Twin treat: The Lettermen with Spiral Starecase/Pat Upton

A few years back, Funfare made the observation that a lot of music fans tended to define love not in the conventional sense but in a musical context by identifying this human sentiment with the timeless love songs of The Lettermen, the legendary vocal group hailed as “the most romantic singing group of the ‘60s.” (The Philippine Star, Dec. 19, 2005)

It perfectly made sense for them to resort to such novel, if frivolous, definition as an ultimate tribute to the three singing sensations who are immortalized for their classic hits that consistently acclaim the beauty and joy of romantic love throughout their successful musical career as singers, entertainers, recording artists and concert performers.

That’s why it is almost inconceivable to think of the subject of love without associating it with The Lettermen, especially when one listens to such romantic ballads as The Way You Look Tonight, When I Fall In Love, The Seventh Dawn, Theme From A Summer Place and many more.

Another top pop act — this time of the ‘70s — that shares the same passion for the theme of love and romance is Spiral Starecase/Pat Upton whose chart-topping single, More Today Than Yesterday, has been widely recognized for its marvelous portrayal of the mercurial essence of love.

Powered by the exquisite sound of its horns and the distinctive voice of its lead singer, Pat Upton, the group has consistently melted the hearts of millions of hopeless romantics everywhere with its other hit songs like Broken-Hearted Man, Our Day Will Come, For Once In My Life, No One For Me To Turn To, Since I Don’t Have You, and many others.

Cast The Lettermen and Spiral Starecase/Pat Upton together in one big musical production and you will come up with an exciting, powerhouse combination that is guaranteed to take the audience’s breath away with its magnificent and electrifying performance.

That’s exactly what is bound to happen when a dream concert starring The Lettermen back-to-back with Spiral Starecase/Pat Upton is staged on July 3 at the Araneta Coliseum in the first major musical event ushering in this year’s second half of the concert season featuring foreign acts.

The concert series, to be mounted by Renen de Guia’s Ovation Productions will also include shows in other urban centers outside Metro Manila where the two groups have not performed previously, with the complete schedule to be announced later.

(Note: Tickets to the Araneta Coliseum concert are priced at P3,500, P3,000, P2,500, P1,500, P800 and P500 and available at Ticketnet outlets at SM Department Stores and at the Araneta Coliseum ticket office. For reservations and inquiries, call Ticketnet at 911-5555.)

How Arnel impressed US Embassy officer

Here’s an interesting follow-up item to Funfare’s story a few issues about the GQ magazine’s six-page splash on Arnel Pineda as the newest Journey vocalist, this time about how Arnel impressed the US Embassy officer when he applied for a US visa, taken from the US Embassy News on the Internet (passed to Funfare by Jojo Gabinete).

The GQ story recounted: When Pineda went to get his visa, the guy who interviewed him at the embassy — “His name is Ben. I can’t forget his name,” Pineda says— was a fan who’d seen him play with the Zoo a couple of times, so Pineda took a request, and everybody in the office looked up from their desks at the guy singing Wheel in the Sky.

Here’s the full account by “Ben,” from the Embassy News on the Internet (tense changed from  “present” to “past”):

Months ago a band showed up at my window. It was Lemons and Oranges, or something fruity. I asked about their music; looked at their posters, CDs, etc. At the end of the interview, they were saying, “Come out and see our show tonight.” I said, “I can’t take any free tickets yada yada yada but maybe I’ll pop in.”

It was a Friday. I went with two LES. We got a table, ordered some beer, fried chicken and so on. The opening band came on. They were called “Zoo” — this I’m sure of, since I’m from Kalamazoo, the name stuck.

The Zoo started rocking out to 70/80s tunes. But the coup de grace was indisputably when they busted out Journey. I mean, the singer was not just goo — 95 percent of all Filipinos are good singers — he was really darn good. I couldn’t shut up about it. I was telling anyone who would listen, “Dude, not only does this guy have pipes, and range, he’s got perfect pitch. He has only missed a few notes on some of the hardest power ballads in schlock n roll history.”

The LES grudgingly agreed, but they’ve been desensitized to the regular displays of amazing karaoke you get in Manila, so maybe they were just humoring me.

The next week I was sitting at an NIV window next to an officer named Singer. Singer and I were doing FMJs and so we would trade off regular NIV applicants occasionally so that we got fair share of student visas.

I heard Singer say, “Journey? The band Journey?” He flipped through papers. He sounded unhappy.

I butted in: “What’s that all about?” He turned off his mic and looked over at me. “I don’t know. This guys says he’s going to try out for Journey.”

I was puzzled. “Journey? The band Journey?” Singer went, “That’s what I just said, [EXPLETIVE]!”

“Great, another nutjob. I’ll take it.” Singer took my student, I took the nutjob.

I looked over his stuff and said, “Purpose of travel?” and all that. I started to scrutinize more carefully and realized it was the guy I saw from the night before.

“Hey, does your band play at Bagaberde?” He confirmed and he went on to tell me the story of how he uploaded some clips of his band that he recorded to YouTube and contacted Journey’s manager, having heard they were looking for a new singer.

He said they called him up and invited him to the US to try out. Given the malarkey you get at a Manila NIV window, this story only got points for being original.

He produced some flimsy e-mails and letters, etc. So I went, in my best dubious voice, “Yeah? let’s hear Wheels in the Sky!”

He belted it out for the whole waiting room and for the staff to hear (I made sure to take off my headset and let the speaker play it because what I was really doing was covering my butt).

I said, “Look sir, there isn’t a person in this Embassy who would believe that story — going to try out for Journey! — not a soul would believe that. Except for me. I saw you sing last Friday and I couldn’t shut up about how your vocals were perfect Steve Perry. So I tell you what. I’m giving you that visa. You’re going to try out. And you’re going to make it....”

And the rest is rock ‘n’ roll history, my friends.

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