Stephen Duffy

Stephen Anthony James Duffy (born May 30, 1960 in Birmingham, UK) is perhaps best known as the lead singer of The Lilac Time.

He was one of the early singers and lyricists for Duran Duran in their formative years, but left in 1979, well before their 1980 signing with EMI.

In 1985 he had a hit single with "Kiss Me", as Stephen "Tintin" Duffy, a nickname parodied by BBC Radio 1 DJs as 'Stephen "Duff-Duff" Tinny'. It stayed in the UK top 10 for three months, and 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.

Before forming The Lilac Time he recorded an album under the name Dr. Calculus.

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 in 1987.

In 1991, the band split up and Stephen Duffy subsequently pursued a solo career.

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.

Duffy's latest album "Keep Going" was released in 2003 to the usual critical acclaim and limited commercial success.