One hot night in September 2023, Pit88 RestoBar in Marikina became ground zero for the 40th anniversary of Betrayed (It’s The) Urban Bandits, and Wuds — two of the more prominent battering rams among the first wave of Pinoy punk bands in the ‘80s. The penultimate act on the bill, Urban Bandits, composed of vocalist Arnold Morales, guitarist Ferdie dela Cruz, bassist Dondi Boy Fernandez, and drummer Rogel dela Cruz, shuffled onstage at around 11 p.m. The players uncharacteristically (for a punk band) took some time to tune their instruments while the crowd of aging fans, millennials, members of other bands, and some youngsters started gathering in front of the stage.
With just a mumbled introduction, frontman Morales — looking like a Johnny Rotten doppelgänger himself — brayed the opening lines of Public Image Limited’s “This Is Not A Love Song.” The band expertly transformed the original post-punk leanings of the song to an abrasive punky banger circa the late ‘70s when Rotten spawned his mighty Sex Pistols.
Once launched, the Urban Bandits’ time machine corrected its flight plan in the direction of their Pinoy take on punk rock, a.k.a. Pinoy punk rock. Their major underground hits during the ‘80s local punk revolt came tumbling down in quick succession — “No Future Sa Pader,” “Nagpapa-Pansin Pansin,” “Breaking The Wall,” “Hoy,” and “Manila Girl.” The oldsters swayed in place bothered probably by creeping arthritis while the younger ones did the tribal stomp even as a few others happily shrieked as they moonwalked their way to faux slam dancing.
1-2-3 Punk
In 1984, Morales was playing in a band named College which had a minor radio hit titled “Manila Girl.” When the band played at Arellano University, Morales met Fernandez and they started talking about forming a new band. Fernandez knew two other guys who would eventually provide the lead guitar/drums axis of the new band that became known as the Urban Bandits.
DZRJ AM, “The Rock of Manila,” whose playlist then was an amalgam of hard rock, Pinoy rock, and chart-busting progressive music, informed the original four Bandits’ musical taste. The late night radio show of DJ Dante David, specifically, turned them on to the Ramones, Sex Pistols, and The Clash.
After another fledgling band, Wuds, invited the Urban Bandits to record in their tiny recording space in Singalong Street in Malate, the guitarist of a seminal Pinoy punk band Chaos, Tommy Tanchanco, invited the Bandits to be part of his newly organized Twisted Red Cross (TRC) record label.
The Bandits let out the first howl of their local punk sound in TRC’s first compilation album, Fatal Response (Rescue Ladders & Human Barricades Series Part 2). Their contributions, “News of The World” and “Battle of Mendiola,” would introduce the band’s buzzing homage to their hard rock heroes while Morales made tirades punctuated by “fuck you’s,” a typical expletive in the punk tribe’s “me, myself, and I — fuck everybody else” ethos.
Those two tracks became the Urban Bandits’ passport to the Brave New World rock concerts held regularly at the Philippine Trade Exhibit grounds at the Cultural Center of the Philippines reclamation area. The concert was a magnet for rebels, punks, and outcasts of all stripes.
With a growing fan base drawn to their live performances, Tanchanco gave the band the opportunity to record their first album, Independence Day. They finished recording in one day without a producer, with only the studio engineer giving them a free hand to do whatever they wanted. The sessions were stopped briefly when they were booted out of the studio for being “happily high” on some illicit substance. Nevertheless, the band, to this day, believes Independence Day were all-winners. No trash in that damn gold mine of a debut recording.
Read the rest of the story in the first print issue of Rolling Stone Philippines. For more information, please visit Sari.Sari.Shopping.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly named Urban Bandits’ current bassist as Dondi Boy Fernandez. The band’s new bassist is Vinty Lava.
