The Platters Return to Adelaide 22-23 November

One of the world's most loved and successful vocal groups, The Platters, will return to Adelaide for the first time in many years for two performances only at The Regal Theatre 275 Kensington Road, Kensington, Adelaide on 22 and 23 November at 8.00pm.

Tickets for the show are on sale now through Venuetix, The Regal Theatre & Trak Cinemas and are priced from $33.00. Cabaret-style seating and bar facilities are available.

The Platters were one of the most successful vocal groups of the early rock and roll era. Their distinctive sound was a bridge between the pre-rock Tin Pan Alley tradition and the burgeoning new genre. The act went through several personnel changes, with the most successful incarnation comprising lead tenor Tony Williams, David Lynch, Paul Robi, Herb Reed, and Zola Taylor. The group had forty charting singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart between 1955 and 1967, including four number 1 hits.

The Platters will perform their great hits including The Great Pretender, Smoke gets in your Eyes; My Prayer; Only You, Remember When; Twilight Time and a rendition of The Prayer by opera trainEd Platters member Monroe Powell.

Monroe Powell performed with The Dominos and The Ink Spots before joining The Platters in 1970 under manager and producer Buck Ram. Only three original lead singers were hired by Buck Ram; Tony Williams (1953-1960), Sonny Turner (1960-1970) and Monroe Powell (1970- present) who holds the honour of being the lead singer of the group for longer than any other member.

Joint Managing Director of Republic Theatres Michael Todd said, 'Following the sell-out success of Marina Prior's Leading Lady concerts at The Regal earlier this year we are delighted to bring The Platers and their special sound to The Regal for their first performance in Adelaide in many years'.

Over the decades The Platters have had many, incarnations. The group was originally formed in Los Angeles in 1953 and were initially managed by Ralph Bass. It wasn't until the group met music entrepreneur and songwriter Buck Ram that success came their way. Under Ram's guidance, The Platters recorded eight songs for Federal Records in the R&B/gospel style, scoring a few minor regional hits on the US West Coast. One song recorded during their Federal tenure, Only You (And You Alone), originally written by Ram for the Ink Spots, was deemed un-releasable by the label.

Ram had The Platters re-record Only You and in the summer of 1955, it became the group's first Top Ten hit on the pop charts and topped the R&B charts for seven weeks. The follow-up, The Great Pretender, with lyrics again by Buck Ram, exceeded the success of their debut and became The Platters' first national number 1 hit. The Great Pretender was also the act's biggest R&B hit, with an eleven week run atop that chart. In 1956, The Platters appeared in the first major motion picture based around rock and roll, Rock Around the Clock, and performed both Only You and The Great Pretender.

The Platters' unique vocal style touched a nerve in the music-buying public, and a string of hit singles followed, including three more national number 1 hits and more modest chart successes such as I'm Sorry (#11) and He's Mine (#23) in 1957, Enchanted (#12) in 1959, and The Magic Touch (#4) in 1956. The Platters soon hit upon the successful formula of updating older standards, such as My Prayer, Twilight Time, Harbor Lights, To Each His Own, If I Didn't Care and Jerome Kern's Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. This latter release caused a small controversy after Kern's widow expressed concern that her late husband's composition would be turned into a 'rock and roll' record. It topped both the American and British charts in a Platters-style arrangement.

The Platters were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in its inaugural year of 1998. The Platters were the first rock and roll group to have a Top Ten album in America. They were also the only act to have three songs included on the American Graffiti soundtrack that sparked an oldies revival in the early to mid-1970s: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, The Great Pretender and Only You (and You Alone).

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