What started as an intimate affair of awarding local rock musicians their own honor, albeit small, has now snowballed into an annual musical extravaganza. As far as music awards go, this is top of mind. The NU 107 Rock Awards, now on its 16th year, well, rocks!
On October 30, the “NU 107 Rock Awards ’09: High Definition” will award the year’s chart toppers, standout artists and music movers. OPM the NU way, the country’s talents Bamboo, Chicosci, decades-known The Dawn, Greyhoundz, Itchyworms, Juan Pablo Dream, Kamikazee, Kjwan, Ely Buendia-fronted Pupil, making a come back Razorback, Rico Blanco, Sandwich, Sugarfree and Cebu-based Urbandub, will sway, swing and sweat it out onstage.
The Rock Awards returns this year to the World Trade Center which it shares a colorful history with. In 2002, at the height of the awards show, a horde of local “punkilitos” (young local punks) broke through entrance security and smashed the building’s glass façade to smithereens. Thus ensued a frenzied free-for-all. Also at the WTC, the Rock Awards paid tribute to Club Dredd as its Hall of Fame Awardee for 2007. The next year, the honored pub-club was business as usual in Eastwood, Libis.
While musical genres have intermarried in the last decade and a half, so have the listeners. NU 107 started as an FM station with a solid rock format. Today, its playlist has immersed blues, contemporary-heavy pop, world, reggae-ska music to the agreement of its loyal listeners. Guest DJs Cousin Hogey and Papa Dom enjoy regular patronage. NU’s foray into talk shows perhaps took a while to ease onto the scheme of things, but it has mustered a small following.
As radio stations come and go, NU 107 has exhibited a staying power that has eluded a number of their counterparts. Perhaps because it has endeared itself to Pinoy grassroots, having brought back onstage icons like Joey Pepe Smith, Lolita Carbon and Asin (remember them?), and that it nurtures young bands and emerging styles like Taken By Cars. Or perhaps because it embraced The Eraserheads when they were booed onstage, not only because they were deemed sell-outs, but simply because theirs was not considered rock music.
Years ago, Rosanna Roces whipped open a denim jacket to reveal a see-through shift underneath to announce Wolfgang as NU Artist of the Year. She was bra-less. A young photographer covering the event lamented not having brought his zoom lens. He is now a creative director with BBDO Guerrero.
Sixteen years of the Rock Awards, and NU 107 is still blasting rock. Not a bad way to get tinnitus.
