Platinum Weird

Infobox musical artist
Name=Platinum Weird


Img_capt=
Background=group_or_band
Origin=United Kingdom, United States
Genre=pop, rock
Years_active=1973-1974 "(fictitious)" [cite web | url=http://www.psychopedia.com/dailynews/2006/07/platinum_weirdodave_stewart_is.html | title=Platinum Weirdo Dave Stewart Is Having Acid Flashbacks | date=2006-07-05 | work=psychoPEDIA Daily News | accessdate=2006-07-10] , 2004-present "(actual)"
Label= Interscope Rocket
URL=http://www.platinumweird.com
Current_members=Kara DioGuardi David A. Stewart
Past_members=Noel Chambers Erin Grace Brian Parfitt Matthew Sugarman "(all fictitious)"

Platinum Weird is a musical collaboration formed in 2004 between Dave Stewart and Kara DioGuardi. It is also the subject of an elaborate hoax placing the band in 1974, including a half hour mockumentary produced for television network VH1 and a series of bogus World Wide Web fan sites and related false documents for the 'lost' group.

Origin

In a 2005 interview, DioGuardi explained that she and Stewart were asked to write songs for The Pussycat Dolls in 2004. Instead, the pair ended up with material that DioGuardi described as resembling Fleetwood Mac. Although the collaboration did not produce the intended Pussycat Dolls songs, Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine encouraged the continuation of the project, and longtime DioGuardi partner John Shanks was brought in for album production duties.cite web | url=http://www.vh1.com/artists/news/1500492/04202005/stewart_dave.jhtml | title=Ashlee And Hilary's Hitmaker Decides To Sing A Few Herself | author=Moss, Corey | work=VH1 | date=2005-04-20 | accessdate=2006-06-19 ] Stewart confirmed the collaboration in a separate interview. [cite web | url=http://www.totalmusicmagazine.com/interviews/eurythmics.htm | year=2005 | title=Eurythmics | work=Total Music Magazine | accessdate=2006-06-19] In March 2005, it was reported that they would release an album entitled "Avalanche" that year. [cite web | url=http://www.80smusiccentral.com/030705.html | title=80's Nuts News Archive 3/7/05 | date=2005-03-07 | author=Hennesy, Martin | accessdate=2006-06-19]
MP3 versions of the tracks "Avalanche" and "Happiness" were made available via MySpace.

Back-story

Believing that the unusual combination of an older, well-known artist and a relatively unknown, albeit highly successful, writer for much younger performers may not be accepted by the public, they adopted an elaborate back-story conceived by Iovine. cite news | url=http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/cl-et-weird5jul05,0,6307963,full.story?coll=la-home-entertainment | title=Fact or fiction? It can get a bit Weird | page=E1 | author=Lee, Chris | work=Los Angeles Times | date=2006-06-05 | accessdate=2006-06-05]

thumb|left|This "1974" image from the Platinum Weird Web site shows Erin Grace holding a Polaroid OneStep camera, introduced in 1977. [">cite web | url=http://giam.typepad.com/the_branding_of_polaroid_/16_polaroid_onestep_product_identity_by_pg/index.html | title=Polaroid OneStep packaging prototypes, 1977 | author=Giambarba, Paul | accessdate=2006-07-04] [cite web | url=http://p3designwork.com/pages/polaroid/polaroid_onestep_main.html | title=Polaroid OneStep Gallery | accessdate=2006-07-04 | work=P3 Designwork] In a November 2005 "Rolling Stone" interview, Stewart started to plant the new story about the group's origin, stating that he conceived of the project in 1973. At that time he also disclosed that the project would be accompanied by a short film. [cite web | url=http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/eurythmics/articles/story/8774948/the_eurythmics_look_back | title=The Eurythmics Look Back | author=Baltin, Steve | date=2005-11-08 | work=Rolling Stone | accessdate=2006-06-19] This followed a message posted by Catherine Schwartz on her Web site that she was working on two Platinum Weird projects, a video for "Happiness" and what she described as a mockumentary set in the 1970s. [cite web | title=Platinum Weird Video Shoot | author=Schwartz, Cat | date=2005-10-24 | accessdate=2006-03-29 | url=http://www.catschwartz.com/archives/000106.html] [cite web | title=Eurythmics October 2005 News | work=Ultimate Eurythmics | date=2005-10-27 | accessdate=2006-06-22 | url=http://www.eurythmics.me.uk/News/2005/10-October/October2005.htm]

Early in 2006, several Web sites appeared, purporting to be maintained by fans of a band named Platinum Weird that existed from 1973 to 1974. Varying in format and appearance, the sites contained mostly the same text, audio files and images, with some sites claiming to have been online since the 1990s. [http://www.weirdos.info Weirdos.info] even claims to have been on the Web since 1987, even though the World Wide Web itself only appeared in 1991 [cite web | url=http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/History.html | title=WWW Project History | date=1992-11-03 | work=World Wide Web Consortium | accessdate=2006-07-07] and the domain was registered on May 10, 2005.All of these were linked to one another and to the official Platinum Weird Web site. Some of these domains were in fact registered to the New Media Department of Interscope Records and hosted on the same server as interscope.com [weirdos.info WHOIS record. Hosted on 216.193.195.52 (iscopelvw.fullerene.com), the same server as interscope.com. Retrieved on 2006-09-06] [weirdshit.biz WHOIS record. Hosted on 216.193.195.52 (iscopelvw.fullerene.com), the same server as interscope.com. Retrieved on 2006-09-06] [platinumweirdos.com WHOIS record. Hosted on 216.193.195.52 (iscopelvw.fullerene.com), the same server as interscope.com. Retrieved on 2006-09-06] , while others are run by existing Eurythmics fan site operators.

The remaining sites included [http://www.platinumweirdfans.com platinumweirdfans.com] , [http://www.platinum-weird.co.uk platinum-weird.co.uk] , [http://platinumweird.online.fr platinumweird.online.fr] , [http://www.platinumweirdwired.com/ platinumweirdwired.com] Registered to Ino Hillert based on WHOIS and who runs various German fan sites and according to the official Annie Lennox site is partially supported by BMG [http://www.annie-lennox.com/annlinks.htm] . Retrieved on 2006-09-05] , [http://www.whatisplatinumweird.com whatisplatinumweird.com] , [http://www.platinumweirdos.com platinumweirdos.com] , and [http://www.weirdshit.biz weirdshit.biz] . Video clips showing Mick Jagger, Adam Levine, Ringo Starr, Paris Hilton, Christina Aguilera, Lindsay Lohan, Stevie Nicks and others recalling the band were distributed, along with audio tracks said to have come from 1974.

Prominent in the promotion was an image of the 1974 Platinum Weird album cover. The title font on this cover art is Desdemona, created by Font Bureau in 1992 and distributed by Microsoft.cite web | url=http://www.noblepr.co.uk/Press_Releases/platinum_weird/untold.htm | title=Platinum Weird, The Untold Story | year=2006 | author= Noble PR | accessdate=2006-06-19] [cite web | url=http://www.identifont.com/show?1N7 | title=Desdemona font description | work=Identifont | accessdate=2006-07-21]

The fictional version of Platinum Weird is a partnership between Stewart and a mythical singer/songwriter from New York City named Erin Grace. Erin made a strong impression on numerous artists in the UK, including Stevie Nicks, who emulated her style. After a handful of performances and with an album partially completed, Erin suddenly disappeared. Apparently distraught over the death of Nick Drake, she abruptly ran off with Elton John's boyfriend in late 1974. Soon afterward, she turned up in Los Angeles, where Don Henley introduced her to Lindsey Buckingham, setting into a motion a relationship that would be the inspiration for the Fleetwood Mac Rumours album.

Years later, a young DioGuardi would meet a neighbour in New York, an older hippie woman who became a mentor in her song-writing efforts. In her 2004 meeting with Stewart, DioGuardi found that she already knew the words to an old Platinum Weird song, "Will You Be Around", that he was playing on his guitar. She had learned the song from her old neighbour, evidently the lost Erin. [cite video | year=2006 | title=Rock Legends: Platinum Weird | people=Platinum Weird | medium=film | publisher=Interscope Records]

In July 2006, VH1 premiered a mockumentary entitled Rock Legends – Platinum Weird, an examination of the band’s unusual story, complete with cameo appearances from such rock legends as Mick Jagger, Annie Lennox, Elton John, and Ringo Starr, all reminiscing about the former band’s short-lived heyday and their impressions of the mysterious Erin Grace. The album was further promoted by a series of bogus World Wide Web fan sites, some of which are registered by the New Media Department of Interscope Records and hosted on the same server as interscope.com [5] [6] [7] , and related false documents for the "lost" group. On July 5,2006, the day "Rock Legends: Platinum Weird" was shown on VH1, Platinum Weird admitted to the hoax in a Los Angeles Times interview. Stewart did note that the film was "80% true", with real biographical information mixed into the back-story.In an August 2006 interview, Stewart explained that he did meet a New Yorker in Amsterdam in the 1970s, and did write some songs during their brief relationship. She was not, however, the Erin Grace portrayed in the film. [cite news | url=http://www.andpop.com/article/6658 | title=Platinum Weird: Making History | author=Silnicki. Graham | work=andPop | date=2006-08-09 | accessdate=2006-08-09] A problem with that story is that the drug scene in ] which marked the beginning of Amsterdam as drugs capital.

Pre-release tracks

The tracks distributed from platinumweird.com and fan Web sites include "Happiness", "This Guitar", "Lonely Eyes", "If You Believe" and "Picture Perfect New", also an interview said to be taped in 1974. This version of "Happiness" is quieter than the earlier MySpace version, sung in a lower register.

"This Guitar (Can't Keep From Crying)" originally appeared on George Harrison's 1975 album "Extra Texture (Read All About It)". The Platinum Weird release is an alternate recording, also featuring Harrison on lead vocals. One report states that this track was originally recorded in 1992, and completed with 2006 contributions from Stewart, Dhani Harrison, Starr and Mark Hudson. [cite web | url=http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/331841/ | title=George Harrison "This Guitar" 2006 | date=2006-03-31 | work=Deminoid.com | accessdate=2006-06-19]

Film and live debut

The real Platinum Weird performed at the Recording Academy Honors show on June 8, 2006. [cite press release | url=http://www.grammy.com/PressReleases/290_272_Honors%20Tip%20Sheet_2FINAL.pdf | format=PDF | title=Tip Sheet for June 8, 2006 | publisher=The Recording Academy | date=2006 | accessdate=2006-06-19] This was followed by a June 12, 2006 screening of the film "Rock Legends: Platinum Weird" in New York, described in "Billboard" magazine as "a documentary film (sort of) about a band by that name".cite web | url=http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/search/google/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002689846 | title=Billboard Bits: Snow Patrol, DJ Screw, Platinum Weird | author=Schlager, Ken | date=2006-06-16 | work=Billboard | accessdate=2006-06-19] Another report notes that Stewart treated the film seriously, "insisting the group really did exist." [cite web | url=http://uk.news.yahoo.com/17062006/364/stewart-creates-biopic-fictitious-band.html | title=Stewart creates biopic for fictitious band | author=WENN | date=2006-06-17 | accessdate=2006-06-19] [cite web | url=http://musicnews.virgin.net/Virgin/Lifestyle/Music/virginMusicNewsDetail/0,13556,1286057_music,00.html | title=Stewart forms fictitious group | date=2006-06-17 | work=Virgin Music News | accessdate=2006-06-22] The film, created by Tomorrow's Brightest Minds/Oil Factory and narrated by Dan Aykroyd (himself an alumnus of the semi-fictional Blues Brothers), does not credit the actors who played Erin, young Dave, or drummer Brian Parfitt.

Releases

A Platinum Weird EP entitled "Will You Be Around" was released to iTunes on July 4, 2006.
In addition to the title track, it includes "Picture Perfect" and "Lonely Eyes". All three were written by Stewart and DioGuardi.

The group's first album, "Make Believe", was released on October 10, 2006 - a set of ten previously unreleased recordings "from 1974." Best Buy stores in America exclusively carried a 2-disc edition of "Make Believe" featuring the standard 10-track "1974" album, and a bonus disc of the 12 2005-2006 recordings.

Discography

- " Make Believe ('74 recordings)" (2006)
- "Platinum Weird" (TBA)

ee also

*Chris Gaines
*The Dukes of Stratosphear
*Spinal Tap
*The Rutles

External links

* [http://entertainment-news-network-archive.blogspot.com/2006/09/interview-platinum-weirds-dave-stewart.html Interview: Platinum Weird's Dave Stewart and Kara DioGuardi]
* [http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=164825805 Rock Legends: Platinum Weird] , offered by Interscope in podcast installments, iTunes format "( [http://www.interscope.com/podcasts/feeds/platinumweird/podcast.xml RSS link, nonstandard] )"
* [http://www.platinumweirdfans.com Platinum Weird Fansite with lyrics, photos, videos, songs, articles, storyboards, ...]

Notes