Faces, Manille’s premiere party place for nearly a decade until it shut down in April 1995, brought back original spinmasters Boyet Almazan, Jon Tupas and Manolet Dario with such familiar disco classics as "Pump Up the Volume". Ledge dancing, palanggas, which faces institutionalized (remember Dolly Duran and Joey Mead), made a raucous come-back as Bobong Velez, THE Man! behind Faces, went on stage to do some cool body movements with former Faces frontliners Denise Lacson, Mitch Server, Marirose Mañeru, Monina Santiago, Joaqui Trillo and Jason Asuncion.
The crowd came in "Bihis Faces", meaning casually elegant and chic. Life of fun personas included many "face value" people who once made Faces their second home, like Sen. Sonny Osmeña with son John, Bob Zozobrado with daughter Bea, and reliving their many faces nights were Irene Martel-Francisco, Ernie Santos, Ricky Velez, Ricardo Ysmael, Mel Meer, Ramon Zaragoza, Marvie and Hubert Lim, Bobby Formoso, Mayenne Carmona and Wopsy Zamora. Having a great time, palanggas, were the big spenders from the Fisherman’s Club led by unofficial chief Kiko Laurel and wife Cheska, while Robert Young led the group from Gallery Star.
Gorgeous faces of today also partied like mad, like Bianca Araneta, Sunshine Cruz, MTV-VJ Derek Ramsey, Godskitchen’s Domini Primero, Ana Sia, Teddy and Janine Dario and so many more like them.
The smashing success had folks asking if this was a prelude to the much whispered about return of Faces, but Bobong maintains there are no such plans yet. What’s looming though is another Faces gig before the year is over–and that’s certainly worth waiting for!
Remember, palanggas, "Nature points us to our Creator, but only the Bible can point us to the Savior." Smile. See you.