History
Platinum Blonde originated in 1981 as a tribute band performing the music of The Police in Canada's university and club circuit. In 1982, they signed to CBS Records Canada and released a self-titled six-song EP, which made it to No. 39 on the Canadian album charts. It was quickly expanded into a full length album titled Standing in the Dark, which featured identical artwork to the EP.
The band's popularity on the airwaves in Canada led to a triple platinum (300,000) 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 MuchMusic, Canada's national music video network.
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 (500,000), the group's high-water mark of success. Hits from the second album included "Situation Critical", "Crying Over You", "Somebody Somewhere", and "Hungry Eyes".
In 1988 the band's next album, Contact, was a hit in Canada, going double platinum, but was significantly less successful than their previous record. The title track "Contact" was a modest hit, but the album was an overall commercial disappointment, and they were dropped by CBS. Platinum Blonde changed their name to The Blondes and recorded and released one further album to minimal attention before disbanding.
The entire group appeared as alien bikers in the 1988 episode Eye for an Eye of the television series War of the Worlds.
In 2002, Mark Holmes opened the internationally renowned 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, The Killers, The Ruby Spirit, Keane, Feist, Mobile and more.
Rumors of a reunion of the original band, and possibly some new material, continued to swirl, as the band played a few charity concerts in the mid-2000s. A DVD video compilation entitled Platinum Blonde: The Complete DVD Collection, containing all of their music videos was in production but ultimately shelved by Sony.
Bassist Kenny MacLean was found dead on November 24, 2008 in his recording studio on Yonge Street in Toronto. He had just released his third solo CD entitled Completely at Toronto's Mod Club on Friday November 21, passing away that night after the show of heart failure.
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