Bermuda: A billionaire's playground awaits...
Feature by Veronica Blake
IT’S not everyday you get a bearhug from a couple of superstar soul legends. I grew up listening to the Jacksons, the Commodores, Smokey Robinson and the OJays and I will always remember the magical Radio London Soul Nights Out in the 80’s.
So, how could I resist the chance of seeing all of those these Motown legends appearing on the same bill at the Bermuda Music Festival?
Lionel Ritchie is just about to go onstage when who should walk into his dressing room but his own childhood hero, Motown legend Smokey Robinson. Lionel is speechless. They embrace each other like long lost friends. Lionel tells him he has always been his biggest fan.
“Man, I grew up listening to your music. You were my insipiration… the reason I became a musican. But I was too shy to be the singer in the Commodores”, says the man who has sold over 100 million albums and won countless awards, including an Oscar and a Golden Globe. “Lead singer? Are you kidding me? I was terrified! Clyde was the lead singer. I only sang the songs that I wrote, period.”
Smokey then tells him he hears he is very popular in the Arab world. “Why, I don’t have the slightest idea,” says Ritchie. “They were playing All Night Long on the streets the night US tanks rolled into the country in 2003.
“I’ve performed in Morocco, Dubai, Qatar and Libya. There’s obviously something up there. I thinks it’s because of the simple message in my music… Love.”
Love was the theme of this year’s Bermuda Music Festival which featured some of the world’s leading Soul bands, including the legendary O Jay’s, Earth Wind & Fire, Smokey Robinson and Natasha Bedingfield.
The O Jay’s opened the show with the their classic hit Love Train and within minutes the audience were on their feet dancing and singing along.
Backstage, Smokey congratulated Lionel on the good news he is about to become a grandpa.
“Grandpa, man, that’s wild. I don’t know if I’m ready to be called grandpa,” he replies, looking as youthful today as he did 40 years ago when he formed The Commodores at Tuskagee Institute Alabama.
There’s not a line in his face. And here he is on the island which Princess Louise called the ‘Land of the Eternal Spring’. The daughter of Queen Victoria loved the island when she visited in 1883 and it became her winter retreat.
Ritchie bounces around the stage like a teenager, dancing to the delight of the audience who are all on their feet by now singing along and dancing in the aisles.
He flew home to LA after the show, missing out on the opportunity to explore this beautiful island, which lies just a 7 hour flight from London and 90 minutes from New York.
It stretches for 21 miles along crystal blue waters, surrounded by a 200-square-mile coral reef plateau. When you fly in it’s like a scene from Trumpton – the houses are painted bright white or Battenberg-cake pastels.
It has a distinctly British feel with well-tended, manicured lawns and golf courses. The sea is a sparkling turquise and the sand is pink.
There’s a sense of peace, tranquility and of law and order here which no doubt appeals to it’s famous residents such as Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones who live here. It’s easy to see Bermuda’s appeal.
It has an old world charm, you could walk everywhere, hire cars are banned and it’s crime free making it the perfect place to raise children.
Douglas grew up in Bermuda. His mother owns a hotel here. Michael and Catherine are involved in the local community and help out each year with the Christmas play at their children’s school. They love Bermuda because no one bothers them here. Everyone knows each other.
There’s a range of activity options for the visitor, including wreck dives, horseback riding and, of course, the smooth pink beaches to relax on till dusk. Accommodation ranges from luxury resorts to intimate cottages.
Bermuda has a semi-tropical climate and only has two seasons, spring and summer, or ‘Golf and Spa’ and ‘Beach and Sizzle’ as the Bermudians prefer to name them.
Christmas is the height of the ‘Golf and Spa’ season, when temperatures reach an average of 65 degrees Fahrenheit. The pink sand beaches are unique. It a golf lover’s paradise and all of the courses have beautiful views out to sea. Wreck diving, or horseback riding, are popular activities.Long before the tourists arrived Bermuda’s pink sand beaches have been trodden by Billionaires like Microsoft’s co-founder Paul Allen, New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg, Ross Perot and former Italian Premier Billionaire Berlusconi ,who own palatial homes here. They like the British culture of the island which respects their privacy. They are also attracted by it’s offshore advantages.
On the day I arrived Microsoft co-founder Billionaire Paul Allen sailed in from Barbados on one the world’s most luxurious super yachts, Octopus, and docked at Penno’s Wharf, Hamilton.
Octopus is the fifth largest super yacht in the world and is the second largest yacht not owned by a head of state. I saw it docked n Hamilton, so large it could have been an ocean liner.
The 414 ft yacht with two helicopters on the top deck, a pool and seven boats, is so large it should be named a cruise liner, and it cost Mr Allen more than $200 million – and another $20m a year to maintain!
It has a crew of 60, including several former US Navy Seals, complete with a 10-man submarine and a remote controlled vehicle for studying the ocean floor.
The submarine can sleep eight people for up to two weeks underwater.
Mr Allen is worth $20 billion and is the fifth richest man in America. He owns two other monster yachts called Tatoosh and Meduse. The Mercer Island, Washington resident co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1975.
There’s something very Bond-like about Bermuda. Perhaps it’s to do with the super yachts like Octopus docked in Hamilton Harbour with it’s private crew of former Navy Seals, or the fact there are more Billionaires resident per square foot than any other place on the planet. You almost expect to see Daniel Craig paraglide from a private jet onto the pink sands at any moment.
Money on the move is shuffled between central, commercial and investment banks, vast companies, Russian oligarchs, Middle Eastern movers and sheikhers, Texas oilmen, Italian counts and secretive billionaires, you’ll find them all in Bermuda.
Billionaire Michael Bloomberg likes to keep things private. Mayor Mike likes to slip away to his homes in London, Vail, Colorado and upstate New York, as well as to his two-story 6,000-square-foot “cottage” in the elite enclave of Tucker’s Town, Bermuda.
His home is valued at $10 million and his neighbours include Berlusconi. Also located in Tucker’s Town is the Pink Beach Club & Cottages, which consists of 25 cottages spread out along two pink coral sand beaches.
Guests can practically snorkel off their doorsteps and two golf courses.
On Sunday morning, my last day, I was delighted to discover that, despite all the offshore billionaires, reinsurance market and the old fashioned English tradition, Bermuda has still managed to retain a sense of it’s own cultural heritage in the form of a beautiful dance called Gombey.
Children gathered in brightly coloured costumes made by their mums who watched proudly as they danced in the sparkling morning sunlight. Bermuda’s cultural roots were being celebrated featuring the best of the island’s folk dance groups.
Stilted moko jumbie dancers had flown in from St. Kitts to join the dancers in this traditional annual festival, aimed at honouring an important Bermudian tradition, whose history is linked with the slaves who arrived from Africa and the Island’s Caribbean connections.
Gombey music runs deep in Bermuda’s roots and through the centuries its rhythms flowed through their lives from the natives of Africa, the Caribbean, North and South America, richly blending with the rhythms of other cultures, giving Bermudians today a cultural link to their heritage and music to be treasured.
“The sound of the Gombey drums hits the soul and gets the feet moving,” said 83-year-old drummer Henry Grother Wilson, who began his Gombay career at 13 and went on on to form the renowned Wilson Gombey troupe. He picked up an award for being a “master gombey music maker par excellence”.
The performances by the various troupes showed that the Gombey tradition is thriving.
A film on the history of the folk dance will be shown at next year’s international film festival. Bermudians are proud to celebrate their cultural heritage in a town which has pubs called The Pickled Onion, a branch of the British Firkin pub chain, or the Tudor themed Henry VII, where locals and ex pats are more likely to get merry on a delicious mix of rum and ginger beer, called Dark’n‘Stormy, than a pint of Carling.
Dress code is smart casual in Bermuda. In Tuckers Town, it’s blazers and chinos for men and silk shorts with cashmere wraps for women.
But you don’t have to be a billionaire to visit Bermuda. Zoom Airlines are offering return flights for just £199, making it accessible to all.
I stayed in the Fairmont Southampton which has stunning views of the Atlantic South shore and the private beach. It has a blend of old world charm, and a modern feel due to the recent $61 million renovation.
There are nine award-winning restaurants, the result of having the best food and beverage manager in the business. There’s also a multi award-winning Spa.
Guests will never be bored as there is s much on offer, from golf to tennis, fishing, or deep sea diving all arranged by the friendly staff at the Fairmont.
Former guests who have stayed included The Queen and Prince Phillip, numerous British Prime Ministers and US Presidents, Bill Cosby and John Belushi.
The welcome at the Fairmont is reflective of the warmth and hospitality you will find all over this little island of just 21 square miles of beaches, quaint roadways and the bluest ocean as far as the eye can see.
British visitors will feel very much at home on the island which inspired Shakespeare to write The Tempest and of which Mark Twain wrote: “You go to Heaven if you want, I’ll stay here in Bermuda.” I have to agree with him…