The Story Of The Band 1017

1017 is a quintet band from the Philippines. Culled from Davao City, the group was known for its single, “Charing” which flooded the airwaves of different radio stations. Among their trademarks in music industry are its original novelty songs and the style of providing comic relief to the listeners.
1017 is composed of 5 members. Jam-Jam Ruiz leads the vocals and deals with the guitars at the same time. Beam-Beam Longakit Jr. is the bass guitarist and with the vocals. Chokoi Pasagui operated the lead guitars and also with the vocal. Mckoy Al-ag is also a vocalist and played the rhythm guitars while on the drums, we have Janpoy Fortich.
This Davao-based rock band started on 1998. Formed by a group of Davao Central College students, Jam-Jam Ruiz and Mckoy Al-ag with their childhood friend, Janpoy Fortich started its operations. Few years later, Beam-beam Longakit Jr. and Chokoi Pasagui joined the band, solidifying its line-up.
They have several band names changing from Fatal Pandesal to Sonic Playground. As the band remained active and started writing songs, they decided to change it to Flight 1017 which was relevant to the “The Proclamation 1017”. Eventually, it was shortened into 1017 which was easier to remember.
To show more of their songwriting skills to fellow Davaoeños, they lured the audience to the brand of music they are making, what they referred as novelty rock. Being independent was their home ground.
Their entrance to mainstream commenced as the band’s vocalist, Jam-Jam Ruiz joined Colt 45’s Rockista where amateur vocalists were given the chance to be aired on MTV. He represents Davao at the national level in Metro Manila. Out of 11, he made it to top 5 Rockista Grand Finalists nationwide. This gave the whole band a name in music industry.
Jam-Jam’s stint in the contest prompted the band launched its independent debut album entitled ”Slot Machine”. The album spawned singles such as Textmate, Nobena and Seloso. Their outrageous performances and silly jokes, paved way to the journey they currently enjoy. They enjoyed provincial concert tours and school invasions, they appeared in TV and radio guestings and staged with some notable acts such as Sandwich, Bamboo, Shamrock, Parokya Ni Edgar and Up Dharma Down. They performed and made gigs in famous bars in Davao City.
On June 2007, EMI Philippines signed 1017 as their contract artist and released their self-titled album on July 2007. The album contained ”Charing”, the original and trademark song for 1017. Other tracks from the album includes ”Berting”, “2k2papa”, “Rotnibur”, “Nobena”, “Lbun”, “Sana”, “Atomic Bomb”, “Seloso”, “Txtmate” and “Amboy”. Charing was created on February 2007in Davao City and indeed easily captured the ears of the mainstream radio. The song topped the charts up to number 1 and lasted there for three weeks.
This recognition paved way to their major exposure in Metro Manila and appeared in ASAP, delivering their single as their first TV appearance. 1017 continued to shine as their songs shadowed from real-life stories in rock mixed with humor.