions. But with everything that you do in Belfast, there is an argument.
But that was a big day. And it was a day where people felt really proud that they had done something against the norm. It was done because they loved the shop as it was a place where they gathered after school or on a Saturday where they met other like-minded people.
Bands were formed in that shop; people met their wives in that shop; it was like a mad youth club but without any games (laughs). Nobody ever thought that we were making history, or that it would be remembered years down the line.
- Teenage Kicks from the Undertones was one of the first songs that you recorded did you realise what a special track it was?
When we got the record, I was the first one to realise; that is why I raced off to London with it. The first record company I gave it to was Rough Trade and I was told that it was the worst record that they had ever heard. I was heartbroken.
I then put it in John Peel’s pigeon hole and went and got trashed that weekend in London. When I got back home, my wife said ’maybe John Peel will play it tonight’ and he stuck it on.
Sire Records phoned me the next day and wanted the license for America, I told him to their arse over here and sign the band up. They came over on the Wednesday, and the band was signed on the Thursday.
Because Radio One DJ’s were playing the record all the people who had turned me down called and said ‘the band aren’t that bad’. I told them to go to hell.
- Finally, what is next for you?
The musical, there has to be a musical (laughs). If I wake up in the morning, find my glass eye and make it through the day, then I am happy enough. I am going to be doing a lot of DJ stuff at festivals. But I am still going around and reading from my book and telling mad stories about Belfast.
And promoting the DVD, that will kick it all off again. I have bookings for DJ work for June of next year; if I am still alive, I tell them (laughs). I would love to get out of Belfast and do some DJing.
Good Vibrations is out on DVD now.