A Walk on the Wild Side

Paris has the Eiffel Tower, New York has the Empire State, London has the Houses of Parliament and Belfast, well Belfast has ...Terri Hooley. A one eyed Belfast boy who personifies the character of his home city in spades. His story charts the growth of rock 'n' roll. Terri was there at the start of the Blues boom in Belfast at the start of the 60s when Van Morrison and Them started out at the Maritime Hotel. He traveled to London, met and argued with John Lennon and Bob Dylan amongst others spending days with Bob Marley and Nick Drake. During the dark days of the troubles Terri stayed in the city he loved and launched Good Vibrations Records, 'the hippies revenge' as he called it, a label that brought people together and showed that there was more to Belfast and it's people than hate and violence. It's most famous release was Teenage Kicks by the Undertones, the late John Peel's favourite record of all time. There's a film and book due of his life and last year, he was commended by President Clinton. As he himself says, "If you can't have a good time in Belfast, you can't have a good time anywhere." Spend an hour walking with Terri and you'll learn more about Belfast than a hundred bus tours could ever manage and if it's too wet to walk, we'll have our walking tour inside.