When Live Nation decided to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Billy Idol’s breakout ‘Rebel Yell’ album with a national tour of Canadian hockey arenas, the promoters had only one band in mind as the ideal supporting act…Toronto’s Platinum Blonde
As Idol released that definitive second album 40 years ago which included mega hits like the title track, “Eyes Without A Face” and “Flesh For Fantasy”, the Toronto trio of bassist/lead vocalist Mark Holmes, guitarist Sergio Gallo and drummer Chris Steffler were about to drop their debut single “Doesn’t Really Matter” on an unsuspecting Canadian public.
Now the two bands have just reconnected after such a long time with a highly successful domestic tour which has seen the rekindling of Platinum Blonde mania. “Yes, our tour with Billy is going great,” reported Holmes over the phone from his home, having just completed the Western swing of dates before a storming home-coming concert at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena where they received an 8x platinum album (800,000 units) for their ‘Alien Shores’ album.
“Jeff Burns (our original A&R guy with Sony Music) had noticed that ‘Alien Shores’ had reached the 5x platinum mark but we had only been acknowledged for 4x. But when he inquired about us getting our 5 times award, he was told that it was not possible, explained Holmes…because (pregnant pause!) it had gone 8X platinum!
So, prior to their Toronto date, the Blondes received their 8x platinum award, and as the album zeroes in on 9x sales, they hope to push it to a diamond award (1 million sales) when the band executes its own Alien Shores anniversary headline tour in 2025.
Holmes reports that the synergy between Billy Idol and the Blondes is ideal, he personally gets along great with Idol lead guitarist, Steve Stevens, and Idol looks and sings like his old self as well as enjoying renewed success starring in those Rockstar commercials for Workday.
“It’s great to see Billy working with a big crew again, 30 people all committed to work for one goal. Live Nation were really smart putting this together. The sound is more comfortable with the big shows. It’s one thing to do festivals by flying from one gig to another but with continuous gigs, you know exactly where you are supposed to be at any given time. All of the shows have been great, and our merch sales are just like they were at the beginning.”
Reflecting on that initial tour, Holmes agrees that the timing could not have been better. “We had just come of that initial Bryan Adams tour, our first single; “It Doesn’t Really Matter” had just been released so we did the Billy Idol dates and then we did some Romantics dates but by the time we got to Toronto, all the fans that were showing up were Platinum Blonde fans so we had to drop out of their tour. They went on to play in front of a couple of thousand at Massey Hall while we played before 25,000 in front of City Hall.
The band’s good looks, hairstyles and fashion sense transformed them into Canada’s first teenage heartthrob band and they soon became a staple diet on Canada’s new MuchMusic video channel with Rob Quartly’s videos for “It Doesn’t Really Matter” and “Standing In The Dark” in constant high rotation.
“The truth is that initially, we were not liked in the Canadian music industry. “All the media interviews were focused on our hair and makeup. No one talked to us about our music,” Holmes noted. “We didn’t have that “Bryan Adams” tee shirt and jeans image but this was our image. I would go backstage to other dressing rooms and see a wardrobe full of plaid tee-shirts, jeans and those funny work boots, that was their image.”
Buoyed by the initial success of their debut 1983 EP which had attracted the attention of top British producer, David Tickle, that EP was expanded into their first album ‘Standing In the Dark” in 1984, and by the time ‘Alien Shores’ was released in 1985, The Blondes were THE most popular band in Canada, recruiting a fourth member Kenny McLean from The Deserters as a second guitarist/keyboardist.
A two-night headline stint at Canada’s Wonderland Kingswood stage attracted U.S interest from the parent Columbia label and they were sufficiently impressed to offer the band an American deal. But then the Blondes learned an important lesson, “Don’t piss off the “Americans” They wanted the Blondes to open for Dead Or Alive in the U.S but the band’s management opted for that Billy Idol tour in Canada, so the American label put them on the backburner, branding them as a “Second Rate“ Duran Duran.
“That may have been the case, we did have ‘green’ management.” Holmes noted, “But the biggest problem was that ‘Alien Shores’ came out right at that time of the kick-back scandals in the U.S where key radio programmers were being paid to play certain songs …and if they didn’t get paid, you never got the exposure (read Frederic Dannen’s book The Hit Men for more detail on the scandal that pervaded the U.S music industry in the mid 1980’s).
Still, it pushed Platinum Blonde into a major musical stylistic change with ‘Contact’ being more funky and dance-oriented. “That record was a result of the times” Holmes noted. “I have always liked dance stuff; I have always been into disco. The first Platinum Blondes album may be rocky but listen to the dance beats. My love of dance music has transitioned into me being a deejay.
Yet the public and critical response was less than overwhelming. With Chic bassist Bernard Edwards and keyboardist David Bendeth, pushing the album in a definite New York direction, drummer Steffler quit the band to be replaced by Sascha Tukatsch and the band toned down their fashion sense, an aspect which shocked their fans. The band bounced back with their Yeah, Yeah, Yeah release in 1990 and their last release was their “Now Or Never” album in 2020. But now the Blondes are back with drummer Justin Kadis making up the trio (McLean sadly passed away in 2008).
They have a new single scheduled titled “Wired” which they have been road-testing on tour and Holmes claims new singles will be the future norm instead of albums which he feels are now outdated.
“We will probably do something with our Alien Shores album for next year’s tour understanding that vinyl sales are going through the roof. And with our exposure on social media, more people than ever are discovering us,” he enthused.
