When Nuno Duarte Gil Mendes Bettencourt was born, 20 September 1966, his destiny had been planned: to be a musician and emigrate. The family had a musical tradition, and at home, the little Nuno breathed music, with his nine brothers, father and mother dedicating almost all their time to the art. On the other side, the family required a level of income the Azores could only offer to a small elite. The easier way - and incentive for the New State - to get around that situation was to emigrate, nearly always to the USA.

The then-small town of Praia da Vitoria - today a city - on the island of Terceira, is the land of the leader of Extreme. From when he was born until the family left, on 24 September 1971, Nuno's young life was carefree and happy, in a place known as Poco d'Areia, towering the huge bay of Praia. His brother Luis, who is also a musician (today 36 years old), and who came back to the Azores in the middle of the '80s, doesn't remember Nuno showing personal interest in music during his young life on Terceira. In fact, it was because of Luis that today's popular guitarist picked up the guitar for the first time, and that only happened in 1980. Before then, he was more interested in drumming.

In his young Terceira years, the youngest Bettencourt son was even considered a "hindrance" to the family's musical activities. One afternoon in 1969, brothers Roberto and Luis, and cousin Luis Soares devoted themselves to try making a few tuneful sounds. But that was impossible with Nuno shouting. "He shouted in tune, but it wasn't a good instrument for the band," says Luis Bettencourt ironically. The young musicians found an effective way to solve the problem: they gave him milk liqueur, and the effect was almost instant... This was Nuno Bettencourt's first drink.

A year before, recalls Luis Bettencourt, Nuno gave the family a big scare. He was in bed with weak health and getting worse from day to day.  One night Luis came home after a concert, and his younger brother wasn't in his room. It gave him a fright. The family told him Nuno had been taken to the Hospital de Angra do Heroismo, and the doctors had diagnosed meningitis. He went out with the excuse of going to a film, but, in fact, he went to find out about this illness with a strange name. What he found out was frightening: meningitis could kill, or leave the victim with a mental deficiency. Two days later, his brother beat the illness and didn't have any deficiency.

Apart from these little incidents, Nuno's life on Terceira passed with great normality. Xico Jorge, a friend and regular visitor at the Bettencourt house, remembers the little Nuno joining in with other children in games in the wide open of Poco d'Areia, and he liked to go for a walk "with his girlfriend".

Evangelina da Rocha, a lady of 73 years, and a neighbour close to the Bettencourts, remembers "Nuno was a child very well taught, and never moved anything when in the vineyard to our house".  At one point, when the Bettencourt's television set had broken down, Nuno turned to frequenting senhora Evangelina's house, "but he only wanted to watch American coboiadas films, and he'd stay very quiet until the end. Afterwards, he thanked me and left".

Luis Bettencourt steps back in time and recalls a few groups of the period: Sombras, Mini-Sombras, Barbaros, Flama Combo, Faiscas, Czares, Insular, Acor, Mini-Boys, Olmar Band.  There was a large market for bands. A strong interconnection between the Portuguese and north American communities allowed them to carry out big dances in Base das Lajes. The north-Americans paid well and guaranteed the survival of the groups.

A few years before, in the second half of the '40s, the work market for servants for north-Americans in Lajes had determined the arrival in Terceira of Nuno Bettencourt's grandfather, from the island of Graciosa. Palmira Mendes Enes had been, in Santa Cruz in Graciosa, a teacher of piano and of dance, and played piano in the evenings at silent films. In Terceira, through the direct influence of north-Americans, he formed Aerojazz, which was the first jazz orchestra in the Azores.

In Nuno Bettencourt's family, music is constant. Palmira Enes' father, the maestro Mendes Enes, formed the first brass band in Santa Cruz in Graciosa, and put to good use the musical knowledge of negro "imports" from Brazil by owners in search of teachable, cheap labour.  But even for a family of musicians of great quality, on the island of Terceira - with about 60 thousand inhabitants - there weren’t enough jobs to guarantee a good life. Luis Bettencourt says the idea of emigrating occured to the family in the middle of the '60s. "To guarantee a better future for the boys and girls," says Nuno's mother, Aureolina Cunha Gil Bettencourt.

Evangelina da Rocha remembers the last years before the Bettencourts emigrated. Their father emigrated in 1969, to prepare the way, and receive the family afterwards. In the last years of the '60s, refers senhora Evangelina, "... the family... had a few difficulties, but they always maintained great dignity, and Aureolina was a great woman".

Xico Jorge was there in the Bettencourt's last year in Terceira. Remembering the lifestyle, through the influence of Base das Lajes and constant contact with the north-Americans, "it was more American than Portuguese".  The Bettencourt's food impressed Xico Jorge: "We ate soups with meat and at their house they had more American things that we didn't know, like hamurgers and hot dogs and containers of milk...".

In 1971, their father's work in Boston produced sufficient fruits that he was able to receive the family. For Xico Jorge, "it was a great loss for Praia and for the island," because "they had a lot of life and many friends". Evangelina da Rocha also misses them, "above all, Nuno's beautiful face, as I always remember with the television". In the beginning, she found it difficult recognising Nuno from the times of Poco d'Areia, "...the haircut..."; but now, "... there are all the features of Aureolina's youngest son".