By Keith Sharp
While other bands and artists have spent this year-long pandemic sitting on their hands, Burlington Ontario’s The Spoons have executed a number of performances playing to restricted audiences, mainly for charity events.
Their latest creation is simply called The Spoons Holiday Special and is a pre-taped performance of the band playing Christmas favourites from home with a few inserted celebrities (hello Lawrence Gowan!)
The performance will be ready to air on December 24th and can be reached by linking to the band’s website at wwwspoonsmusic.com. “It’s going to be a fun, off-beat concert, lots of fun and clowning around, just our way to wrap up the year,” notes lead vocalist/guitarist Gord Deppe who along with fellow band members Sandy Horne (bass) Chris Neill (drums) and keyboardist Scott McDonald will be appearing in the performance.
Looking back at this year’s restricted schedule, The Spoons still managed to execute a number of performances even though crowd size was limited to 50 and sometimes 100 people. “We did a roof top Canada Day gig in Port Credit for about 100 people, we performed from a barge sailing through the locks at Bobcaygeon, we did two shows at North Bay’s Capitol Theatre and an additional two at the Burlington Living Arts Centre before 50 people and we performed on an island at Stoney Lake near Peterborough Ont. where people could only access the show by boat.”
The Spoons were also the only Canadian band to appear with a U.S produced `Back To The Basement’ virtual concert with A Flock Of Seagulls which earned Deppe a CNN clip with Seagulls’ front man Mike Score.
The band’s most successful charity gig was performed at Fire Rock Golf Club west of London Ont where a group of 100 well-heeled members paid up to $650 to catch the band play for charity. “Our attitude was just to keep on playing where we could and if we could raise money for charity, all the better.”
A key recipient has been Ed Sousa’s Ronald McDonald House charity fundraisers and they’ve even combined for a lucky charity donator to have the Spoons play a private concert at their own residence.
Deppe, who is used to being busy not only playing guitar for The Spoons but also travelling the globe playing guitar for A Flock of Seagulls, is biting at the bit to get out there and play at major events in the New Year. “We’ve kept ourselves busy in the meantime and that has been good for us.
