Still music to his ears as Terry, 96, plays on with orchestra

Terry, who lives in Castle Bromwich in Birmingham, continues to play with the Walsall Senior Citizens Orchestra more than 30 years after first joining.

A keen guitarist and saxophonist, Terry plays the clarinet with the orchestra - despite being blind in one eye and having only five per cent vision in the other.

His close friend and fellow orchestra player Rob Harper, 72, from Birmingham, said of Terry's early life: "He was born in 1920 in Birmingham. He was an apprentice draftsman with Lucas's.

"He was called up for the Second World War in 1939 but when they discovered he was a design draftsman he was sent to Bristol to design gun turrets for the Lancaster bombers.

"When he was about 19 he started to play the guitar and during the war he took an interest in the saxophone. While he was playing this he was still playing the guitar and one of the older pictures he has is when he was playing the guitar as part of a Haiwain group on the BBC."

Terry found the senior citizens orchestra in Walsall after retiring and losing his wife around the same time.

Rob explained: "When he retired and sadly lost his wife around the same time music became his life and he found the Senior Citizens Orchestra. He has been with us about 34 years now playing the clarinet.

"He played all over the Midlands and was well renowned and it was after he retired a musical acquaintance recommended he came and played with the orchestra to carry on his love for music. He played for many years with a dance group at Walsall Town Hall.

"He has seen the orchestra grow and grow into being quite a strong symphony orchestra of about 45 people."

Terry, who has two sons, both of whom are engineers, loves dogs and still walks his bull mastiff every day.

But unfortunately he cannot walk the dog far because of his poor vision, which also means he struggles to sort his massive music collection out - something Rob helps out with.

He said: "Terry has a massive collection of sheet music at home and I help to sort that out for him because of his poor sight.

"I hope I am in the orchestra because of my playing ability and not because I help Terry out with his music and drive him to and from practice, rehearsals and concerts!"

Asked about his close friend, Rob said: "It is so sad that he has lost his site but we have never heard him about it. He never complains he just gets on with it and plays his music."

Speaking about the orchestra, Rob, who plays the trombone, said: "I think the orchestra has been going about 36 to 37 years, I have been a part of it for about 10.

"Terry leads the dance bit which does three tracks before the interval. The crowd always really enjoy it."

As well as his involvement with the orchestra, Terry also runs a dance band in Castle Bromwich every Tuesday.

The Walsall Senior Citizens Orchestra was playing a concert at Forest Arts Centre in Walsall today at 2pm.

"We had about 100 people in attendance from across locations in and around Walsall at our last concert," Rob said, "so we are hoping today's will be well attended."

"We try to make it as an enjoyable afternoon as possible for everyone."

Entrance costs £1 with programmes priced at 10p.