The REO Brothers’ amazing journey

MANILA, Philippines - It’s a long way from the restaurants of Tacloban to the Araneta Coliseum, and even longer to Madison Square Garden in New York City. But four brothers made that incredible journey, an effort that is as inspiring as it is daring, as improbable as it is inevitable.

Like thousands of other families, the Otic family lost their home and practically everything they had when Super Typhoon Yolanda battered the Visayas last year and the storm surge washed away everything in its path.

Rey Otic Sr. and his family joined many others who relocated to Manila, begging passage on a bus with the promise of payment upon arrival. They subsisted on biscuits and candies on the two-day journey to Manila, where all eight of them squeezed into the small apartment of a sibling.

Four of the boys –  Reno, 24; RJ, 22; Raymart, 20 and Ralph, 17 –had formed a band in Tacloban, calling themselves the REO Brothers, and helped support the family through earnings from their gigs in local hotels and restaurants. They managed to save their guitars by wrapping them in cellophane, but escaped the storm literally with only the shirts on their backs.

Ray Fuentes, a friend and a Taclobanon, contacted me to help this young band. I set up an audition two days after they arrived in Manila – and I ended up on my feet and clapping heartily.

Primos, a new music lounge in the Greenfield District at Mandaluyong, booked them for a slot the very next evening, “even just for a meal and some transport money.”

Their very first gig was a rousing success. Their renditions of 50s, 60s and 70s music of the Beatles, Beachboys, Dave Clark 5, Bee Gees, Gary Lewis and the Playboys and other bands of the era were effortlessly synched, from intricate instrumentation to demanding vocal harmonies. The audience at their maiden performance was so touched by their story and musical virtuosity, they chipped in a generous P37,000, led by Rannie Raymundo, co-owner and himself a musician, and the other co-owners of Primos.

Since then, the band has performed in many different venues, before SRO crowds and drawing the same enthusiastic, admiring reception.

I wrote ABS-CBN about their Tacloban to Manila journey and the network, recognizing a great inspirational story, decided to feature them in their Christmas TV special with the theme of “Hope and Recovery,” dedicated to victims of the recent Zamboanga, Bohol and Tacloban tragedies. 

The Christmas special was held at the Araneta Coliseum, and headlined such stars as Lea Salonga, Sarah Geronimo, Gary Valenciano and Martin Nievera. The REO Brothers’ performance was cheered with a prolonged standing ovation. The show had to accommodate the loud audience clamor for two encores, which ABS-CBN producers later admitted they do not normally accommodate, except that the studio bigwigs were the ones leading the cheering.

The boys have since been featured as special guests in numerous ABS-CBN programs such as Umagang Kay Ganda, TV Patrol, Showtime, Bandila, Banana Split, Chinese New Year special coverage, as well as GMA-7 programs like Unang Hirit. There are plans to reenact their story in a special TV production, and there is also a recording contract currently being worked out.

Their story and their fame have gone way beyond our shores because of the wide reach ABS-CBN’s TFC, as well as social media. Since the Araneta concert in December, the band has been much sought after performers in Manila’s social scene. They have headlined fund-raising concerts for various beneficiaries of their hometown since the start of the year.

But on March 11, they performed in one of America’s most popular concert stages, Madison Square Garden, in a concert organized by the Pinoy Relief Organization, a New York-based NGO that is aggressively helping in the rehabilitation of Tacloban.

Mehmet Oz, a popular American broadcast journalist, introduced them on stage. They were joined in that concert by Oscar winners Jennifer Hudson, Fil-Am songwriter Robert Lopez with wife Kristen Andersen, American Idol’s Jessica Sanchez, Black Eyed Peas’ apl.de.ap. and Charice.

After their performance, an admiring Dr. Oz invited the band to his TV studio for a special feature to be aired  next month in his widely syndicated TV program, to share the band’s inspirational story with American audiences.

On June 14, the REO Brothers will be in Tokyo to perform in the Independence Day celebration at the invitation of the Philippine embassy, to be followed by concert tours in Japan. In July, they are scheduled to fly to the U.K. for a series of concerts in London, Birmingham and Liverpool. Plans are being finalized to hold concerts in other cities in Europe and, definitely, a return to the US within the year.

From the devastation in Tacloban, the REO Brothers have risen to the top of the music scene – an inspirational symbol whose story is now being shared with their countrymen and admiring audiences all over the world!