Side A
Alone Agian
Love Song
Take Me To The Pilot
Mona Lisa And Mad Hatters
Glad All Over
Daytime Dreams
Side B
Honky Cat
Never Can Say Goodbye
Rocket Man (I Think It's Going To Be A Long, Long Time)
Amy
All The Time There Is
Susie (Dramas)
Afterbirth (regular at the Flames nite club): Boy Camara (vocals), Caloy Rufo (lead guitar), Winston Raval (keyboards), Jun Lucas (bass guitar), Nick Boogie (percussions)
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Boy Camara: Music will forever make his day
By Bibsy M. Carballo , November 19, 2008
"It’s difficult to imagine it has been 37 years since a young man appeared at the CCP in a rock musical and practically overnight shot up to fame and the fantasy of young girls everywhere. He was lean and handsome and his sad eyes conveyed the sins of the world that his frail shoulders couldn’t carry. We remember watching him more than once, admiring his high tenor, and total immersion into the role that then, and even now, will always belong to him.
His name was Boy Camara and the rock musical was Jesus Christ, Superstar.
The impact of this production, shown for a record 24 performances at the CCP (not including shows in Baguio) with the Manila Symphony Orchestra under Oscar Yatco, Mitch Valdes as Magdalene, Fritz Ynfante directing, was an event that eclipsed all other productions of the musical including a repeat in 1985 where Boy again played Jesus Christ.
Today, Boy is years older, pounds heavier and his eyes are no longer sad but sparkling with a love for life and zest for living. His secret, he says, is having discovered Tai Chi 30 years ago which has kept him centered.
Not that Boy has had much need for centering. As far back as he can remember, he had always loved to sing. From high school until college at the UP Fine Arts he was already singing. He had joined the UP Concert Chorus where Nanette Inventor was a member at the same time as he. “Ang sarap ng buhay noon,” he recalls, “ Enjoy talaga ako,” yet couldn’t quite explain why he was in Fine Arts major in Advertising instead of at the College of Music, and never got to practice his major after graduation.
Though he has had a taste of it all — a band the Chosen Few while at UP; as part of a harmony group the Gentle Rain with Anthony Castelo, Nonong Pedero and Rody Picar; a band called Birth of the Cool which became the Afterbirth when membership changed; a three-month contract with his band in Malaysia and Singapore where he had to suffer indescribable homesickness; playing at the Roxas Boulevard strip during the Martial Law years where he remembers having to stay in until dawn due to curfew. Singing was his passion and his life.
Still the shining glory of his singing career will always be Jesus Christ, Superstar, and unlike others who resent constant reminders of their past glories, Boy is happy to recall his past.
“I owe much to that play,” he explains. Apart from giving him recognition and personal fulfillment, it made him popular and opened doors for other singing opportunities. After Superstar came Tales of the Manuvu, Gomburza and the Superstar repeat of 1985. In the repeat at the FAT, Boy had Cherie Gil as Magdalene, Ray Ann Fuentes as Judas and Fritz Ynfante again as director. “Sadly, we only played for a weekend and not to full audiences,” he utters. He was also given a Special Award from the Aliw Awards in 2007.
During the latest staging of Superstar at the GSIS theater, he was invited by producer-director Bobby Garcia to watch the show which he had never seen since he was always performing in it before. “Ang gagaling nila,” he says without a tinge of envy. He particularly liked Robert Seña who played Judas, recalling that he almost played Judas which he feels is the better role, in Behn Cervantes’ production staged practically at the same time as the CCP production. He had to choose one and decided on the CCP primarily for the chance to work with a full orchestra on stage.
There were other more fortunate ones, he says, like Dodo Crisol who played Judas in Behn’s show, and went on to play Judas at the CCP which had a longer run.
Today, would he still consider doing a rerun? Perhaps as Pilate, or one of the supporting players? Why not, he answers quickly, as long as the music is good, although his life is now as a businessman, running a factory that manufactures toothbrushes, hairbrushes and the like.
Why did he give up singing for an unglamorous career as businessman-producer of toothbrushes, we laughingly chided him. “I was getting older. The lifestyle of a singer was no longer for me — the long hours, the unstable finances. “ Plus, he confesses, he had always had problems memorizing lyrics, “especially now.” He laughs. He can’t remember names and dates either. He tried his hand at selling real estate, then building houses for the family-owned realty, then the toothbrush factory. However, he disputes the impression that his life there was all routine and boredom. There was one time, he remembers vividly, when their factory was seized by the KMU. During the People Power revolution, Marcos had fled the country, and the activists took advantage of the situation. “ I stayed with a handful inside the factory for a month, holding the fort, until help finally came and the KMU dispersed. It took us a year to return to operations. All our former clients were gone. It was never the same again.”
“To tell you the truth, I enjoyed the work. I would be bulldozing the grounds of the development, working at the factory of toothbrushes and I felt I was creating something which gave me fulfillment. Like singing? We prodded. He smiled and nodded.
Still, we were not convinced. If he did not look for the glory and the glamour, he must still pine for the rush of adrenaline every performer craves for. He says he willingly gives time when invited to perform. Like when Mitch, his Magdalene in Superstar held a show at the Mandarin recently and invited him to sing; like when Lenny de Jesus erstwhile Dragon Lady at Malacañang during the Ramos and Erap regime resuscitated the Electromaniacs and would invite him to jam at her house.
We spotted Boy at the opening of an art exhibit at Megamall where the Electromaniacs were playing. He was just listening in one corner. We introduced ourselves.
He says he was busy with the company that pioneered production of toothbrushes that once was supplying all the brands in town from Colgate, Oral B, Johnson & Johnson. But today, they have been hit by every businessman’s scourge — cheap products from China.
He will also be leaving soon for the US with his wife to file for renewal of their Green Card. He knows he will need to stay for as long as six months while waiting for all the papers. “But I will be back.” He tells us beaming his broad smile. “I cannot stay away long. I get homesick. Masarap dito sa Pilipinas.”
He is deeply involved in the practice of Tai Chi which he discovered in the late ‘70s when he went to India, was completely won over, has been practicing it ever since, and even teaches whoever is interested. Tai Chi stimulates circulation and organs. It increases muscle tone and strength, and improves balance, coordination and breathing. It not only provides physical benefits but also affects the mind and the spirit.
It was obviously Tai Chi that helped Boy survive what he says was the most difficult period in his life when his childhood sweetheart and first wife Luisa Que died in 1992 at the age of 41. He was both mother and father, had to help his three children who were missing their mom through the crisis even while he, too, was missing her. After three years, he met a widow Bernadette Fernandez at a solo parents bonding session of Bukas Loob after which widow and widower began a new life together.
What is the Boy Camara of today like? He appears to us like a happy person, one who finds pleasure in little things, one who is low-keyed and easy going. And one who despite his UP hippie background during the days of drugs and LSD, despite his rock band background was and will always be a good boy."
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