Alamid is always thankful for the rain that cancelled the second of Bon Jovi's two-night concert. If not for it, the band wouldn't have been discovered and signed to a record deal on November 4, 1993.
"Basta nahinto yun," Alamid guitarist Dexter Facelo said of that fateful night. "Yung mga producers ngayon, kanya-kanyang punta na sa mga bars. Nagkataon yung isa sa mga executives ng Warner, nanood sa Mayrics. Eh, may gig kami noon, eh, di napanood na niya kami."
That Warner executive happened to be Eugene Villaluz, the former New Minstrels singer, and he liked one of their original songs, "Your Love."
"Akala nga niya cover," vocalist Gary Ignacio said, who is now sporting shorter hair. "Sabi namin, ‘Hindi. Original po namin. Kami yung gumawa."
A week after, the band was signed a recording deal with Warner and was immediately in the studios recording their first album.
The recording process would take about three months to finish. But their now trademark song "Your Love" was released a month earlier, in January of 1994. Dexter said, "Kumbaga hindi pa tapos yung album, ipinaparinig na."
"Ayaw pang ipasabi na Filipino," Gary added about the marketing ploy of the record company not to introduce the band immediately.
It was in the noontime musical show, the now defunct Sa Linggo nAPO Sila on ABS-CBN, where the band made their first television appearance. Even the hosts of the show, the trio of Apo Hiking Society, were surprised that a local band created that song.
BEGINNINGS. Alamid was formed during the high school days of Gary Ignacio and Dexter Facelo at St. James Academy in Malabon. The two are the only remaining originals of the band when they were signed up.
Dexter narrated that he was playing for another band called Ardourn Delirium, an all-male band with Myra Ruaro as their vocalist. On the other hand, Gary was vocalist for Boy Next Door, where all his bandmates were females.
But Gary's band disbanded due to an unfortunate incident that happened to one of his bandmates. He formed Athena's Curse with Dexter's brother Thallie Facelo. They played punk music, which later turned to gothic when Dexter came aboard as keyboardist.
"Nakakatakot kasi yung concept kapag punk. Dyumi-jingle sa likod namin habang tumutugtog kami," Gary funnily recalled.
"May nagsasaksakan pa," Dexter said, but would be quick to correct that punk music was not all that bad.
"Nagustuhan din namin yung music ng gothic. So yun kasi basically yung music na tina-target namin. Noong Athena's Curse pa kami, ilang years din kami tumutugtog ng underground gigs. Tapos, yun nga, noong nakuwento ko noon...we were supposed to do an album, kaso hindi nga nag-materialize dahil nga sa pangalan ng band," Gary said.
When the first Club Dredd in Timog closed down in February 1993, the band decided to change their name.
