Platinum Blonde Returns

• By
• Joe Leary

After a 12-year hiatus, Platinum Blonde is back

Platinum Blonde, a Canadian favourite in '80s rock music, returns

With multi-platinum selling albums and a string of radio hits such as "Standing in the Dark," "Doesn’t Really Matter," and "Crying over You," Platinum Blonde was Canada’s face of the '80s ‘New Wave’ movement.

Now, after a 12-year absence, the Blondes have returned with a new single called "Beautiful."

Platinum Blonde Says Reunion Feels Right

Despite a lengthy break from the limelight, the band's chemistry remained intact.  

“It was just like putting on a comfortable pair of jeans that you had just taken off the day before,” says singer Mark Homes of getting the group back together.

“It felt like no time had passed really: the same funny things, the same problems, the same great things were all still there. If you’re trying to recreate the magic, a lot of time the magic’s not there. It’s only gone if the people themselves have changed and I don’t really think we have.”

The Platinum Blondes became overnight sensations, mega-stars due to the era's explosion of music video explosion. Given the immense popularity of video-related TV shows and the legions of fans they drew, their faces became highly visible.   

“It was the beginning of the video era and the start of the electronic dance movement and people were just so excited to constantly see us on TV,” Holmes tells me.

“I couldn’t really go out in public. Everybody knew my face; not just the kids but the parents as well. Even If you weren’t a fan of the band you still knew the image. Just like you knew Duran Duran or Howard Jones, you knew what the artists looked like.”

And while the big hair and outlandish garb of the decade may often be the subject of ridicule, Holmes views the era also as having been one of trailblazing musically.

“A lot of people take the mickey out of the '80s,” he says. “I do it all the time because there are lots of ridiculous things, but as crazy and weird as it was, one thing that has never really been duplicated is that the music was happening for the first time; just like the '50s with Elvis and the '60s and '70s – that was all happening for the first time."

"We wanted to keep the music simple and something that people could still sing along to.”