Captain Spalding coming to Torquay Bowls Club

THE Captain Spalding Band is performing at the Torquay Bowls Club on Saturday August 18.

While other cover bands “milked” their ideas dry until there wasn’t an audience left to perform to, Captain Spalding has successfully re-invented itself over the years to adapt to Melbourne’s ever-changing live entertainment environment, as well as the demanding requirements of the corporate world.

This band has performed shows from Toorak to Tokyo and St Kilda to Singapore, being invited back repeatedly.

And talk to anyone from Melbourne and chances are they’ll tell you where and when they’ve seen the amazing Captain Spalding Band.

So where does this story begin? Well it goes back to the very early 80s when a young Tom Spalding (who was working as a solo artist at the time) was offered work by P & O to form a band and travel around the South Pacific on a cruise ship for a few months. And so was born the very first incarnation of Captain Spalding.

Obviously, the name was derived from the maritime theme of the band’s origins, but Captain Spalding was also a Marx Brothers film character.

There is many a story to be told about the adventures of this Captain Spalding on the high seas. Suffice to say they all had a great time and decided to keep the unit together once back on dry land.

Before long the band had established a number of residencies around Melbourne with word spreading fast that this was the act to see in the cover band circuit.

The Captain Spalding Band has consistently performed 4-6 shows every week, 48 weeks a year for the past two decades – Tom has a staggering 5,000-plus gigs under his belt!

And although most of the “legendary” venues the band performed at are now just distant memories, there is one Melbourne institution that is literally known around the world – the Sunday afternoon session at The Geebung Polo Club in Hawthorn where Captain Spalding played for 12 years!

It was the band’s longest-running residency.

The band has had a number of line-up changes over the years but the current entourage (including crew) has been the same for the past five years. The band has also released two live cd recordings, which were all snapped up by fans of the band within weeks of being released.

Tickets for the gig at the Torquay Bowls Club on Saturday August 18 can be bought at the bar or via trybooking.com. Cost is $30 for members and $35 for nonmembers.