Lorrie also arranged and co-produced Sounds of Manila’s debut album, where the group recorded hits of Cecile Azarcon. In Awitin Mo at Isasayaw Ko, Lorrie got to work with the brothers again after 40 years. That was when we started to connect again with Roger and Spanky through musical director Lorrie Ilustre.” So, he thought it would be a very good idea to produce a show that would feature Manila Sound and Original Pilipino Music (OPM). “Romel said there aren’t many Filipino concerts in their area. Romel messaged me and told me that he and his friend, Francis Faina, were interested in producing a VST and Sounds of Manila back-to-back concert in Northern Virginia. “Last year, he saw a picture of me with my singing partner, Hermie Angeles, along with Spanky and Roger on Facebook. “For years, Romel has been asking me to have a show in their area in Northern Virginia,” Suzanne said. One of the producers of the concert was Romel Simon, Suzanne’s relative. Suzanne’s singing group, Sounds of Manila, performed in the show. New Jersey-based singer, Suzanne Lansangan-Sabangan, helped mount the Awitin Mo at Isasayaw Ko concert. People are clamoring for a real concert of the VST and Company and that’s what we’re promising them.” Because of our schedules, we had to limit our guestings, but we go if our schedules permit. ![]() We performed at Stanford University early this April then in Virginia recently. “Last year, we were at the Fiesta America in New Jersey. It started in LA in August 2016, then continued to Abu Dhabi in October that same year. “It seems that there is this generational resurging of sorts for our songs. “Spanky and I have been performing recently together for the past two years,” Roger proudly beamed. However, Spanky later moved to San Francisco and has since settled there. Roger is a college professor based in Seattle, Washington since 1985, when he moved to the US with Spanky. We continue to dedicate that song as our sincere response for the love from all.” We are really thankful for all the years we have been taken in as part of everyone’s journey. “When we sang Ikaw ang Aking Mahal, the crowd simply sang with us. “ Ipagpatawad Mo got everyone swooning,” Roger shared. They rendered popular dance ditties and crowd favorites like Rock Baby Rock, Awitin Mo at Isasayaw Ko and Disco Fever to soaring ballads like Ipagpatawad Mo and Ikaw ang Aking Mahal. It was indeed a roaring trip down memory lane, as Spanky and Roger generously relived the hits of VST and Company. Taking centre stage at the event – which is part gig, part live karaoke – will be Spanky Rigor and Roger Rigor, two brothers remembered as founding members of one of the era’s biggest bands, VST & Co.Brothers Spanky and Roger Rigor, the voices behind the famed VST and Company, mounted the stage anew for their recent concert, Awitin Mo at Isasayaw Ko, held at the Ernst Community Cultural Center of the Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Virginia.įilipinos in the US East Coast - Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Washington, DC, New York, Massachusetts - and as far as Manila trooped to the venue to listen and witness the brothers regale the crowd with VST and Company’s best-loved hits. Montelibano, 60, is one of a raft of veteran musicians who will unite this weekend to relive those heady dance-floor days at New York University Abu Dhabi with Disco Manila – a themed revue that will be performed live under the stars at The Arts Center on Thursday (October 6) and Friday (October 7). Like the rest of the country, I found my identity then – who I was, and what I wanted.” “This sound just became so big because all of a sudden we found we could have our own identity,” says Jet Montelibano, formerly of 1970s sensation, Music & Magic. It was a deeply liberating moment, propelling the historic birth of an embryonic original music scene, later dubbed the Manila Sound – and, as many scene veterans will attest today, it was fun. But for the young island nation, the craze was more than the idle imitation of a passing fad – instead, it inspired a new generation of original musicians to author their own distinctively regional groove. Like much of the world, the Philippines fell under the spell of that most quixotic of musical beasts in the mid-1970s – disco.
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