MODE ZERO

"The Mayor goes back to his roots and puts together this new set for Mix Ministry. During the 80's, in the Mayor's place, when one talks New Wave, one talks of Mode Zero, a group of young gentlemen who decided to venture into what-was-then the undiscovered realm of New Wave. Recognized as one of fore-runners of the new wave invasion in the Philippines, Mode Zero became known for doing what it does best...putting together a string of new wave tunes to come up with one seamless melody. The Mayor revisits the group's glory days through this MixMinistry exclusive." ......These are the lines that you will read on MIX MINISTRY which is "Your Remix Authority" whenever MAYOR's MIXES are featured on the site entitled "MODE ZERO REVISITED". It's great that I was able to contact Mayor of MODE ZERO when I visited the site and definitely we will be talking about their good old days again. So braise yourself guys because I'm proud to present you another one of those MANILA's LEGENDARY NEW WAVE MOBILES back in the 80s none other than MODE ZERO exclusively here on "The Doctor Is In". First of all I wanna THANK Mayor of MIX MINISTRY for the inputs and according to him the information that we will be sharing to you are basically from his own recollection as a member of MODE ZERO. Mode Zero was composed of two groups of dudes, most of them Engineering students from a famous University along Taft Avenue. Mayor stressed out that he is not in any way among the founding members,but have only joined Mode Zero thru invitation. Mayor's brother who did the spinning for the other Mode Zero group was the one who referred him to the younger group so he became one of them. The members as far as Mayor could recall aside from him were Winston Bautista, Johannes, Jackson, Totots, Monching(who took over for Mayor),Relly, and Mayor's brother Dennis. He explained to me that he might have missed out someone on the roster and would like to apologize to these guys. Well, Mayor remembers his very first gig with the group which was in a birthday party which must have been a debut. After that, he would spin for them regularly in their gigs. However, since he studied in another part of the Metropolis he seldom get to spend time with them except for pre-gig and post-gig happenings.

Vintage MODE ZERO Photo

So what's MODE ZERO's motivation? Mode Zero stemmed from the guys' penchant for music and audio. It was not enough to play good music, the music had to sound good too. Setting up during those times was really time-consuming and the members were very particular about audio quality back then. According to Mayor the most memorable gigs or considered to be their best gigs would have to be the two successive halloween parties that Mode Zero helped organized which were NIGHT CHAMBER and REQUIEM. He remembered how packed the PICC Reception Hall was back then up to the rafters on both occasions. For him "THAT WAS CRAZY!!".

Courtesy of WINSTON BAUTISTA

Worst gig for Mayor would have to be this gig they had at St. Michael bar along Makati Ave. It was the first and would later turn out to be the ONLY time MODE ZERO with Mayor as spinner would be in a gig with Audio Network...(MoD's group) and their followers were really looking forward to that. Unfortunately, Mayor bombed his set. He didn't really know how it happened but he was really off that night. He got so embarrassed that he didn't anymore return for his next set. Wheeew!! THANKS for sharing Mayor!! MODE ZERO were loyal WXB102 fans. WXB all the way!! The NEW WAVE scene here in MANILA back then was incomparable and these guys were happy that they got grouped together just before the new wave invasion really happened. One magazine before gave them credit for being one of those who started the new wave invasion here in the Philippines. That's an honor for them I may say!! While most of their contemporaries were playing disco, dance music and 99.5rt songs, MODE ZERO were playing NEW WAVE which were their thing back then. All I can say "MEMORIES INDEED"!! So where are the guys right now? They went seperate ways already and who knows maybe someday they will have a reunion. Right Mayor?

Let's shift to

MODE ZERO!!
THANKS Mayor!!

-DR. STIRRING RHOD-