You have to hand it to the full-house audience of Chad Stuart and Jeremy Clyde’s concert at Manila’s Aliw Theater last Oct. 16. For the 45-minute delay in what was supposed to be an 8:30 p.m. start failed to dampen the audience’s enthusiasm one bit. Throughout the spirited performances of the opening group Area One, RJ Jacinto, and later Chad and Jeremy themselves, the audience was clearly in the mood for nostalgia, clapping, singing along, cheering and laughing heartily.
Chad and Jeremy had taken all of 38 years since they peaked in l966 to visit the Philippines, which perhaps could explain the audience’s good mood. If Filipinos were able to wait for 38 long years for the duo, whose romantic musical flavor had been dubbed the "Oxford Sound," then 45 minutes of waiting was but a minor inconvenience. Once the music began, all was forgiven, and oh, what a night of retro music it turned out to be.
The all-male Area One (Bert de Leon on guitar; John Lesaca on the violin and guitar; Cash Manalang on bass guitar; Roy Marinduque on lead guitar; plus Butch Miraflor on drums) thrilled the audience with their rousing, hour-long renditions of Beatles classics, which included a medley of Paul McCartney songs.
"Retro Master" RJ Jacinto brought the house down, too, with an instrumental "duet" – he on guitar, John Lesaca on violin – of Del Shannon’s Runaway. RJ even showed off his wizardry on the guitar, playing it backwards, with the guitar on his neck (go figure!).
DZRJ deejay Long Tall Howard and Philippine STAR sports columnist Quinito Henson then hosted the intermission, where they shared Chad and Jeremy trivia and held a raffle of prizes donated by the concert sponsors. They pointed out the presence of VIPs in the audience, who included Joe Mari Chan, MTRCB Chair Ma. Consoliza Laguardia, and Undersecretary Robert Mananquil, among others.
Chad and Jeremy finally strode on-stage at 10:30 p.m. Speaking about why it had taken them so long to perform in the Philippines, Chad joked, "We were too stupid to realize that you (Filipinos) liked our songs. But we’re here now so that’s all that counts."
The duo opened their 17-song set with the timeless Distant Shores. Their performance was straightforward enough – while singing, Chad alternated between playing the guitar and the piano, while Jeremy played the guitar. Simply clad and with no fancy backdrops nor back-ups, the duo thus allowed the audience to focus totally on their music and spiels. A lone guitarist backed the duo, who would intersperse their songs with small talk that often elicited laughter. In the one that drew the most laughs, Jeremy revealed that they had actually junked recording the song which they were about to sing. It – Simon and Garfunkel’s Homeward Bound – turned out to be a huge hit. Jeremy forgot some of the lyrics of the song, so the duo started all over again, joking that their memory was getting on in years.
The duo sang some of their biggest hits like Before and After, September in the Rain, and Yesterday’s Gone, among them. Chad also did a duet with his winsome 21-year-old daughter Beth Stuart. Chad and Jeremy also sang John Lennon’s Imagine, voted in Britain as the Song of the Century, and two humorous songs about eating avocado and why we need our feet.
All told, Chad and Jeremy’s was a light and breezy concert, just like the songs they popularized. It was the kind of night you could spend under the moonlight, wistfully pining for love found or love lost, yearning for good old memories while you hum softly to yourself. After the audience sang along Before and After with the duo, Chad observed, "We’re really lucky that you guys have such long memories." Well, the audience considered themselves lucky, too.