Students at Wendell (Shine) Hayward's music studio on St. John's Road in Pembroke will soon have a little extra something to inspire them in their musical careers.

Social Rehabilitation Minister Dale Butler plans to open Bermuda's first Music Hall of Fame on May 18 in his capacity as owner of Atlantic Publishing House.

"The first person we would like to put in it is Ghandi Burgess," said Mr. Butler. "We are just waiting for his approval."

Mr. Butler said Mr. Burgess was chosen to be the first in the Bermuda Music Hall of Fame for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that he was featured in a book Mr. Butler wrote called 'Jazz of the Rock: The Musical Heritage of Bermuda and its People'. He was also featured in a documentary Mr. Butler made, which screened last May, called 'Five Profiles in Harmony'.

"Another reason for him to be first is that he is a senior musician and up until a couple of years ago he was still playing," said Mr. Butler. "He was a child prodigy playing with big bands in the 1940s. He played at the New York School of Music at that age.

"He also mentored so many young people. He opened his own music school, but it only lasted a year. He started with 40-plus students and ended up with five. He said Bermudians were too busy to practice, and that is the only way you can become good."

In Mr. Butler's documentary, Mr. Burgess spoke of how musicians playing in the hotels in the 1960s and 1970s would arrive on the 6 p.m. flight, the audience would arrive at 8 p.m. and the band would start playing, flawlessly, at 9 p.m.

"That is how good these guys were," said Mr. Butler.

He is hoping that the Bermuda Music Hall of Fame will bring out more information about Bermuda's musical history.

"It hit me in '78 when I did the 'Jazz of the Rock' book," said Mr. Butler. "Once people inherit their parents' estates the first thing they do is throw out all their old pictures.

"I am about to do the second edition of the book and it would be nice to update it with more pictures."

He said the recent production of a series of stamps commemorating local musicians such as Al Harris and Celeste Robinson was a positive step in the right direction.

Mr. Butler said that Mr. Burgess played at the old 40 Thieves Nightclub in the City of Hamilton for a number of years, and at the Southampton Hotel for 11 years and yet there was no sign of him left in his old venues.

"I was gravely concerned on doing the research on his life, that not one of the institutions he played at had any pictures or video of him," said Mr. Butler. "People in the hotels didn't know who he was. I know personnel changes, but he had nothing.

"Dennis Sherlock did a tribute to senior musicians held at Number One Shed in 1992. He is thinking of getting it put on CITV. This type of archival material is sadly missing in Bermuda. There might be other people out there who have clippings but not in the National Archives."

The photos of Mr. Burgess in the Music Hall of Fame will come mainly from his family and from Mr. Butler's own personal collection.

"Four or five years ago I was dining at the Elbow Beach Hotel and there he was playing," said Mr. Butler. "I dashed home and got my camera.

"I didn't have a digital camera then. I had five rolls of film and shot all five rolls on him. Most of what is in my book is what I took five years ago.

"I also videotaped him and those video clippings ended up in the documentary, even though I am an amateur with a shaking hand and all."

Mr. Butler said he had tried in the past to get a Music Hall of Fame opened with little success. Now he thinks the community is ready.

"It is something that I had hoped to do five years ago when Mr. Burgess was in better health," said Mr. Butler. "I commend him for allowing me to talk to him in the documentary."

The Music Hall of Fame is starting small on a large blank wall at Mr. Hayward's music studio. "I used to take lessons from Mr. Hayward until 1998," said Mr. Butler.

"He is a prodigy of Mr. Burgess. The student who won the Ghandi Burgess Music Scholarship attends his school.

"We definitely want this to inspire Bermuda's youth. One of the reasons we don't have much of a love for the country, is when you ask young people who their heroes are they are lost. I developed a Bermudian music curriculum in 1980, but I couldn't get it approved. Children would get to listen to a lot of the older music that you can't find now."

Mr. Butler said he played this type of music to his students when he was headmaster of the old Northlands Primary School.

"The children loved it," said Mr. Butler. "And we used the music to compare the lives of local musicians with more well-known ones overseas."

Mr. Butler's dream is for the Bermuda Hall of Fame to outgrow its current humble space.

"In the interim, hopefully in the next two to three years, we are hoping to purchase the pictures and put them up in a real Hall of Fame. But we have lost enough time. The book has been out of print for 20 years. Local musicians get pushed on the side."

He said in 2003, a report was compiled by environmentalist, musician and community activist Stuart Hayward, called the Bermuda Musicians Report.

It included a number of recommendations, and also theorised on what had caused the death of a once bustling music scene in local hotels.

"It looked at the whole question of racism and what happened with food and beverage," said Mr. Butler. "The hotels were told to cut their food and beverage costs and entertainment came under that.

"There were lot of factors. Then the hotels said Bermudian musicians were too expensive. The hotels started to collapse their entertainment packages. The next thing you know it was difficult to find a local band.

"We lost Clayhouse Inn. When you think of the rota that existed. Bands would play one night at the Southampton Princess and Tuesday at the Hamilton Princess and then they went to Grotto Bay. We have also lost the venues. The report highlights the need to identify venues."

The Bermuda Music Hall of Fame will be open to the public. For more information about the Bermuda Music Hall of Fame contact Mr. Butler at ddbutler@logic.bm or 697-8931.