the Spoons

The Spoons began with the coming of the 1980's; a modest group of four suburban kids from Burlington, Ontario, who became the country's new wave/techno-pop sweethearts.

The four founding members of the band were Gordon Deppe, Sandy Horne, Peter Shepherd and Brett Wickens who formed the band in high school in 1979.

Shepherd left the band before the Spoons recorded their first single "After The Institution/My Job" in 1980. The song was released on the Mannequin label, which was created by Paul Abrahams (the band's manager) and Wickens. Shepherd was later replaced by Derek Ross.

Wickens was then replaced by Rob Preuss just prior to the recording of their first album for Ready Records a new Toronto based indie label that had been started by two young college graduates (Andy Crosbie and Angus MacKay). The album was entitled ‘Stick Figure Neighbourhood' and was recorded in Hamilton, Ontario with a then unknown engineer by the name of Daniel Lanois at his Grant Avenue studios.

The album attracted the attention of college radio and garnered rave press reviews. Their follow-up was the widely acclaimed 'Arias & Symphonies' (also on Ready). It was produced by John Punter who had been working with Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry and was an engineer at George Martin's famous Air Studios in London. John came to know of the band while on a trip to Canada to do sound for Japan at their Ryerson Theatre shows. ‘Arias and Symphonies' spawned the single "Nova Heart". This prompted the band's first music video which led to major T.V. exposure (mostly on MuchMusic which launched in that same year). Commercial radio success followed and the band soon saw themselves opening for such acts as The Police, Culture Club and Simple Minds.

Over the next two years they would be nominated for two Juno Awards, win group of the year at the 1982 U-Know Awards (now known as The Casby's) and be presented with a gold record for the sale of over 50,000 copies of their sophomoric album.

In 1983, Ready Records decided to pull out all the stops and hire Nile Rogers (Chic, David Bowie) to produce their follow-up album called 'Talkback'. More radio hits emerged, "Tell No Lies", "Old Emotions" and "Romantic Traffic".

During this period, Deppe, Horne and Preuss recorded the soundtrack to the Ron Mann movie, 'Listen To The City'. By this time Ready Records folded, leaving the band without a recording contract and two less members. Derek Ross left to pursue a career in the music business and Rob Preuss went on to work with Perfect World and Honeymoon Suite before moving to New York where he is currently associate music director/keyboardist for Mama Mia on Broadway.

Deppe and Horne continued on with the new line-up of Steve Kendry (drums) and Scott Macdonald (vocals/keyboards) to release 'Bridges Over Borders' on Rush's Anthem label. By 1988 the band was receiving notable airplay with 'Vertigo Tango'.
The band continued to play periodically over the years with Deppe, Horne and Kendry remaining and Steve Sweeney joining on keyboards.

1994 saw the release of MCA/Universal's package called 'Collectible Spoons' and when that title was deleted many years later Angus MacKay at Ready Records created a new "best of" CD called ‘Limited Edition' [2008] and also re-released ‘TalkBack' in 2010 via Sparks/Ready Records/EMI.

A new 2-song EP "Imperfekt" was released in 2010, featuring the tracks "Imperfekt" and "Breaking In", which garnered a renewed interest in the Spoons, and so it was followed by a full length new album in 2011 called "Static In Transmission", which has won acclaim from many new and old Spoons fans alike as another masterpiece, on par with their classic album "Arias and Symphonies". Featuring the singles "You Light Up" and "Escape with You"

In 2012 Sparks Music and Ready Records celebrated the 30th Anniversary of two of the bands most successful releases.

The digital release of Nova Heart EP which includes the quintessential 1982 album version, a moody "Dark Before Dawn" mix; plus the driving, electronica/dubstep "Singularity" mix (both recorded and mixed by producer Jeff Carter); as well as the rare pre-release demo recording from 1981, the 12" extended mix of Nova Heart remixed by John Punter and a live version of the song recorded by CHEZ-FM at Barrymore's in Ottawa.

The band have also released a special 30th Anniversary version of the ‘Arias and Symphonies' album complete with new liner notes, historical photos and live tracks. This was released on November 13, 2012 via Sparks/Ready/Universal.

The Spoons continue to tour to this day in support of their newest release ‘Static in Transmission' [2011]. The current line-up includes Gordon Deppe and Sandy Horne with Casey MQ on keyboards and Chris McNeill on drums.