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Billy Duffy
William Henry Duffy (born 12 May 1961) is an English rock musician, best known as the guitarist in the band The Cult.
Duffy was born and grew up in Manchester, England. He has Irish and Jewish heritage and ancestry. He began playing the guitar at the age of fourteen, being influenced by the music of Queen, Thin Lizzy, the Who, Aerosmith, Blue Öyster Cult, and the early work of Led Zeppelin. In the late 1970s he became involved in the punk movement, influenced by the New York Dolls, the Stooges, Buzzcocks, the Sex Pistols, and AC/DC. He started playing lead guitar with a number of different punk rock acts whilst still in school in the late 1970s, including the Studio Sweethearts.
After leaving school, Duffy left Manchester when the Studio Sweethearts moved to London, working as a shop assistant at Johnsons in the King's Road. The Studio Sweethearts subsequently broke up and Duffy began playing lead guitar part-time with the band Theatre of Hate. Shortly after he met Ian Astbury, then frontman/lead vocalist with Southern Death Cult, who was sufficiently impressed with Duffy's talents that he quit Southern Death Cult to start a new band with him called Death Cult. After releasing two singles, the band shortened its name to The Cult. In The Cult's debut single "Spiritwalker", Duffy created a distinctive flanged sound using a then-unfashionable guitar: a mid-1970s Gretsch White Falcon, which later became Duffy's main instrument. The Cult's debut album, Dreamtime, was released in 1984, followed in 1985 by Love, which featured the hit "She Sells Sanctuary".
For The Cult's third album, 1987's Electric, Duffy helped change the sound into metal-blues. In 1988, Duffy moved to Los Angeles with Astbury, where they both still reside. There, the two writing partners (with longtime bassist Jamie Stewart) turned to stadium rock and recorded Sonic Temple. The Cult reached a larger, mainstream audience, but the public's attention could not be sustained with their next album, Ceremony, at the dawn of the grunge age.
Following the 'Ceremonial Stomp' tour of 1992, Astbury pressured Duffy to return to their roots, with The Cult's self-titled album. This would ultimately lead to Astbury's departure from Duffy and The Cult in 1995.
During The Cult's four-year hiatus, Duffy played with Mike Peters of The Alarm in a project called Coloursound. Duffy also played on the title track from Japanese musician J's 1997 debut album, Pyromania.
Duffy reformed The Cult with Astbury in 1999, which led to a new recording contract with Atlantic Records. This was capped off by a show at Atlanta's Music Midtown Festival in May 2001, where over 60,000 people watched them perform, leading up to the release of Beyond Good and Evil.
Their single to promote it, "Rise", which reached No. 125 in the US and No. 3 for 6 weeks on the mainstream rock chart, was removed from radio rotation a week after the album's release. Disappointing sales, reviews, and tour attendance ensued. In 2002, Astbury sent The Cult onto a hiatus once more, when he accepted an offer to sing with The Doors.
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Billy Duffy
William Henry Duffy (born 12 May 1961) is an English rock musician, best known as the guitarist in the band The Cult.
Duffy was born and grew up in Manchester, England. He has Irish and Jewish heritage and ancestry. He began playing the guitar at the age of fourteen, being influenced by the music of Queen, Thin Lizzy, the Who, Aerosmith, Blue Öyster Cult, and the early work of Led Zeppelin. In the late 1970s he became involved in the punk movement, influenced by the New York Dolls, the Stooges, Buzzcocks, the Sex Pistols, and AC/DC. He started playing lead guitar with a number of different punk rock acts whilst still in school in the late 1970s, including the Studio Sweethearts.
After leaving school, Duffy left Manchester when the Studio Sweethearts moved to London, working as a shop assistant at Johnsons in the King's Road. The Studio Sweethearts subsequently broke up and Duffy began playing lead guitar part-time with the band Theatre of Hate. Shortly after he met Ian Astbury, then frontman/lead vocalist with Southern Death Cult, who was sufficiently impressed with Duffy's talents that he quit Southern Death Cult to start a new band with him called Death Cult. After releasing two singles, the band shortened its name to The Cult. In The Cult's debut single "Spiritwalker", Duffy created a distinctive flanged sound using a then-unfashionable guitar: a mid-1970s Gretsch White Falcon, which later became Duffy's main instrument. The Cult's debut album, Dreamtime, was released in 1984, followed in 1985 by Love, which featured the hit "She Sells Sanctuary".
For The Cult's third album, 1987's Electric, Duffy helped change the sound into metal-blues. In 1988, Duffy moved to Los Angeles with Astbury, where they both still reside. There, the two writing partners (with longtime bassist Jamie Stewart) turned to stadium rock and recorded Sonic Temple. The Cult reached a larger, mainstream audience, but the public's attention could not be sustained with their next album, Ceremony, at the dawn of the grunge age.
Following the 'Ceremonial Stomp' tour of 1992, Astbury pressured Duffy to return to their roots, with The Cult's self-titled album. This would ultimately lead to Astbury's departure from Duffy and The Cult in 1995.
During The Cult's four-year hiatus, Duffy played with Mike Peters of The Alarm in a project called Coloursound. Duffy also played on the title track from Japanese musician J's 1997 debut album, Pyromania.
Duffy reformed The Cult with Astbury in 1999, which led to a new recording contract with Atlantic Records. This was capped off by a show at Atlanta's Music Midtown Festival in May 2001, where over 60,000 people watched them perform, leading up to the release of Beyond Good and Evil.
Their single to promote it, "Rise", which reached No. 125 in the US and No. 3 for 6 weeks on the mainstream rock chart, was removed from radio rotation a week after the album's release. Disappointing sales, reviews, and tour attendance ensued. In 2002, Astbury sent The Cult onto a hiatus once more, when he accepted an offer to sing with The Doors.