Spades GT Updates From March-April 2024!!

For today's post, let's cover some more recent activity from local/Barrie crossover thrash quartet Spades GT, so what have they been up to since we left off in late March? Firstly, drummer Tyler Reiner was featured in a "Reel" on March 23rd to thank the Even Without Life (E:W:L) podcast for interviewing him and bassist James Roy Daley on air the previous day (click here to watch the now-heavily muted live-stream). While only the rhythm section was interviewed, Tyler did thank them "on behalf of all us boys in Spades GT", crediting J.D. and Daniel too. This is probably very obvious for many, but he did not mention guitarist Jay Sarrazin here, so this may be as close to a confirmation that he has left the band as we've gotten. Jay served as a fill-in bassist in late 2022 before moving to second guitar for a series of early 2023 gigs.

While he did feature in official band photographs at the time and was a listed band member on their taken-down website, he only appeared on two songs on "Sewer City Radio" and hasn't played in concert with Spades GT since the spring of 2023. All is definitely amicable (go see Hellrager at the Northern Vibe Festival in August for proof), but he was always busy with multiple other GTA hard rock bands. It was just never put in firm writing that he seemingly left Spades GT, but hopefully Jay rocks out with Spades again if things line up! Also, at the end of the "Reel" above, Tyler showed off a CD copy of "Sewer City Radio" on camera, noting that it is "on all streaming platforms". It's not on Bandcamp, among other platforms, so "all" really means "major", but do give it a listen thusly! The next day, the former Jack Spades noted that they would be getting airplay on Manchester, England internet radio station Hard Rock Hell Radio, which is very neat!

They were played by DJ Scott Knowles, a.k.a. The Mighty Northern Viking (what a handle) on his 10:00 AM Pillage program, and unlike many radio stations, the show is posted for on-demand streaming after its live airing, and you can hear episodes of The 10am Pillage at this link! The March 25th, 2024 episode has Spades GT, and they crop up 81 minutes into the 2 hour episode with the song "Final Girl", which Scott heard & liked after a friend posted the video on social media. No big insights beyond that, but cool to see Spades getting cross-continental airplay, and singer J.D. Pearce would like that they were played after a Graves-era Misfits song! In a new show announcement, Spades GT would be among the openers for Toronto hardcore punk legends The Bunchofuckingoofs (who headlined at what's now Jay's in August 2013) at Lee's Palace in Toronto on May 11th. We're not there in the timeline yet, but any fallout from that show is coming!

After seeing a planned tour run with The Dayglo Abortions in December get cancelled due to frontman Murray "The Cretin" Acton's recovery from cancer surgery, Spades will get a one show do-over in their current Barrie homebase at The Queens Nightclub on June 11th, so keep that hardcore punk intensity in mind if you'll be in the GTA then! In a post on April 3rd, Spades GT noted that they "are making great progress on writing the next chapter" (they had previously teased releasing new music this summer), and thanked Just Some Noise for their help (J.S.N. is a dedicated jam space in Barrie for area musicians). Another "Reel" was posted on April 6th that heavily implied that Spades GT had played live the previous day, but guitarist Daniel Horton was playing that night with his other band The Fast Life, and J.D. was in attendance, with both guesting on impromptu chorus vocals during G.F.U.'s song "Party Every Day"

Despite the unfortunate trappings of "Reels" (not to mention that the video was filmed and uploaded in horizontal landscape and pillarboxed to fit the vertical dimensions), it's a fun video, and I can see why G.F.U. have become friends and frequent setmates of Spades! I can't embed "Reels" here, but give it a watch above. We will pick things back up for Spades GT content in mid-April, and in their actual timeline, proper concerts were soon resuming, so we'll keep catching up soon, and look for weekend concert previews on the site next! Thanks everyone!