By Theresa Goodwin
The death of the former director of the now defunct Vision Band, Eric Peters, has stunned remaining band mates who are still mourning the loss of lead singer Tyrone “Edimelo” Thomas who died suddenly in April.
Father-of-two Peters, one of the three founding members of the group which was later renamed Vision 2000, was found dead at his Browne’s Avenue home on Wednesday. A postmortem will be carried out to determine the cause. He is said to have been in his early 60s.
Peters, along with Thomas and Dalmar “Boogie” George, were the original founders of the act after they broke away from the popular Laviscount Band.
Thomas was lead vocalist, while Peters was musical director and arranger, and George was drummer, machine operator and back-up vocalist. They were later joined by guitarist Keithley Meade and keyboardist Gavin Christopher.
Meade, who is also the former director of the Antigua and Barbuda Meteorological Services, described Peters as having a very kind heart.
He said while this was one of his strengths, it was occasionally a weakness because some would take advantage.
“Eric is a person that would take the last shirt off of his back and give it to you. He was that type of person. When Edimelo died the other day, Eric was the first person I called to talk to and Edimelo died around the same time when a former colleague of mine at the Met Office was being buried,” Meade explained.
“I really feel this one more because Eric had no prior medical problems outside of the ordinary. His home was like the band house where all our practice took place and it is quite sad that’s where he died,” Meade added.
Meanwhile, George told Observer he was finding odd jobs to do around his Herbert’s home to keep himself occupied as he tries to cope with the double tragedy.
“When Edimelo died I cried for days; I could not do anything. Now Eric, I am just in the yard trying to find something to do. I can’t sleep,” he said.
He described Peters as a very humble soul who had a passion for music and would spend hours with his colleagues, from morning until night, to ensure they got the music right.
“He used to work in the US when he migrated from Antigua; that was when Gavin took over. He never got upset easily unless it was because something is not going right with the music; he would encourage us to continue trying harder,” he continued.
George recalled the Vision Band’s heydays and its Carnival Road March success.
Even after the group was disbanded, its members remained very close. George said Peters was still very much involved in music prior to his death and was a member of the band Flash Drive.
George himself is an active member of the Cutting Edge Band and has worked with many other bands and artistes around the world.
: Vision Band members during Carnival (from left) Keithley Meade, Eric Peters and Tyrone ‘Edimelo’ Thomas 