Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Gord Deppe: Toronto Mike'd #316

Episode Date: March 21, 2018

Mike chats with The Spoons' singer and songwriter Gord Deppe.

Welcome to episode 316 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery located here in Etobicoke. Did you know that 99.99% of all Great Lakes beer remains here in Ontario? percent of all great lakes beer remains here in ontario glb brewed for you ontario and property in the six.com toronto real estate done right and paytm.ca And our newest sponsor Camp Tournesol The leading French summer camp provider in Ontario

I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me is Gord Depp from The Spoons Welcome Gord Finally, it the Spoons. Welcome, Gord. Finally. It took a while. We've been talking for years to doing this.

Better late than never. I had to call in the big guns. When you were delaying, I called in OPP officer Pete Fowler to intervene on my behalf. And I want to thank Pete for helping to make this happen. So he was the guy following me

with the light flashing the whole way here. Don't mess with, don't piss off a cop. You know that. Yeah, I do. And he, you know, he's like, the first question he wanted me to ask you is the obvious, which is why you don't age. Like, is there a portrait of you in an attic somewhere that's aging? Is that the deal? Of course I age.

But you know what? I'm lucky. I've got a job where you can stay 12 mentally for the rest of your life if you want to. I want one of those jobs. Yeah.

You're one of the great Canadian gourds. So I was thinking about the name Gourd and how many great gourds there are and most of them are Canadian. But you got Gordie Howe,

Gord Sinclair, you got Gord Downie, the late great Gord Downie, you have Gordon Lightfoot, Gord Martineau. It was on. Gord Stelic, the Barenaked Lady album, Gordon. I'm in there. I'm in there somewhere. I was told

recently, it's funny you mentioned it, that Gordon is the most common name in Canada for musicians and actors. Nowhere else is Gordon. Gordon Pinsent. I hope I said that right. You're right. And the only, you know,

if you leave Canada, I remember there was a Gordon on Sesame Street. I remember this growing up. Gord was on Sesame Street. And there's Alf. Remember the show Alf? Yeah.

His name was Gordon Shumway. Okay. But that's it. Maybe he was Canadian too. We'll talk about this later on. I didn't know this. We'll make the Flock of Seagulls connection later. But I just found out that Mike's middle name is Gordon.

Wow. Don't worry. I've got a Flock of Seagulls jam queued up here. We're going to definitely... Are you kidding me? And then Sting. He's Gordon. His real name is Gordon.

Gordon Sumner. You're right. They're out there, you know, he's Gordon. His real name is Gordon. Gordon Sumner. You're right, they're out there, but most of them are Canadian. But did you ever cross paths with Gore Downie?

Never. Isn't that weird? That is weird because you're both like Canadian. I mean, you're about 10 years ahead of those guys,

I guess. I think maybe, I think we did some show once because we've been around longer than them, I think. And they were like

the new band on the bill, one of big festivals and i'm thinking who are these guys you know it was like it was the same time the first time i saw blue rodeo because you have to understand that we've been around longer than a lot of those other bands right yeah so when they came along they're like the new kids and i think oh these guys got potential yeah that's funny uh yeah that's it is now that you know it's it's strange that you could, you know, your many years in Canadian, you know, rock music and never really crossed paths with Gord Downie. No, there's a few people like that, you know. I don't know what, maybe just tour schedule or something.

I had nothing against him. I didn't avoid him on purpose or anything. Your last name, Depp, is that like a name that was originally French by any chance? No, I checked it out because, you know, as a kid, you go, hey, am I related to Johnny Depp? And actually, his name is right next to mine. That's his real name. It's originally Belgian in origin.

So it's way back somewhere. Sure. Yeah, yeah, that's it. You know, it reminds me of there's a beer company with a similar name, Leffe. They use a lot of double letters with an E at the end. So, yeah, Depp. Did you a lot of double letters with an E at the end. So, yeah. Did you ever cross paths with Nana Muscuri?

It's funny you mention Nana Muscuri because I went as her for Halloween one year, and that was probably the most obscure Halloween costume, and I went all through Toronto, and one person recognized who I was. Well, that must have been the 70s, right? No, that was the 80s. But she's still big, right?

She's huge. She was definitely huge, and this is one of her jams, but I'm playing it, and the reason I asked you if your name might be French is because I just want to point out that our new sponsor, Camp Tournesol,

provides French camps in the GTA for tens of thousands of children aged 4 to 14. They're the largest French camps in Ontario. So if your child's francophone, French immersion, or even if your child has no French experience, they have a day camp or an overnight experience for them. So I'm on this big push.

I'm trying to get people to obviously go to campt.ca and sign up for a French camp. But when they do so, so when you do so, use the promo code Mike, because that saves you some money and it also lets the good people at Camp Ternus know that you learned about it on Toronto Mike. Maybe they even have like, you know, three-star Michelin French cuisine at the camp. Who knows? They bet.

Of course. You know, they better. At least French fries. French fries and French toast at the very minimum. So I mentioned ages 4 to 12, they cover, and they have the overnight camps would be age 8 to 15. So if your child is between the ages of 8 and 15, there's an overnight camp, and over 4, there is a camp for your child.

So another option, this is the one i'm looking at for uh see my kids are funny i have four kids but there's none really between four and 14 but i i'm looking at this 13 day trip to quebec could you imagine if like wow i would do that i would do that i never got to go to camp when i was a kid it was something i always wanted to do overnight camp or any camp oh any camp. I came from a European family, and that's not a normal thing in Europe, really. So instead, we would go, you know, back to Europe for the summer,

which is okay, but as a kid who was trying to sort of become a Canadian kid, it was like, yeah, I want to go to camp, you know, but I never got to, so. It's never too late. Gord, seriously, I can make a call for you. We can get you on this 13-day trip.

I don't know if the other parents would appreciate it. No, you'd have to be like the chef or something. Yeah, that's right. Or a counselor of some sort. I give like wine tasting classes. It's a French camp. But you don't speak French, right? Do you speak French?

Very little. Yeah, that won't work. I think you've got to pass a test before you can be a counselor there. But yeah, Camp Tournesol. That's campt.ca. So I'm a fan of your band, but I've never known if they were The Spoons or Spoons.

Can you once and for all tell me? There is no definitive answer. It's the way it shows up on print. Usually on our albums it says Spoons, but it's hard to use that in a sentence. How are Spoons doing? It's like The Spoons, with a small t. How does that work?

So you can't screw this up. No, you can say it any way you want. But just don't say Spoon because there's a band called Spoon that's quite large from the States. But there are many other Spoons. People say, how did you come up with the name? Well, we're not the only ones. Before and after us.

I mean, there have been Spoons all over the world. There's a heavy thrash metal band from England. There's an all-girl band from the States. There was sort of a techno band from Japan. But has that ever caused any legal problems? Like, did anybody ever give you a cease and desist? Well, when we first started, yes, because we were signed to a big label.

And those days, they still did things by the book. I think these days people don't care as much, you know. But we had to buy out somebody, yeah? And then we had to make somebody stop using the name. Actually, Nova Scotia, which is really confusing because Nova Heart. Of course.

They were from Nova Scotia and they had a girl in the band. So that was too much. Like Sandy, yeah. So we sent them the letter. Yeah, that was too close for comfort. I guess you're right.

If it's a Norwegian death metal band, nobody's confusing them with you guys. But you're right. In that example, there could be confusion. So you got to stop it.

For a long time, I kind of regretted the name because we wanted to be sort of quirky and new wave. And we were a bunch of kids. We didn't care whether we ever made it or got airplay. We just wanted to be our weird selves. And this name kind of suited our suburban roots. Burlington, right? Yeah, very basic, everyday object like Martha and the Muffins and there's a band

in Toronto called The Dishes and The Cars, like taking an object and making it something different. Then later on, when our sound

became a bit more sophisticated with our symphony sound, what did we do and name the spoons? But in the long run, thinking about it, there are so many bands

with clever names that I have trouble remembering sometimes. Right. So here we go. You cannot forget a stupid name like that. For what it's worth, it's probably not much,

but I actually dig the name. I think it's a good name. It rolls off the tongue somehow. Absolutely. You don't think about it too much. It's pretty cool. The only thing I think about is whether it should be The Spoons or Spoons, but that's my problem,

not yours. Get over it. Yes, you're right. So Burlington, right? This is where you grew up in Burlington, and this is where you met Sandy, right? Sandy Horn? Yeah, high school, Aldershot High School.

We were both in the high school band together. She played the trumpet, I played the saxophone, and I was probably the shyest kid in school, and she was probably the hottest girl in school. And how those two got together, I don't know. But you did all right there. I mean, you punched above your weight class. Yeah, well, I didn't know. But you did all right there. I mean, you punched above your weight class. Yeah, well, I didn't even punch.

I was too nervous that you should even ask her, right? But I ended up going to one, I think one party all the way through high school. That's the kind of wallflower I was. But I was writing songs. I wasn't wasting my time, right? I was home writing songs. And because of my music, it got me noticed.

And I think the only party I ever went to was where I met Sandy. Oh, wow. Is it okay? You know, that's like, it's like you get one at bat in the majors and you hit a walk off Grand Slam. Like, I'd say that was... I'm going to waste time and walk out to other people.

You're batting a thousand. And you know what? You do that. Then you're like, I can't go to another party because I can't top this. So let's just leave this. There's a movie in that, like one of those John Hughes movies, right? Yeah. The One Party That Changes Your Life.

I'm going to write it. Are you kidding me? As soon as we're done recording. This is a great idea. So tell me a bit about how the band comes together. You meet Sandy, and you guys were not just friends and bandmates, but you guys were a couple, right? Not right away.

And this is not even the spoons right away. We were both in the high school band, and within the high school band, we had a bunch of cool kids who put together a rock band, right? And for a long time, we didn't have a bass player. It was just keyboards, drums, and guitar. I didn't sing. I was way too shy. And nobody knew about my original

songs yet. So we did cover songs. We met Sandy on a school trip. You know, when you go to these band exchanges, you live with people. I think it was to Armprior, one of these little towns. No, I don't even know it. I think it was on the Quebec border. She's talking about French. But we stayed at a chicken farm and then

played their high school and they came back to our high school. The same thing. And we met on that trip on the bus. Well, not met, but got to know each other. So I've seen her around school. She said, do you want to join the band? She didn't even play the bass yet. I think the bunch of us were thinking,

wow, she looks good. Let's make her fit the band somehow, you know? No, you had no pun intended. You got to shoehorn that in. You can borrow that. But she did play the acoustic guitar, and I remember sitting in the back of the bus, and I had an acoustic guitar, and I showed her a couple of basic bottom notes on her

low strings. She's like, well, she could be a bass player. How hard is that? It's only four strings, you know? And she had to ask her parents. I think she was 14 at the time. The rest is history. But we didn't become a couple for years later, because right away, our drummer jumped right in. You've got to watch those

drummers, man. I don't trust drummers. No. Not to this day. That's funny. So lots more to dive into, but before we even proceed, I want to give you something. I want to give you a gift for coming all this way. So this six-pack of beer in front of you. All right.

That's yours to take home with you. If I had to drink it right now. You could if you want, but then I wouldn't let you drive home. I'd have to call you a cab. That's very kind. Thank you. I can't drink it right now. You could if you want, but then I wouldn't let you drive home. I'd have to call you a cab. That's very kind. Thank you. I can't take all the credit. I have to give credit to the good people at Great Lakes Brewery. What's this fancy big bottle here?

Yeah, they sometimes do bottles. It's large. Yeah. Holy. So that's the Harry Porter. That's the big elf looking thing on there. Right. But I gave you like a variety pack there

so you should have what else you got there what's that one there Canuck Pale Ale oh that's the staple yeah you're gonna love that one Pompous Ass English Ale

sorry it's on the label I can see it here you go oh you can swear on this podcast that's a great thing about podcasts this is elaborate over my dad

dad body Pilsner right over my dad body yes they got a sense of humor, these guys. And there's always fun stories in the back. Yep, honestly, those guys are the best. Wait, where do you live now?

Do you live in West Toronto? Oakville. Oakville, okay. So these guys are in Etobicoke, as mentioned off the top, but fantastic people, fiercely independent. No conglomerate has been able to buy them yet

because they like being their own indie band, if you will. So enjoy that. Well, thank you. But you're going to need a pint glass to pour that beer into. So I have more gifts for you. Aren't you glad you came? Yes, this is great. Maybe I'll just do this.

Is that bike yours or are you giving that away? Yeah, you want to borrow my bike? You have to bring that one back. It means more to me than my kids. That pint glass is courtesy of brian gerstein at property in the six.com very nice but he recorded a message for you so let's hear directly from brian hey gourd brian gerstein here sales representative PSR Brokerage and proud sponsor of Toronto

Mike's. Hope you enjoy my new and improved pint glass in color now because Mike's guests deserve the best the pint glass can offer. I also have a limited supply left over exclusively for Toronto Mike's listeners. In order to get one, just give me a call at 416-873-0292 to meet and discuss any real estate needs you have as spring has sprung and now is the best time with the busiest market of the year. Gord, I had a blast looking at your 80s interviews with Rob and both of you were rocking vintage 80s hair. How many cans of hairspray did you go through back then? I'm glad Brian brought this up. Let's talk about the hair. Is that a question? That's a real question. He wants to know

how did you keep the hair? It is hairspray, right? Do you remember a company called Joico? Sort of. I think J-O-I-C-O or something. It still exists. You can still buy it. They had this stuff. It was like the staple of every band with big hair.

It's called Joico Ice Mist. People won't know what this is. They're going to be laughing when they hear this. This stuff was so strong. Seriously, they had to make this stuff called de-icer to get the crap out every two weeks because the buildup would be horrible. You stick to the pillow when you get up in the morning.

But the thing was, you had to get something that would make you last through a sweaty show, right? Yeah. You had to walk on and not change a hair for two hours. So, yeah. That was the secret.

I think we even had an endorsement from Joico for a while. No, that's... You just revealed the secret. That is the secret. Joico. And you can still

buy this stuff. Yeah, they have it everywhere. I think, you know, any grocery store or a pharmacy and a big box store, they got them, yeah. Well, they have it everywhere. I think any grocery store or pharmacy and big box store, they got them, yeah. Well, if you went as Nana Muscuri for Halloween, I think my next Halloween

I'm going to go with you, Gordep, if that's cool with you. Just got to get some joint code. Alright, where should I begin here? Let me start with some OMD, if you don't mind. Yes. So there's going to be some good tunes on this podcast.

I saw these guys last week. Did you? Yeah. Where were they? At the Danforth Music Hall. Wow. Yeah. I heard them on...

I was listening to Boom. Like, today I had to take my daughter to an appointment. And they played some OMD today. And I was like, oh, Today I had to take my daughter to an appointment, and they played some OMD today, and I was like, oh yeah. But tell me, so the opening of this, how does OMD influence the sound of The Spoons, and

specifically Nova Heart, which I'll play in just a second here, but you probably caught them back in 81 at the Hamilton Place Theatre in Hamilton. No, before that. I saw them at a tiny little bar in Hamilton called Bannisters. It used to be called the Brass Rail, which is what you can imagine it was.

Yeah, yeah. I had no idea to expect they were on Virgin Records, which was Martha and the Muffins label, and the bass player, Carl Finkel of Martha and the Muffins, was our manager. He says, check out these guys. And they're one of the first that brought this electro pop

thing. They're influenced by Kraftwerk and all that stuff. And they sure played homage to those guys, to Kraftwerk, at the show last week. And I went and saw them. I was so impressed and moved by those guys. I said, this is what we got to do

you know and next morning i borrowed rob's keyboard and the first thing i wrote was nova heart it was so simple it was so simple rob said i would never thought of that it was so stupid okay let's keep that well yeah absolutely uh so nova. Let's let it breathe just a little bit here. It's such a... If you hear this, it takes you back. I think it's like a time machine. Like, I'm back. It's great.

So how old are you when you write this song? I'm not old. Let me think back. Around 20, I guess. I have to do the math. Sure. Around 20? Yeah.

But there's a funny thing. I've written a book in the meantime. We can talk about that later. But it's years later. Like now that you see the connection between things, seeing OMD or doing this and then there's a thread that runs through things that still continues to today like I can talk about things how you know things that happened last week that connected this song and my meeting OMD and

then you know one minute I see them I'm influenced by them next minute we're opening for them become friends with them and talking to you know keep in contact with them. Now I see them again at a time when 80s music is king, really. I'm sure you've heard what the biggest selling concert ticket is out there. It's not Ed Sheeran, it's not Taylor Swift or Bruno Mars. It's Depeche Mode. And to be part of that and see a band like OMD sell out two nights in Toronto last week. It's so gratifying to be part of that and see a band like OMD so sell out two nights in Toronto last week and it's so gratifying to be part of that whole movement nostalgia is a potent drug and the so the album this is uh from stick figure neighborhood no no this is all right right right

right yeah our symphonies um uh we just got a really great honor for this I mean it keeps this thing keeps popping up on so many best of lists still, you know. There was one recently by a big radio station, which is actually more of an indie station now, probably what CFMI was in the old days, Indie 88. Yeah, of course.

And they included this in their 14 greatest moments in Canadian music history. And it was the only album mentioned. I think number one was the Tragically Hip's Farewell concert, which you mentioned Gord, and things like Cyrus Fest and three Canadian women winning Grammys. And then they said the release of Aries and Symphonies.

It was a pivotal moment. Whether it was or not, it made me feel pretty good that day when I read that. Let's hear some Aries and symphonies here. And by the way, while I play these jams, anything you want to share, anything about what inspired it. They're so hooky, man. They're so catchy and fun, these jams.

Yeah. Once I wrote Novel Heart, the can was open. It just happened. It took me a while to get to that point because Stick Figure Neighborhood was very talking-headsy, very suburban, angular.

I didn't even sing yet, really. But as I saw bands like OMB and Japan and stuff like that, Simple Minds, I really got opened up to a whole other world. And I realized we were meant for that because before New Wave, Sandy and I grew up on progressive rock.

And these bands, like Simple Minds and OMB, weren't that far off from some of the progressive stuff we were listening to. Very grandiose and moody. So from some of the progressive stuff we were listening to. Very grandiose and moody. So we said, that's what we should be doing. We're not a punk band. We're not a talking heads kind of band.

We're more of a lush, you know, kind of symphonic sounding band. So once we're, I find that with every album we do, once like that tap is open, then it just falls out and flows very easily, usually. And I kind of tell people this song, Aria's Symphony, is kind of like our brick in the wall. Lyrically, too, it's about individuality.

It's got nothing to do with Aria's symphonies. An aria is like a solo moment within a big symphonic piece. So it's kind of the small cog in the big machine kind of thing and how women or girls and boys are told to be a certain way growing up all the way through school by their parents and expected roles and how you want to break free from that. So if Nova Heart's your breakthrough single, this is the follow-up?

Is this the second big single? I would think so, yeah, from the same record. We did things a little bit different back then. We released Nova Heart First on its own, with Symmetry as the B-side, but it came out as a 12-inch dance mix. And that led us to being heard by A&M Records in Los Angeles, and Sting seeing us and recommending us to them,

and him coming to see us and saying, hey, this Canadian band is pretty good. Well, he just liked that you were another gourd. There you go. Gourds got to stick together. Right. So that led to the making of this record and a bunch of other pretty cool songs

that are on there. Smiling Winter, that was sort of a minor hit as well. I remember it being used for the, what was the old soccer team, the Galaxy? Blizzard. Blizzard.

They used it as part of their thing. It was used by the old WWF wrestling theme. But they only used so much of it. They don't, you know. So we have to do it just for that reason. All the old wrestling fans. Was this album engineered by Daniel Lanois? No.

That was Stick Figure Neighborhood. Okay, I see. But not bad. I'm glad you're here, Derek. Yeah, not bad Every album We always had amazing people Whether they were

That famous yet or not But they all seemed To hear something in us Our first album Stick Figure Neighborhood Was Daniel Alomar I mean, this is before He worked with U2

So it was pretty amazing That we caught him This album Was John Punter Who'd done everything From Japan to Roxy Music and that kind of thing. And then later working with Nile Rodgers, who's like the new Quincy Jones. All the people that like what they heard and helped us along the way were pretty important people when you look in the rearview mirror.

Well, we got to talk about Nile Rodgers because for those who don't know, he was producing Duran Duran, David Bowie, Madonna. This guy was huge. And so it's Talkback that he worked on Talkback, right? Yeah, and also the Tunnel Lights on My Traffic EP. Yeah, before that, he was really known more for Chic. He was the guitar player, and he wrote songs like We Are Family, Good Times, Le Freak.

So when A&M said, forget about your British past and working with John Punter and that sound, I think you should work with Nile Rodgers. And I listened to it and the funk says,

oh my God, this is so wrong. I really didn't want to do it because I didn't understand. But he took us in a much more poppy direction but still retained the spoon sound but it ended up being one of the most important things we ever did well here's speaking of catchy ditties okay so this this song is on that album the is an L yeah old

emotions yeah when I see you guys when I see you and I've seen you in the last I'd say in the last five years I've seen you guys three times I saw you last summer

this is one of those jams where those first just do do do like boom like just it's such a simple right

really simple so simple but so like stellar so tell me anything you can share about old emotion well this one I like to write it different ways.

I'm a guitar player. Nova Heart, I wrote on the keyboards, even though I can't really play the keyboards. That's kind of important sometimes. Sometimes you wish, after writing many years, you want to have a switch that shuts off everything you know and just start fresh. You always tend to go back to the same places on the guitar.

So going to the keyboard, I played something i would never you know never expect them and other gear players wouldn't do because it's sort of too simple and then ari syntheses i did the same thing on the bass guitar and and this this i remember i just these neighbors moved out of the building where we lived and the guy left this old beaten up acoustic guitar on his balcony in the rain it had coals in it. It looked like Willie Nelson's guitar, right? Right. He said, I've got to write a song. And that's the first thing I wrote on this.

And also, Romantic Traffic and, I think, Tell the Lies, a lot of it were written on that magic guitar, right? That is a magic guitar. It is. I still have it. I still have it somewhere. And again, it's kind of funny when I listen to this now. It was such a departure from our symphonies. I was a little embarrassed to take it to the radio stations. That's interesting. I listen to this now it was such a departure from ours I was a little embarrassed

to take it to the radio stations that's interesting this is wrong this is like too poppy this is not you know I remember you used to

take the 45s you know in your bare hands to the station and they put it on like it was physical like that and I was oh no

people are going to hate this but it ended up being one of our biggest songs yeah I'm not a very good judge of things like that so tell me is there any truth to the rumor that Nile Rodgers was scouting Culture Club and I hate this, but it ended up being one of our biggest songs. Yeah. I'm not a very good judge of things like that. So tell me,

is there any truth to the rumor that Nile Rodgers was scouting Culture Club, but liked you guys better? Yeah. So did I tell the whole story there? No, no, it's very true.

It's that at that point we knew Sting and he helped us get signed to A&M. He was very instrumental. I never got to know him really well, but we did the police picnic

in 82. Right. And we opened for them with a bunch of other bands that I get to later ended up, you know, being part of my life, like Black Seagulls and Talking Heads. And he really liked us and recommended us, and we got signed. Then we were playing the Culture Club tour, playing New York City, and there's a knock at the door after our set, and there's Nile Rodgers and Sting, like probably the biggest pop star in the world

at the time and one of the biggest producers in the world came back to tell us how great they thought we were and we're like a bunch of kids going oh okay whatever right now it's like wow that was a big thing and he had come to check out Culture Company wasn't that

impressed and I actually met Nile Rodgers 30-something years later after we made this record. A couple years ago, he was playing at the Amphitheater in Toronto and Chic was opening for Duran Duran,

his Thunder album. And I got on stage with him. He asked me to come up with a bunch of us and I filmed the whole thing. But then after the show, he had like a little group of people and he was catching up

with all his old friends from Toronto. And he called me over and said, go ahead, I've got to tell the story. I have this on tape and I'm so proud of it. He's talking about how he came to see Culture Club and liked us instead. And this is the coolest compliment. You know what Niall said? Yeah, I saw the spoons. They were the shit. Yes!

That's not Roger saying that about us. And we ended up being the only Canadian band he's ever produced. From Donna Summers to Madonna to, you know, David Bowie and Duran Duran, and now he's working with, I think, Lady Gaga and Pharrell. I mean, he's like Quincy Jones now. He's got inducted into

the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He's huge. So it's funny how some of these things that you don't want to do, like working with him, ended up being so important. Absolutely, absolutely. And just before I dive into romantic traffic, which you mentioned, and I got questions about romantic traffic, I just need to pause for a moment. This is not one of your jams.

No, don't take credit for this one, Gord. This is a Pink Floyd jam. But I want to speak just for a moment about PayTM. PayTM is an app where you manage all of your bills. So basically you download this app for free from paytm.ca and you can, every bill you can imagine, I won't even name them all because every bill you can imagine you have to pay from property taxes to Enbridge, to Hydro, to your rent, all the bills are in there. Your credit cards, they're all in there. And you could pay them very easily via Paytm. But you could pay them either because you have money in your bank account, or you could hook it up to one of your credit cards and use that. So that's what I do.

I pay all my bills through Paytm using my MasterCard. So I get points on my MasterCard I can use towards groceries, but I also get Paytm points, which I could use towards different things. So it's like a free way to easily manage all of my bills, but gamify it, like benefit from it. So I swear by it. But if you use the promo code Toronto Mike, so when you pay a bill via Paytm, if you use the promo code Toronto Mike, you get $10 in Paytm cash you could put towards another bill. So to me, that's a no-brainer. That's free money for you. Heck, if I were you,

I've never even said this before, if I were you, install the app, pay a bill with Toronto Mike, get your 10 bucks, spend that on a bill, and then if you don't like the app, you can never use it again. But I don't think that's going to happen.

But get the $10. It's sitting there. It's free money. And that's what I did, Gord.ourd very cool who can say no to free money not me or free beer nobody can say no to free beer that's that's the problem with free beer the good thing and the bad thing about free beer you can't say no this jam is i love this jam of, I love this jam, of course, but, more importantly, the video,

okay, the video, let's talk for a moment about the video for Romantic Traffic. Yeah, it's, I think we did 11 or 12 videos total.

This is the only one I can really stand watching. Oh, is that right? Because it's just us, you know, in the 80s, they kind of threw stuff at you,

well, you're going to do this, you're going to, you know, like, we're not actors. This is, pretend of threw stuff at you. Well, you're going to do this. We're not actors. It's just pretend you just broke up with your girlfriend. You're really mad. And you smash the champagne bottle on the ground and throw your guitar. No, it's not me.

I'm not an actor. In this video, we're just being ourselves. And you see the funny side of Derek. He was like the clown and robbed the pretty boy. And then what else comes through is this is around the time when sandy and i broke up oh so again looking at you know things 30 years something years later i didn't realize at the time but look at it now it's like a wide open window window onto our lives you can see it in our faces you can expressions we're not really

in scenes together looking off into the distance and it's so obvious that we were going through something is it tough like I mean you work together right so how tough is that to break up with somebody and have to kind of be on stage with them

that was tough how tough is that yeah it was just a lot of not looking at each other you know but just as a testament to what we you know worked towards

because we ran the band you know Sandy not only a bass player but she also did all the accounting you know we're very very tight on what you know sandy not only a bass player but she also did all the accounting you know we're very very tight on what you know business went down so we decided that was more important you know we're not gonna let the band suffer and it took a while but um we moved on and now

these we've known each other for 40 something years it's crazy well i'm glad it worked out there's an expression pardon pardon my French here, but don't shit where you eat. Have you heard this? Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad it worked out. Yeah, absolutely.

So this song is kind of very revealing about that time in our lives, but it's also very honest. And talking about lists I just got, you know, last week in the Toronto Star

I had a list of the 100 most important Toronto-centric songs, and this was number nine, I think. I was going to mention that. So, yeah, I tweeted it at the... Who runs the Spoons Twitter account? I'm not sure.

Not you. Not me, not me, no. That's the first clue when you have to think about it. Okay, yeah, I was all over this... Was it top 100 or top 50? I can't remember. Okay, the Toronto Star, Toronto-centric songs or top 50? I can't remember. Okay. The Toronto Star, Toronto-centric songs or whatever.

And they chose this Spoons Jam because of the video. And I think it was the right choice because when you want to go back, I mean, I love the 80s. I grew up in the 80s. And it's like if you want to go back to the subways system of the 80s, There's no better archival footage in existence. Well, people know. They can tell just by the color of the tiles in certain stations or the streetcars. You know, it's very specific. I'm not a guy who lived in Toronto and took the subways,

but people come up to me all the time. And I actually met a guy who is like a streetcar driver or whatever. He says he puts this on his earbuds and he starts this day every morning. Hopefully he's allowed to listen to music. I don't know if he's got a paychecks or not. Yeah, I think you can, but that's great because you're right.

Even now, that's why I listen to you here. Dude, dude, dude, so catchy, but I see the subway going by. Fantastic. So a question from Grant Ridge. He wants to know, filming romantic traffic video at the subway station, how did you manage to get a permit?

So logistically, like, did you guys just show up with a camera and do it? No, no, no, we got a permit. We had like a TTC rep coming with us. And the deal was, because you don't really see the people, but a crowd was slowly built, right? And it got to a certain breaking point. They said, that's it, move to the next station.

So we jump on the thing. We met move stations all day long just to keep it under control. And then if it did something, we'd just grab people from the audience and let them be in it. There's some random people in there that we just – and I still meet them. I had a friend whose ex-wife said, I never really told you this. I'd known her like a year.

But I'm that little girl standing by the candy counter going, she's changed her hair color, she's grown up and all that stuff. But that was her. I still bump into people who were there or walked by or saw us making that video. I'm going to play Tell No Lies in a moment here, but I had read

somewhere that romantic traffic and Tell No Lies were basically written to satisfy A&M. Is there any... You're the man. Not at all. There was a bit of pressure. Is there any... No. Because you're the man. No, not at all. No.

There was a bit of pressure. You have to realize that we were the kind of band that if you look at Stick Figure, even Aria's, we never got pressure from the label

to be more commercial. And we're always allowed to be kind of... I regret it now sometimes. I wish it was just a bit more commercial so we would be on TV commercials now.

If you had a Swift, or all those great 80s songs that have been used and exploited in movies and stuff. We're always a little bit too quirky for some of that stuff, even though I think Romantic Traffic would make a great car commercial,

but it's one of these days. So that was the first time we were at the NMM for the Arias album. When it came to make the Talkback album, it was the first time I said, God, I really like you guys, but can you just be a little bit more mainstream? And believe it or not,

old emotions and that stuff was still kind of weird for America. And so I wrote Hermione Traffic, Town of Lies, and they said, yeah, this is it. It was still kind of quirky, you know, but they said, this is the stuff that's going to break you in America. And what happened next was totally unexpected. I don't know if you want to talk about that now. Okay, let's do it now.

You had some label issues in the U.S., is that right? Yeah, like I said, we put all this effort. I wasn't forced into it. I wrote these songs because I liked them. I wrote them on that magic guitar from the balcony next door. But finally, Anna, it's going, these are the I liked them. I wrote them on that magic guitar from the balcony next door. Finally, Anna is going, these are the songs that are going to break you.

They never were released. Can you imagine if these songs had done equally as well in the States? They should have. Now Roger's at the top of his game. Sometimes I'll hear things. Speaking of Gordownie, sometimes people will say, that's too Canadian. He's talking about Canadian things and stuff. That's why they didn't break south of the border

or whatever but songs like this like let's yeah to me it's a it's a great 80s pop song it had nothing to do

with us it was A&M Records the people that loved us all of a sudden Guy left and the new head of A&R or whatever came in

and he cleaned house like not just us but a lot of stuff on the label. He said, we're going to start fresh with a new vision. So not only was it not released, it was buried away down in the bowels of A&M Records so nobody else could release it either. Isn't that terrible?

You're not the first guy to tell me a story like this about labels. Can you imagine? Why be so cruel to do that? I hate hearing about this stuff because it's sort of like uh like for how long are you pissed off and bitter about this like uh at some point like do you feel you were screwed out of this chance to be like a much bigger global band yeah maybe but you know of course it was really painful i remember walking around like thinking that my life was over like Like, we'd done everything right. We had all the support.

We'd just come off a huge Culture Club tour, and everything was going our way. And then this, luckily, both those songs became huge hits in Canada, and we needed our fans more than ever. I tell you, when we went back on the road in Canada and we saw the response from them, we said, okay, at least we have our home crowd, and we did the best we could back in Canada,

but it could have been so much more. And then, like I say, when you look at things in the rear view mirror 30-something years later, you go, maybe there was a reason. Either it would have done nothing or it could have gone through the roof and I'd be a mess now living in L.A.

The fact that you don't know, the fact that you'll never know, it's eating me up. I can't imagine. I don't know know I'm not complaining my life has turned out so great and we'll get to that

all the stuff that's happening now maybe there's a reason maybe all the things that are happening now would not have happened if I had that and I would be

down and out and living in Skid Row in LA somewhere now maybe right sticking stuff in your arm or whatever but just for people listening

if they want to hear other musicians tell a similar story about how a label screws them over, Chris Murphy from Sloan came in. Sloan got screwed over by a label. And they, of course, they're still huge in Canada.

But yeah, so they got screwed over. But Andy Mays tells a story about their label issues too. Andy Mays from Sky Diggers. So there's a, so I hear about these labels, but yeah, just very frustrating to hear that

because cracking the U.S. market sounds like, I think this is a numbers game, right? There's more people in California than in Canada, so it becomes a numbers game. But you're beloved here for what that's worth.

But I already played Tell No Lies, but Tell No Lies, Romantic Traffic, those two jams, exceptionally catchy, but just yet another big radio hit for you guys in Canada. And I hope still unique enough that you,

what I like about our sound is you can always say, that's a spoon song. We don't get sort of mixed in with other 80s bands like some other bands do. And I mean, people, I have friends who are from Britain who thought, yeah, you know, even though I thought Tell No Lies was a little, maybe too poppy, I said, people, I have friends who are from Britain who thought, yeah, you know, even though I thought Talon Eliza was a little maybe too poppy, I said, no, that's the way funk would have been done by a British band. You know, it doesn't sound American, you know, commercial.

This sounds like more quirky. And I always made sure that there was an element that just kept it just off center, you know, like a little bit different. It didn't always work for us, but when it did, it kept our unique sound that I think we had. How important, so of course you're big in Canada, but how important was CFNY? I want to talk about CFNY and Much Music actually, but let's start with CFNY now, Edge 102, but back in the 80s. Yep.

How important were they to your success here? Huge. They played stick-freaking-neighborhood songs when nobody else would. And I think that album, like I said, we didn't even care if we had airplay because we said, we're going to be different. We're going to, you know,

a bunch of kids just want to be stubborn. But it did go to number one on college radio, and that's how we toured the country. And CFNY showed an interest. And a guy named Dave Marsden, I remember him one on college radio. That's how we toured the country. And CFNY showed an interest. And a guy named Dave Marsden, I remember him saying on the radio, can you believe these guys are from Burlington? And that was the first time I went,

oh, maybe there's a chance that we could do something. And he ended up becoming a lifelong friend through that. And he supported us. Mars Bar. Yeah. He's been here. I mean, we have a lot of the CFNY people here. Love that station and the history of the Spirit of Radio.

But yeah, Marsden played the mess out of you guys on CFY. Yeah, he still does. He has a similar kind of show. He's been very supportive. He was kind of like a relative. He'd be there at every important event. Be there to see us off in the tour bus as we headed out into America. and be there to see us off in the tour bus as we headed out into America.

And yeah, Sifmo was very, not only good to us, but they were a huge kind of introduction to that music, right? Because there was nobody else like them in North America. There was K-Rock in LA, but they were still really commercial, right? There's another cool guy I just met when I was playing in LA last January.

Remember, what's his name? The king of, they call him the king of Sunset Strip. He worked at Rodney. You know,

Rodney, I want to say Brockenheimer, but it's not. It's a funny name. But anyways, he's another one of those guys

like a Dave Marsden down in California. Anyways, they're not only good to us, but they introduced me to all those great bands that nobody else played.

You know, every week, Flying Lizards, you know, B-52s, Visage, like the stuff nobody else was playing on

and the stuff that to me became the mainstream while the rest of my friends were listening to like Beach Boys and, you know, whatever else.

And, I mean, prior to, now they're known as Casby Awards, Canadian artists selected by you, but they used to be the You Knows. And, I mean, prior to... Now they're known as CASB Awards, Canadian Artists Selected by You, but they used to be the UNOs.

And you guys, how many UNOs did you win? I think about eight of them. Yeah. You know what? We held the record until Tragically Hip.

There you go. From one gourd to another. Yeah, exactly. And in the Tell No Lies video, is Live or Old Jive in that video? Yes. Live or Old Jive, Beverly Hills, Pete and Geats are in there.

Oh, yeah. The late, great Pete Griffin. There's so many people that, you know. You know, Geats were almost still working in radio. He's still an engineer somewhere here. I can't remember which station now, but he's still working. Yeah. See, we got that video.

We have very smart management and a good lawyer. And at that point, we were trying to get out of our old label. And they wouldn't let us go. This is not A&M. This is a smaller community one. So we had to keep it alive somehow. And they worked out this deal with Maxell Tapes to do a big promotion across the country. And part of the deal was to pay for that video.

So that ended up being our most extravagant Cecil B. DeMille worthy. Like all our friends were in it. There's airplanes, there's sets, and there was a llama and a boa constrictor. Anything you think we threw in it. I'm going to get to the Maxell tapes. In fact, I'm going to play a thrifties ad in a minute. I got some questions about that.

First, I have a question because I don't remember this, but listen to The City. This was a film, and I took a note because I couldn't remember this but Listen to the City this was a film and I took a note because I couldn't remember but you'll tell me but Lena Horne was

in this movie Listen to the City no I don't think so no Sandy Horne was in it Sandy what did I say

Lena Horne yeah Lena she's a jazz singer oh that's hilarious yeah don't tell her I did that it's okay but there were other people that were in it

like Martin Sheen was in it but he was never he didn't I don't tell her I did that. It's okay. But there were other people that were in it, like Martin Sheen was in it, but he was never, he didn't, I don't think, but the main character is Jim Carroll, the poet, actor. Yeah, all my friends are dead. Yeah, from Basketball Diaries. Right, of course. And some other people, J.P. Moore,

another actress, I forget her name. She was like in, I don't know. Anyway, it was an indie film by Ron Mann, a Canadian film. It was a little bleak because it was about economics in a city like Hamilton almost like falling apart because of this factory's closing. But you know, the two things that came out of it

was that Sandy was actually a really good actress. She's actually a character in it and she was really natural. I wasn't. I had a little scene. I didn't want to be in it. i was there one day just because i'm doing the soundtrack and and and ron says uh the guy didn't show up do you guys want to do a quick scene with sandy just be her school teacher at oh okay yeah but that so that that that actually because there was no proper album for romantic traffic and tell the lies it just came out as a 12 inch or something they ended up putting those on the soundtrack

as part of that. So it kind of got lost that way. I think after what happened in America, we just wanted to put it out anywhere we could, right? So yeah, you stuck it on. Because those tracks you were doing for the soundtrack to listen to the city, they were mainly instrumental. Yes.

And they were all your babies, right? Yeah. They would send me scenes. And. So, and then they were, they were all your babies, right? Yeah. They would send me scenes and back then on, you know, on videotape and I would watch scenes and just kind of compose

to them, to the mood of whatever was happening there. I can't believe I called her Lena Horne. Why not? Why not, right? Why not?

Let's listen to an ad that aired in 1985 for Thrifties and then I want to talk about this and Maxell tapes there. Okay. Apologize for the poor quality there, but we had to resurrect that from some VHS. It's like a gramophone.

Okay. Talk to me about this period. We got so much slack for doing this, but you know what? We were one of the first bands that ever did a product placement thing like that. You were ahead of your time. Everybody does it now. I mean, Justin Bieber's got Aftershave or Perfume. Back then, it was like they said we're selling out. And I was a bit embarrassed,

a bit hokey, but you know what? It was part of us staying alive. We were trying to survive while our label was going under and wouldn't let us go. So we did stuff like this. And the funny thing is

that the in-stores, you know, I used to do record signings at the Sound of the Record Man, that kind of thing. Of course. We did a tour based on the support

from Thrifty's, but the in-stores at their stores were bigger than any record stores they were huge I remember one store we did the

I think it was Yorkdale Mall or something the kids pushed through the play glass windows they had to shut it down because kids got hurt

it was out of control 85 was a big year for me personally I remember it well and yeah Thrifty's were a big deal and that whole scene where you had

City TV giving out their t-shirts and I think they had something with thrifties yeah but that was big for teens back then with all the slack we got from critics

the fans didn't care and in the end it kept us alive we did what you could back then because it's not easy especially being the Canadian band

to stay alive and we ended up being able to do it for a solid 10 years. Well, I think it's interesting that at the time, in the mid-80s, yeah, you were accused of selling out. And of course, nowadays, this is the goal, if you will. I want a commercial.

I wish I had a commercial. And you said so earlier, like earlier in this episode, you made it like you wish some of your songs were more poppy, if you will, and they could then be better applied to sell product. And that's just another revenue stream for bands now that we don't question anymore selling. We hear, you'll hear, well, The Who, of course, but Led Zeppelin Jam will be selling Cadillacs

or something like that. Exactly. And I'm serious. We actually were talking to, I think it was, Mini Cooper, one of these companies, they were talking about maybe using romantic traffic. I think it would be brilliant. Or a Volkswagen Beetle ad. Two people pull up at a light and

look at each other, cute girl and a guy. There's so much possibility there. You know, I'm a little shocked it hasn't happened yet now that I hear you say that. It's a no-brainer to me. This is why I'm not in advertising. Must be a reason, like what happened in America.

Everything's turned out so well in the long run I'm not in advertising. Must be a reason, like what happened in America, you know, because I sort of, everything's turned out so well in the long run that I got to hope those things had a reason for not happening. The star headline at the time, by the way, back in 85,

was, it said, Tarnished Spoons, and this is because of the Thrifties campaign. Oh, was that in, yeah,

Toronto Star. Toronto Star, yeah. Tarnished Spoons, not Toronto. Tarnished Spoons, yeah. Wow. Yeah, and. That is cruel. No, was that in Toronto Star? Tarnished Spoons. Wow. That is cruel.

No, I know. It's just such a different age. So Derek Ross, he quit to be a music business guy. Is that right? Not right away. The year was end of 85 was our last show. We did New Year's Eve in Calgary.

And we had a big meeting and suddenly it was just Sandy and I. Rob decided, he ended up playing with Honeymoon Suite at some point, but not then. He was already talking to people downtown about doing musicals. That's what he still does. He used to do Broadway stuff, like Phantom of the Opera.

Yeah, so he was already auditioning then for I think it was Phantom in Toronto, and Derek, you know, he was getting offers. He was doing Broadway stuff like Phantom of the Opera. Yeah, so he was already auditioning then for, I think it was Phantom in Toronto. And Derek, you know, he was getting offers. He was always a businessman. He was a good talker. And so at that point, the band split in half.

And I kind of thought maybe that was the end, you know. It's just Sandy and I, but no, it wasn't at all. But suddenly we get signed to Anthem and SRO, which is Russia's management. A little different than what we're used to.

Again, being pulled in a different direction that's not really comfortable for me. But they're big. And when you get important people like that interested in you, you've got to believe there's a reason why. And that whole thing took us in a whole other direction again with the kind of music we were making. Selling more records in America than in

Canada. Getting on big tours in the States and trying that for a change, you know? And again, the press here is going, oh, they're selling out to America. You know, this album is, I remember putting out the Bridges Over Borders album and one of the first interviews, you know what the first question was?

Tell me. What happened? What? What? We want to sell records in America because it was a little bit but you know a little bit more mainstream rock you know but still spoonzy i think but um you know when a band is together as long as we had we had a 10 solid years even though we're playing now but as as a

continually touring recording band you got to go through some changes. If you stay in the same band all the way through, I don't know, like at the beginning we were very electro, you know, with Nova Heart, got a bit more pop-funk with Niall, then working with Anthem and Rush's people, a bit more guitar- orientated, drum, more drum-orientated,

but it ended up leading to an album that sold more in America than all our other albums, and doing huge stadium tours. And then by the end of the 80s, we kind of came back to where we started. So you got to change a little bit. But you know the nice thing, we play all those songs together at concert, they all fit together. It's not like

three different bands. No, you're absolutely right. It all fits. So speaking of, we spoke about Pete Fowler off the top. So Pete, who helped make this happen, I like to give him a lot of credit there. He's got a lot of favorite Spoon songs, but he tells me that his favorite Spoon song is Waterline.

Really? Yeah. And he especially likes the acoustic version. In his words, acoustically, it's magic. This is former Edge 102 DJ Pete Fowler talking there. Now, you brought a guitar. Now, is there any possibility I could get you to break open that case and maybe play a song for Pete?

Yeah, of course. That's one thing I started doing in the last couple of years is doing the songs acoustically. I never thought in a million years it would work, but they do. Even songs like Nova Heart, which is all drum machines and synthesizers, you strip them down like pretty good songs.

Now, I have the two microphones here. I can bring this guy down and turn him on, if that makes sense. And we'll do this live here. It'll be kind of authentic here. Okay. Are we going to do this? Keep it rolling?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll play some transition music for these guys. Do you want to do the whole song? Just part of it? Maybe just a bit of part here. This will be the transition music here. I'll play a little Noah Hart here. Here, I'll do that. So... Yeah. heart here this will be the transition music here i'll play a little noah heart here yeah i guess you try to aim toward the sound hole now i may roll away though

you have to have this really close as well like on that like the other mic it sounds pretty good, I think. Hey. You don't want to have the vocal overpowering the... Yeah. I might even sing without my earbuds in, because it's a bit confusing. It's up to you. How's that playing?

Hello, hello. Maybe a little closer of them. I just don't want the vocal being really loud compared to the guitar these mics though if you're off like by this much you want to yeah yeah yeah that works i think it sounds great really that one ain't it i said so i mean i do a couple of bits of things you want yeah absolutely anything i love it i never thought it would work when the very first thing i did was um this thing called bluebird north it's like an unplugged thing i was doing with larry gowan up at the conservatory of music oh my god he was playing on the grand piano that he played when he went there right right and he was so supportive and even as i was doing it i'm going oh this is not good and then then i saw some you know iphone on a video clips people

posting wow from the other side, it looked pretty cool. You know, it takes even stuff like, talk about aria symphonies. How's the mix, okay? Yeah, I think it's fine. The mic went closer to the mouth, I think, a little bit. But yeah. So you can do it. You just strip it right down like that. Is it hard to be the kind of man you want to be?

All options not left open Playing games For the benefit of those who watch Determine this one will turn out right Sounds like a musical, eh? Love it. Right Not like the women he knew in his life. Arias and Simphonic.

We got the idea, right? Love it. That's not the song I wanted to hear, but when I did that, I thought, wow. It's like you hear the songs totally different. What I usually do is I'll start them slow like that, and then I'll pick them up to regular speed when people get antsy, right? So I do songs like... I start with the campfire version, and then it kicks in.

I see people's toes tapping. But this is where you hear the words. Architects of the world I walk your streets and live in your towns temporarily architects of the world

You stood as well until now still my beat we'll be on our own and I'll sleep Sleep in your number heart You know, there you go. It's kind of cool how, and then I'll pick it up.

You know, then I can get into it. But it was a surprise to me as to anybody else that these songs are kind of just timeless songs. I'm doing like that. Okay, you want to hear Waterline. Pete wants to hear Waterline. I want to hear everything. Are you kidding me?

That was fantastic. I don't normally do. It actually sounds really good if the mic, my non-professional ears. You tell me because I took the headphones off because I don't want

to hear myself too much. There's certain songs that are pop songs. They think they would work. But what I realized is Spoon Stuff is not really based very much in pop music

or going back like country or R&B or a lot of other rock music. It's more sort of symphonic or musical. Like this is my Germanic roots or something. It's more Wagner than James Brown. It's a very, you know, it could be a musical or a classical piece instead.

So the reason I did these other songs, I usually don't do waterline very often, acoustically I have, but it's a very simple song. This song's kind of Celtic-y. We recorded this in Wales at this great little studio on the side of a hill

where there was a little castle up and there were sheep and it was just beautiful I mean it was the same studio where Led Zeppelin had recorded and Tubular Bells

was done and later on Oasis so I tell people every album that we made you're gonna

get a flavor of where you made it in the song it kind of soaks it up right so I tell people when you play this one you kind of

you can see the castle you can smell the sheep it's got a sort of you just have sort of a big Celtic and kind of soaks it up, right? So I tell people, when you play this one, you can see the casting, you can smell the sheep. It's got a sort of... He has sort of a big Celtic drama on the one. It goes... Oh, there goes my pick. Sorry.

That happens even in studios. All right. Try that again. There is a corner in her heart Where everything always shows up in the end sometimes good sometimes bad the memories just rise up to the top on the waterline I get to the chorus. And the submarines keep surfacing. On the waterline At the edge of love

I swim To you On the waterline Deep in her heart Something like that. Hope he enjoyed that. It sounds great, man. And that's a great jam. And that's the late 80s, right? Yeah, that. Hope Pete enjoyed that. It sounds great, man. And that's a great jam.

And that's the late 80s, right? Like 80s? Yeah, that's right near the end. The last studio album we made was Vertigo Tangle that we recorded in Wales. And like I say, things coming full circle. That was back with John Punter again that we did Nova Heart with.

So it was so great after all that we've been through working with Ron Rogers and later with Bob Rock from the West Coast and Tom Tremuth to come back and do our final album of the 80s with John Punter again. Because as we're making it, we could see the end of the 80s. This is 88, and things are really changing. Grunge hadn't quite happened, but the whole 80s thing was...

And now it's hear bands, right hair bands right is this what's emerged really and motley crew and uh yeah so like because see something was going to change and we made this sort of big farewell thing and i really thought it would be the last thing we ever did of course it wasn't but it was for a while because a couple years later grunge and plaid and the west coast and all that stuff happened. And we had to sort of lay low for a while. Yeah, but if it's more comfortable for you, did you want to put the guitar back? I'll come back as we talk about some other things.

Okay, yeah, yeah. Don't put it too far. But I'll mute this mic now and then we'll bring that back here. Sorry, hopefully that sounded okay. No, actually, you know what? To me, it sounded amazing and i still kind of pinch myself that uh gordette from the spoons is playing in my basement uh i think the first band to play here was uh lowest of the low oh cool yeah in fact i still got ron hawkins a

guitar pick so i'm pointing on top of this but the first person who took out a guitar and started strumming it on the microphone was Fred Penner. Oh, yeah, of course. My kids all listen to that stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you know what?

People might find it hard to believe, but playing an acoustic guitar is weird to me. I was raised on electrics and amps and pedals and effects. So to do that

for the first couple of times, it was like being naked. I was like, ah, you can hear everything. But when I see people's faces and hearing the words and telling, and of course, tell was like being naked. I was like, ah, you can hear everything. But when I see people's faces and hearing the words and telling, and of course, tell the stories of the songs, people love that stuff.

And it makes me feel like I can't stop talking. I start pouring out all the stories and memories. Well, I think that's the future of radio. To me, we can get the songs anywhere, but the whole, let the artist telling you the origin of why they wrote it and different things about the production. You're telling the story, but the artist telling you the origin of like why they wrote it and different things about the production. Like you telling the story, but you can smell the sheep and everything.

Like to me, that's the texture. That's the context that gets me excited. Like that's what I'm starving for. No, I'm good. And that's why I send me joking about smelling the sheep. Because that's a thread that's run through all my music too. Before The Spoons, I was a psychology student at McMaster. So I never was going to become a psychologist.

But that kind of thinking behind things really comes through my music. Like, World Emotions is a good example of how the smell of something, whether it's sheep or somebody's perfume or something, or the taste, those will evoke memories and feelings that you thought were locked up. And that's happened a few times. Water line, too. That's what that song is about. And that line, when the submarines keep surfacing, I'm not talking about submarines.

I'm talking about things come up to the surface that have been sort of hiding below the surface. And that's a theme that runs through a lot of our stuff. So I guess those psychology classes paid off. Well, and maybe they helped you become a better writer because you wrote, tell me about the book. So you wrote Sp tell me about the book. So you wrote Spoonfed. Yeah. Yeah.

It was just a working title because it's so simple, but of course, and that ends up being the title. It's stuck. Yeah. You don't want something too clever, right? And people like it because it's not your average autobiography because it's not like, you know, Keith Richards just talking about Shagging the Birds and all that stuff. It talks about a kid.

It's more like a Stephen King novel. And I think I'm a pretty good writer. But a little kid who comes to... I was born in Canada but moved to Europe, so I come here not speaking a word of English and just regressing and hiding at home writing songs. And how does this... You have to see my yearbook pictures back then.

They were horrendous. It was like the nerdiest... I had sideburns and mustache glasses, hair part in the middle. It was like a cross between Alfalfa and what's his name? Alfred B. Newman from Mad Magazine. How does he

first of all, you get noticed and then you have songs that end up on the radio. I never thought in my wildest dreams I'd be brave enough. It was just this kid and all the weird things that influence you. It's not just other bands. I was be brave enough. But it was just this kid and all the weird things that influence you. It's not just other bands. I was influenced by Disney. I was influenced by the Twilight Zone,

probably more than anything in my life, Twilight Zone, and then the Prisoner TV show and all these quirky little things that made me who I am. And then, of course, all the Crazy Spoons adventures and stuff that come out in the book. And, I mean, Sandy Horn, let's face it, me and about how many million other guys had a massive crush on her. So, I mean, and it's a little awkward for you only because you were a couple and then there was a breakup or whatnot. And, you know, none of my business what happened there, you know.

But you sort of have to, you almost have to share her in the fantasies of your fandom, if you will. Of course. That was a huge part of it. And it was a unique thing. We were kind of like Annie and Dave the Arrhythmics, right? Most artists were either bands or a female solo or a male solo. I don't think there were that many. There was Martha

and Mark from the Muffins, but they weren't really advertised as that kind of duo. I think they were a band but that was kind of like the only combo like that and they sure

made the most out of it and you know the labels did and sometimes it was all about Sandy you know her looks and stuff but I hope the music

stood up in the meantime and she still blows people away with her amazing bass playing she's incredible like I said as recently as last summer I saw you guys

and she still looks good man you know what I mean time has been good to both of you I would bass playing. She's incredible. As recently as last summer, I saw you guys. She still looks good, man. You know what I mean? Time has been good to both of you, I would say. We have a question from Jonathan Whatley. Whatley? Whatley. It's spelled like Whatley, so we'll go with Whatley. Ask him about his work

in first-generation digital streaming. He was a programmer for Galaxy. Were you involved in generation digital streaming he was a programmer for galaxy so were you uh involved in early digital streaming i guess i was i got contacted by then i think it was part of the cbc yeah i guess um cbc is it i don't know it's canadian right they they they wanted me to be the programmer for their all 80s station that was the first one. Later on, it got taken over by, is it Stingray? Yeah, I don't think it was CBC.

I know this is the stuff you see. I can see it on my digital Rogers terminal if I go up to the 700s or something. They're up there, right? This is way back. Stingray, I think now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But they wanted me to build this platform

of 1,600 songs they could draw from. They left it up to me within certain parameters. It's amazing what they thought was too heavy that we couldn't put on there. Any examples, by the way? Oh, Some Clash. Even like a Should I Stay or Should I Go?

No, not that. I usually pick a bunch of songs per artist that I liked. Maybe London Calling they thought was too... Something, yeah, but I was amazed. Then I would squeeze in songs that I guess they didn't know, and they were way heavier, like Take the Skinheads Bowling and stuff like that. So I thought it was important to the era, right?

So I did this, and I had to categorize every song by artist, genre, speed, mood, so you could punch a button and go, I want female punk bands from 1983, from Liverpool, in the key of E, or,

you know, that thing would come up. So they had lots to work with, and sadly, it did take me three months to do it, but it was a one-time job, because, you know,

there aren't new 80s songs coming out. That's true. But they kept me on their roster, and under contract for, geez, five, six years, and then it got bought out,

but it was good. It was, I'm glad to be part of it. Of course, there's Spoon Songs in there, as are many Canadian artists. They should all be on there. You've become kind of like, you're kind of like the 80s ambassador,

if you will, in a sense. I hope so. You're kind of carrying the torch. For those of us who want to, some of us want to go back once in a while, and it's just fun for a night to kind of go back to the 80s. But at the same time, we were saying before,

people enjoy nostalgia. I really don't think it's just a nostalgia thing anymore. I think the 80s is kind of a genre of music that's here to stay, like R&B and heavy metal and punk and rap. I don't think it's just an era. It's sound, and it comes through in new bands. I hear it now. Yeah, because I have a 13-year-old daughter, and she'll play, I don you know new bands I hear it now because I have

a 13 year old daughter and she'll play I don't know something from Selena Gomez or something like that and there's a definite synth 80s sound to it

or even a Taylor Swift or whatever and you're like I'll go to my collection or whatever and I'll play a Spoon song or something and I'm like

can you tell how similar that sound is I saw the greatest article because having German German background, I was kind of embarrassed about what music is there from Germany. There's the Oompa Pompa stuff, which I don't like.

The classics I love, Wagner. A lot of stuff is crazy. But pop-wise... You've got to go to Austria because then you get Falco. There we go. This is what I'm leading up to. That's right.

I just read an article a few months ago. I think it might have been a Rolling Stone, like a big thing, or New York Times, saying that the most influential band for other artists was not the Beatles. It was Kraftwerk. It still perseveres in hip-hop and everything. They have quotes from big hip-hop artists.

Yeah, that's where all the beats come from. At first, sort of foreign and inhuman sort of sound but no that's that's music now and then when i went back and listened to cool music from even the 70s you know from germany oh my god that's like music now is they were trying to be not american and not british to find their own pocket and you know this crap of course but Cannes and Faust and all these cool bands that sound like shoegazer bands from now. I remember hearing stories about how it was that Brian Eno would go to Berlin

and steal that sound, bring it back to Bowie. That's how that whole sort of androgynous, sort of robotic thing. Well, he was coked out in Berlin for years, right? So I almost said, that's the kind of thing, oh, that's okay.

Then I understood why the Spoons sound the way they did. I wasn't raised on a lot of the pop and stuff that other people were, and sort of more Teutonic, and then my approach more Germanic in a way. And then now you see bands admitting that now. I mean, I saw OMD last week.

They had so many Kraftwerk sounds, and they even did the whole thing where they came up front, like during the Pocket Calculator tour, they're all standing on the front with little instruments and little noisemakers and things. It's kind of a cool thing. I'm not saying, you know, I don't believe that Kraftwerk's the most influential band of all time. No, but there's an argument to be made.

You can connect them to so much of what we hear today. Absolutely. That's very, very, very interesting. Now, the time, right, like this is 2018. So this is sort of an ideal time for an 80s revival, if you will. So like, I know you guys are still touring and stuff, but like a big, this is the time now, the big Spoons comeback now.

Yeah, it's the last couple of years. I keep thinking it's over. I thought the retro movement was just a nostalgia thing. Like you said, the beginning, about 95 it started. It was that early that it started. But it keeps getting stronger. It's just hitting parts of Central America.

I mean, not Central America, but mid-America. It's growing. It still gets bigger. Our gigs are getting bigger. You know, the quality and the number is getting more and more. I think the age group that, you know, grew up with us wants to hold on to that.

And they don't want to go to little bars anymore. They want to go to a nice theater or, you know, a nice venue. So we're happy to be part of that. And that has let me, I don't know if you are aware that I play with another 80s band now. Well, here, let me play a little bit of another 80s band here. And I sort of hinted at it earlier, and I'm going to explain why.

Yeah, let's see if, hold on here. Soak this in, Gord, hold on. Now, hopefully I've got the right 80s band. I think I do. It's not even my favorite band by then. There are so many other ones that I prefer. No, you're right. And I was thinking, what do I play?

And I was thinking, well, this is what I would call the big hit, if you will. So we'll give the masses, give them what they want, right? And the legs this song has had, it was even in La La Land. It just keeps going. Well, in 2007, I made a big running mix. I made my running mix for obvious reasons. But here it's coming here. Speaking of hairspray, what was it called again you used?

What was the product? Joico Ice Mist. Was there a lot of Joico Ice Mist used in Flock of Seagulls? I think so. But you know that Mike, the singer, used to be a hairdresser before he was a singer. That all makes sense now. And you go see bands in Liverpool, you're like, I can do that. I've got the hair.

I'm getting platinum blonde flashbacks. I actually have the story about how he got that hair, too. Tell me. It was supposed to be an accident. Anyways, this is the band that I am now officially the guitar player for since last October. Cool. And playing, like, my God, the size of the gigs that we do.

We have about a 30-date North American tour book for the summer called The Lost 80s Tour. We're headlining that with, also with Wang Chung, a man without hats, and An Emotion, and Jean Lessevois,

all those guys, they're in there. Anyways, long list by 12 bands. Then we're going to Europe this summer. We're going to South America in the fall. Hawaii is like, it's blowing my mind. That is, that's amazing. So you're going to do Spoon, so you're doing kind of a, we'll talk about Gallant in a second actually.

Seagull. So you're doing Spoon stuff. You're doing, and you're doing Flock of Seagull stuff. Yeah, I'm kind of doing the Gallant thing. You know, you're right. That's what Larry ended up doing with the sticks. Yeah. And I'm going to play a little Gallant in a minute. That's know, you're right. That's what Larry ended up doing with the sticks. Yeah, and I'm going to

play a little gallon in a minute. That's awesome, man. Yeah, it's, you know, of all the bands that I could think of, when we did that show in 82 at the police picnic I was talking about

with the police talking heads, this is the band that caught my ear. We were the two young bands and I've got a great photo of the two of us together and I was thinking, what is this?

It was like kind of seeing the edge for the first time. The guy's approach to guitar with all the chorus and delay was, I loved it. You know, I just wanted to cop that sound. It was so radical at the time. So when we ended up playing together, we actually did a charity show in Canada about two years ago.

We hadn't seen each other for 30-something years, right? He came up without his band, and Spoons were playing. He says, can you guys learn like five of my hits? And I did. I didn't even really have to listen. I just kind of know. They're in my DNA, right? Right.

And he was so impressed by that. I guess he thought about it. And then we met again a year later. And then I get a call one day saying, Gord, you want to join the band? I said, what? Block of Seagulls? Yeah.

Just like that. And it was kind of like I couldn't think of a better match. I find that bands like Flock of Seagulls, they may have a number of great songs, but because they have this song, you can actually, just having the one mega hit, if you will, you have that kind of license, gives you license to play all these

interesting places you were telling us about. They're all, they're arenas. Like we did Los Angeles, the, what's it called, the Microsoft Theater where they have the Oscars,

sold out, 7,000. The Staples Center? Is that what it is? No, the Microsoft Theater. And then we did the Honda Center, 17,000 in Anaheim. Like, these are

with other people. They have Boy George on the bill as well and the Bangles. But the 80s thing is like, especially in America, I think it does better down there. I'm surprised we can't get the same thing. There are about five Canadian

dates on the tour, so you'll see us there. But this song, you're right, but they do have better songs. My favorite one by them is Space Age Love Song. And Modern Love is Automatic, Swishing, you know, this transfer of affection. There's so many good songs

that, especially as a guitar player, I just love. And you said Wang Chung is on this? Wang Chung, yeah. See, there's a band, one mega hit that everybody today can sing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But how many people will be able to name a second Wang Chung song? Yeah, I guess. You know what I mean? Wang Chung and Dance All Days, I guess. I struggle with the second, but...

Yeah, you're right. You know what? We did a show together a while back, and they actually have a lot of good songs. I was amazed. More than I remember. Some of these, you only remember the hit, right? But there are other ones around.

There always are secondary songs that you will know, right? The reason I kept the acoustic guitar thing, I did a show with Mike for Charity Thing up here last year. Again, he hadn't asked me to join the band yet, but he was supposed to do it unplugged, and he brought his guitar player up

at the time, and it was the same thing. He had backing tracks. It was huge, right? So I said, wait, Sandy and I are actually opening doing an acoustic thing. I said, this is how you do a Flock of Seagulls song. Can I do it for you? Yes, please. No, yes, please.

So I thought, if you're going to do acoustic, you have to do it right, right? So I was like, can you hear? I'm going to hit that one. We'll walk along the avenue. Never thought I'd meet a girl like you. Meet a girl like you. You almost smell the wieners in the campfire. Tiny as a tawny ice.

The kind of ice that hypnotized me through. Hypnotized me through. And I ran Ran so far away I just ran I ran all night and day I couldn't get away Then you pick it up.

Couldn't get away And then you go. You know, get into it. It you can do it you can do anything acoustically i found out you know forget about keyboards and drum machines you know it is kind of a sad thing though just when you're by yourself with an acoustic guitar when you you know a band is like your family it's like your universe and stuff. When you don't have them with you, you feel a little vulnerable and naked. But it does work on a different level. And you mentioned Lawrence Gowan. Here, let me mute that microphone.

Oh, I'll wait till you... Yeah, sorry. Lawrence Gowan, he's still a good friend of yours. Yeah. I actually called him when I got the Flag of Seagulls call and said, how did you manage? How did you do it? And I have to say, he's probably one of the nicest.

I love people who are successful and stay humble and nice, and he's definitely one of those guys. I can't say that about a lot of other people, but he is. Because he's been doing that Styx thing for a long time now. Yeah, and he was great as his own artist. But I used to think, what a lucky guy to get that break. You know, because... But he still does his odd

shows, and we actually opened for his show last November, Saturday night, did the acoustic thing. And then he came and did a guest spot at one of our shows. But he kind of told me how it all worked with Styx and, you know, all the stuff about visas and working in the States and how he juggles stuff.

And I went and saw him at the amphitheater two years ago, I think it was. They were opening for Def Leppard, Styx. And I tell you, when they let him do one song, one of his, I think it was, it might have been Strange Animal. I'm not sure. It was the highlight of the night. The people went nuts. I'll bet. It's his backyard.

Yeah. Absolutely. It's funny because I think Def Leppard's coming back this summer with Journey. I think Journey's opening. Oh, yeah. And they replaced their lead singer. There's a good art documentary about a guy from the Philippines who sounds just like I don't think it works.

That's my question for you. So I have in my life, I've gone to see Alice in Chains and it wasn't Layne Staley. It was the new guy or whatever. So I always wonder this, just thinking aloud, if you see a band and it's a different lead singer, you're still seeing the band?

Is there no, you don't have any qualms about this? I have to agree that is weird, but if I can see guys, I'm not the singer. Right, you're the guitarist. That's why I didn't sing it very well there. You sound good to me, man.

It's still my score on the keyboards and vocals. I'm the guitar player, you know? And they've had a few since the original guy. He was only with them for the first five, six years or something. And another thing, I should maybe go back to the guitar, but, I mean, working with him, I realized it was like destiny that we're working together. If I take Iran and Novahart,

which came out the same year when we started out, I really, I mean, his songs, you know, his songs are very spacey. And so Novahart too,

I think we were both abducted by the same flying saucer. Well, you could do something on the guitar, like to show how similar they are. It's nuts. Can you do it quicker?

Yeah, yeah. Let me, let me bring that. Sorry, Lawrence, we need to take you down. He doesn't like to be called Larry. It's freaky. Like, first of all, they're about need to take you down. He doesn't like to be called Larry. It's freaky.

First of all, they're about the same temple. They're both about sort of space-y subject matter. His is about being a flying saucer, being abducted. Nova Heart was about this sort of... Again, a nova that helped absorb things. But sort of a spiritual, all-encompassing, galactical kind of thing. Anyways,

I came out of reading a lot of science fiction as a kid. But listen to the, his first line is, I walked along the avenue, and then the Novahart is, architects of the world,

I walk your streets, and look, you know, the walking thing, right? And then the way it goes into the chorus, it's like, in both our songs, the chorus goes down a note like

it's kind of an unusual if you think of like um and and i'll sleep he goes down like sleep and our line is and i'll sleep sleep in overheart and his is and i ran and i ran you know it's like even the wording is it's very you're right it's like we're on the same you know the same spaceship there is they're prodding us or something. And then just lyrically and the feel and the way the melody goes is very odd. And I didn't realize that until we start working together. But the main thing out of all this is I hope you'll let me play at least Nova Heart

as we, you know, our relationship builds. At least in Canadian shows. Oh, right, right, right. Flock of Seagulls. Like they let Larry Gowen, sorry, Lawrence, they let him do Strange Animal. Throw one in there for, but he is working on a new album

and he wants me to co-write with him. So I've been working with Mike on the next Flock of Seagulls album. So maybe we can squeeze more of a Spoons vibe in there. Oh, very cool. Now I'm wearing the shirt from Lost Indy City,

which is, we've mentioned Pete a few times, but one more is okay. So Pete Fowler has a show, a radio show from Lost Indy City, which is, we've mentioned Pete a few times, but one more is okay. So Pete Fowler has a show, a radio show called Lost Indy City. Are you doing, are you hosting any radio stuff with Pete? I did, but not anymore.

Oh, not anymore. We had a radio show. You took so long to come in here. That news was fresh and now it's all. We had a radio show for quite a while. It was called Air, like arts industry radio. We were trying to bring sort of people that were relevant. Actually, Larry was called AIR, Arts Industry Radio. We were trying to bring people that were relevant.

Actually, Larry was on the show one time, too. Lawrence Gowan, he was on. And just talk about not just their record sales and tours, but what they were passionate about. I was on that show. Do you know this? Pete interviewed me and played my segment on AIR. Oh, there you go.

I probably heard it then. No, it was cool. We got people ranting about whatever they wanted to, and we talked about everything from, I had Sandy in because she's, Sandy Horn, not Lena Horn, Sandy is, she's also involved with Indigenous peoples, and she tours with doing school presentations

to teach kids about that culture and music and stuff. So we had her on talking about that whole world. We had people talking about licensing and the future of downloading, anything. Anybody you want to talk about. It was kind of a cool little show. But you're not doing it anymore because you're just too busy?

No, I think the show kind of... Ran its course? Yeah, I think. And then, yeah, it is. I had to sub out many times. For a joke, they kept calling me the out-in-the-street reporter because I'd be on the road. and then yeah it is I had to sub out many times for a joke they kept calling me like the out in the street reporter

because I'd be on the road I'd be calling in from PEI or New York and say oh I'm here now and I'm checking out the local bands I'd just make something up to make it sound like I was busy you know contributing to the show but yeah it was hard to do it consistently I gotta bang off these two more questions because I'm

afraid if I don't get to them now, I'll forget to get to them. But Basement Dweller, that's his handle, he loves Bridges Over Borders, but he says he can't find it on CD. So any plans to reissue this thing? See, there's another thing. How does that happen, right? But that was Anthem Records, the Rush label,

and they're now defunct, I think, because Rush broke up, right? They're not recording anymore, so they're gone. So they sold all the publishing to that stuff to another company, and we've been at them for years now, saying, give it to us, we will release it. And they keep saying, no, no, we want to do it. Well, do it.

That's frustrating. That's got to be the most frustrating thing for an artist, that you can't control your own destiny. Either it ends up in some basement somewhere, or they say they're going to do something with it. Well, we could be. So we've been on that for years. A guy named Basement Dweller would probably be happy if they were actually in his basement.

Just get a vinyl copy and make bootlegs. Just go ahead. We'll give you permission. You have Gord's permission. He also, same gentleman, he's seen you a couple times in the past two years, but he never heard Be Alone Tonight. And it's his personal favorite song,

and he wants to know if you perform it live anymore. Not very often. I do like it too. That's the one I refer to about when they made us act in videos where I supposedly break out with my girlfriend. I actually smashed the bottles of champagne on the sidewalk. This was so painful for me as a guitar player. They had me

throwing a guitar off a bridge. It was actually in a case. It was an empty case, but just physically doing it. It was wrong. I did it like five times, and it was so painful. Yeah, it's kind of a cool song. It was definitely more poppy for us, but it had saxophone in it.

It was a little different for us. It was like a big rock ballad. It was a little different for us. It was like a big rock ballad. It was on the cusp of that whole hair band thing. I do like that song. Awesome. I'll tell you now what a personal thrill this has been

to have you here. Love your tunes. Even listening to these songs and hearing you tell me, it's been a personal thrill. I'm so glad we finally made this happen. Have we missed anything you're up to? Because you sound like the one-armed

wallpaper hanger, so busy. You're doing the Flock of Seagulls stuff. The New Spoons album we're working on. We have about nine songs, well, four or five done, and then another four or five just being mixed. If you find it, four or five done, and then another four or five just being mixed. So there will be,

and there's actually, if you find it, there's a free one on our website. You can, we gave it sort of as a little teaser. If you want to play it in the show, it's a song called Beautiful Trap. And I can't tell you when it'll be out. We're working on it forever, you know, but we hope to have it out by the summer.

Yeah, so new stuff. I keep telling Sandy she has to write her book. I figure it should be the mirror image of my cover. It's just my face. And you're just looking at me like, really? This is my side of the story. Oh, man, that's great. At a later date, no pressure.

This can be, you know, a long way down the road. But if you ever wanted to come back and we do a thing called kick out the jams where you, we play your 10 favorite songs of all time and you'd basically share with us why you love the jam. You'd be great at it. You'd love it. Absolutely.

And that brings us to the end of our 316th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Uh, you're not on Twitter, but the spoons are on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. You're not on Twitter, but the Spoons are on Twitter. The underscore... No, the Spoons. I think it's all... I think it's Spoons Canada. I think on Twitter you're the Spoons.

I think, because I've been tweeting at you guys. It's me, actually. All those tweets are from me pretty well. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Propertyinthe6.com is at Raptors Devotee. Paytm is at Paytm Canada. And Camp Tournesol is at Camp Tournesol.

See you all next week. rose in green Well you've been under my skin for more than eight years It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears