James Aaron Diamond (28 September 1951 – 8 October 2015) was a Scottish singer-songwriter, best known for his three top 5 hits: " I Won't Let You Down" (1982), as the lead singer of

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

; and his solo performances "

I Should Have Known Better "I Should Have Known Better" is a song by English rock band the Beatles composed by John Lennon (credited to Lennon–McCartney) and originally issued on '' A Hard Day's Night'', their soundtrack for the film of the same name released on 10 Ju ...

", a United Kingdom No. 1 in 1984, and " Hi Ho Silver", the

theme song Theme music is a musical composition which is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at ...

from '' Boon'', which reached No. 5 on the UK Singles Chart in 1986.

Early life and career

Diamond was born in the Bridgeton area in the East End of

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

in 1951. He started his music career at the age of 15 with Tony Divers band, The Method. When aged 16, he also fronted a Glasgow band called Jade. That line-up included bassist Chris Glen who went on to play with

the Sensational Alex Harvey Band The Sensational Alex Harvey Band were a Scottish rock band formed in Glasgow in 1972. Fronted by Alex Harvey accompanied by Zal Cleminson on guitar, bassist Chris Glen, keyboard player Hugh McKenna (28 November 1949 – 18 December 2019) an ...

, and Jim Lacey on lead guitar who later went on to join the Alan Bown Set. Jade played many pub, club and university gigs in London in 1969, playing at

Brunel University Brunel University of London (BUL) is a public research university located in the Uxbridge area of London, England. It is named after Isambard Kingdom Brunel, a Victorian engineer and pioneer of the Industrial Revolution. It became a university ...

, West London College in Cricklewood, The Pied Bull in Islington, West Hampstead Country Club, another college in Virginia Water and many more in 1969. They also supported

The Move The Move were a British Rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1965. They scored nine Top 40, top 20 UK singles in five years, but were among the most popular British bands not to find any real success in the United States. For most of ...

on their Scottish tour with The Stoics in the same year.

Alexis Korner Alexis Andrew Nicholas Koerner (19 April 1928 – 1 January 1984), known professionally as Alexis Korner, was a British blues musician and radio broadcaster, who has sometimes been referred to as "a founding father of British blues". A major i ...

then discovered Diamond, who spent the next couple of years as part of Korner's band. He provided additional and backing vocals on many of Korner's songs, most of which would appear on ''The Lost Album''. Diamond left Korner in 1976, to form

Bandit Banditry is a type of organized crime committed by outlaws typically involving the threat or use of violence. A person who engages in banditry is known as a bandit and primarily commits crimes such as extortion, robbery, kidnapping, and murder, e ...

. The line-up included future

AC/DC AC/DC are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1973. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock and Heavy metal music, heavy metal, although the band calls it simply "rock and roll". They are cited as a formativ ...

member

Cliff Williams Clifford Williams (born 14 December 1949) is an English musician, best known as the bassist and backing vocalist of the Australian hard rock band AC/DC. He started his professional music career in 1967 and had previously been in the English g ...

. They were soon signed up by

Arista Records Arista Records ( ) is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously a division of Bertelsmann Music G ...

and released a début album, ''Bandit'', which failed to reach the chart. In 1979, Diamond was lead vocalist for a Japanese band called BACCO, whose debut album was ''Cha Cha Me''. He went to Los Angeles, California to form Slick Diamond with

Earl Slick Earl Slick (born Frank Madeloni; October 1, 1952, in Brooklyn, New York) is an American guitarist best known for his collaborations with David Bowie, John Lennon, Yoko Ono and Robert Smith (musician), Robert Smith. He has also worked with other ...

. He spent some time touring and

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, re ...

and provided music for a film soundtrack. He wrote the lyrics to many songs on

Carmen Maki , born Maki Annette Lovelace, is a Japanese singer and lyricist, whose career spans more than five decades. After debuting as a folk singer in 1969 with the million-selling single "Toki ni wa Haha no Nai Ko no Yō ni", she quickly shifted to ro ...

's 1979 album ''Night Stalker''.

Big break

In 1981, Diamond formed

(Phillips, Hymas and Diamond), with pianist/keyboard player

Tony Hymas Anthony James Keith "Tony" Hymas (born 23 September 1943) is an English keyboard player, pianist, and composer. In the Eighties he formed the band Ph.D. (band), Ph.D., who had a Top 10 hit in the UK with the song "I Won't Let You Down (Ph.D. so ...

and drummer Simon Phillips. They were signed by

WEA Records Warner Music Group Corp., commonly abbreviated as WMG, is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and the third-largest in the gl ...

and had a hit single with the multi-million selling " I Won't Let You Down". The band later decided to part ways. In 1984, he decided to go solo and was signed to

A&M Records A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and functions as a branch of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Interscope-Geffen-A&M. Established in 1962 by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, the label initially operated independent ...

. He had a number-one hit with "

", and was also number one in Latin America.

Bob Geldof Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof (; born 5 October 1951) is an Irish singer-songwriter and political activist. He rose to prominence in the late 1970s as the lead singer of the Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats, who achieved popularity as part ...

praised Diamond for publicly encouraging fans to buy the Band Aid single instead of his own. He scored another hit soon afterward with the theme song from '' Boon'', " Hi Ho Silver". It reached No. 5 in the UK Singles Chart in May 1986. Diamond is also known for some guest vocals on two

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Religion * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of humankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Bo ...

band members' solo outings, including: *"You Call This Victory" (from the movie ''

Starship A starship, starcraft, or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for interstellar travel, traveling between planetary systems. The term is mostly found in science fiction. Reference to a "star-ship" appears as early as 1 ...

'') on the album ''

Soundtracks A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured ...

'' by Tony Banks in 1986. *"Days of Long Ago" on the album ''Darktown'' by

Steve Hackett Stephen Richard Hackett (born 12 February 1950) is an English guitarist who gained prominence as the lead guitarist of the progressive rock band Genesis (band), Genesis from 1971 to 1977. Hackett contributed to six Genesis studio albums, three l ...

in 1999. The 1999 compilation '' The Best of Jim Diamond'' compiles singles and B-sides from his short time with A&M Records.

Later years

In the late 1990s, Diamond teamed up with saxophonist Chris "Snake" Davis, known for his work with soul outfit

M People M People (stylised as ''M''People) are an English dance music band that formed in 1990 and achieved success throughout most of the 1990s. The name M People is derived from the first letter of the first name of band member Mike Pickering, who f ...

. The pair were known as The Blue Shoes, but were later billed as Jim Diamond and Snake Davis. In 2005, Diamond released his first studio album in eleven years, ''Souled and Healed''. The singles "When You Turn" and "Blue Shoes" were released from this. In 2009 he re-united with Tony Hymas to produce a third PhD album entitled "Three". Jim Diamond's last album, ''City of Soul'', released by Camino Records in 2011, featured among others

Wet Wet Wet Wet Wet Wet are a Scottish soft rock band formed in 1982. They scored a number of hits on the UK charts and around the world in the 1980s and 1990s. They are best known for their 1994 cover of the Troggs' 1960s hit " Love Is All Around", which ...

drummer Tommy Cunningham and Greg Kane of

Hue and Cry In common law, a hue and cry is a process by which bystanders are summoned to assist in the apprehension of a criminal who has been witnessed in the act of committing a crime. History By the Statute of Winchester of 1285, 13 Edw. 1. St. 2. c. ...

. All proceeds from this album of

soul music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in African-American culture, African-American African-American neighborhood, communities throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps ...

covers benefited the children's charity, Radio Clyde Cash for Kids.

Personal life and death

Diamond married Christine Bailey in 1978. The couple had two children; their son Lawrence is the keyboard player of the UK indie pop group

Citizens! Citizens! are an English indie rock band from London, formed in the summer of 2010. The band consists of Tom Burke (vocals), Thom Rhoades (guitar), Martyn Richmond (bass), Lawrence Diamond (keyboards) and Mike Evans (drums). Their debut album ' ...

and the former bass player of

Official Secrets Act An Official Secrets Act (OSA) is legislation that provides for the protection of Classified information, state secrets and official information, mainly related to national security. However, in its unrevised form (based on the UK Official Secret ...

. In the early 1980s, Diamond contracted

hepatitis Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver parenchyma, liver tissue. Some people or animals with hepatitis have no symptoms, whereas others develop yellow discoloration of the skin and whites of the eyes (jaundice), Anorexia (symptom), poor appetite ...

. Diamond died in his sleep on 8 October 2015, at the age of 64. According to his daughter Sara, the cause of death was a

pulmonary edema Pulmonary edema (British English: oedema), also known as pulmonary congestion, is excessive fluid accumulation in the tissue or air spaces (usually alveoli) of the lungs. This leads to impaired gas exchange, most often leading to shortness ...

Discography

Albums (solo)

Albums (As a member of PhD)

Singles (solo)

Charity singles featuring Jim Diamond

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Diamond, Jim 1951 births 2015 deaths Singers from Glasgow 20th-century Scottish male singers Scottish new wave musicians Scottish pop singers People educated at St Mungo's Academy Scottish male singer-songwriters Scottish singer-songwriters 21st-century Scottish male musicians 21st-century Scottish male singers Scottish soul singers Ph.D. (band) members Bandit (band) members People from Bridgeton, Glasgow