MANILA, Philippines - It was a dozen years ago when Friends of Distinction thrilled their Pinoy fans to their monster hits Grazin’ In The Grass, Going In Circles, The Way We Planned It, Why Did I Lose You Baby, Ain’t No Woman, Check It Out, Great Day and a lot more at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC). Since then, I’ve always yearned to bring them back but schedule conflicts prevented me to do so. After shuttling several times between Manila and Los Angeles to negotiate with Harry Elston (founder, leader and composer of Friends of Distinction) and manager Steven, Harry finally gave the green light for the return.
Rewind to the early ’70s when I was an upstart DJ and wet behind the ears. Even back then, I already loved the Friends of Distinction and already playing four songs from the Friends of Distinction’s first album Grazin’ on my daily radio gig on DZBM the big 74.
I even remember buying the album at L R Villar Records shop in Escolta and prominently displaying it on top of our family AM/FM/4 speed record player. I played the album every morning before going to work for inspiration. When the second album Highly Distinct came out a year later, I wasted no time and bought it immediately without even listening to the album.
We, DJs of DZBM, loved one cut from the album Why Did I Lose You Baby so much that we decided to put it on our playlist and a week later, voila! It hit No. 1 in the Manila charts. The song was never released as a single nor did it become a hit anywhere in the world. This phenomenon happened again with two more Friends of Distinction songs: The Way We Planned It and Great Day and were Top 10 songs only in Manila.
The cover of the group’s debut album
When I presented my desired set list — the Manila hits — to Harry for the 2004 PICC concert, a big problem cropped up because the group had never performed the songs live ever. In fact, the current concert set list of the group in the US had only four songs familiar to Pinoy ears. That would have been a disaster if they performed just the four heard songs and the rest — never heard. Fortunately, Harry was very cooperative and agreed to relearn and rehearse the songs I requested. Just to be safe, I sent Ron San Agustin (my production manager back then who now lives in a five-bedroom house with swimming pool in Las Vegas) to immerse the group into heavy rehearsal for an entire week at Harry’s residence in lovely Henderson Nevada. When the group performed at the PICC, the crowd sang and danced and enjoyed so much and that was my inspiration to bring them back.
The show this Aug. 26 at the SM Arena will feature all the Friends of Distinction songs Pinoys have loved throughout the years, plus Motown music and special guest Ted Mills of Blue Magic who will perform all the Blue Magic hits including Just Don’t Wanna Be Lonely, Sideshow, Stop To Start, Spell, What’s Come Over Me, Sideshow, Three Ring Circus, Magic Of The Blue, etc.
Tickets are available at SM Tickets online and all SM Malls. The show is presented by GMA Network, Steve O’ Neal Productions and the Pilgrimates in collaboration with Duty Free Philippines, Park & Ride, HDI, Business Mirror, IBC 13, Telenovela Channel, Dream Satellite, Hard Rock Café, RETRO FM, DZRH and the official concert station RJ100.3 FM