T-Spoon (NL)

During the following years they scored a string of hits, which brought them success in countries like the UK, Australia, Canada, Israel, Ireland, Scandinavia, South-America and of course their homecountry, the Netherlands. Songs like A Part Of My Life, Where R U Now, Take Me 2 The Limit and of course Sex on the Beach kept people moving all over the world. Releasing 4 full album CDs, incl. a remix CD and a hitsingle collection, they proved to be one of the most versatile dance acts to have ever existed. They produced some powerful eurodance tracks, but also groovy R&B songs, upbeat happy hardcore tunes and even euroreggae and eurodisco tracks. Behind T-Spoon stands Prince Peration (Dutch Remy de Groot), the founder and one of the driving forces behind T-Spoon. The co-producers were Dominic Sas and Serge Ramaekers (famous for their projects Confetti's and Cartouche). On stage T-Spoon consisted of 4 people : 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. 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. In 1994 the 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 bands direction into the then-popular happy hardcore-genre. In 1997, they became famous with 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 and peaked at number 2 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 replicated the success in Ireland, also reaching number 2 in the UK charts. It is also frequently mistaken to be created by Vengaboys. In 1998, Shamrock left the group, and was replaced by Greg Dillard. With Dillard as the band's new rapper, the group had the 1999 hit "Summerlove". In 2000, Greg Dillard left, and Estelle therefore became the new face of the group. In 2002, Shamrock rejoined T-Spoon, and the group has 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 studio, and that they would record some new songs together to be released the following year In 2009 February, they announced that they were busy recording and remixing some of their old hits, and that they had started writing new songs and were are looking for collaborations throughout the world. In June, they appeared at Q Music's Foute Party in Den Bosch. Then they took part to a commercial for Johma salads' 40th anniversary, Shamrock doing a sing/rap style in Dutch. In 2010 there are nowadays 3 different T-Spoon formations for 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 entitled Dubhop Shawty. In 2013 T-Spoon's new single is entitled Ticket To The Tropics. It is a cover of a song released in 1985 by Dutch artist Gerard Joling.