Product Code Database
Deacon Blue are a Scottish pop rock band formed in Glasgow in 1985. The line-up of the band consists of vocalists Ricky Ross and Lorraine McIntosh, keyboard player James Prime, drummer Dougie Vipond, guitarist Gregor Philp and bassist Lewis Gordon. In 2013, their estimated album sales stood at six million, and by 2020 were estimated to have risen to in excess of seven million, with twelve UK top 40 singles, along with two number one albums in both the United Kingdom and their native Scotland.
The band released their debut album, Raintown (1987) to critical and commercial success, with their second album, When the World Knows Your Name (1989), topping the UK Albums Chart for two weeks. The single "Real Gone Kid" became their first top ten single in the UK Singles Chart and reached number one in Spain. Deacon Blue followed up the success of their first two albums with Fellow Hoodlums (1991) and Whatever You Say, Say Nothing (1993). The band split in 1994 until five years later, holding a reunion gig which led on to a new album, Walking Back Home (1999). The band released another album, Homesick (2001), the last to feature guitarist Graeme Kelling following his death from pancreatic cancer in 2004. In 2006, the band recorded three new songs for a Singles album – including the single "Bigger than Dynamite".
Deacon Blue returned after a period of absence to release The Hipsters (2012), their first studio album since Homesick in 2001. The band released a further four albums following their reunion – A New House, (2014), Believers (2016), City of Love (2020) and Riding on the Tide of Love (2021) to commercial success. In 2024, they released "Late 88" as the lead single from their eleventh studio album The Great Western Road (2025).
Ross, a former school teacher originally from Dundee, was the group's frontman, penning the majority of Deacon Blue's songs. He married vocalist Lorraine McIntosh in 1990. In 1986, the band contributed a track ("Take the Saints Away") to a compilation cassette entitled "Honey at the Core", featuring then up-and-coming Glasgow bands, including Wet Wet Wet, The Bluebells, Kevin McDermott, The Big Dish, and Hue and Cry.
The second album, 1989's When the World Knows Your Name, was the band's most commercially successful, reaching No. 1 in the UK Albums Chart and generating five UK top 30 hits, including "Real Gone Kid", "Wages Day", and "Fergus Sings the Blues" (all five singles from the album were top 10 hits in Ireland). The following year saw the band play in front of an estimated 250,000 fans at the free concert on Glasgow Green, "The Big Day", which was held to celebrate Glasgow being named that year's European City of Culture. The band also played Glastonbury and the Roskilde festivals that summer, as well as released Ooh Las Vegas, a double album of B-sides, extra tracks, film tracks, and sessions which reached No. 3 in the UK Albums Chart.
The band embarked on another sold out UK tour in 1994, after recording new material for their greatest hits compilation album, Our Town. This saw the band return to No. 1 in the UK Albums Chart and was one of the year's top sellers, while "I Was Right and You Were Wrong" and a re-release of "Dignity" saw the band re-enter the Top 20 of the UK Singles Chart. The album contained the previous singles from the band, minus "Closing Time" and "Hang Your Head". The album also contained three new tracks. "I Was Right and You Were Wrong", the first single from this album, was an alternative rock track that continued and expanded the musical direction the band had taken with Whatever You Say, Say Nothing. "Bound to Love" and "Still in the Mood" were Pop music songs in the tradition of Deacon Blue's earlier albums. The vinyl LP album version of the album contained a fourth new track, "Beautiful Stranger". "Dignity" was released, now for the third time, as the second single from the album.
With Vipond's decision to quit the group in favour of a career in television, Deacon Blue split up in 1994.
The band performed at Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium, as the pre-match entertainment for the Rugby league Super League Grand Final on 14 October 2006, and continued on to a full UK tour in November. They were also due to open Stirling's New Year party in 2006, but this was cancelled at the last minute due to extreme weather. A further tour followed in November 2007 and the band then provided support for Simple Minds in 2008. They also appeared at Stirling's Hogmanay in 2008.
Deacon Blue appeared at The Homecoming Live Final Fling Show, at Glasgow's SECC on 28 November 2009, and headlined Glasgow's Hogmanay on 31 December 2009. The band performed several gigs, including Glastonbury, and the Liverpool Echo Arena on 29 July 2011. Ross, who had released a solo album before the formation of Deacon Blue, released two solo albums during the time between Deacon Blue's breakup in 1994 and reformation in 1999. Due to Deacon Blue's part-time status after reformation, Ross released additional solo albums in 2002 and 2005 and has written for and with other recording artists. In 2009, Ross and McIntosh recorded an album together under the name 'McIntosh Ross'.
To promote the upcoming release of their new album, the group released a single, "The Hipsters". The single was released in the United Kingdom on 23 September 2012. The album The Hipsters was released on 24 September 2012 and was produced by Paul Savage. A 25th anniversary tour, starting in October 2012, followed. The band performed with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at the Grand Hall in Glasgow to promote the release of the album. All of the band's studio albums were reissued as deluxe editions by Edsel Records in October 2012, as well as a new compilation entitled The Rest. Deacon Blue arranged dates in 2014 for a comeback tour. It was announced in April 2014 that their seventh studio album, A New House, would be released on 8 September that year. Deacon Blue also performed at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games closing ceremony on 3 August 2014, performing their hit, "Dignity".
A new studio album, Believers, was released on 30 September 2016. Three promo singles, the title track, "This Is A Love Song" and "Gone" have been released. A tour was undertaken to promote the album, culminating in a return to the Glasgow Barrowlands on 4 December 2016, which was recorded for a live album as well as video. This was released on 31 March 2017 on vinyl, CD, DVD, Blu-Ray as well as digital download of both audio and video versions. A special screening event was held, the day before, at the Glasgow Film Theatre.
Between February and March 2018, Deacon Blue embarked on a tour of Spain, marking the first time that the band has played a series of live shows in Spain. The band described the shows as "an incredible experience for us all", and later confirmed that Deacon Blue will be returning to Spain in 2019 for another series of live shows, stating that "Spain has a very special place in our hearts".
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the band recorded and released their tenth studio album entitled Riding on the Tide of Love which was released in February 2021. The album failed to reach the same level of commercial success in the United Kingdom that the band experienced with their previous album, City of Love, with the album debuting at number 23 on the UK Albums Chart. In their native Scotland, the album performed better, debuting at number two and spending additional weeks within the Scottish Top 40 albums charts.
To promote the release of the album, the band announced the Riding on the Tide of Love tour which is scheduled to begin in June 2021 in Brighton and concludes on 19 December 2021 at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow. In September 2023, they released the compilation album All The Old 45s – The Very Best of Deacon Blue via Cooking Vinyl. It debuted at number two on the official Scottish Albums Chart on 8 September, behind Back To The Water Below by Royal Blood. It went to spend eight weeks within the Top 100 of the Scottish Albums Chart. In the United Kingdom, it was a moderate success, debuting at number 42 on the UK Albums Chart, spending one week within the Top 100. The band embarked on a tour of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, beginning in September 2023, to promote the release of All the Old 45s.
| 1989 | British Single of the Year | "Real Gone Kid" | "Perfect" by Fairground Attraction | |
| 2020 | Scotland's Greatest Song ( Ewen Cameron in the Morning public vote) | "Dignity" | N/A – winners of the accolade were Deacon Blue |
In 2020, Deacon Blue's 1987 single "Dignity" was voted as Scotland's greatest song after a public vote voted through the radio programme Ewen Cameron in the Morning.
|
|
