It wasn’t unusual to see crowds gather in every nook and cranny of Gateway on a Monday evening, since it’s a literal gateway to and from anywhere in the Philippines, as the running joke goes.
But individuals hawking their flickering merchandise to long queues of people stoked and abuzz with glee in front of Smart Araneta Coliseum’s famed gates always meant something huge would occur inside, something impossible to overlook.
Sure enough, Australian soft rock duo Air Supply gathered more than 8,000 fans in their sold-out Manila concert last October 26, maintaining their musicianship’s grip on Filipinos since they held their first concert here in 1981.
Coincidentally, Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock opened their ‘A Matter of Time’ concert with ‘Sweet Dreams,’ recorded and released in that year, when it conquered charts the same way it did to fans in the arena more than four decades later.
Donning sparkly attire that caught the lights and showed off a deep luster, the duo performed ‘Even the Nights Are Better’ followed by ‘Just As I Am,’ where Hitchcock’s powerful vocals reverberated through the big dome.
They then sang ‘Every Woman In the World’ and ‘Here I Am,’ where fans harmonized with Russell and Hitchcock, belting out the lyrics in joyful abandon. The duo continued by performing ‘Chances’ and ‘Goodbye.’
As with every situation, Russell recalled when they had their fair share of worries: ‘But we kept going because we didn’t want to quit.’
‘So, we say to you now: whatever you’re doing in life, don’t stop, don’t give up because whatever you want in life will come to you; it’s just a matter of time,’ he added, before the hair-raising melody of ‘A Matter of Time’ started.
With Hitchcock taking a quick break, Russell introduced their touring band members before serenading fans with ‘Just Between the Lines,’ a song about friendship, which he explained they decided to add to their set list just hours earlier during soundcheck.
Then, before performing ‘Two Less Lonely People,’ he reminisced about their first meeting that thrust the duo to their decades-long prominence.
‘In my head I heard a voice say: you need to meet this guy and you need to work with him,’ Russell said. ‘At the end of the rehearsal I introduced myself […] so, we decided to form a band together because we want to work together.’
‘We thought maybe we could be together for six months or a year-that was 51 years ago,’ he added, which was followed by a round of applause from the audience as Hitchcock entered the stage again.
For his part, Hitchcock shared a brief recollection of when they met in 1975 and praised Russell, who composed most of the band’s signature hits.
‘It’s really hard to put into words how wonderful it is to be with you tonight, but thank you once again for coming. We do love the Philippines; we love you people for coming to see us and supporting us for so long,’ he added.
The band’s remaining set list included their biggest hits ‘Here I Am,’ ‘Lost In Love,’ ‘Making Love Out of Nothing At All,’ and ‘Without You,’ much to the fans’ delight as archival footage of the duo’s younger years projected on the screen
Despite concluding their concert with ‘All Out of Love,’ Air Supply left thousands of fans filled with warmth and comfort, some even playfully requesting an encore, a reminder of their songs’ long-lasting hold on Filipinos.