Toronto funeral this week for Platinum Blonde's MacLean

A funeral and memorial service for former Platinum Blonde bassist Kenny MacLean will be held in Toronto on Thursday, the musician's family says.

The family discoveredMacLean unresponsive in his home and studio a week ago. According to his family, a post-mortemindicated late last week that he died of natural causes.

Justbefore his death, the 52-year-old had performed at a show to promote his just-released his third solo album. He had also recently convinced some of his old Platinum Blonde bandmates to reunite for a gig.

MacLean's family has asked that those wishing to pay tribute to him make a donation to a special fund that will support scholarships at Humber College's School of Creative and Performing Arts.

Platinum Blonde, a New Wave band that sported big hair and synthesized sounds, hit it big with singles such as Standing in the Dark and It Doesn't Really Matter.

MacLean joined the band for its second album, 1985's Alien Shores, which contained one of the band's biggest Canadian hits: Crying Over You, which won a Gemini Award for best music video.

The album also spawned the group'sonly U.S. hit, Somebody Somewhere. Alien Shores went quadruple platinum.