{"id":21410,"date":"2018-08-22T19:20:11","date_gmt":"2018-08-22T23:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=21410"},"modified":"2018-08-22T19:20:11","modified_gmt":"2018-08-22T23:20:11","slug":"platinum-blonde-returns-to-ribfest-this-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/platinum-blonde-returns-to-ribfest-this-saturday\/","title":{"rendered":"Platinum Blonde returns to Ribfest this Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s never a wasted day if Mark Holmes is writing.
\nThe co-founder and current frontman of the popular, multi-platinum band Platinum Blonde can\u2019t help it. He\u2019s an artist and, in his view, that\u2019s just what artists do.
\n\u201cIf I am working on music, no matter what is going on in the world, no matter how many Trumps there are, I can always put a smile on my face and have a sense of accomplishment,\u201d the hitmaker tells The Auroran. \u201cI think an artist that no longer creates is just an artist that is in suspended animation waiting to become irrelevant.\u201d
\nHolmes and Platinum Blonde are set to bring the classics \u2013 and some new material \u2013 to the stage this Saturday, August 25, when the band headlines Ribfest once again.
\nPlatinum Blonde was formed in 1984 by Holmes, Joey Ciotti and Ray Bailey with a new wave sound. But, in the opinion of Holmes, Platinum Blonde was always an indie rock band at heart.
\n\u201cPlatinum Blonde was always an indie rock band, really,\u201d says Holmes. \u201cWhen we recorded our first album, we did it independently. It just so happened we made it really big. We\u2019ve always maintained that independent spirit.\u201d
\nThat\u2019s perfect for their new music, he says, as the pendulum of popularity has swung back to indie rock.
\n\u201cIn late 2006 or 2007, I was doing a bunch of remixes and I noticed the new audience was really embracing that sound,\u201d he says.
\nAfter a long hiatus, Platinum Blonde was back on the road in the 2010s, releasing their latest record, \u201cNow or Never\u201d in 2012. It was their first album of new material in almost a quarter-century.
\n\u201cThe climate was right,\u201d says Holmes of hitting the studio. \u201cThe [album] reflects our beginnings and also reflects a lot of what is going on right now. Art is a reflection of the current. You can talk about the future, you can talk about the past, but it is usually a reflection of current events. The most important stuff is the new stuff; it is always the most important. It is living.\u201d
\nPlatinum Blonde headlines the Ribfest\u2019s Saturday evening. The day\u2019s musical showcase begins at 11 a.m. with Lou Moore and Friends, followed at 1.15 p.m. by the Top 20 semi-finalists in the annual Hoedown Showdown competition to find Canada\u2019s next country artist. Once the Top 10 are announced, Wendy Laurier & the Renaissance Band takes the stage before Platinum Blonde at 9 p.m.
\nRibfest takes place at Machell Park. Admission is free, but age of majority will be enforced after 8 p.m.
\nFor more information, visit www.aurora.ca\/ribfest.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAn artist who no longer creates is just an artist in suspended animation waiting to become irrelevant\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5zk","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 19:32:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21410\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}