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Platinum Blonde in the '80s
Touring
Billboard Canada FYI Bulletin: Platinum Blonde's 'Alien Shores' Goes 8X Platinum Just In Time for Tour with Billy Idol
The early MuchMusic favourites have reunited and are celebrating their renewed fame with a 13-city Canadian tour.
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In five years during the mid-'80s, Platinum Blonde became the poster boys for the early MuchMusic generation. They had their own look, sound and a modest-sized catalogue that in its day sold about a million albums and singles before their career dimmed and eventually, faded to black.
In 2010, a cross-generational cover of their 1983 hit "Not In Love" by Crystal Castles with The Cure frontman Robert Smith brought them renewed relevance. The same year, they were inducted into the Music and Broadcast Industry Hall of Fame.
Then, in 2023, much to their surprise, Mark Holmes, Sergio Galli and Chris Steffler, the nucleus of the original Blondes’, found themselves rediscovered and celebrated again – this time at a Massey Hall induction ceremony for Canada’s Walk of Fame.
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Suddenly, after all these years, Platinum Blonde was back in the fame game.
Now, a year later, on the eve of a coast-to-coast tour reuniting them with "Rebel Yell" singer Billy Idol, Alien Shores, the band’s hit-laden second album has gone from quadruple platinum status in 1986 to 8X platinum today and is likely to hit the coveted 1M mark next year when the album will see a 40th-anniversary reissue.
It all started when the band recorded a seven-track demo tape on a four-track recorder and sent it to British music producer David Tickle who liked their sound and flew to Toronto to work with them, but on a tight schedule as he was booked to go on tour as sound producer with Peter Gabriel three weeks later. Completed, the finished session landed on CBS Canada A&R VP Jeff Burns’ desk. He was riding high at the time with the newfound success of Loverboy, but one listen and he knew he had to sign them.
Tickle produced their self-titled EP, which was released in 1983 and shortly thereafter expanded to a full-length, Tickle-produced debut, full-length album entitled Standing in the Dark. That album quickly sold 200,000 copies in Canada, and earned the band certified double platinum status at the time. The band's videos for the singles "Standing in the Dark" and "Doesn't Really Matter" were directed by Rob Quartly and were both nominated for video of the year at the 1984 Juno Awards. Canadian music cable network MuchMusic also launched in 1984, further exposing their music to a wider audience.
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Then came a free concert at Toronto’s City Hall that became headline news at the time, attracting 30K hysterical fans that caused a near riot pushing back against a police cordon trying to rush the stage.
In 1985, they were joined by a fourth member Kenny MacLean (bass/keyboards), and the band released their sophomore album, Alien Shores. The album included a brace of hits that included “Situation Critical,” “Somebody Somewhere,” “Holy Water” and the Blondes’ lone No. 1, “Crying Over You.”
After that, internal strife and the tragic death of MacLean led the band to dissolve. Several reunions have taken place over the years, but it wasn’t until the Walk of Fame career burst that Holmes, Galli and Steffler started freely talking again. Their impromptu performance last year at Massey Hall also gave Live Nation the idea for pairing the group (again) with Billy Idol who opens his 13-city Canadian Rebel Yell tour at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena on July 30 and winds down Aug. 25 at Mary Brown’s Centre in St. John’s NL.
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The Walk of Fame and now the tour have also reunited the Blondes with Bruce Barrow, an unofficial manager who will likely lead the team on the 40th-anniversary tour under discussion for next year. Barrow, a former bassist in ‘70s roots & funk band Sweet Blindness, co-managed the Blondes during their golden era, then went on to become a digital content design strategist and is currently a partner with famed former CBS marketing exec Brad Weir.
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The reunion has also reunited Jeff Burns who first signed the band, re-signed them when he formed Justin Entertainment in 1990 and released their album Yeah Yeah Yeah. It seemed the earlier magic had gone astray and it failed to produce any hit singles. He had lost touch with them until shortly before the Walk of Fame inductees were selected.
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