Nights of Nostalgia
Big Shiny Tunes at The Marquee
WRITTEN BY: katie gordon & MITCHELL JODREY // THE BOOM AT NOON
Big Shiny Tunes Producers (L-R): Stephanie Purcell, Mike Farrington Jr. and
Dave Sampson. (Photos contributed)
Chances are, if you are a millennial who grew up in Canada you’ve rocked out to a Big Shiny Tunes CD. Each holiday season from 1996-2009, MuchMusic released a CD filled with the biggest hits from the year. Flash forward to May 2022 the series was once again proven timeless as legions of fans packed The Marquee Ballroom for the first ever Big Shiny Tunes show in Halifax. Nine months later, Big Shiny Tunes at the Marquee is coming back.
Stephanie Purcell, Dave Sampson and Mike Farrington Jr. are the brains behind the show and are ecstatic to bring the concert to life once again in February 2023. “Last spring was still a bit of a dark COVID time. People were just starting to come out and we really felt people needed something fun to do and so did we,” said Stephanie. Both her and Dave wanted to do a show and this is what the pair came up with. “Like all great ideas, this one happened around a kitchen table at 1 a.m. at Steph's place,” Dave commented. The original concept the pair came up with was to host a concert dedicated to Paul Simon’s classic album, “Graceland” but quickly realized it wasn’t long enough to justify a full show. “Somehow Big Shiny Tunes was the next option,” he added. Not long after, Mike joined as band leader and producer.
The show featured a number of guest musicians and an all star band playing hits from various Big Shiny Tunes records. “That show radiated joy for all the people on stage that night,” said Stephanie. “The energy was incredible.” The same could be said for those in the crowd, “There were a lot of smiles and yelling lyrics,” reminisced Mike.
After the success of the first show, Stephanie, Mike and Dave decided to revive the concept, this time for two nights. The format will largely remain the same as the first show back in May, but will feature a lot of new songs and perfomers. “Don’t fix it if it ain’t broken,” quipped Dave.
One of the biggest changes to these shows is flying in Ed the Sock to host. “It's really the icing on the cake!” exclaimed Stephanie. “These songs are a big part of his time at MuchMusic and we're pumped to have him involved,” she added. Ed the Sock was a staple on MuchMusic, first appearing on the channel in 1995. “The addition of Ed the Sock is pretty massive,” said Mike. “It’ll be hard to play it cool around such a legend!” he added. When asked about how Ed got involved, Dave joked, “Honestly, I’m not sure. Rick the temp was busy?”
Unanimously, all three producers agreed on their favourite edition of Big Shiny Tunes. “Big Shiny Tunes 2 [is my favourite] by a long shot, but there’s usually a couple of songs per album that I love,” said Mike. For Stephanie, she loves volume two for the Blur and Radiohead. “It takes me back to my early days of discovering a lot of new sounds and music,” she added. And Canadians agree - Big Shiny Tunes 2 is the highest selling album of the collection with over 1.2 million records sold.
The first show announced for Saturday night sold out quickly but there are still tickets left for Friday night. “Both nights will be high energy and packed with hits,” said Mike. Stephanie, Dave and Mike all offered some hints about songs you might hear.
Stephanie: “I'm stoked to feel the energy of the crowd right at the first song. I picked it specifically for this reason. It's going to take you right back to 1994 and you are going to love it from the first few chords being played.”
Dave: “Closing Time”
Mike: “There may be some stupidly fast rap at some point.”
Any guesses? Buy your tickets to find out. There are tickets still available for Friday's show.
