Were you first in line?.....Remembering the first (or was it the second?) single of After Image

After Image came into the Manila music scene around the late 80s but they actually released their debut album around 1992. Aside from the new wave and rock covers that they played in their gigs like Bolshoi's "A Way", U2's "With or Without You" Or "Pride (in The Name Of Love)", REM's "The One I Love", The Chameleon's "Tears" even GNR's "Sweet Child Of Mine" they also played a whole bunch of original songs. One of these songs called "Next in Line" was eventually released as their first commercial single under Dyna Records. A fan favourite in their live repertoire, sometimes you can even hear an occasional version of this song with a full band setting (Yes!...with drums and loud guitars and not much synthesizers...) with matching segue into "Baba O'Reilly" or "Love Will Tear Us Apart". I also remember that radio station 99.5 RT was always playing a very early demo-sounding version of this song that was really great, mind you this was a few years before any official release from the band. The song arrangement was totally different than the commercially released single.


Aside from "Next In Line", before the hullabaloo of major label life came to the band, they were also known for playing a great, highly addictive, fast original song which, before the onset of the 90s and if there was an alternate reality or world, this would have been the band's very first single. This song was called "Let It Go". A song made with the band's original guitarist named Francis Reyes aka Francis Brew aka The Dawn's main guitarist. This song also had a lot of airplay in the radio in the late 80s and was also a fan favourite when they have their concerts. Unfortunately with the parting of the guitarist and the band due to their own reasons (band infighting or not, I don't really care much about the politics and rivalries among band members!)....all the originals were also dissolved, so songs like "Let It Go", "Dogs", "Stay/I Wanna Live"(?), etc. was scrapped and shelved into the forgotten songs bin. "Let It Go" still remains as one of my peborit After Image song...it had just the right mixture of everything that the band can offer at that time...one amazing and brilliant Pinoy p!o!p! moment!



After Image - Next In Line
(7" single/1992 /1 track Promotional Copy
/ Dypro-Dyna Records/PH)

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After Image - Let It Go (streaming audio)
(unreleased / 1988-1989)