November 10, 1937- March 6, 2013
Eddy DeMello was not a musician, but he made a significant contribution to Bermuda’s music scene.
He combined his passion for music and his business acumen to become a record store owner, record producer and one of Bermuda’s most successful concert promoters.
The Music Box, where he started out as a salesman and which he purchased in the 1970s, has been a treasure trove for music lovers of all genres, from classical to country.
Where other concert promoters have come and gone, he staged high-calibre shows for more than 40 years, an impressive track record for a local impresario. Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles are among the big-name acts he has brought in.
Since the 1960s, he produced numerous recordings by Bermudian musicians on his EDMAR and Duane labels. Making records were more a case of labour of love than money-making pursuit, but in doing so, he helped preserve the music of countless entertainers, among them Michael Clarke, Stan Seymour, Gene and Pinky Steede, and the Bermuda Strollers for posterity.
In addition, DeMello was for many years the main spokesman for Bermuda’s Portuguese community. He served as an interpreter in the courts, at the police station and government offices, hosted a Portuguese-language radio show for 30 years and was president of Vasco da Gama Club for 17 years, from 1967 to 1984. He was also a member of the Portuguese Cultural Centre Committee and served on the Committee for Long-Term Residents.
Born Manuel Edward DeMello in SanMiguel, Azores, and known as Eddy DeMello, he arrived in Bermuda in September 1949, two months before his 12th birthday with his parents Manuel and Maria DeMello and younger sister and brother Mary (now Correira) and William. A fourth child, Joseph, was born in Bermuda.
The family lived in Smith’s Parish and his father worked on a farm. DeMello attended Dellwood School, but his father took him out after just two years to help him on the farm.
DeMello’s days were spent either cultivating crops or selling them. Evenings found him working with his mother at Deepdene Manor Hotel in Smith’s as a “roll boy”, turning down guest beds. The walk home after work was a hard slog—mother and son would each carry two buckets filled with leavings from the kitchen, which they fed to their pigs.
His father later purchased the farm, but he eventually turned his back on farming and became a bus driver. Eddy found work as a waiter at Angel’s Grotto. It was at that small hotel, located on the water’s edge in Smith’s Parish just east of Devil’s Hole, where DeMello was first exposed to the sounds of music
Angel’s Grotto was popular with tourists, who packed the place on Bermuda Nights to enjoy performances by calypsonian Kingsley Swan, entertainer Winky Tatem and others and DeMello was captivated.
He eventually moved on to other jobs, but music would become the driving force in his life. His father bought him a guitar, and he took lessons from Hughie Smith. But DeMello put his guitar aside when he came to the realisation that he would never be as good as his idols Les Paul and Duane Eddy.
The late 1950s found him working as a short order cook. He often spent his lunch hours at the Music Box listening to records. One day the owner, cellist Max Lambert, offered him a job. That was the start of his connection with Music Box.
The store, which has changed location several times since its early beginnings on Reid Street, Hamilton, retained a loyal following even in the digital era. He purchased the business in 1974, and later on, the building that housed the store, at its last location further along Reid Street, across the road from his beloved Vasco da Gama Club.
DeMello began bringing in international acts in the 1960s when he presented a concert by Portuguese fada singer Amália Rodrigues. The list of headliners he has brought in since include gospel singer Mahalia Jackson and Andraé Crouch, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, jazz pianist Jimmy Smith and calypsonian Mighty Sparrow. He also promoted boxing events.
A chance meeting in Miami with veteran Jamaican soca entertainer Byron Lee proved a winner for both men. Lee decided to take a chance on Bermuda, according to DeMello, and over a span of 15 years until 2007, Bryon Lee and the Dragonaires performed to enthusiastic crowds at Tiger Bay, St. George’s every August.
Mr Lee, who died in 2008, described Tiger Bay as a “pearl of a venue” with a good security and sound system and no drugs or violence—a tribute to DeMello’s expertise at staging such events.
Other more recent acts include the Portuguese singer Emanuel, who performed here in 2006, followed by the Brazilian singing duo Lucas and Matheus in 2007 and Barbadian calypsonians the Merrymen in 2008.
DeMello ventured into record production in 1960, the year he was inspired to make a Portuguese-language recording of Never on Sunday, a song from the hit movie of the same name that was released that year. Maria Cabral was the singer, and the song was recorded at ZBM studio. He has cut numerous records in the years since. He’s recorded school choirs, gospel groups and has even made a tree frog recording because tourists kept asking for it.
Recognition of his contribution to the Portuguese community came in 1979 when he was awarded Commander of the Order of Prince Henry.
In 1988, he was also awarded the Queen’s Certificate and Badge of Honour and received a second award for his service in 2006 for his service as a member of the Bermuda Independence Commission. In 2004, Government’s Department of Community and Cultural Affairs honoured him when he was selected as one of the Grand Marshalls in the Bermuda Day parade.
DeMello, who was married to Elsie Martin, lived in Smith’s Parish, in a home where his passion for his favourite instrument was evident by the guitar-shaped swimming pool. His son, Duane, who he had with first wife, Maria Medeiros DeMello Gray, is a talented guitarist who attended Boston’s Berklee School of Music. Married with one daughter, Duane DeMello lives in the United States.
Interviewed in 2010, DeMello said the high cost of mounting shows made it difficult for a promoter to make money. And although his tastes in music were broad, he drew the line at rap.
“I basically like music across the board,” he said, “but don’t give me this rap stuff.”
Eddy DeMello died on March 6, 2013, at the age of 75 and tributes poured in.
Cabinet Minister Trevor Moniz, announcing news of his death in Parliament, said: “His reach was amazing for someone who arrived here at a very young age—he spent only a very few years in Dellwood School before he went into the workforce and he was one of those people in the community who grew up milking the cows in the morning before going to school.
“So, he was a fine example to everyone in the community, very well-liked and respected, and a friend and mentor to myself.”
Opposition MP and radio station owner Glenn Blakeney said: “We worked together at the Bermuda Broadcasting Company, and of course he was one of the most successful entertainment entrepreneurs in the country.
“We had a very good relationship and whenever I did a record promotion, Eddy’s Music Box was the single store that sold the most copies. Unbelievable.
“He was a very strong individual spiritually as well as physically and a fierce advocate for the Portuguese community.”
