Dubai: Neocolours, the Filipino ballad band, may have been out of the concert circuit for some time. But they never really strayed far away from the airwaves.
Following years of an extended hiatus, their Dubai reunion gig on Friday night at Al Nasr Ice Rink proved this gem of a group never lost their brilliance.
After the front act led by Oriel and his band, Neocolours’ turn came at around 9pm. For the next 120 or so minutes, adoring fans chilled and sang their tunes in a sort of videoke-night-cum-concert.
The group went off to a jazzy start, kicking off with their hit Everything Will Be Alright, to which they gave a new touch. The repertoire included all the original songs of their glorious musical career spanning nearly three decades, as well as the hits key members wrote for other recording artists.
The original members—Ito Rapadas (lead), Jimmy Antiporda (keyboards), Paku Herrera (bass) and Jack Rufo (lead guitars)—save for drummer Nino Regalado, were present. But Nino was represented by his equally competent younger brother, Junjun.
Besides their own tunes, the group sang a happy sprinkling of covers, showing their new-wave pedigree and even a whiff of pop rock.
Musically, Neocolours were fired up - singing 30+ songs - going back back and forth between the great 80s hits, the naughts and the 10s. The group sang Human League's hit Electric Dreams, Justin Bieber’s Sorry, Maroon 5’s Sugar, Bruno Mars’ Funk You Up—and, believe it or not—Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off.
It proves how comfortable they are both in their brand of music and the mix of covers that delighted their Dubai fans. After their ballad hit Bahala Na (Come What May), they segued into Bill Withers’ R&B hit Lovely Day.
The last few years had indeed been a lovely surprise even for Neocolours members. The group was spun off in 1988 from the “Watercolours” group formed by Filipina singer Celeste Legaspi. After making numerous hits, the band disbanded sometime in 1994.
Down but never out
“Nawala talaga (we disappeared),” Ito said, adding the members went on their solo musical pursuits. Nino began playing full time as a session drummer. Jimmy started producing albums and jingles and also built JAM creations with his wife Cymbee. Jack went to play for Hard Rock Southeastern circuit's house band, while Paku went on to play for other bands, like Fire and Ice. Ito became a house producer for Universal Records.
“We thought that was that ... the end of us,” added Ito. “But many Filipino artists—like Noel Cabangon, Eric Santos, Jed Madela, Lani Misalucha, Toni Gonzaga—remade our songs. They kept our tunes alive.”
And since the band had their international performances in the US and Canada in the early 1990s, they haven’t performed again, except briefly in 1999 when they released Emerge, with songs such as Tuloy pa Rin (Life Goes On), Maybe, and three new songs: Kasalanan Ko Ba? (Is It My Fault?) Sandali Lang (Just A Minute) and Here I Am Again.
So the Friday gig was the revived group’s first international concert -- which was three years in the making. In Dubai, they gave their all -- with combined “hugot” (emotional) and throwback songs, like the State of the Nation hit song popularised by 80s band Industry. “It took us 30 years to practice that song,” Ito wisecracked.
They segued into James Taylor's Your Smiling Face and Tears for Fears' Everybody Wants To Rule The World.
Ngiti (Smile), which Ito produced—and is a TV hit Kalye Serye theme, popularised by the Twitter-buster love team #Aldub—struck a familiar chord with the audience.
For the first time, too, the group performed I'll Never Go live, a hit song originally recorded by Manila-based Nexxus, but which Ito also produced.
Their rendition of Makita Kang Muli (To See You Again), Jimmy’s masterpiece theme song for fantasy television series Panday (Blacksmith), popularised by the band Sugarfree, was refreshing. Put on your headset for this (but pardon the recording quality):
Then it was time for their own throwback songs.
Jimmy, Ito and Co harkened to the years of their collaboration with the late Francis M., the Philippines’ king of rap ( who succumbed to cancer in March 2009), with songs like Cold Summer Nights and Mga Kababayan Ko (My Countrymen).
These tunes were loaded with some clean electronic digital music -- and also showed Antiporda’s forays into rap, which was a bit of a surprise for me, but which testifies to the band’s virtuosity.
'Remakes helped our tunes'
And who would miss the super-hit song Hold On, which had been remade by the likes of Shamrock, thereby getting more Youtube hits than Neocolours’ own video of the same song?
The group sang Jeffrey Osborne’s On the Wings of Love—popularly known in the Philippines by its acronym OTWOL. It’s also the title of a massively popular Filipino telenovela which features Neocolour’s song Say You’ll Never Go Away (revived by pop singer Eric Santos).
Jimmy said the remakes on primetime telenovas shown across the archipelago and neighbouring Asean countries helped make their tunes almost timeless -- and had pushed the band to rethink about coming back together again.
“People had been asking: Where are they? So we got together again,” said Ito. “It's been a long road.”
Their music has that rare ability to touch people that’s hard to ignore: I first saw the band perform in 1991 at Diliman’s sprawling Sunken Garden during a university fair and it’s one of those moments I never got to outgrow. Today, my two gradeschool-age sons sing some of their tunes too.
So here's the takeaway:If you’re a non-Filipino who wants to learn a pop Pinoy tune, you can’t go wrong with Neocolours. And if you’re a Pinoy who does not know a Neocolours tune, you Pinoy-ness is incomplete.
For their finale, the band gave a rendition of their feel-good song Tuloy Pa Rin (Life Goes On). But the audience asked for more. Neocolours obliged -- with two more songs.
