Review - Crowd Laps Up Dignified Outing For Deacon Blue In Glasgow
The Herald 11th October 2025

 
REVIEW: Crowd laps up dignified outing for Deacon Blue in Glasgow

Deacon Blue

OVO Hydro, Glasgow

****

HALF an hour in and Ricky Ross is welcoming us into the body of the kirk. “If you’ve lived in the city of Glasgow all your life,” he begins, “you’re welcome. It’s good to see you.”

Unsurprisingly, this elicits a cheer.

“If you’ve just arrived yesterday from anywhere, you’re welcome.” Another hurrah from a packed OVO Hydro crowd.

“If you’ve got any kind of political affiliation, you’re welcome,” he continues. “If you’ve got any kind of religious belief, you’re welcome. If you’ve got any kind of sexual orientation, especially one that I’ve not yet heard of, you’re welcome.”

Cheer follows cheer.

But then he goes, “If you support Dundee United …”

Ah well, you can’t have everything.

Ross may have Dundonian roots, but there is no mistaking that Deacon Blue are a Glasgow band. They signed their first record deal in the shadow of the Finnieston Crane after all. And this, have no doubt, is a hometown show. Every mention of Castlemilk and London Road is cheered to the rafters. There are even namechecks for the notorious nightspot Cleopatra’s, aka Clatty Pats, and the band’s once-upon-a-time favourite pub, Chimmy Chungas, both now long gone.

But this evening is not just about all their yesterdays. In truth, Deacon Blue in 2025 seem a band at peace with themselves. Nearly 40 years after their days in the sun (and on Top of the Pops), they are weathering well.

If anything they maybe sound better these days. All their early earnestness has given way to slightly world-weary, bittersweet experience. You can hear it in their newer songs, many of which they grace us with tonight.

It's a sign of the band’s pride in their latest album, The Great Western Road, that they play cut after cut from it. It’s a sign of its strength that none of these tracks seem out of place in an arena show.

Indeed, when they essay Mid Century Modern - a song as full of love and regret as the band’s hit single of the same name - straight after the title track of their debut album Raintown it rather makes the former sound a little dour, to be honest.

But this is very much an arena show, geared to entertain. The hits are never far away and inevitably prompt a mass audience singalong.

Ross, looking as skinny as he did back in the day, plays the part of preacher - “You look like a proper congregation,” he tells us at one point - and carnival barker, while Lorraine McIntosh remains Deacon Blue’s not-so-secret weapon; her vocal harmonising adding joyous colour and bounce to the band’s sound.

As Springsteen fans it’s no surprise that the band believe in the maxim “More is more”. This is a two-hour and counting set that sprinkles their more familiar songs throughout (there’s an early outing for Fergus Sings the Blues).

Ross and McIntosh even do that now old-fashioned trick of weaving fond, familiar songs into their own - the Stylistics’ Stone in Love With You during Chocolate Girl; Tommy Edwards’s Many a Tear Has to Fall in the middle of Love and Regret - in the manner of U2’s Bono in his pomp.

(It’s worth noting that their take on their 1992 track Your Town - which is accompanied by visuals featuring Nigel Farage’s smug face - has a very Achtung Baby vibe to it tonight, fuelled as it is by Dougie Vipond's powerhouse drumming.)

AND, inevitably, there is an air of sadness at the heart of this evening. The death of the band’s keyboard player Jim Prime in June is remembered and commemorated with quiet dignity. His absence is felt, though multi-instrumentalist Brian McAlpine proves a very worthy substitute.

But Saturday nights in Glasgow are for partying and Real Gone Kid and Dignity bring the evening to a raucous close.

And then, just when you think the evening’s over, they play another new track, People Come First. It turns out that Deacon Blue are not ready to turn into a nostalgia band just yet. Teddy Jamieson