Billy Duffy Reminisces About Music, Football And Manchester Ahead Of An Exciting Year For The Cult

Alison Bell | 22nd February 2016

Billy Duffy in Mcr hi res As well as The Cult, Billy Duffy has played with some of the biggest names in music,  including Iggy Pop, Mick Jagger and Morrissey. Now living in LA ~ but often returning to his roots in Manchester ~ this time sees Billy coming back to play a sell-out hometown gig at Albert Hall and he’s the subject of a pop-up exhibition at Artisan, Manchester.

You grew up in Manchester ~ in Hulme, then Wythenshawe ~ and started playing guitar at 14. Aside from the historic Sex Pistols gig you went to at The Free Trade Hall (which is well documented), which other gigs/bands did you see in the early days and which venues?

I was a massive music fan from a very early age and the first gig I ever went to was Slade with Thin Lizzy at the Free Trade Hall ~ I was only 11 and my dad took me. I couldn’t get enough of live music and over the following years got to see all my favourite rock bands when they hit Manchester…The Who, Queen, AC/DC and more. I never saw Bowie with the Spiders but my obsession with Mick Ronson meant I had to see the Hunter Ronson Group in 1975. As my music taste changed, post-Pistols, I went to see Iggy Pop at the Apollo with Johnny Marr and a gang of us from Wythenshawe and we even sneaked in without paying through a side door during the first song! A couple more memorable ones, with a New York Dolls connection, was The Heartbreakers (with the Banshees) at the Uni and the David Johansen Group at The Factory Club.

The Sex Pistols gigs at The Free Trade Hall had a tremendous impact on a number of people, like yourself, who went on to join/form other huge (and massively influential) bands. Who were some of the *movers & shakers* in and around Manchester at the time that you can remember?

To be honest being a young lad from Wythenshawe, I only really knew guys from round where I lived at the time. I was also only 15 years old and went cos I was curious as to what this Punk Rock thing was all about. Also, the big draw for me and my pals was Wythenshawe boys, Slaughter & The Dogs playing too. I didn’t really know much about The Pistols before the night ~ only what I’d read in the music press. Jonesy had his legendary Les Paul with all the stickers on it and they blew me away. It was quite literally the night that changed my life and made me believe that I could make it big as a guitarist and do something with my life.

You were famously the person who introduced Morrissey to Johnny Marr at a Patti Smith gig at The Apollo. You’re clearly still friends ~ and perform with ~ Johnny Marr. Are you still in contact with Morrissey? What sort of person was he at the time?

No I don’t see Morrissey these days but back then we were good pals drawn together by a love of the New York Dolls. He ran their UK fan club at the time and it lead to us hanging out and going to gigs together. Johnny was a couple of years younger than me and he used to come to our friend’s house to watch us rehearsing in the hallway. Its funny cos I don’t actually remember introducing them but Johnny does so it must have happened!

In the mid/late 70s in Manchester there weren’t the bars and cafes like there are now ~ the city must look almost unrecognisable these days. Where were the places you hung out?

I was too young to go to pubs and bars until the late 70s and have never been a big one for them anyway so A1 music and Virgin Records on Market street were regular haunts. One place that does stand out for me was Pips. It was one of the only clubs in Manchester playing the music that I was into and had countless dancefloors, but we only frequented the Bowie/Roxy room. All other sub species of music had a space, but funnily enough ~ despite what you think would happen ~ there were very few fights, even if they did bus in loads of punters from smaller towns to sample the delights of the city. They did have gigs at Pips, including the very first Joy Division gig in January 1978, but I only went to the club nights. For gigs I went to quite a few at the Free Trade Hall in the 70s and then later The Electric Circus where most of the punk gigs happened that me and my mates went to. It was in a pretty rough area, though and we got a lot of hassle from the local scallys as we were dressed as punks!

You played in a number of bands before The Cult. After meeting Ian Astbury and forming Death Cult when did you recognise there was a musical *chemistry* and when did you KNOW things were going to *happen*?

I was playing guitar with Theatre of Hate on tour when Ian’s band, Southern Death Cult were the support. We just clicked and had a similar outlook on what we felt music should be. After I left TOH, Ian got in touch to say he wanted to form a new band and was I interested. We initially used the name Death Cult to build on the following he already had but changed that the day we we appeared live on The Tube (Channel 4) in 1984. The time when I felt we really had a chance was in 1985 when She Sells Sanctuary made it into the top 30 and and hung around the national singles chart for, I think, 20 weeks. We also we got on Top of the Pops (I had been on it with Theatre of Hate for Do You Believe in the Westworld, in ’82 but now it was my band). The key though was to follow it up and make sure we were NOT one hit wonders. Once Rain and Revolution also charted that’s when I felt we maybe had what it took to stay the course.

You’ve had over 30 years as a hugely successful musician ~ and still touring to sell-out gigs now ~ what advice can you give to young guitarists now? 

I’m never one for advice as young guys never want to hear it anyway (or they shouldn’t)… as Keith Richards says, ‘they’ll find out’ haha, but maybe I’d say always have a great haircut and cool sunglasses and about two girlfriends to keep you on your toes!

You’re a big Manchester City fan ~ do many of your friends in LA follow football/soccer? Has your love of the game/Man City rubbed off on many of them?

No, most of my friends in LA that actually get football are ex pats and already arrived from the UK with their own team. For example Steve Jones (Sex Pistols) is a long time pal of mine and he supports Chelsea. There are though, an increasing amount of American football (soccer) fans now that the Premiership is on national TV in the States. It was helped along the way of course with Beckham coming to play in the MLS and now several ex-Premiership players like Lampard and Gerrard have increased the awareness. I think a lot of newer fans in the US have taken up City as we play attacking football and of course recently got to start winning stuff again. It happens when Premiership teams are successful they will pick up new fans globally and I’m okay with it being City.

Who is your all-time favourite Manchester City player (s)?

You know when I was a kid it was of course Colin Bell and I had his number 8 on my shirt. I do also have to give special mention to Mike Doyle whom as we all know bled sky blue and ‘Buzzer’ Summerbee as he had attitude and was the most rock n roll (and still is) player we had!

You’ve made LA your home but you clearly haven’t forgotten your roots in Manchester, visiting your family and friends regularly. Which places do you like to visit or eat out these days?

To be honest being away from the city as much as I am things change seem to change each time I visit with new great places opening. So, I’m always happy to go with the recommendation of the local with the inside knowledge. A good example is when I was home a few months ago I went for lunch with the director of a new film about Morrissey and he took me to Artisan. Then by co-incidence Mick Peek who looks after my website (and lives in Manchester) told me he was thinking of holding our exhibition there…so it must have been fate!

What are the next plans for you and The Cult?

2016 is due to be a really big, and exciting, year for the The Cult. Our 10th studio album, Hidden City, has just been released to great reviews and gone straight into the album charts top 20. Off the back of that we have lots of gigs already arranged in the UK and the US with more worldwide due to be announced soon. On the personal front, I’ve just released my second Signature Guitar with Gretsch ~ a Black Falcon as an ‘Evil Twin’ to my ‘White Falcon’. In the Spring I have a signature Dunlop ‘Cry Baby’ Wah pedal coming out too. I have to say that as a kid growing up in Wythenshawe I couldn’t have dreamed that I would be able to make a living as a guitarist let alone have world famous music brands wanting to put my name on their gear. It was also super ironic that just before my ‘White Falcon’ came out, Johnny Marr had his signature Fender Jazzmaster released. Amazing that two lads from Wythenshawe got to do that so close together ~ mental!  In the short term though I’m really looking forward to my hometown, Alive in The Hidden City show at Albert Hall with The Cult and my ‘Photos & Prints’ exhibition with Mick on the same night.

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