#22: Crying Over You by Platinum Blonde

Peak Month: September 1985
Peak Position #1
16 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Crying Over You”
Lyrics: “Crying Over You”

Mark Holmes was born in the UK and lived in Manchester until the family moved to Toronto. He met several other musicians and formed a punk band that played covers to The Police and other new wave bands. After a lineup change, Holmes was playing guitar and the lead vocalist, Chris Steffler was the drummer and Sergio Galli was a second guitarist. Steffler grew up in Wasaga Beach, Ontario, where his parents owned a 12-acre trailer park and campground called Jell-E-Bean Park. He started playing drums in 1972 and also became handy — learning everything from carpentry to plumbing — from his dad and uncle. At the same time he was playing drums in local bands, one being called Sledge. After high school, he worked at the shipyards in Collingwood and then in 1978 he moved to Toronto and started playing in bands. Sergio Galli had been in a band called Mace in 1979. The trio became Platinum Blonde. They got a record deal with CBS in 1983. Their debut album, Standing In The Dark, earned them two Video Of The Year nominations at the 1984 Juno Awards.

But it was their second album, Alien Shores, which included “Crying Over You”, a #1 single on the Canadian RPM charts in 1985, and in Vancouver.

In “Crying Over You” a guy is in a relationship with someone who is constantly indirect: “You never seem to state your case.” As well, they “hide away for convenience” and wear a “mask of innocence.” The partner is quite crazy making and wants the guy to cry over them. But, he’s had enough. He is tired of being held down by this kind of scene where he is constantly playing the fool.

“Crying Over You” peaked at #1 in Vancouver (BC), Montreal, Hamilton (ON), Calgary (AB), Toronto, Ottawa (ON), #4 in Saskatoon (SK), #6 in Medicine Hat (AB) and Regina (SK).

Another Top Ten hit in Canada from Alien Shores was “Situation Critical”. On that album a new bandmate, Glasgow, Scotland, born Kenny MacLean, was recruited. He was a former member of the Hairdressers. A third single, “Hungry Eyes”, also made the Top Ten in Vancouver, peaking at #5. With the release of Alien Shores, Platinum Blonde featured a fourth band member named Kenny McLean. He played the keyboards and bass guitar. Chris Steffler left the band and was replaced by Alexander Tukatsch, who went by the name Sascha. A third album was released in 1987 titled Contact. The title track was released as a single.

The followup single release was “Fire”. Another single from Contact, “If You Go This Time”, made the Top 20 in Vancouver.

Platinum Blonde released another album in 1990, but soon parted ways. They reunited in 2012 and released an album titled Now And Never. With the release, they mounted a reunion tour.

After the election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States of America, Mark Holmes told a reporter for the Calgary Herald: “People need to become hippies again.” Eric Volmers of the Calgary Herald finds the statement ironic, given Platinum Blonde were “the epitome of Canada’s fledgling video age of the 1980s, where successful acts understood that a carefully constructed, video-friendly image was key to burrowing into Canada’s pop-culture consciousness.” So, not exactly hippies.

In 2017, Platinum Blonde did a show in White Rock, BC, another at Ambleside Park in West Vancouver that summer, and at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver in November. In 2018, the band appeared in only a handful of concert venues. This included a concert on September 8, 2018, in Vernon, BC, with Loverboy. They currently have no upcoming tour dates scheduled.

May 31, 2023
Ray McGinnis

References:
Eric Volmers, “It Does Really Matter: Platinum Blonde’s Mark Holmes Says World Ready For a Musical Revolution,” Calgary Herald, January 27, 2017.
History, Platinum Blonde.com
Simon Rideout, Interview with Platinum Blond Frontman Mark Holmes, Things Nanaimo.com, July 7, 2015.
“David Bendeth,” Davidbendeth.com.

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