In the wake of super typhoon Yolanda, President Benigno S. Aquino III could have been talking to the Otic family of Tacloban when he bluntly told a local businessman, “Buhay ka pa naman, hindi ba?” (You’re still alive, aren’t you?”) when the latter complained about fearing for his life because of looters.
DILG Secretary Mar Roxas could also have been talking to the Otics when he told Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez, “Bahala na kayo sa buhay niyo!” (loosely: You are on your own), after the latter balked at writing a formal request for national government assistance for his Yolanda-battered city.
To the thousands of victims of Yolanda, in my home province of Leyte – particularly in my hometown of Tacloban – surviving on their own was the only option in the face of the bumbling incompetence and insensitivity – nay, the heartlessness – of the government, epitomized by Aquino and Roxas.
As if in stoical response to Aquino and Roxas, four brothers did in fact manage to survive the onslaught of Yolanda. And Reno, 24; RJ, 22; Raymart, 20; and Ralph, 17, resolved to climb out of the hell hole of Tacloban on their own.
The four boys made up a rock band, the REO Brothers, and had earned a living performing in clubs and at parties – not quite enough to pull them out of poverty but enough to help keep the large family of Rey Otic, Sr. alive.
But Yolanda struck. Destroyed the city and all the clubs and venues where they had been performing. Lesser mortals would have bewailed their fate and blamed God, Aquino, Roxas and the entire government for failing to come to their aid. But these were hardy Waray-Warays. They also happened to possess marvelous musical gifts.
Armed with their precious guitars, which they had managed to save from Yolanda’s wrath, they decided to make their way to Manila. Perhaps they could play at beer gardens and parties to tide them over. Penniless, they had to persuade a bus driver to give them a ride based on an IOU.
A wet business card provided a lifeline. It had been given to them by Rey Fuentes, a Tacloban native and former president of Searle, Inc., a Unilab subsidiary. Fuentes had been thoroughly impressed at a gig of the REO Brothers.
A call by the brothers to Fuentes was followed by a referral by him to advertising executive and Manila entrepreneur, Tom Banguis, Jr., who, in turn, pleaded with the owners of Primos, a music lounge in Mandaluyong, to allow the boys to play for a meal and transportation money.
If Aquino and Roxas were heartless, the folks who watched the REO Brothers perform at Primos more than made up for it. Banguis, who unwittingly found himself playing godfather to the brothers, wrote about that historic performance:
“Their very first gig was a rousing success! Their renditions of 50s, 60s and 70s music of the Beatles, Beachboys, Dave Clark 5, Bee Gees, Gary Lewis and other prominent bands of the era were effortlessly synched, from the intricate instrumentation, to the demanding vocal harmonies! That fortunate audience who saw their maiden performance, was so touched by their story and musical virtuosity, they chipped in a generous P37,000 led by Rannie Raymundo, co-owner and noted musician himself, as well as the other co-owners of Primos!”
Inspired by the spunk and the talent of his new wards, Banguis told ABS-CBN about the brothers. The network, sensing a great human interest story, agreed to include them in a Christmas TV special and fund-raiser for Yolanda victims at the Araneta Coliseum on December 10, 2013. Amid the big stars in the show, the brothers received a standing ovation.
It has been a meteoric ride for them since then. After several performances to appreciative and generous audiences in Manila, the band performed at another Yolanda fund-raiser in March 2014, this time in New York, at Madison Square Garden. That was followed by performances in Los Angeles the same month, then in Tokyo in June, and in London and Birmingham in July and August. In November, they returned to the UK to perform in Belfast, Newcastle and in London again. They also recorded an album that immediately hit the charts.
But the bigtime gig was to come in August 2014. This was at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, considered the birthplace of the Beatles. Only the very best Beatles tribute bands had ever been invited to perform in the club before highly critical fans of the mop-haired icons.
Banguis, who has also been the band’s promoter and business manager, wrote enthusiastically about that performance:
“A ‘dream-come-true’ gig at the Cavern Club, the legendary Liverpool club, drew the ‘performance-of-a-lifetime’ from the Philippines’ own Fab 4, the REO Brothers, who had the predominantly British crowd, yelling for encores at the conclusion of a tight 11-song set! The lead singer of the Cavern Beatles, the house band at the famed club, summed it all up in one description: ‘FANTASTIC!’”
How “fantastic”? Well, the REO Brothers were invited for a repeat performance at the Cavern Club two months later, in October.
This year, from August 26 to September 1, the Beatleweek Festival will be held in Liverpool. It will feature the best of the best Beatles tribute bands from all over the world. The REO Brothers will be among them. That is quite a feat.
For sure, their tale of survival has been among the magnets that have drawn crowds to the performances of the REO Brothers, and the unselfish and highly professional efforts of Tom Banguis to tell that tale and book the band in impressive venues have been key to their prominence in such a brief span of time. But that’s not giving the boys the credit they deserve.
Last August 1, at the Camino High School in South San Francisco, California, I finally had an opportunity to watch a performance of the REO Brothers. With my wife and grandson in tow, I accepted the invitation of Tom Banguis to be his guest. He and I have been colleagues in advertising for decades, but friendship has not made us any less critical about the professional work we do.
The band had just flown in from a performance in Hawaii and, before that, the brothers had been the finale at the Barrio Fiesta in London, the biggest annual gathering of European Pinoys. They must have been extremely exhausted. Banguis, himself, was almost hoarse.
But when the four boys went onstage – Reno on drums, RJ on the lead guitar, Raymart on the rhythm guitar and Ralph on the bass guitar – the atmosphere became literally electric.
After almost two hours of Beatles classics, along with rock hits from those decades when most of the people in the audience, including my wife and I, were young, I can only echo what the lead singer of the Cavern Beatles said: “Fantastic!”
It is such an irony that the blunt and insensitive remarks of Noynoy Aquno and Mar Roxas may have been the bitter pill that the people of Tacloban needed to spur their survival instincts and their creativity.
The inspiring tale of the REO Brothers is a testament to that. ([email protected])
