Memory And DesireStephen Duffy is almost a complete stranger to commercial success. In the early eighties, he found a flicker of fame under the sobriquet Tin Tin“with the hits Kiss Me and Icing on the Cake. He didn’t care for it.

After that, he has been hired by a plethora of record companies and then promptly dropped after sales proved to be disappointing. He’s tried being Duran Duran, Stephen “Tin Tin” Duffy, Dr Calculus, The Lilac Time, Stephen Duffy, Duffy, Stephen Duffy and the Lilac Time. All failed to bother the charts – at least not while he was in the band.

Duffy gives the impression that he didn’t perhaps try his hardest at the promotion and PR game; he doesn’t tour, is rarely found in print, can’t afford videos. He just shrugs in self-deprecation. The only ventures that seem to have resulted in substantial PRS cheques are collaborations with the Bare Naked Ladies and Mr Bob Williams Esq., the latter resulting in millions of CD sales.

If you have a Lilac Time or Stephen Duffy record in your collection, you probably heard of it via word-of-mouth and if you’re like me, you find yourself in the possession of finely-crafted, beautiful music that almost no-one else has heard of.

So at the 30-year mark in his music career, Duffy has produced a film and retrospective compilation album entitled Memory and Desire: 30 Years in the Wilderness with Stephen Duffy & The Lilac Time. The film is part of the Raindance Film Festival and the album is released this week. In a typical anti-commercial piece of curation, the album omits all his singles and instead promotes several b-sides, extra tracks and other ‘hidden gems’.  His biggest hit, Kiss Me, is re-recorded as a funereal dirge.

This shouldn’t put you off. The two-disc set is festooned with unknown delights like An Open Book, the shuffling autobiography of Twenty Three and the Cohen-esque The Postcard. Duffy’s rich melodic delivery is bolstered by exotic acoustic arrangements and sweet harmonies. Lyrically, he is a beat-poet John Betjeman.

Now sporting a terrific beard, Duffy hopes to sweep to obscurity by returning to the charts at #75, “but no higher”. With a carefree shrug of the shoulders he can then move on to make a new album of unmarketable classics.

Which no-one will buy.