35 years on from their first UK Top 40 hit and almost 30 years past their most recent, Deacon Blue have hung onto a huge proportion of their fan base, to such an extent that their greatest hits tour, in place to promote their new All The Old 45s collection, is an arena tour taking in the likes of tonight’s venue, Birmingham’s Utilita Arena (formerly the NIA).
The programme for tonight is to be two Deacon Blue sets; an acoustic ‘support’ section followed by a full electric set. The six-piece band takes to the stage to a backdrop of moving trains and urban imagery and gathers closely to deliver a short a capella section of their ‘Wages Day’ hit before a slightly countrified ‘Queen Of The New Year’ complete with double bass and brushed drums takes the show up a notch. The first set includes a trio of songs from their beloved Raintown debut, including the lovely ‘Chocolate Girl ‘ single before which singer Ricky Ross jokes “Thank you very much, the main act will be along in a minute”. The band still includes the brilliant Jim Prime on keyboards, but Ross at times shows off his own considerable skills on piano too, as fellow singer Lorraine McIntosh similarly adds acoustic guitar to her contribution. Ross and McIntosh have fronted the band together now for almost four decades and they come across as genuinely appreciative of their position and audience, at times mentioning individual fans by name.
The acoustic set perhaps allows a couple of lesser known songs to be performed, such as the title track of their slightly under the radar 2001 album ‘Homesick’ which closes out that section of the show.
After the break, Ross bounds back onto the stage and requests that the audience stand for the electric set, which begins with the upbeat ‘The Hipsters’ (from the 2012 album of the same name), during which he then gives the audience an audacious objective to make tonight “the best night of their lives!”. ‘Wages Day’ returns in its full version and the band’s own song “Twist and Shout’ is made into a medley with an Isley Brothers song (if I tell you it was also covered by The Beatles, you might work it out!). The band’s second single, and perhaps their best, ‘Loaded’, (and no, it’s not presented in a medley with anything by Primal Scream), is previewed via a Ross monologue that explains the meaning of the song, (essentially a socialist anthem about those with and those without), and a touching tribute to original guitarist Graham Kelling who very sadly passed away in 2004, aged just 47.
The big hits are mainly here, the melancholy of old favourite ‘When Will You Make My Telephone Ring?’ , the ebullient ‘Real Gone Kid’ , as well as fan favourite album cuts such as the beautifully downbeat Raintown title track and the far more upbeat ‘City Of Love’, from their 2020 record of the same name. ‘Love and Regret’ is maybe the least known of the five big hits played tonight from the band’s commercial high water mark album When The World Knows Your Name, but seems to be a real fan favourite on this evidence.
The voices of McIntosh and Ross are entirely undimmed by the passage of time, or indeed the two-hour-plus set tonight. There’s a four song encore, with a couple of the band’s most well-known songs, a roof-raising run through ‘Dignity’ of course, and ‘Fergus Sings The Blues’ sandwiched between a couple of slower songs: the affecting ballad ‘Peace Will Come’ and the eventual closer, a cover of Warren Zevon’s equally poignant ‘Keep Me In Your Heart’, with Ross joking that “This is the moment when the party’s really finished, but there’s one old Scottish guy sitting in the kitchen boring the hell out of you!” The band take turns singing lines from the song and it’s a beautifully hopeful way to send the very appreciative Birmingham crowd home.
