Celebrity chef Alastair McLeod pays beautiful tribute to mother Faye McLeod, known as Candy Devine
Alastair McLeod has led tributes for his “warm, interested and interesting” mother Faye who became a radio queen and singer under the professional name of Candy Devine.
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Faye McLeod, the daughter of a Queensland sugar cane farmer who became the queen of radio in Northern Ireland, has died.
Mrs McLeod – whose professional name was Candy Devine – is the mother of celebrity chef Alastair McLeod. She passed away in Brisbane on October 31, aged 85.
“Mummy was warm, interested and interesting,” Mr McLeod said.
“She always shared a keen interest in our lives and loved giving me feedback when she saw me on the TV.
“Just last week, while doing a crossword with my seven year old and I (sic), she corrected me on my grammar. I promise I will learn the rule, Mummy.”
Mrs McLeod, who grew up in Cairns and boarded at Lourdes Hill College in Brisbane, was awarded an MBE for services to broadcasting in her adopted home of Northern Ireland in 2014.
She was also inducted into the Hall of Fame for her “exceptional contribution to radio in Ireland” through her long association – spanning more than 35 years from 1976 - with Northern Ireland’s largest commercial radio station, Downtown.
As Candy Devine, she covered everything from talkback to dating shows to interviews and music shows.
A brilliant singer in her own right, she married the late Donald McLeod, an entertainment promoter who managed Van Morrison and brought the Beatles to Northern Ireland, in the 1960s.
They met when the charismatic Mr McLeod booked her to sing at Belfast’s Talk of the Town.
“I was working in theatre and cabaret around the world, based in England, and I’d just started to pack on a bit of weight because I’d gone from extreme heat to extreme cold and I was eating thick soups and all that nonsense,” Mrs McLeod told The Courier-Mail’s Qweekend in 2012.
“I heard him say to his partner, ‘Hasn’t that girl got a beautiful face? Isn’t it a pity she’s let her body go to seed’ and I thought, you’ll eat your words. A year later I went back to Northern Ireland, a trim eight stone two [52kg], and we got married.”
Mrs McLeod was born Faye Guivarra in Cairns in 1939 to a Danish-Sri Lankan mother and a father of Torres Strait Islander, Spanish, Filipino, West Indian and Scottish descent.
She was surrounded by music and singing all her childhood.
After graduating from Lourdes Hill, she scored a place at the Queensland Conservatorium, studying piano and cello.
It was her sister who suggested the young Faye should sing and after moving to Sydney – where she became one of the first indigenous artists to perform at the Opera House – her talent in jazz and cabaret landed her a contract overseas.
Settling first in Manchester in the UK, her meeting with Mr McLeod would change the course of her life, and for four decades she called Belfast home.
Reflecting on her radio reporting career, she told Qweekend that being an Aussie in Northern Ireland “served me well”.
“If they needed to send someone out to a dodgy area or if there was a political situation going on, you know, it was, ‘Well, at least she’s not an Ulster Catholic, she’s only a poor silly Australian; what would she know?’”
But Queensland remained firmly in her heart.
In fact, it was colourful stories of her life here that sparked the interest of a young Alastair, who is now one of Australia’s most recognised chefs.
Mrs McLeod moved back to Queensland in 2012 after the death of her husband, and until the last few years of her life lived with Alastair, his wife Ash and their daughter Clancy in Samford.
“I have no doubt my Daddy will have gigs booked for her by the end of the week,” Mr McLeod said.
“There will be laughter and music and singing. She would love that.”
Mrs McLeod is also survived by children Gordon, Ian and Fiona and grandchildren Bailie, Sasha, Mark and Gordon.
Originally published as Celebrity chef Alastair McLeod pays beautiful tribute to mother Faye McLeod, known as Candy Devine
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