Platinum Blonde

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Platinum Blonde was a Canadian New Wave group in the 1980s. The band originally consisted of Mark Holmes from Manchester, England on vocals and bass, Sergio Galli on guitar and Chris Steffler on drums. Scottish musician Kenny MacLean later joined the group. The name of the band was inspired by the 1931 Jean Harlow movie Platinum Blonde. They were known also for their stylish glam rock-like appearance dressing in pastel colour outfits and their music videos.

History

Platinum Blonde originated as a tribute band performing the music of The Police on the Ontario, Canada bar circuit. In 1983, with the release of the album Standing in the Dark, the band's popularity on the airwaves in Canada was thanks to a double platinum album, featuring four hits including two Juno Award nominations: "Standing in the Dark" and "It Doesn't Really Matter". Their music videos were placed into high rotation on the newly created Much Music, Canada's national music video network. Within months some were calling Platinum Blonde "Canada's Duran Duran" because of their similar glamorous image and cutting-edge, futuristic New Wave videos. Lyrics in their early hits dealt with political themes, such as police state repression (It Doesn't Really Matter) and nuclear war (Standing in the Dark). The Standing in the Dark video was more overt in its political overtones, with the central setting being a war situation room, presumably on the verge of a nuclear war, that is eventually stormed by a group of civilians.

In 1985, the band released a second album called Alien Shores, featuring the addition of a fourth member, Kenny MacLean. "Alien Shores" went quintuple platinum, the group's high-water mark of success. Hits from the second album included "Situation Critical", "Crying Over You", "Somebody Somewhere", and "Hungry Eyes".

The band's next album, Contact, though an unsuccessful breakthrough attempt in the United States, was still a hit in Canada in 1988, going platinum (though just barely). The title track charted well, and the video for "Fire" ^[1] grabbed attention by featuring the Canadian pop duo Tu as back-up singers.

Renaming themselves "The Blondes" for their last release, 1990's Yeah Yeah Yeah, the group switched to their own label, "Justin Entertainment". By 1991 the effort was deemed a failure and the band decided to venture into solo projects.

Mark Holmes went on as a song writer for various artists both in Canada and in the US, and as an actor, appearing as guitarist Quinn Quinley in Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!. The entire group had also appeared as alien bikers in the 1988 episode Eye for an Eye of the television series War of the Worlds. Holmes played the aliens' leader, Red.

In 1999 and 2001, Mark Holmes toured again with Dave Barrett and Sasha Tukatch to promote the release of Seven Year Itch: 1982-1989, a Platinum Blonde best-of compilation. They also released an album under the name No.9.

In 2002, Mark Holmes opened the internationally renown The Mod Club Theatre on College Street in Toronto's Little Italy. The Mod Club Theatre has showcased the likes of Muse, Amy Winehouse, MGMT, Keane, Feist, Mobile and more.

Rumors of a reunion of the original band, and possibly some new material, have continued to swirl. As of July, 2006, the band has played a few charity concerts only. A DVD video compilation entitled Platinum Blonde: The Complete DVD Collection which was originally scheduled for release in 2005 has now been shelved for more production. According to the band's official website, the compilation consists of nine music videos as well as several bonus features.

In 2008 Holmes and Barrett released a download only album entitled "Are You Sitting Comfortably?"

Bassist Kenny MacLean was found dead on November 24 2008 in his studio apartment on Yonge Street in Toronto. He had just released his third solo CD entitled Completely at Toronto's Mod Club on Friday November 21.^[2]

Currently, Guitarist Sergio Galli plays lead guitar for the Canadian band The Ending with a self-titled album set to come out in 2010.

Discography

Albums

• Platinum Blonde EP (1983) #39 CAN
• Standing in the Dark (1983) #23 CAN
• Alien Shores (1985) #3 CAN
• Contact (1987) #20 CAN
• Yeah Yeah Yeah - released under The Blondes (1990)
• Best of Live (1993)
• Seven Year Itch: 1982-1989 (1999) #23 CAN

Singles

• "It Doesn't Really Matter" (1984) #34 CAN, #15 CHUM
• "Standing In The Dark" (1984) #43 CAN
• "Sad Sad Rain" (1984) #56 CAN
• "Not In Love" (1984) #17 CAN, #16 CHUM
• "Crying Over You" (1985) #2 CAN, #1 CHUM
• "Situation Critical" (1985) #18 CAN, #7 CHUM
• "Somebody Somewhere" (1986) #26 CAN, #8 CHUM, #82 US
• "Hungry Eyes" (1986) #50 CAN
• "Contact" (1987) #11 CAN
• "Connect Me" (1988) #45 CAN
• "Fire" (1988) #49 CAN
• "If You Go This Time" (1988) #71 CAN
• "Yeah Yeah Yeah" (1990) (as The Blondes)

See also

• Canadian rock
• Music of Canada

References

External links

• Platinum Blonde official website
• Standing In The Dark - A Platinum Blonde Fansite
• Bio at CanadianBands.com
• Info from JAM! Music Canada
• Myspace