Glasgow Royal Concert Hall 28th December
1991
M8 February 1992
Cowcaddens At Last. Well, that’s what the poster outside the Concert Hall proclaims, prior to the arrival of the Fellow Hoodlums themselves, Deacon Blue. The band are on the last leg of a sold out UK tour which started on November 16th in Dublin with the grand finale of this tour in Glasgow with four nights at the Concert Hall. The lights dim and we are engulfed in smoke and all that is visible is the six silhouettes bathed in blue light. They go straight into A Brighter Star and of course perform old favourites such as Chocolate Girl. When Will You, and a foot stomping version of Loaded, along with new ones such as Your Swaying Arms, Fellow Hoodlums, and Twist And Shout. During the intro to this song, Ricky informs us that all the way up from Liverpool by taxi is Mr George Harrison. The audience is silent, the stage lights dim, and the spotlight shines to reveal Mr Harrison’, alias Deacon Blue’s own guitarist Graeme Kelling who in turn plunges into the first chords of the song, and the band have the crowd eating out of their hands.
However, without a doubt, the highlight of the show occurs when Ricky silences the audience during Wilderness, he moves to the front of the stage minus his mic (the band stopped playing) and proceeds to perform the song on his own to a hushed and stunned audience. It was thrilling to listen to and also a tribute to the acoustics of the hall as I doubt it could have been done in any other large venues. They finish the set with One Day I’ll Go Walking and leave to a rapturous applause and return for the first of two encores. It’s here that Ricky performs a song from the Bob Dylan Bootleg album and promises everyone a free copy if they ask him nicely- needless to say I’m still waiting for mine!
Lorraine gets a chance to take over the lead vocal on two occasions. firstly with Cover From The Sky and then with Wild Mountain Thyme, and you cannot argue she really does have a superb voice even though her dancing is rather... erm... strange.
They end the evening with a rousing version of Fergus Sings The Blues and the band bid their farewells and leave to a standing ovation and even though they didn’t play Dignity.they definitely left with their’s intact.