Familia del Pilar

Early Influences & Story

Then the biggie..."Lips" a hard rockin' band from Angeles City which were fronted by the long haired brothers, Noel & Joel. This hard rock band was the primary influence & mentor of the group during the mid 70's in Manila. Lips had played all over Angeles City and by 1976 in Metro Manila playing as the Artmen-Lips Band. Artmen shop in Recto Manila, got the band from Angeles to help promote the shop commercially. At this time, Tony, Jacinto & Boy Tatz had come to Manila and were working for Artmen as artist & designers. It was here that they met the brothers, Noel & Joel (guitar & bass) with Bobby (drums), the trio that called themselves as the Lips band.

I remenber visiting them that summer in Manila, I would hangout at the shop the whole day while they work, waiting for 5:00 pm for the shop to close. Then all of us (with the Lips band) would march to Sarongbanggi, a popular rock joint at Raon at that time. Lips would played from 6:00 pm till 10:00 pm sometimes even till midnight. We had lots of fun listening to the band doing Black Sabbath, Ted Nugent or to their rock instrumental tune to the Saronbanggi song. I could still remenber one of their original song that goes partly ..."buhok ko sa ulo ibig nang pumuti". From that time on, I knew that Harvest was on its way of becoming a full fledge band.

The brothers even came to Cebu in the 80's and had a concert at the USC Cultural Center. This was the very same venue which Juan dela Cruz Band had played way back in the in 1974. The event was billed as a solo Lips Band concert but other than the two brothers, the rest of the band were from Freebird. I was one of the emcee during this event and everybody had a good dose of rock and roll.

From this a folk group evolved "Harvest" named after old Neil Young. There was Tony with his pretty unique voice which had a high pitch that made him almost sound like old Neil Young. Then there was Dongax who had this natural blending voice ala Crosby that made the group quite an attraction. Tony and Dongax were the constant factor in both Harvest and Freebird. A 3rd front man was usually filled up by Edward or a guy we call Yong-yong. A lot of other musicians filled in, like my friend, Jojo Honoridez who is himself a noted Cebuano folk singer. I was part of Harvest at the early years and there was a lot of changes and fill-ins for this 3rd member.

By mid-late 70's, Harvest had transformed into a full electric rock band.
Naming itself as the "Free*Bird" after a Lynyrd Skynyrd song. Based mainly in Cebu, the band also had gigs around the Visayas and Mindanao. The big gigs were the one at the USC Cultural Center (see above) which they fronted with the Lips Band, Sun Down Jams and the Surigao Rock Fest which was sponsored by DJ Mark dela Merced. Led Zep, Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, Nazareth and Kansas were some of the favorites and of course from our local heroes, the Juan dela Cruz Band.

Then the 80's came which I would say was a bad decade for hard rock, and the band went into hiatus after bouncing back and forth from Harvest to Freebird and vice versa. Again some of the guys went back to Manila, Angeles City and even Freebirds' drummer, Boy Tatz went to Hong Kong to play for a metal band.

The band reunited last mid 90's, and still did what they always like---playing rock and roll. Playing low gigs like parties, fiestas and small clubs that were brave enough to have rock programs. It was back to the good times.