T-Spoon Reloaded Gouden Pijl 2015 02

T-Spoon is a Dutch Eurodance project founded in 1991 by rapper Shalamon Baskin (aka Shamrock) and co-founder Remy de Groot (aka Prince Peration). The project was offered a recording contract by No More Music.

Musical career

The debut T-Spoon single "No Time 2 Waste" was released in 1993, which reached the top 10 in Europe (the single "Spank", released in 1991 under the same project name, is probably from a different project).

During the following years, T-Spoon scored a string of hits, which brought them success in countries like the UK, Australia, Canada, Israel, Ireland, Scandinavia, South America and their home country, the Netherlands with songs like "A Part of My Life", "Where R U Now", "Take Me 2 the Limit" and " Sex on the Beach". They released four full album CDs, including a remix CD and a hit single collection. Their music is mainly Eurodance, including tracks of the R&B, happy hardcore and Euro reggae genres.

Behind T-Spoon stands Prince Peration (Dutch Remy de Groot), the group's founder and one of its driving forces. The co-producers were Dominic Sas and Serge Ramaekers (known for their projects Confetti's and Cartouche). On stage, T-Spoon consisted of four members: a female vocalist (Ingrid Simons, Jean Shy, Blonde, then Linda Estelle) and a male rapper (Shamrock, replaced in 1998 by Greg Dillard, then in 2001 by King Lover), and the two dancers, Regilio and Anatevka Bos.

In 1994, American jazz/blues vocalist Jean Shy was the featured singer for the Dutch formation.

In 1996, singer Linda Estelle joined the group, which changed the band's direction into the then-popular happy hardcore genre. In 1997, they became known for the summer hit " Sex on the Beach" which made the charts in the Netherlands as well as Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom. The song was first released in Ireland following its success in Europe. There it became one of the biggest hits of the year, peaking at number 3 in the Irish charts. Such was the success in Ireland that the song was released in the United Kingdom at the end of the summer and reached number 2 in the UK charts.

In 1998, Shamrock left the group and was replaced by Greg Dillard. With Dillard as the band's new rapper, the group had a 1999 hit with "Summerlove". In 2000, Dillard left, and Estelle became the new face of the group. In 2002, Shamrock rejoined T-Spoon, and the group subsequently released a number of remixes that were not very successful.

In 2008, Shamrock and Linda Estelle toured with their 'T-Spoon Reloaded Show'. In March, they performed at Ekonomika Rewind Leuven ( Belgium). In December, it was announced that Linda Estelle and Shamrock were back in the studio, and that they would record some new songs together to be released the following year.

In February 2009, they announced that they were busy recording and remixing some of their old hits, and that they had started writing new songs and were looking for collaborations throughout the world. In June, they appeared at Q Music's Foute Party in Den Bosch. Then they took part in a commercial for Johma salads' 40th anniversary, with Shamrock doing a sing/rap style in Dutch.

In 2010, there were 3 different T-Spoon formations for all tours, all of them official: Blondi & Raw Jawz, Linda & Shamrock and T Spoon DJ Squad. Remy de Groot explained that "We have the past, present & future, the past is T-spoon Reloaded with Shamrock & Linda, the present is the fresh young T-Spoon with Raw Jawz & Blondi, and the future is T-Spoon DJ Squad, for every generation there is something to enjoy about T-Spoon".

In 2012, T-Spoon released a collaboration with Dirty House Bastards featuring Akon titled "Dubhop Shawty".

In 2013, T-Spoon released a new single titled "Ticket to the Tropics". It is a cover of a song released in 1985 by Dutch artist Gerard Joling.

Origin of the name

Legend says that Shamrock said while stirring a cup of tea "I'd rather have a gold record than a gold tea spoon any day". "That's it," exclaimed Prince Peration, "That's the name", and so the name T-Spoon was born. More recently, Remy de Groot explained that the name actually came from a western TV show in which the sheriff was called Teaspoon.

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

References

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Dutch Eurodance groups
Dutch dance music groups