“A writer and singer of great strength and passion” The Scotsman
“Scotland’s answer to Ray Charles” The Scotsman
Most people will remember Jim Diamond. Sing the first line of one of his million selling hits “I Won’t Let You Down”, “Shoulda Known Better” or “Hi Ho Silver” and they will instantly recall his passionate, distinctive voice.
Born and raised in Glasgow, Jim joined his first band at the age of 15. He was signed to Arista Records with his own band, “Bandit”, at 22. From there he moved on to join the “Godfather of British Blues”, Alexis Corner. After a couple of great learning years he moved on again to new pastures in Los Angeles, forming the band Slick Diamond with Earl Slick and Carmine Apice. He broadened his horizons further whilst in the States, producing with Carmine and writing with Michael Legrand.
Returning to the UK in the early 1980s, Jim met up with Tony Hymas and Simon Phillips from the Jeff Beck Band and formed PhD. The next few years saw the success of his multi-million selling number 1 hits, an Ivor Novello award for Best Single and the commissioning of the amazing theme tune for ITV’s “Boon”. Jim’s time was then spent with international touring, promotion, writing and recording which naturally follows this success.
Jim Diamond, the “small Scotsman” as he is often referred to, shot onto the music scene in May 1983 after he formed Ph.D with the epic ballad ‘I Won’t Let You Down’. The song came from Ph.D’s self titled debut album. The track originally failed to venture anywhere until WEA realised the band’s talent and instantly signed them up. The song meanwhile went on to become a classic in its own right.
Soon after the success of the single and the album, Jim suffered a bout of hepatitis and couldn’t promote further albums. His solo career took off in 1984 when A&M signed him. A composition with Graham Lyle lead to ‘I Should Have Known Better’ probably Jim’s most popular hit to date. It instantly shot to number 1 and stayed there for one week, during that period Jim made his most famous comment: “I don’t want people to buy my record next week, I want them to buy Band Aid. They deserve the number 1 spot more than I do.” Bob Geldof even featured Jim’s statement in his Autobiography years later.
After Jim’s reign of success in the early 80s, the mid 80s saw a new kind of success begin to unveil when Central TV commissioned Jim to write and record the theme song for a new ITV Drama Series called ‘Boon’. Jim was not too keen on the idea to begin with and said “TV work is not my thing, I don’t think I should do it”, but he eventually agreed and came up with ‘Hi Ho Silver’ a brassy up-tempo reggae song which due to public demand was released as a single in May 1986 and headed straight to the top 5.
The 1990s saw Jim turn to his favourite style of music: Blues/soul and Folk. He formed ‘The Blue Shoes’ soon after the release of ‘Jim Diamond The Album’ hit the charts, and they have been touring ever since, grabbing crowds all over the country.
If Jim’s success is ever questioned and people ask why is he so popular, just listen to any of his songs and hear the heartfelt words that he writes and sings, and you will have your answer. Jim Diamond the musician, Jim Diamond the Singer, Jim Diamond the Songwriter.... Jim Diamond the Genius.
Jim Diamond died on 8 October 2015.
Alan Williams
January 2003
Jim Diamond’s website is www.theblueshoes.co.uk.
Page last modified: 05 November 2020, 22:14