The Wily Filipino

Giant Steps Are What You Take.

So I'm about to break my Concert Rule #1 (no arena/stadium venues) after hearing this bit of news. Holy cow. My very first "favorite band of all time" ever, back circa 1982-83 -- at least the very first band that inspired me to go save up my allowance and buy their entire discography. On vinyl even! (Indeed, the very first CD I ever owned* -- bought second-hand, still at a piggy bank-breaking price, from an early-adopter friend -- was Every Breath You Take: The Singles.)

I remember my dad -- who was the big Nat King Cole / Tchaikovsky / Richard Clayderman fan -- being quite skeptical of my new obsession. "Paulit-ulit lang 'yan, ah," he said, dismissing the repeating "Keep it up" coda of "Walking on the Moon." I tried in vain to point out how Stewart Copeland was clearly playing different drum patterns, but to no avail: my music had been dissed.

U2, Talking Heads, The Cure (in that order) then followed, in typically youthful hyperbole, as My Favorite Band Of All Time, but The Police was always the first. And now they're going on tour.

*Side note: I'm thinking now of how kids these days probably have little conception of their first CD, or even the first time they heard a CD. Ah, the days of record cleaning fluid and dipping a Q-Tip in rubbing alcohol to clean the rollers and heads... I still remember the first time I popped the Police CD into the player and almost fell back in shock -- perhaps too trebly, especially those early pressings, but sonically, a total revelation; Hugh Padgham's work on Synchronicity never sounded better.