Stephen Duffy
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Stephen Anthony James Duffy (born May 30, 1960 in Birmingham, UK) is a British songwriter, vocalist and guitarist. He has recorded as a solo act under several different names, and is the lead singer for the group The Lilac Time. He has also co-written many songs with Steven Page of Barenaked Ladies.
While attending Birmingham Polytechnic school, he and school friend John Taylor formed an obscure, arty new romantic group called Duran Duran, along with Taylor's non-student friend Nick Rhodes. Duffy was the lyricist and vocalist, but left both the school and the band in 1979, well before their 1980 signing with EMI.
From there, he formed the band Obviously Five Believers, sometimes known as The Hawks, and did his first four-track recordings. Their only single, "Words of Hope", was released in 1980.
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Tin Tin
In 1982, he created the band Tin Tin with Marigan and Dik Davies (both formerly of Fashion), Andy "Stoker" Growcott (of Dexy's Midnight Runners) and Bob Lamb. The band was signed with WEA Records in the UK, and released the song "Kiss Me", which went to #155 on the UK chart. By 1983, Tin Tin had signed with Sire Records in the US, and "Kiss Me" hit the dance charts there as well. Another single, "Hold It", was also released in 1983.
After a long stint working in the US, Duffy returned to England and signed another deal, this time with Virgin 10, and worked on recording his first full album, The Ups and Downs, under the name Stephen "Tintin" Duffy, a nickname parodied by BBC Radio 1 DJs as 'Stephen "Duff-Duff" Tinny'. A re-recorded "Kiss Me" single was released in 1984, this time only in the local West Midlands area, followed by a nationwide release of "She Makes Me Quiver".
He also recorded an album called in 1984 Designer Beatnik with Roger Freeman of Pig Bag, released under the name Dr. Calculus. The album's two singles were "Programme 7" and "Perfume from Spain".
At the end of 1984, Duffy recorded a third version of "Kiss Me" with J.J. Jeczalik (a programmer at Trevor Horn's ZTT Records, who was also a member of The Art of Noise). The new version of "Kiss Me" was released on February 25, 1985. It debuted at Number 22, peaked at Number 3, and stayed in the UK top 10 for three months. It was the last song played on the medium wave service of Radio 1 before it became an FM only station, at 9am on July 1, 1994. The third single released from the Ups and Downs album was "Icing on the Cake".
"Unkiss That Kiss", released in September 1985, was the first single from the album Because We Love You released in early 1986; additional singles from the album were "I Love You" and "Something Special". He was then dropped from the Virgin 10 label.
The Lilac Time
In 1986, he began writing and recording music that would become The Lilac Time's first album, released on Swordfish Records. The album, entitled The Lilac Time, came out on February 8, 1988.
The group originally consisted of Stephen Duffy, his elder brother Nick Duffy, and friend Michael Weston, who recorded the first album together; Michael Giri and Fraser Kent joined when the band was ready to go on tour. (See The Lilac Time for more detail on the band's history.)
In 1991, the band split up (temporarily, as it turned out) and Stephen Duffy subsequently pursued a solo career.
Solo
The 1993 album Music In Colours (Parlophone) was recorded with Nigel Kennedy, and featured the singles "Natalie" and "Holte End Hotel".
The next album was called simply Duffy, released August 1995 on Indolent Records. "London Girls" and "Sugar High" went to the top 10 on the UK indie chart, but "Needle Mythology" did not. ("Starfit" was also released as a single in the US.) The album was reissued on CD in 2000 by BMG Fun House.
He participated in a temporary supergroup called Me Me Me, consisting of Duffy, Alex James of Blur, Justin Welch of Elastica and Charlie Bloor. The one-off single "Hanging Around" was released August 5, 1996 and reached Number 19 on the UK chart.
Duffy then left Indolent Records in the summer of 1997, just before the album I Love My Friends was to be released. The album was picked up by Cooking Vinyl Records, which released the singles "17" and "You Are".
Virgin released a compilation album entitled They Called Him Tin Tin in 1999, with tracks chosen by Duffy.
The Devils
In 1999, Duffy found a tape recording of 1978-1979 (pre-Simon Le Bon) Duran Duran music in storage; shortly after, he had a chance meeting with Nick Rhodes, Duran's keyboardist. Reminiscences led to a desire to collaborate, and they ended up re-recording the music on the tape. They did not change any of the lyrics, and used only late-70s-era instruments, but brought modern production techniques to the project. The result was the quirky album Dark Circles, released under the name The Devils.
Return to The Lilac Time
Finally, Duffy reunited with other members of The Lilac Time, releasing Looking For A Day In The Night in 1999, and lilac6 in 2001. Compendium - The Fontana Trinity, a collection of tracks from their first three out-of-print albums, was also released in 2001.
The album Keep Going was released in 2003 under the name 'Stephen Duffy & The Lilac Time', to the usual critical acclaim and limited commercial success.
Duffy's songwriting ability also earned his first Number 1 in October 2004 as the co-writer of theRobbie Williams single "Radio".
External links
- Official Lilac Time/Stephen Duffy Site (http://www.thelilactime.com/)
- Official Devils Site (http://www.thedevils.tv/)
- Stephen Duffy Chronology (http://www.marimari.co.uk/duffyhtml/)
- A good interview on Duffy's history and The Devils (http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/features/story.jsp?story=311020)