Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens presented a key to the city to members of one of Windsor's most celebrated rock bands, The Tea Party.
The band that formed in Windsor in 1990 has sold nearly 3-million albums worldwide.
"We've been around the world many times now but to come back home and to receive this honour it's truly a humbling experience," said Jeff Martin, the band's singer and lead guitar player. "It's just another feather in the cap, and we're running out of places to put these feathers."
The keys were given to the band members in the former Coach & Horses, where the band held many shows and even recorded one of their albums.
"Actually selling out the Coach in the basement we realized what we had was special, just the fever that the fans had for an independent local band and then we took it London and Toronto and it grew from there. But just to have that support we knew it was going to work," said bassist Stuart Chatwood.
The former Coach & Horse is now a mostly empty space in the basement of Rocket Innovation Studio.
"This building itself, we've had many a long evening. We recorded our independent album here, I don't know if many people know that," said drummer Jeff Burrows. "Upstairs, the northwest corner was our studio."
Receiving a key to the city is one of Windsor's highest civic honours and recognizes individuals who have brought distinction to the community.
"Today it's about a hometown band, The Tea Party, who has sold over 3-million albums worldwide, a million in Canada, has toured the world and brought high esteem to the City of Windsor and our region in the work that they do, not to mention the fundraising efforts that they undertake as and organization," said Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens.
The Tea Party is currently touring Canada and will have shows in Kitchener, Niagara Falls, and Muskoka later this month.
