"Terry George" is a self-made businessman, with an ever-growing sphere of influence.

He owns several companies but when not working he enjoys spending his spare time taking photographs of celebrities and crazy clubbers and, as you might expect with a successful businessman, travelling the world.

Terry grew up on the infamous and tough Wyther Park estate in Leeds but even as a schoolboy his ambitious nature was clearly visible. At the age of 12 Terry, never the shrinking violet started
interviewing famous people as a hobby. Many of his interviews were not only personal scoops for the star-struck lad but chats thought to be important enough to be broadcast by local radio stations. Amongst those caught on tape by Terry were a selection of 'superstars' as diverse as Michael Jackson, with whom he became friends (read separate account on this web-site), Omar Sharif, Paul McCartney, Boy George, Les Dawson, Dick Emery and over three hundred other big names from show biz.

At the age of 17, Terry got his first professional job as a DJ at the Gemini Bar Leeds, then went on to play regular slots at other venues in the city; Scrumpies, Top Cats, and The Staging Post. As expected the bright lights beckoned – well at least an offer he couldn't refuse arrived and before long he had packed his espadrilles, suntan lotion and brightly coloured shorts to work as an entertainer and DJ in Spain for two seasons - 1985 and 1986.

After returning to the UK, Terry was offered a full time job as resident DJ with Rank Leisure at Leeds new £3million nightclub Ritzy. Later he was given his own once-a-month gay night called Confettis, which turned out to be a huge success and ran for eight years with big names; Take That, M People, D:Ream, Boy George and many others making special appearances.

This was the beginning of Terry's embryonic empire, and soon everything began to fall into place. To help promote Confettis ‘All Points North', a little amateur magazine was launched, which proved very popular and soon drew the attention of other managers and owners of clubs and gay venues throughout the North of England. Terry, never one to miss an opportunity, realised that the area's club and gay scene had been sadly neglected, drafted in an editor and designer, increased the number of pages and was soon carrying advertisements and editorials for these other venues.. After only a few months demand had grown and APN rapidly gained a presence that was copied and envied by the 'Londoncentric' Southern gay press. By 1995 the magazine had grown in size and influence and became the subject of a 'buy out' from the Cronos Group who published Boyz and Pink Paper. At the time Terry said that he'd agreed the sale so he could spend more time on another of his blossoming projects - the Mr Gay UK competition.

Back in 1993 Terry and his partner Michael Rothwell had bought the title of Mr Gay UK from Brian Derbyshire who had been running the competition at various clubs across England. It was the two new owners' idea to open it up to even more people and produce a travelling event where anyone could enter a heat at their local club and, if they won, had a chance of becoming Mr Gay UK himself. Again, those clever promotional ideas of Terry's soon saw the competition take on a life of its own and was regularly featured right across the full spectrum of British and foreign media. Grand Finals were held all over the country with the first at Flamingos in Blackpool and featured a host of celebrity judges. This pattern continues with and finals being hosted by the likes of Lily Savage, Jason Donovan, Mark Little, the late Paula Yates, Tim Vincent, Rhona Cameron, Denise van Outen and Big Brother winners Brian Downing and Nadia to name a few. Judges have included the likes of Sir Ian McKellen, Jean Paul Gaultier, Richard Wilson, Richard O'Brien, Tom Watkins, Justin Fashanu, Sue Pollard, Rusty Lee, John Savident and a host of other popular soap stars.
Interest from television companies seemed inevitable and in 1998 an hour long recording of the Grand Final was broadcast on Channel 5 hosted by Graham Norton and Sonia. Again in 1999 the call came for another show and this time it was co-hosted by singing Diva, Jane McDonald but doing the back-stage interviews was none other than Terry himself. In 2001 the show became the central event of Manchester's Gay Fest celebrations and instead of the usual panel of celebrities deciding on the eventual winner, Terry opened up the phone lines for the public to make the final judgement. Satellite channel Living TV went one better in 2004 and presented a 90 minute special live show with both celebrity judges and the public (via phone calls and texts) helping to decide the winner.
Now, with demands for heats from gay venues in nearly every British city and town, who knows where this national fun event on the gay calendar will end up?

The profile of the event increases year on year as does the profile of the winner. When Jarrod Batchelor, Mr Gay UK 2003, was asked to take part in a prestigious celebrity reality television programme for Channel 4 called The Games it proved once and for all that being the reigning Mr Gay UK was more than just holding a token title. The Games was about ten celebrities: BBC Ground Force beauty Charlie Dimmock, Romeo from the So Solid Crew, Shane from Boyzone, models Jody March and Linda Lucadi, DJ. Pat Sharp, TV presenter Katy Hall, Lady Isabella Hervey and Captain Charles Ingham (cough, cough) the disgraced Who Wants to be a Millionaire cheat and Mr Gay UK all battling it out to find who was the best in a series of athletic competitions. Mr Gay UK won the event and once again put gay men and gay issues, as Terry has promoted from the very beginning, firmly at the front of public discussion.

In between all this, Terry had seen the coverage of Northern gay life once again being ignored by the mainstream gay press based in London and decided to launch another magazine. So, three years after he had sold APN he was back with North of Watford (NOW) a colourful, vibrant look at life outside the M25 confines. To fill space in the new magazine, he ran some house ads for a few mail order products, which grew into a thriving mail-order business standing on its own, Gay UK Shop. Meanwhile, NOW magazine also grew and changed its name to NOW UK because people in the South also liked the different look and format from other free gay papers and magazines. In just a few short months it had become the country's largest circulating free gay monthly but stormy waters lay ahead.

IPC also had NOW as one of its titles and although aimed at completely different readership it was thought, by them, to be too confusing to have two titles the same. After an expensive legal argument (and with the costs rising) Terry decided to ditch the title and re-launched NOWUK with a new name and a new look. BENT, a free glossy and expensive looking, news motivated, scene inspired, gossipy and celebrity featured magazine appeared in gay venues up and down the country. Alternatively you might be able to pick up a copy in WH Smiths but there you'll have to pay for it.

Needless to say Terry's career as a DJ took a bit of a back seat during this period but because of the growing popularity of his new once-a-month club night Red Raw, at Club Nato in Leeds his ambitions once again fell elsewhere. Although he is always keen on encouraging new talent and ideas he is also adept at noticing changes in trends and what the public wants. Taking that on board and noticing a gap in the market, Terry opened his own venue, Bar Fibre, which has very quickly become an institution and helped lead the bar culture in his home city of Leeds into the new millennium. With almost instant success, and with an equally strong and ambitious partner as Michael Rothwell, the two have delved into further exciting developments. Taking on board that old saying of "Put your money into bricks and mortar" they have invested in property all over the city. Also on the heels of all this success Club Mission opened in 2004 as did Arch 54 a classy drinking establishment aimed at a trendy and hip crowd. The success of ‘Federation' another once-a-month spectacle in Leeds, has seen this particular night, under the guidance of Shaun Wilson, Terry and Michael, grow in size and popularity to be a club night event that has reached as far as Gran Canaria.

Running alongside all his other interests Terry was also employed as a consultant by LSH Communications, who specialise in interactive premium-rate telephone services, where he helped build the company to the 'Number One' position in the market. Together with partner Michael Rothwell they then started a new premium-rate telephone company and, taking full advantage of the rapid growth in telecommunication development, are now the owners of one of the top telephone and text interactive services in the UK. With the deregulation of the BT monopoly on directory enquiries Terry seized the opportunity to get involved with setting up a service that was aimed at a gay customer base looking for that illusive gay service number. Being told that these new services would all begin with 118 and then three digits he thought 118GAY (429) would be an easy number to remember. Now in partnership with Kingston Communications this particular facility has proved, as with his other projects, to be a winner. Shortly after all the other 118 services went into service the leading watchdog OFCOM performed an audit and produced a heart warming report.
118GAY ranked No1 with 97% accuracy and the efficiency of response kept down the cost"

Although his youthful ambition of fronting Blue Peter is well behind him, Terry's aspirations have moved in many and varied directions. As a result of his television presentation skills, he has been seen introducing and interviewing personalities on various satellite programmes although, perhaps most recently, Terry has been seen on television as the one being interviewed in conjunction with the court case in USA regarding Superstar, Michael Jackson. (Read the feature ‘Michael Jackson and me' on this website.)

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