The
Campo Xanto Cebu Diary
Campo
Xanto a band based in Tacloban won the Red Horse Beer
Musiclaban Dos band competition in Cebu city last December 9, 2000.
Campo Xanto bested over bands from the other cities of the Visayas.
The unprecedented win created a lot of stir in Cebu. The feat won
Campo Xanto P40, 000; a San Miguel backed record deal with Octoarts-EMI
and exposure from the Asia based music channel Channel V.
The
band’s vocalist Jerby Santo wrote this article for the Leyte-Samar
Daily Express
*
two years have passed and San Miguel has yet to honor its
unfulfilled commitments to Campo Xanto.
The
Tanzan Delimma
We joined Muziklaban Dos on the last day of the
registration period. Bands were required to pass a demo tape (rough
recordings of a band) and twelve crowns of Red Horse Beer. We were
hopeless on making it on time, considering that it was not possible
for our band to be together for the demo. This was finally remedied
when an old demo was found lurking beneath a band member’s bed. The next problem
was the crowns. There was not enough money to buy 12 beers. So, off I went around
downtown, head down and ready to pick anything that would resemble a
Red Horse crown. It was such an intense experience that even, I,
doubted my sanity. I went to every sari-sari store and garbage area
in the Burgos, Salazar, Del Pilar and Real streets area. The 12
crowns were finally completed with 4 rusty and definitely
non-hygienic crowns found in a dumpsite in Burgos. We finally
dropped our entry at around 6:00 p.m. on that same day. After a
month, we were informed that we qualified.
When
You Wish Upon a Star
For
us to be able to participate in the Cebu finals, we had to qualify
first in the city eliminations. All indications point to us not
being able to make it. There was no place for rehearsals, all our
karaokes were busted, our bassist had to attend important meetings
for his company, our guitar player asked a respite on the practice
sessions for him to focus on his board exam, almost everyone had a
reason or two for not being able to rehearse. The day before the
eliminations we were finally able to rehearse. We needed to learn a
song and rearrange the jingle of Red Horse beer, as always time was
not on our side.
On
the night of the elimination round, I saw a falling star,
considering our situation I thought I had to make a wish. I said,
”Please let us qualify and win the 40,000...”Our performance
that night was far from ideal. I stepped on the gadget of our guitar
player. Our cover song turned out to be a dud, few people in the
crowd knew it and we thought our original was a bit noisy for the
judges. In fact, I went home earlier than the other band members; I
had a feeling that we will not make it to the finals. The following
day our keyboard player called and told me that we placed second and
has qualified for the finals, I thought of the falling star.
Cebu
or Bust
On
the day before our departure for Cebu, the marketing and promotions
head of this region’s San Miguel office, Philip Astilla sent a
texted message. He said that there was a storm in Cebu so we might
have problems. In fact, he did not negate the possibility of our
being excluded in the competition due to the situation. In the
afternoon of that same day, he informed us that the trip to Cebu
would go on as planned. The only hitch was that we would have to fly
to Manila and then take a connecting flight to Cebu.
Together
with the other band that won first in the eliminations, Lost Semen
Reunion and Philip, we braved the severe air pockets in our flight to
Manila and then to Cebu. During the flight, Philip told me that had
he not insisted, the competition would have pushed thru without us.
He also said that the there were proposals in the organizing
committee to scrap the eliminations in Tacloban. I figured
many in Cebu probably think that Eastern Visayas is insignificant when
it comes to music.
Almost
Rock Stars
Anyone
in the post Bon Jovi band scene with half of his wits intact would
never call himself a rock star. However, all the participating bands
in the competition felt like it. Band
members were given rooms in a business hotel, a van was assigned to
each band and the bands were given special attention by almost
everyone in the organizing staff. Although still
reeling from our horrendous flight, we were so excited and
reeling to get into action.
After
lunch, we had our sound check. We sounded miserable. Immediately, we
rode on our van and looked for a rehearsal studio, which was
referred to us by Lost Semen Reunion’s bassist. Upon reaching the
place, we found out that there was already another band preparing to
rehearse. It took our soundman’s persistence to finally convince
them that we needed to rehearse immediately. During that rehearsal,
we carefully ironed out the remaining creases of our performance.
And
God Jammed with Us
Every
time we have a performance, we see to it that we are able to pray.
For us this is our drug. It really gives us a kick in our
performance. During the finals, just before our turn to perform we
prayed and asked God to jam with us. In our prayer
huddle, we aggreed that the most important part of our
performance is not about winning the contest but enjoying our
performance like it was our last. But then again it was hard not
think about winning.
When
our band was finally called, I grabbed a mineral water and borrowed
a waiter’s tray. While my band members were preparing the
instruments, I mingled with the crowd and acted like a waiter. I had
problems balancing the mineral water on top of the tray. I passed by
the judges’ table thrice just to annoy them. When I saw that my
band mates were ready, I went through the crowd between the judges
table and the stage. It was really a packed area. Considering my
size the crowd looked like the dead sea being parted by Moses and I,
the Jews hurrying to the promised land. I
think, I heard a swear or two which was reasonable enough because
some of them were forced to stand from their seat just to give way.
They thought that I was a stupid waiter. I went straight ahead to the
stage hoping for mannah to fall on us.
When
people finally realized that I was part of the band, they started
clapping and hooting. Our first song was the Red Horse Jingle, while
we were at it I noticed a few Taclobanons in the crowd. Since I had
the tray with me, I decided to fool around with it. The crowd was
lapping it up. We then played a cover from Dave Matthews, in the
first few bars of the song I saw the faces of the judges lightening
up and all of them were bobbing their heads. By this time, the crowd
was already on us but we still had doubts since our original was in
Waray. We thought the predominantly Cebuano crowd may not appreciate
it. Nevertheless, when we sang our original, the crowd appreciated our
performance more and this hit crescendo when we did our original Red
Horse Jingle. The funny lyrics really brought the house down. When
we finished our set, we prayed and thanked for the great reception
of the crowd. At that point, we thought that the appreciation of the
people was more than enough as a prize.
Everyone
from the Tacloban camp was feeling ecstatic because aside from us,
Lost Semen Reunion also gave a great performance. Many thought that
we were going to win but I thought otherwise, in band competitions
anything can happen.
In
the announcement of winners, the show's hosts first awarded the minor
prizes, a band from Cebu won the Viewer’s Choice Award and our
band won the Best Jingle Award. Eventually the top three prizes were
finally awarded, 3rd place went to Bacolod, 2nd
place went to Cebu and the grand prize was awarded to us. Suddenly,
friends from Tacloban were squirting beer at us, we were all wet and
stinking like beer when we received the ceremonial check at the
stage.
That
night, I had trouble sleeping; every member of the band wanted talk
about our little glory and of course have some more rounds of beer
to punctuate the moment. I was thinking of telling my falling star
story, but I decided not to. Instead, I enunciated how big companies
use people for their promotions and then leave them when the promo
is over. Everyone in the band knows that we cannot expect other
people to help us, that is the cardinal rule if you are with an
underground band. Been playing in indie bands for 15 years now,
nothing shocks and excites me anymore. Most probably it was
anti-climactic, everyone finally decided that it was time to sleep.
I knew they would do that. Finally, we were all able to sleep well.
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