Deacon Blue, Edinburgh review: 'winsomely romantic'

Deacon Blue, Usher Hall, Edinburgh ★★★★

The main lesson of any Deacon Blue live gig continues to be: find someone who looks at you the way Ricky Ross and Lorraine McIntosh look at one another onstage, with their constant glances of reassurance or enjoyment. For this most winsomely romantic of bands, the love story at its heart – Ross and McIntosh have been married for 35 years next month – is symbolic of the ongoing sense of affection within the group, between the group and their audience and with the music itself.

Deacon Blue at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh | Jamie Carter

This year is also, Ross pointed out before a nostalgic return to early album track The Very Thing (“my favourite song from your favourite album,” he joked, referring to Raintown) the 40th since he and drummer Dougie Vipond founded the band, with keyboard player James Prime and McIntosh arriving soon after.

It’s interesting to note the wider responses to their career; in the mainstream UK rock press they’re a little-known nostalgia act who were briefly famous around the turn of the 1990s, but in Scotland they’re absolutely part of the musical firmament, with two songs which could genuinely serve as the national anthem. Both (Fergus Sings the Blues and Dignity) were played in the usual circumstances here - that is, with a jolt of adrenalin in the room bringing everyone to their feet.

How do both views of the band measure up to reality? Well, this year’s 11th album, The Great Western Road, has reached number three in the charts (UK, not Scottish), their highest-charting album since Fellow Hoodlums in 1991, and the highlights from it here sounded like some of the finest songs they’ve written since they first found fame.

These included the nostalgic title track, the brisk retro pop of Turn Up Your Radio, the blue-eyed country soul of Underneath the Stars, and especially the surprising disco beat of Late ’88 and the affirmative, open-hearted chant of People Come First. Building their own excitement alongside anticipated standards including Wages Day, When Will You (Make My Telephone Ring) and Real Gone Kid, these songs feel like the work of a band once more mainlining its own youthful, creative energy.

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