The trip to Turkey did not materialize and the APO, now a tentative trio, pushed on steadily towards fame and fortune. But what the APO could not understand was their fourth member's decision to leave the irresponsibility of being unemployed to join the ranks of the corporate world. Why a talented young man of 21 would want to go to Turkey, every young man in the early seventies would probably understand. The other had a position waiting for him in his father's advertising firm. One of them was scheduled to leave for Turkey as an exchange student. It was only when two of its four members were about to retire from the field of amateur music, however, that the APO, then known as the Apolinario Mabini Hiking Society, finally had a city-wide audience. Just out of college, the group was the talk of the Ateneo University and adjoining campuses for their music and humor. The APO HIKING SOCIETY first gained recognition in 1973 when they gave a farewell concert at the plush Meralco Auditorium in Metro Manila.
