Stephen Anthony James Duffy (born 30 May 1960 in
Alum RockAlum Rock is an inner-city suburb of Birmingham, England, located roughly 2 miles east of Birmingham city centre...
,
BirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county of England. Birmingham is the second-most populous British city, with a population of 1,006,500 ....
) is an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
singer/
songwriterA songwriter is someone who writes the lyrics, as well as the musical composition or melody to songs. One who writes only lyrics is a lyricist, while one who writes only music is a composer.-History and background of songwriters:...
, and multi-instrumentalist. He was a founding member and vocalist/bassist of
Duran DuranDuran Duran are an English rock band from Birmingham, United Kingdom. They were one of the most successful of the 1980s bands and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States. Since the 1980s they have placed 14 in the Top 10 of the UK Singles Chart and 21 in the...
.
Duffy went on to record as a solo performer under several different names, and is the singer and songwriter for
The Lilac TimeThe Lilac Time are a British alternative rock band that was originally formed in Herefordshire, England by Stephen Duffy, his brother Nick Duffy and their friend Michael Weston in 1986. The band's name was taken from a line in the Nick Drake song "River Man."...
with his older brother
NickNick Duffy is a musician, artist, illustrator, and filmmaker.Nick is the elder brother of singer/songwriter Stephen Duffy. They are both co-founders of the folk-pop group The Lilac Time. Nick is a multi-instrumentalist, and has been a frequent contributor to Stephen's solo recordings...
. He has also co-written with
Robbie WilliamsRobert Peter Williams, better known as Robbie Williams is a BRIT Award-winning English British singer-songwriter. His career started in 1989, at the age of 15, as a dancer and singer with the pop band Take That. He left the band in 1995 to launch his solo career...
, and
Steven PageSteven Jay Page , is a Canadian musician. Along with Ed Robertson, he was a founding member, lead singer, guitarist, and a primary songwriter of the music group Barenaked Ladies ; he left the band in 2009 to pursue a solo career....
of
Barenaked LadiesBarenaked Ladies is a Juno-winning and Grammy-nominated Canadian alternative rock band. The band is composed of Jim Creeggan, Kevin Hearn, Ed Robertson, Tyler Stewart, and formerly Andy Creeggan and Steven Page. They formed in 1988 in Scarborough, Ontario, at the time a suburb of Toronto...
.
Duran Duran and other early work
While attending the School of Foundation Studies & Experimental Workshop at
Birmingham PolytechnicThe City of Birmingham Polytechnic was designated in 1971 and later on became the University of Central England in Birmingham in 1992...
(now Birmingham City University) Duffy met John Taylor. Together they formed the group
Duran DuranDuran Duran are an English rock band from Birmingham, United Kingdom. They were one of the most successful of the 1980s bands and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States. Since the 1980s they have placed 14 in the Top 10 of the UK Singles Chart and 21 in the...
, along with Taylor's childhood friend,
Nick RhodesNick Rhodes is the English keyboardist for Duran Duran. Rhodes and singer Simon Le Bon are the only members to have been with the band throughout its 29-year professional career...
. While Taylor was the guitarist (later switching to bass) and Rhodes played the synthesizer, Duffy was the band's vocalist/lyricist and bassist. He left both the school and the band in 1979, before Duran Duran signed with
EMIThe EMI Group is a British music company. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major publishing arm- EMI Music Publishing- based in New York City...
in 1980.
He went on to form Obviously Five Believers, sometimes known as The Hawks, and he made his first four-track recordings. Their only single, "Words of Hope," was released in 1981.
Tin Tin
In 1982, he created the band
Tin Tin, with
John MulliganJoshua Salvator Mulligan is a Birmingham, England born New Wave musician. He is most prominently known as the bassist and keyboardist of the band Fashion from 1978-1984.-Biography:...
and
Dik DavisDik Davis was a drummer who played with english New Wave bands like Fashion, TinTin and, as guest, Earl Grey.Davis formed Fashion in 1978, alongside members Luke Sky on lead vocals and guitar and Mulligan on bass and keyboards. He and the latter remained in Fashion until 1984, when they split up...
(both then of
FashionFashion were a British New Wave band consisting of Dee Harris, Al 'Luke Sky' James, Alan Darby, John Mulligan, Marlon Recchi and Dik Davis.The band had two or three eras...
), Andy "Stoker" Growcott (of
Dexys Midnight RunnersDexys Midnight Runners are a British pop group with soul influences, who achieved their major success in the early to mid-1980s. They are best known for their songs "Come on Eileen" and "Geno".-Searching for the Young Soul Rebels:...
) and Bob Lamb (original producer of Birmingham band
UB40UB40 are a British reggae fusion band formed in 1978 in Birmingham, UK. The band has placed more than 50 singles on the UK charts, and has also achieved considerable international success...
). The band was signed with
WEAWarner Music Group is the third-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the "big four" record companies. The current incarnation of the company was formed in 2004 when it was spun off by Time Warner, and as a result, Time Warner no longer...
Records in the UK, and released the song, "Kiss Me," which went to no. 155 on the UK chart. By 1983, Tin Tin had signed with
Sire RecordsSire Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed through Warner Bros. Records-Beginnings:The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer. Its early releases as a record label were issued in 1968, distributed by London...
in the US, and "Kiss Me" hit the dance charts there as well. Another single, "Hold It," was also released in 1983, reaching number 55 in the UK.
After a stint of 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 (produced by Stephen Duffy,
Booker T. JonesBooker T. Jones is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known for fronting the band, Booker T. and the MGs...
,
J.J. JeczalikJonathan Edward Stephen Jeczalik [pronounced 'Yencharlik'], better known as J. J. Jeczalik, is a retired electronic musician, and co-founder of the former electronic music group, Art of Noise. Jeczalik also worked as a record producer and musician on a number of the Pet Shop Boys early recordings...
, Nicholas Froome and
Stephen StreetStephen Street is an English music producer best known for his work with The Smiths in the 1980s, and Blur and The Cranberries in the 1990s. Street also collaborated with Morrissey on some of his most popular work after The Smiths broke up, playing instruments and co-writing songs...
), under the name Stephen "Tin Tin" Duffy. The album reached number 35 in the UK. Prior to the release of
The Ups And Downs, Stephen and brother Nick formed their own design office called "DUFFY and DUFFY". For the album's preview release, they had an exhibition of about 80 paintings, drawings, photographs, and video.
A re-recorded "Kiss Me" single was released in 1984, this time only in the local
West MidlandsThe West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a population of 2,591,300. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, formed from parts of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire...
area, followed by a nationwide release of "She Makes Me Quiver". At the end of 1984, Duffy recorded a third version of "
Kiss Me"Kiss Me" is a song written and performed by Stephen "Tin Tin" Duffy, included on his 1985 album The Ups and Downs. The chorus is from the book Song of Songs....
" with Froome and Jeczalik. The new version of "
Kiss Me"Kiss Me" is a song written and performed by Stephen "Tin Tin" Duffy, included on his 1985 album The Ups and Downs. The chorus is from the book Song of Songs....
" was released on 25 February 1985. It debuted at no. 22 and peaked at no. 4, selling 250,000 copies in three weeks and staying in the UK Top 10 for five weeks altogether. It was the last song played on the medium wave service of Radio 1 before it became an FM-only station, at 9 A.M. on 1 July 1994. The final single released from
The Ups and Downs album was "Icing on the Cake", which peaked at no. 14 in June 1985.
A new single, "Unkiss That Kiss", was released in September 1985 and peaked at no. 77. For this single, Duffy had become known as Stephen A.J. Duffy, after dropping the "Tin Tin" reference from his stage name apparently due to legal issues with the estate of the late
HergéGeorges Prosper Remi , better known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian comics writer and artist. "Hergé" is the French pronunciation of "RG", his initials reversed...
, the Belgian cartoonist who created
The Adventures of TintinThe Adventures of Tintin is a series of comic strips created by Belgian artist Hergé, the pen name of Georges Remi . The series first appeared in French in Le Petit Vingtième, a children's supplement to the Belgian newspaper on 10 January 1929...
. The single was the first to be taken from the album
Because We Love You, released in early 1986, for which he was credited simply as Stephen Duffy. Additional singles from the album were "I Love You" (which peaked at no. 86) and "Something Special" which was a collaboration with Sandii (of
Sandii & the SunsetzSandii & the Sunsetz were a Japanese technopop or J-pop band that collaborated from 1979 until the 1990s. The Sunsetz, led by Makoto Kubota, and Sandii started as separate artists, and each have a separate discography...
), however this single (and the album itself) failed to chart.
Dr. Calculus
Duffy also recorded an album in 1986 called
Designer Beatnik with Roger Freeman of
PigbagPigbag were a British post-punk band, active from 1980 to 1983.-Origin and formation:Pigbag were formed in Cheltenham in late 1980 by Chris Hamlin, a fashion student at Cheltenham Art College...
, released under the name
Dr. Calculus. The album's two singles were "Programme 7" and "Perfume from Spain."
The Lilac Time
In 1986, Duffy 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 in November 1987, and was subsequently reissued in remixed form by
FontanaFontana Records is a record label which was started in the 1950s as a subsidiary of the Dutch Philips Records; when Philips restructured its music operations it dropped Fontana in favor of Vertigo Records. In the seventies PolyGram acquired the dormant label....
on 8 February 1988.
The Lilac Time have gone through various line-up changes with the Duffy brothers as mainstays. The group originally consisted of Stephen Duffy, his elder brother
Nick DuffyNick Duffy is a musician, artist, illustrator, and filmmaker.Nick is the elder brother of singer/songwriter Stephen Duffy. They are both co-founders of the folk-pop group The Lilac Time. Nick is a multi-instrumentalist, and has been a frequent contributor to Stephen's solo recordings...
, 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. The Lilac Time put out the albums
Paradise Circus in 1989 and
& Love For All in 1990 for Fontana before being dropped.
The group were then briefly signed to
Creation RecordsCreation Records was a British independent record label headed by Alan McGee. Along with Dick Green and Joe Foster, McGee founded Creation in 1983. The label lasted until its demise in 1999. The name came from the 1960s band The Creation, whom McGee greatly admired...
, and were subsequently managed by label head,
Alan McGeeAlan McGee is a London-based music industry executive and musician. McGee co-formed the independent Creation Records label .-Early years:...
. Their sole release on Creation was
Astronauts in 1990.
In 1991, the band split up (temporarily, as it turned out) and Duffy subsequently pursued a solo career.
Solo
The 1993 Stephen Duffy album
Music In Colors (
ParlophoneParlophone is a record label, founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company. The ₤ trademark is a German L, for Lindström. It also resembles the British pound sign , which itself is derived from the letter L for Libra, meaning pound in Latin...
) was recorded with
Nigel KennedyNigel Kennedy is an English violinist and violist.-Biography:Nigel Kennedy was born in Brighton, East Sussex, and comes from a musical lineage. His grandfather was Lauri Kennedy, a British-born musician and principal cellist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra who played with Fritz Kreisler, Jascha...
, and featured the singles "Natalie" and "Holte End Hotel."
The next album was called simply
Duffy, released in August 1995 on Indolent Records. "London Girls" and "Sugar High" went to the top 10 on the UK indie chart. ("Starfit" was also released as a single in the US.) The album was reissued on CD in 2000 by
BMG Fun HouseBertelsmann Music Group, , was a division of Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Sony Corporation of America on October 1, 2008. It was established in 1987 to combine the music label activities of Bertelsmann...
.
He participated in a temporary supergroup called
Me Me MeMe Me Me was a short-lived English britpop supergroup, including several high profile British musicians.The band was a collaboration between former Duran Duran/The Lilac Time member and solo artist Stephen Duffy , Alex James of Blur , Justin Welch of Elastica , and James's friend Charlie Bloor...
, consisting of Duffy,
Alex JamesSteven Alexander James is an English musician, songwriter and journalist best known as the bass player and occasional vocalist of band Blur. He has also played with temporary bands, Fat Les, Me Me Me, WigWam and Bad Lieutenant.-Biography:He attended the state grammar school, Bournemouth School on...
of
BlurBlur are an English alternative rock band. Formed in London in 1989 as Seymour, the group consists of singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree. Blur's debut album Leisure incorporated the sounds of Madchester and shoegazing...
,
Justin WelchJustin Welch is an English musician, best known as the drummer in the Britpop band, Elastica....
of
ElasticaElastica were a British alternative rock band, who played punk rock-influenced music. They were best known for their 1995 album Elastica which produced singles that charted in the U.S. and the UK.-History:...
and Charlie Bloor. The one-off single, "Hanging Around," was released 5 August 1996, and reached Number 19 on the UK chart.
I Love My Friends was released in 1998 by Cooking Vinyl Records, who also released the singles "17" and "You Are."
Virgin released a compilation album entitled
They Called Him Tin Tin in 1999.
The Devils
In 1999, Duffy found a tape recording of 1978-1979 Duran Duran music that was in storage. Shortly afterwards, he had a chance meeting with
Nick RhodesNick Rhodes is the English keyboardist for Duran Duran. Rhodes and singer Simon Le Bon are the only members to have been with the band throughout its 29-year professional career...
. 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 instrumentation with modern recording techniques. The result was the album
Dark Circles, released under the name
The DevilsThe Devils is the name of an electronic pop project formed by Nick Rhodes and Stephen Duffy.The first incarnation of the band Duran Duran in 1978 included Rhodes as keyboardist and Duffy as songwriter/vocalist . The band performed live for almost a year before Duffy left the band, moving on to a...
.
Return to The Lilac Time
Duffy reformed The Lilac Time with brother Nick and Michael Giri, along with new members Claire Worrall and Melvin Duffy (no relation). They released
Looking For A Day In The Night in 1999 on
spinART RecordsspinART Records is a now-defunct New York City-based independent record label that released recordings by artists such as The Apples in Stereo, Clem Snide, Frank Black and Michael Penn.The label was started by Jeff Price and Joel Morowitz in 1991...
, and
lilac6 on
Cooking VinylCooking Vinyl is a UK-based independent record company, founded in 1986. Its original orientation was toward contemporary folk music -- notably Billy Bragg, and Michelle Shocked's Texas Campfire Tapes, recorded on a Sony Walkman, one of its first releases...
in 2001.
Compendium - The Fontana Trinity, a collection of tracks from their singles and first three albums was also released in 2001.
The album
Keep Going was released in 2003 on Folk Modern records under the name 'Stephen Duffy & The Lilac Time'.
In 2007, Stephen released a new album and limited edition (2000 copies) book called "Runout Groove" and held a few rare performances with the full Lilac Time ensemble, notably headlining the Greenman Festival.
Work with Robbie Williams & Steven Page
Duffy's songwriting ability earned him his first Number 1 in October 2004, as the co-writer of the
Robbie WilliamsRobert Peter Williams, better known as Robbie Williams is a BRIT Award-winning English British singer-songwriter. His career started in 1989, at the age of 15, as a dancer and singer with the pop band Take That. He left the band in 1995 to launch his solo career...
single "Radio," one of two new tracks recorded for Williams'
Greatest HitsGreatest Hits is a hits compilation by Robbie Williams, released in 2004. It included two new songs, these being "Radio" and "Misunderstood", which were both released as singles.The album is his seventh released in the United Kingdom...
album.
In October 2005, Robbie Williams released
Intensive CareIntensive Care is the ninth album and sixth solo studio album by English pop singer Robbie Williams, released on October 24, 2005 in the United Kingdom....
, fully co-written and co-produced by Stephen Duffy. The album gained him a great deal of exposure, critical acclaim and went on to sell over 8 million copies becoming Williams' best selling studio album around the world. Duffy then went on to work as the musical director for Williams'
Close Encounters World TourThe Close Encounters Tour is Robbie Williams' 2006 worldwide concert tour. It kicked off in Durban's ABSA Stadium on 10 April, and ended in Melbourne on 18 December. The tour was a great success financially, with every date selling out the morning the tickets went on sale...
.
In 1987, Duffy was contacted by
Steven PageSteven Jay Page , is a Canadian musician. Along with Ed Robertson, he was a founding member, lead singer, guitarist, and a primary songwriter of the music group Barenaked Ladies ; he left the band in 2009 to pursue a solo career....
, then of the band Scary Movie Breakfast, and was impressed by his writing and demo tape. Duffy and Page began co-writing songs. Their work together produced popular
Barenaked LadiesBarenaked Ladies is a Juno-winning and Grammy-nominated Canadian alternative rock band. The band is composed of Jim Creeggan, Kevin Hearn, Ed Robertson, Tyler Stewart, and formerly Andy Creeggan and Steven Page. They formed in 1988 in Scarborough, Ontario, at the time a suburb of Toronto...
songs like "Jane", "Alcohol" and "Call and Answer" as well as material on Page's solo album "The Vanity Project".
Film Documentary
The Douglas Arrowsmith documentary
Memory & Desire: 30 Years in the Wilderness with Stephen Duffy & the Lilac Time was filmed over six years and includes vintage footage of the band. The film is released at the London Raindance Film Festival in October 2009 and will be accompanied by a
Universal RecordsUniversal Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group, and operates as part of the Universal Motown Republic Group.-History:...
album of the same name, bringing together songs from Duffy's thirty years of music making.
Personal life
After several years together, Duffy married fellow Lilac Time member Claire Worrall in April 2008. The couple now live in
CornwallCornwall is a county of England in the United Kingdom, forming the tip of the south-western peninsula of Great Britain. It is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Taken with the...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Portrait of Stephen Duffy
Duffy agreed to a request to sit by sculptor
Jon EdgarJon Edgar is a British artist born in Rustington, West Sussex in 1968, the grandson of British cartoonist Brian White. He direct-carves in wood and stone using methods of improvisation, and works in clay.-Biography:...
in London in 2008. The terracotta work was coincidentally documented during the filming of the Douglas Arrowsmith documentary Memory and Desire. An image appears on the CD cover for the Memory and Desire (2009) album.
Tin Tin
- "Kiss Me" (1982) WEA
Warner Music Group is the third-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the "big four" record companies. The current incarnation of the company was formed in 2004 when it was spun off by Time Warner, and as a result, Time Warner no longer...
- "Hold It" (1983) WEA (UK #55)
- "Kiss Me (US Remix)" (1984) WEA
Singles
- "She Makes Me Quiver" (1984) 10
- "Kiss Me (1985)" (1985) 10 (UK #4)
- "Icing On The Cake" (1985) 10 (UK #14)
- "Unkiss That Kiss" (1985) 10
- "I Love You" (1986) 10
- "Something Special" (1986) 10 (Stephen Duffy & Sandii)
- "I Love You" / "Wednesday Jones (1986) 10 (double-7")
- "Kiss Me" (1989) Old Gold
Albums
- The Ups and Downs (1985) 10 (UK #35)
- Because We Love You (1986) 10
- They Called Him Tin Tin (1998) Virgin-VIP
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. It was later sold to Thorn EMI, and then, in the US, merged with Capitol Records in 2007 to create the Capitol Music Group....
Singles
- "London Girls" (1995) Indolent (UK#180)
- "Sugar High" (1995) Indolent (UK#83)
- "Starfit" (1996) Summershine
- "Needle Mythology" (1996) Indolent (UK#131)
- "17" (1997) Indolent
- "17" (1998) Cooking Vinyl
Cooking Vinyl is a UK-based independent record company, founded in 1986. Its original orientation was toward contemporary folk music -- notably Billy Bragg, and Michelle Shocked's Texas Campfire Tapes, recorded on a Sony Walkman, one of its first releases...
- "You Are" (1998) Cooking Vinyl
Albums
- Duffy (1995) Indolent (UK #121)
- I Love My Friends (1998) Cooking Vinyl (UK #155)
External links