Terence Etchells

Terence "Tec" Etchells was born in Bolton and spent most of his childhood living on the Breightmet housing estate ( I mention this because, so did Danny Jones from McFly  ). After a few piano lessons Terence decided that reading music was too much like hard work and decided to take up guitar, whilst still teaching himself to play the piano by ear. In 1980 he went to York University to study mathematics and found himself playing guitar in his first band, The Bite, that wrote and performed their own material. The band played many gigs in York and supported the Q-Tips (Paul Young) at one of the colleges. After graduating the band folded and Tec returned to Bolton and started a teaching career in one of Bolton's schools as mathematics teacher. Unfortunately for Terence, the standard of guitar playing in Bolton's established bands was excellent, so he didn't get a look in when positions became available. However, keyboard players were almost non-existent and much in demand. So, in 1984 he ventured into Harker and Howarth's music shop in Bolton and traded in his beloved Gibson SG and purchased a polyphonic Korg synthesizer. Within a week, Terence was invited to join an extremely popular Bolton band called Stash (don't ask!) . As the 80s drew to a close he left Stash and joined a band called Legacy that played more keyboard orientated material, playing songs from artists such as Genesis, Pink Floyd, The Eagles, Dire Straits etc. After a 2-year sabbatical to get married and start a family, he joined some of the Legacy crew to form The Lounge Lizards, a band performing rock hits from the 70s to 90s. The addition of a saxophone player allowed the band to perform rock classics not previously possible. As the 2000's came and went, Tec played in many iterations of rock bands, collaborating with musicians from the previous bands.  In 2010, he was contacted out of the blue by the manager of a 9 piece soul band that had lost their keyboard played. This band played theatres and festivals, so after a successful audition he joined the SoulTrain, which was renamed The Northern SoulTrain and had 12 very happy years playing festivals and iconic theatres such as the Blackpool Tower Ballroom along with appearing on BBC radio. Terence met Graham when Graham joined a Pink Floyd tribute band called Iron Bell that Terence had started with a musician from bands he'd played in, in the 90s. Iron Bell folded and Terence helped out the tribute band Pink Floydian (you can take a guess what they played) on the odd gigs their keyboard player couldn't do. Terence stayed connected with Graham and got him a few gigs with Pink Floydian when their drummer was rushed into hospital with a serious illness.  Tec went back to the beginning this year when he joined an originals band called The Cherished Times, a band that already have a few albums under their belts. The drummer left so, Tec recommended Graham and they were thrilled with him and they recorded their new album Battle which is released this year, 2025