Maxwell Eustace Tulloch
Premium memorialLovingly known as “Maxie”
2 October 1933 — 8 April 2019 · aged 85
JPS electrician and sound-system pioneer whose speaker boxes shook half of Kingston
Kingston, Jamaica Born in Spanish Town, St. Catherine Resting at Dovecot Memorial Park, Spanish Town, St. CatherineAbout Maxwell
On a Saturday night in 1957, on a vacant lot off Waltham Park Road, four speaker boxes the size of wardrobes began to breathe, and a young electrician named Maxwell Tulloch stood behind them with one hand on the volume and the other holding a cup of white rum he never finished. The crowd that came through the gate that night did not know it yet, but it was attending the first dance of Maxie's Hi-Fi.
Born in Spanish Town in 1933, the son of a cooper and a higgler, Maxwell trained at Kingston Technical High School and joined the Jamaica Public Service Company in 1952, where he worked for forty-three years, climbing poles by day and building amplifiers by night. He wound his own coils, built his own speaker cabinets from mahogany and could hear a loose connection from across a yard. His sound, said the dancers, was clean enough to see.
Maxie's Hi-Fi played lawns, weddings, school fundraisers and, for sixty years, the crossroads at Rollington Town every Easter Monday. He hunted for the latest records on Orange Street and at the Studio One shop on Brentford Road, and won more clashes than he lost, always with the same quiet courtesy: he never insulted a rival, only turned up the bass. Young selectors and singers learned their trade under his canvas, and several became household names. He never asked for credit.
He married Gloria Hall in 1958 and raised three children on the proceeds of electricity and music. His daughter Pauline became a professor in Canada and dedicated her first book “to the man with the volume knob.” He loved cricket, ackee and saltfish and quiet Sundays; he went to church every week and said the Lord was a great fan of a good sound.
Maxwell died on 8 April 2019, aged eighty-five, at home in Kingston, with his turntable still warm. He is survived by Gloria, his wife of sixty-one years; his children Pauline, Delroy and Hortense; nine grandchildren; and a sound system that his son Delroy will keep playing every Easter Monday, as it has played since 1957.
“Clean sound, loud love, and nobody goes home mad.”
- Faith
- Christian
- Place of birth
- Spanish Town, St. Catherine
- Resting place
- Dovecot Memorial Park, Spanish Town, St. Catherine
- Passed away
- 8 April 2019, Kingston
Thanksgiving Service
Monday, 22 April 2019 at 08:00 UTC
Add to calendarLife journey
High School Diploma, Electrical Trade
Kingston Technical High School1946 – 1950 · Kingston
Built his first radio at fourteen and his first amplifier at sixteen.
Electrician
Jamaica Public Service Company1952 – 1995 · Kingston
Forty-three years keeping Kingston's lights on.
Founder and Operator, Maxie's Hi-Fi
Maxie's Hi-Fi Sound System1957 – 2018 · Kingston
Sixty-one years of dances, weddings and Easter Monday sessions.
Married Gloria Hall
1958 · Kingston
Sixty-one years of marriage and three children.
Host, Rollington Town Easter Monday Dance
Rollington Town community1960 – 2018 · Kingston
Brought the neighborhood together every spring for almost sixty years.
Community Recognition Award
Rollington Town Citizens' Association2004 · Kingston
For six decades of music and neighborliness.
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Family & connections
Also remembered on Evermore
Maxwell is survived by
- Gloria Tulloch· Spouse
- Delroy Tulloch· Son
- Pauline Brathwaite· Daughter
- Hortense Blake· Daughter
- 9 grandchildren· Grandchildren
Tributes & memories
6 people have shared a memory of Maxwell.
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Sign in to write a tribute- PR
Pastor, family church
Brother Maxie wired our church for free in 1976 and installed the speakers himself. He sat at the back every Sunday and listened to our choir the way he listened to a record: with his whole attention. He said every sound has a story. Today we tell his.
- WB
Sound-system operator, Birmingham, England
I built my first speaker box in 1979 after hearing Maxie's Hi-Fi at a Jamaican dance in Handsworth. I wrote to him for advice and he mailed back a hand-drawn diagram with “Be patient” written across the top. I still have it. Every dance I play, I think of him.
- IB
Neighbor in Rollington Town for fifty years
Every Easter Monday I sat on my verandah and listened to Maxie's Hi-Fi from three streets away. The dishes in my cupboard sang. I never complained. At my husband's funeral Maxie played his favorite song for free and said, “That's what neighbors do.”
- DT
Son and current operator
Daddy handed me the volume knob when I was twenty-five and said, “Don't turn it up for yourself.” I have been turning it up for other people ever since. This Easter Monday the system will play as it has since 1957. Daddy, thank you for the sound.
- PB
Daughter
Daddy, you taught me that the best listening happens at the speaker box, just before the music starts. I have been trying to listen that way ever since. I will carry your sound into every classroom, and into every yard where somebody is brave enough to turn it up.
- WC
Selector for Maxie's Hi-Fi, 1968–2005
I carried Mr. Tulloch's records for thirty-seven years and never once dropped one. He told me on my first night, “The record is the church; you are the deacon.” I took it seriously. Walk good, boss. The bass will play on.
