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One of the most successful bands ever to emerge from Windsor, Ont., received the key to the city on Friday from Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens.
The award honours the band’s 35th anniversary of making music and its sale of nearly three million albums worldwide — including more than a million in Canada, Dilkens told the audience at the presentation event.
It also recognizes the band’s most successful Canadian tour ever, their impact, their legacy, and their charitable efforts supporting healthcare, vulnerable populations and more.
“I just want to say we’re Windsor’s Tea Party and we have always been Windsor’s Tea Party,” bassist and keyboardist Stuart Chatwood told the audience at the presentation ceremony.
“And just to know now — after receiving this key, just it’s symbolic, yes, but it’s symbolic that the city has our back and they support us. And that’s just a great feeling.”
Founded at the start of the 1990s the Tea Party has earned a total of 13 Juno nominations and scored three double platinum albums in Canada, two platinum albums and two gold ones.
A different musical direction
The band sought to go in a different musical direction than grunge bands, such as Nirvana, who were popular at the time they formed, singer Jeff Martin told reporters at the event.
“Hence, our fascination with world music and fusing that with hard rock,” Martin said.
“These days, if a rock band comes out and they have anything remotely Middle Eastern in their sound now, they get compared to the Tea Party, you know?”
The influence of Detroit radio also gave the band members an “unfair advantage,” when it came to developing their sound, Chatwood said.
Members of the Tea Party and their management team present the City of Windsor with a plaque commemorating more than a million of the band’s albums sold in Canada. (Acton Clarkin/CBC)
Upon receiving the award, Chatwood thanked Windsor and everyone who has supported the band over the years.
Martin thanked, among other people, his father for believing in him from a young age and instilling in him a fascination with the blues.
Drummer Jeff Burrows acknowledged his family and bandmates and gave a shout out to Windsor Star writer Owen Jones, who died this week, for his early support of the band.
The presentation ceremony was held Friday at Rocket Innovation Studio, the former site of the Coach and Horses, the venue where the band first established an audience.
The award is reserved for Windsorites who have made “the biggest contribution,” the mayor told reporters after the event.
“If you go back to the ‘90s and you talk to people who are my generation and have followed the Tea Party growing up and you’ve watched the band members and what they do, there’s no doubt that they’ve earned the key to the city today,” he said.
The event also saw the band’s management present a plaque to the City of Windsor commemorating more than a million albums by the band sold in Canada.