Pupil cancels DLSU gig — Ely Buendia

Filipino rock band Pupil is no longer performing for the University Week Culminating Night at De La Salle University (DLSU) next week.

In a Facebook post on Friday, the band’s lead singer Ely Buendia said that the organizers acted in bad faith by using his name—not Pupil’s—to promote the event.

“To the Pupil fans expecting us @DLSU for their Animusika event on June 17 I am sorry but we had to pull out of the show because organizers have acted in bad faith. ‘Ely Buendia’ is a separate act from Pupil, and promoting your event using my name alone is not fair to me, to Pupil, and to the fans,” he wrote pointing out that this has happened many times before.

Dubbed as Animusika, the event organizers invited “OPM legends” to play for the culmination of the University Week. They unveiled their featured artists by posting lyrics of their songs on their social media accounts, @UnivWeek2016 on Twitter and University Vision-Mission Week 2016 on Facebook. Some of the lyrics they posted belonged to songs by Moonstar88, 6cyclemind, Never The Strangers, and Spongecola.

On Thursday, a tweet by @negativenzi with a screenshot of the organizers’ teaser post on Facebook showed lyrics and references to “Ang Huling El Bimbo” by Eraserheads, Buendia’s now-defunct legendary band.

The original post has been taken down.

Tweets tagging #Animusika2016 also showed that @UnivWeek2016 followers were posting about articles about Buendia and Eraserheads.

“Dear event organizers, when you book Pupil or Oktaves [Buendia’s other band] you should, I presume, know what or who you are getting. Each band plays their own original material. Music that means a lot to us and our fans, music that we worked hard to put out, and what modest success we have achieved is hard-earned. Using my name to sell your show is disrespectful to the band you booked and its fans. We both know what you’re trying to do. You wanna have your cake and eat it too. It’s not cool,” Buendia said.

He added that what the organizers did put everyone in a tight spot. Pupil was “unfairly saddled” with the burden of meeting the audience’s expectations of them playing songs that they don’t perform. And the fans would be disappointed if they did not get what they expected.

More than that, Buendia pointed out that promoting him alone breaches their agreement.

“Plus it specifically states in the contract that you cannot use my name unless I am actually the act you booked. It’s simple, really. So please, let us be fair and just in our business dealings to avoid things like this from happening again,” he wrote.

But Buendia made sure everything ends on a good note and said that he is still open to perform at DLSU whether as a solo act or his current bands Pupil, Oktaves, and Apartel in the future events.

“I wish the Animusika event all the best,” he ended his post.

The organizers said they have been "coordinating with the booking agent that has direct contact with the band." —BAP, GMA News