James Aaron Diamond (28 September 1951 – 8 October 2015) was a Scottish singer-songwriter, best known for his three

top 5 ''Top Five'' is a 2014 American comedy film written and directed by Chris Rock. Produced by Scott Rudin and Eli Bush, the film stars Rock, Rosario Dawson, and Gabrielle Union, and follows New York City comedian and film star Andre Allen (Rock), ...

hits: " I Won't Let You Down" (1982), as the lead singer of PhD; 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 J ...

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

theme song Theme music is a musical composition that 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 so ...

from ''

Boon Boon may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Boon (game), a trick-taking card game * ''Boon'' (novel), a 1915 satirical work by H. G. Wells * ''Boon'' (TV series), a British television series starring Michael Elphick * The Ultimate Boo ...

'', which reached No. 5 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in 1986.

Early life and career

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

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

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 Christopher John Glen (born 6 November 1950), known simply as Chris Glen, is a Scottish rock musician. He is best known for playing with The Sensational Alex Harvey Band from 1972 to 1978, and Michael Schenker Group from 1980 to 1984, 2008 to 2 ...

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 (1949–2019) and drummer Ted McKenna, their ...

, and Jim Lacey on lead guitar who later went on to join

the Alan Bown Set The Alan Bown Set later known as The Alan Bown! or just Alan Bown, were a British band of the 1960s and 1970s whose music evolved from jazz and blues through soul and rhythm and blues and ended up as psychedelia and progressive rock. The band a ...

. Jade played many pub, club and university gigs in London in 1969, playing at

Brunel University Brunel University London is a public research university located in the Uxbridge area of London, England. It was founded in 1966 and named after the Victorian engineer and pioneer of the Industrial Revolution, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. In June 1 ...

, 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 band of the late 1960s and the early 1970s. They scored nine 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 their caree ...

on their Scottish tour with The Stoics in the same year. He later toured Europe with

Gully Foyle A gully is a landform created by running water, mass movement, or commonly a combination of both eroding sharply into soil or other relatively erodible material, typically on a hillside or in river floodplains or terraces. Gullies resemble la ...

. Rare recordings of his performances with Gully Foyle were recently discovered on the internet.

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 in ...

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, and murder, either as an ...

. The line-up included future

AC/DC AC/DC (stylised as ACϟDC) are an Australian Rock music, rock band formed in Sydney in 1973 by Scottish-born brothers Malcolm Young, Malcolm and Angus Young. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock, and Heavy metal ...

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 North American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously handled by BMG Entertainmen ...

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 in Brooklyn, New York, October 1, 1952) is a guitarist best known for his collaborations with David Bowie, John Lennon, Yoko Ono and Robert Smith. He has also worked with other artists including John Waite, Tim ...

. 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, ...

and provided music for a film soundtrack.

Big break

In 1981, Diamond formed PhD (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. Career Hymas started as a chorister at Exeter Cathedral School, where his contemporaries included composer and cathedral organist Ba ...

and drummer Simon Phillips. They were signed by

WEA Records Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, 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 th ...

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 was an American record label founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distr ...

. 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 lead singer of the Rock music in Ireland, Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats, who achieved ...

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 ''

'', " Hi Ho Silver". It reached No. 5 in the

in May 1986. Diamond is also known for some guest vocals on two

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

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 188 ...

'') on the album ''

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

'' 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 musician, singer, songwriter and record producer who gained prominence as the lead guitarist of the progressive rock band Genesis from 1971 to 1977. Hackett contributed to six Genesis ...

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) is an English dance music band that formed in 1990 and achieved success throughout most of the 1990s. The name M People is taken from the first letter of the first name of band member Mike Pickering, who form ...

. 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 This article is a discography of albums and singles released by the guitarist-songwriter Steve Hackett. Solo career Camino Records was founded by Hackett with the original goal of re-releasing selections from his solo career, but Hackett event ...

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 in 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 w ...

drummer

Tommy Cunningham Thomas Cunningham (born 22 June 1964, Drumchapel, Glasgow) is a Scottish musician, best known as the drummer for Wet Wet Wet. Biography Cunningham's father, Tom Sr., bought his son his first drum kit in 1977, "down the Social Club for £15 ...

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. I statute 2. c ...

. All proceeds from this album of

soul music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has its roots in African-American gospel music and rhythm and blues. Soul music became po ...

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

Personal life and death

Diamond married Christine Bailey (born 1951, New Zealand) in 1978. The couple had a daughter, Sara Rosaline Diamond (b. 1978 in

Hammersmith and Fulham The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham () is a London borough in West London and which also forms part of Inner London. The borough was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former Metropolitan Boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham. The bor ...

, London), and a son, Lawrence James Diamond (b. 1984 in Hammersmith and Fulham, London). Lawrence is the keyboardist 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 state secrets and official information, mainly related to national security but in unrevised form (based on the UK Official Secrets Act 1911) can include all infor ...

. In the early 1980s, Diamond contracted

hepatitis Hepatitis is inflammation of the 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), poor appetite, vomiting, tiredness, abdominal pa ...

. Diamond was a friend of ''

Father Ted ''Father Ted'' is a sitcom created by Irish writers Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews (writer), Arthur Mathews and produced by British production company Hat Trick Productions for Channel 4. It aired over three series from 21 April 1995 until ...

'' star

Dermot Morgan Dermot John Morgan (31 March 1952 – 28 February 1998) was an Irish comedian and actor, best known for his role as Father Ted Crilly in the Channel 4 sitcom ''Father Ted''. Early life Morgan was born in Dublin, the son of Hilda "Holly" (née S ...

and was present at the small dinner party at which Morgan died suddenly in 1998. 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, also known as pulmonary congestion, is excessive edema, liquid accumulation in the parenchyma, tissue and pulmonary alveolus, air spaces (usually alveoli) of the lungs. It leads to impaired gas exchange and may cause hypoxemia an ...

.The Diamond Family
''We are very sad to say that Jim passed away on Thursday, unexpectedly, but peacefully in his sleep.''
In: ''facebook.com/jimdiamondmusic'', 10 October 2015. Retrieved 10 October 2015.

Discography

Albums (solo)

Albums (As a member of PhD)

Singles (solo)

Charity singles featuring Jim Diamond

Television appearances

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Diamond, Jim 1951 births 2015 deaths Musicians 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 21st-century Scottish male musicians 21st-century Scottish male singers Scottish soul singers Ph.D. (band) members Bandit (band) members People from Bridgeton, Glasgow