Taken from the NME 15/1/2000. Feature on Terris.
Newport, December 22, 1999. Richard Parfitt is so well regarded in the town's second hippest indie nite-spot, Le Pub, that the bar staff don't allow him to buy his own drinks. He's a big hitter in Newport's premier indie nite-spot, TJ's, too, but that's because he's an ex-member of Newport's most successful recent musical export, he's already curried the odd local favour.
Three months ago, a barmaid at Le Pub told Parfitt about this brilliant group who'd been playing regularly to no one at the venue.
"You've got to see them," she told him. "They're not like any of the other groups who ever play here." "Yeah, right," sighed Richard. He'd heard that a few times before. But he went anyway. "I don't want to sound too pretentious or melodramatic," he says, flu-ridden and hunched over Le Pub's downstairs bar. "But have you ever read this Don DeLillo book called Great Jones Street? It's brilliant. In it there's this character who's like the ultimate rock 'n' roll Messiah, who goes missing and can't be found. Bit like Richey Edwards, I suppose. "Well, I'd just finished reading that when I got a call to come and see this band Terris here at Le Pub. I watched them and, well, I just thought, 'I've found him. I've found the character from the book.' I'd never seen anything like it in my life, and I've seen a lot of groups. I didn't want anything to do with the music biz after the Dolls, but when I'd seen Terris..."
At first the band turned down Parfitt as a manager; they already had one. Then, after another successful show at the bottom of the bill at Le Pub, they relented. Five days later, Parfitt brought Geoff Travis from Rough Trade down to a rehearsal and he signed them on the spot.
"I know I'm the manager," says Parfitt, "and I know that all this is happening so fast, but I'm not really worried. I should be but... you see good groups quite often. Sometimes you'll see something really good. But how often do you see a group and think 'This is something important?' I think they are. And Gavin's something else..."
PLEASE NOTE - Richard no longer manages this band